Apple M1 GPU vs GeForce GTX 970M

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Primary details

GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.

Place in the ranking354not rated
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Power efficiency12.66no data
ArchitectureMaxwell 2.0 (2014−2019)no data
GPU code nameGM204no data
Market segmentLaptopLaptop
Release date7 October 2014 (10 years ago)10 November 2020 (4 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$2,560.89 no data

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

no data

Detailed specifications

General parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores12808
Core clock speed924 MHzno data
Boost clock speed1038 MHzno data
Number of transistors5,200 millionno data
Manufacturing process technology28 nm5 nm
Power consumption (TDP)unknownno data
Texture fill rate83.04no data
Floating-point processing power2.657 TFLOPSno data
ROPs48no data
TMUs80no data

Form factor & compatibility

Information on compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility).

Laptop sizelargeno data
Bus supportPCI Express 3.0no data
InterfaceMXM-B (3.0)no data
Supplementary power connectorsNoneno data
SLI options+-

VRAM capacity and type

Parameters of VRAM installed: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Integrated GPUs have no dedicated video RAM and use a shared part of system RAM.

Memory typeGDDR5no data
Maximum RAM amount3 GBno data
Memory bus width192 Bitno data
Memory clock speed2500 MHzno data
Memory bandwidth120 GB/sno data
Shared memory-+

Connectivity and outputs

Types and number of video connectors present on the reviewed GPUs. As a rule, data in this section is precise only for desktop reference ones (so-called Founders Edition for NVIDIA chips). OEM manufacturers may change the number and type of output ports, while for notebook cards availability of certain video outputs ports depends on the laptop model rather than on the card itself.

Display ConnectorsNo outputsno data
VGA аnalog display support+no data
DisplayPort Multimode (DP++) support+no data
HDMI+-
G-SYNC support+-

Supported technologies

Supported technological solutions. This information will prove useful if you need some particular technology for your purposes.

GameStream+-
GeForce ShadowPlay+-
GPU Boost2.0no data
GameWorks+-
H.264, VC1, MPEG2 1080p video decoder+-
Optimus+-
BatteryBoost+-
Ansel+-

API compatibility

List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.

DirectX12 (12_1)no data
Shader Model6.4no data
OpenGL4.5no data
OpenCL1.1no data
Vulkan1.1.126-
CUDA+-

Pros & cons summary


Recency 7 October 2014 10 November 2020
Chip lithography 28 nm 5 nm

Apple M1 GPU has an age advantage of 6 years, and a 460% more advanced lithography process.

We couldn't decide between GeForce GTX 970M and Apple M1 GPU. We've got no test results to judge.


Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.

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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M
GeForce GTX 970M
Apple M1 GPU
M1 GPU

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Community ratings

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4.2 307 votes

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3.1 449 votes

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Questions & comments

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