Nvidia GeForce GTX 960 vs AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT

Compared 2 processors: Nvidia GeForce GTX 960, vs AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT. Below are specs, tests, pros and cons for each device

Review

Key Specs Nvidia GeForce GTX 960 and AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT
Games
Performance in DirectX, OpenCL, Vulkan
AI/ML
AI workload testing
Professional Apps
3D modeling, video editing, rendering
Energy Efficiency
Power usage in various scenarios
NanoReview Score
Overall score by NanoReview

Tests & specs

Specs & test comparison

Games

FPS Table
Game title
1080p (High)
1080p (Ultra)
1440p (Ultra)
4K (Ultra)
Forza Horizon 5
28
16
14
n/a
84
46
33
20
The Witcher 3
21
20
13
n/a
60
46
27
16
Counter-Strike 2
47
27
18
n/a
96
67
46
19
Far Cry 6
31
26
19
11
65
55
40
19
Hogwarts Legacy
16
12
11
n/a
38
29
20
10
COD Modern Warfare 3
28
24
16
12
51
45
29
19
Ghost of Tsushima
16
9
n/a
n/a
37
28
21
10
Cyberpunk 2077
14
11
n/a
n/a
36
33
19
n/a
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
30
25
18
n/a
69
61
36
18
Avg FPS
1080p High2660
1080p Ultra1946
1440p Ultra1430
4K Ultra-15
DeviationLowLow

Benchmarks

CPU performance comparison across tasks
3DMark
Steel Nomad Lite Score
Nvidia GeForce GTX 960
2183
AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT
4786
Time Spy23034951
Solar Bayn/a19979
Port Royaln/a367
Fire Strike772015577
Night Raid3109365281
GeekBench v6
GB6 Compute Score
Nvidia GeForce GTX 960
20370
AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT
53081
Background Blur51.7 frames/s130.3 frames/s
Face Detection26.1 frames/s70.1 frames/s
Horizon Detection0.84 Gpix/sec1.59 Gpix/sec
Edge Detection1.36 Gpix/sec2.21 Gpix/sec
Gaussian Blur1.26 Gpix/sec2.02 Gpix/sec
Feature Matching0.14 Gpix/sec0.65 Gpix/sec
Stereo Matching64.9 Gpix/sec223 Gpix/sec
Particle Physics1825 fps7470.5 fps
APIOpenCLOpenCL
PassMark
PassMark Graphics
Nvidia GeForce GTX 960
6108
AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT
9578
G2D Mark674810
DirectX 1142 fps90 fps
DirectX 1228 fps38 fps
GPU Compute2797 Ops/s4502 Ops/s
GFXBench 5
Aztec Ruins (High 4K)
Nvidia GeForce GTX 960
31.1 fps
AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT
52.4 fps
Aztec Ruins (Normal)185.1 fps360.9 fps
Car Chase177 fps373.9 fps
Manhattan 3.1.1 (1440p)151.2 fps278.5 fps
T-Rex677.4 fps1305.6 fps
ALU 2745.3 fps1331.2 fps
Driver Overhead 2274.9 fps259.2 fps
APIOpenGLOpenGL
OSWindowsWindows
Tessellation982.41300.5

Tech Specs

Specs & test comparison

General Info

Manufacturer Nvidia AMD
Build Discrete Discrete
Announced January, 22, 2015 January, 19, 2022
Form Factor PC use PC use
Use case Gaming Gaming
Segment Mid-range Mid-range
Architecture Maxwell 2.0 RDNA 2.0
Codename GM206 Navi 24
Price 199 199

GPU

GPU Frequency 1127 MHz 2310 MHz
Boost GPU Frequency 1178 MHz 2815 MHz
Shader Units 1024 1024
TMUs 64 64
ROPs 32 32
Execution Units 8 n/a
Ray Tracing Cores No 16
Tensor Cores No No
L1 cache 48 KB/core 128 KB/core
L2 cache 1000 KB/core 1024 KB/core
Instructions per Clock 2 IPC 2 IPC

Performance

Pixel Fill Rate 38 Gpix/sec 90 Gpix/sec
Texture Fill Rate 75 GTex/s 180 GTex/s
FLOPS 2.4 TFLOPS 5.8 TFLOPS

Process

Interface PCIe 3.0 x16 PCIe 4.0 x4
TGP 120 W 107 W
Process TSMC TSMC
Process tech. 28 nm 6 nm
Transistor Size 228 mm² 107 mm²
Transistor count 2 billion 5 billion
Transistor density 8.77 MTr/mm² 46.73 MTr/mm²

Memory

Interface GDDR5 GDDR6
Memory Frequency 1753 MHz 2248 MHz
Bus 128 bit 64 bit
ECC support No No
Effective Memory Speed 7000 MB/s 18000 MB/s
Memory Size 2 GB 4 GB
Max Throughput
Nvidia GeForce GTX 960
112.2 GB/s
AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT
143.9 GB/s

API

DirectX 12 12
Vulkan 1.3 1.3
OpenGL 4.6 4.6
CUDA 5.2 n/a
DisplayPort 1.2 1.4a
Ray Tracing No Yes
DLSS No No

Results

No clear favorite identified yet; updates may follow as new data arrives.

Survey

Which GPU would you pick?
0 (0%)
1 (100%)
Total Votes: 1

User comments

Share your opinion or ask questions below