Comparing NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB vs. 970
Below you can compare the latest GPU-s across multiple benchmarks. Explore detailed graphs, performance scores, and rankings to quickly find the model that best suits your workflow and creative needs.
Verdict
The GTX 1060 3GB is 2% slower than the GTX 970
Averaged over 2 rendering benchmarks, the GTX 970 leads in 1 of them. The biggest gap is in V-Ray, where the GTX 970 scores 6% higher.
Scores marked with * are estimated from the other benchmarks we have for that device.
Price and value
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Estimated with our live price calculator for 250 frames. Local times scale with V-Ray benchmark scores; farm times assume enough free nodes. From €4.65 on Sapphire.
Ranking by benchmarks
OctaneBench 2025
Cinebench 2024
V-Ray benchmark
Blender benchmark
Specifications
| Model | GeForce GTX 1060 3GB | GeForce GTX 970 |
|---|---|---|
| Manufacturer | nVidia | nVidia |
| Year | August 2016 | September 2014 |
| Code Name | GP106-300 | GM204-200 |
| Memory | 3072 MB | 4096 MB |
| Core Speed | 1506 MHz | 1050 MHz |
| Memory Speed | 8000 MHz | 7000 MHz |
| Power (Max TDP) | 120 watts | 145 watts |
| Bandwidth | 196608 MB/sec | 224000 MB/sec |
| Texel Rate | 108432 Mtexels/sec | 109200 Mtexels/sec |
| Pixel Rate | 72288 Mpixels/sec | 67200 Mpixels/sec |
| Unified Shaders | 1152 | 1664 |
| Texture Mapping Units | 72 | 104 |
| Render Output Units | 48 | 64 |
| Bus Type | GDDR5 | GDDR5 |
| Bus Width | 192-bit | 256-bit |
| Fab Process | 16 nm | 28 nm |
| Transistors | 4400 million | 5200 million |
| Bus | PCIe 3.0 x16 | PCIe 3.0 x16 |
| DirectX Version | DirectX 12.0 | DirectX 11.2 |
| OpenGL Version | OpenGL 4.5 | OpenGL 4.5 |
Methodology
Our data above is compiled from multiple sources:
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Our own benchmarks: We conduct extensive testing with the GPU and CPU models we use on the farm. Over the past 10 years we have tested over 1,000 GPUs and 500 CPUs.
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Model scores: Once we have two or more benchmarks for a device we can perform some machine learning computations to estimate a realistic score in any of the other benchmarks we list. These are always marked with an asterisk (*), and while usually accurate shouldn't be taken as the complete truth.
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Public benchmark data: We may supplement our dataset with scores from public OctaneBench, V-Ray Benchmark and Blender Benchmark websites. We cannot test every device available ourselves, so this gives us a nice alternative to get You the results you are looking for.
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