Select any two GPUs for comparison

Gaming Performance Comparison

Recommended System Requirements
Game GeForce GTX 960 Ti 4GB GeForce GTX 970 MSI Armor 2X OC 4GB Edition
Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlord 29% 2%
Doom Eternal 36% 4%
Call of Duty Warzone 34% 2%
Cyberpunk 2077 84% 40%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Remastered 50% 62%
Half-Life: Alyx 103% 54%
Resident Evil 3 Remake 29% 2%
Grand Theft Auto VI 104% 56%
Microsoft Flight Simulator 84% 40%
One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4 29% 2%

In terms of overall gaming performance, the graphical capabilities of the Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 MSI Armor 2X OC 4GB Edition are noticeably better than the Nvidia GeForce GTX 960 Ti 4GB.

The GTX 970 has a 52 MHz higher core clock speed and 8 more Texture Mapping Units than the GTX 960 Ti. This results in the GTX 970 providing 13.8 GTexel/s better texturing performance. This still holds weight but shader performance is generally more relevant, particularly since both of these GPUs support at least DirectX 10.

The GTX 970 has a 52 MHz higher core clock speed than the GTX 960 Ti, but the GTX 960 Ti has 8 more Render Output Units than the GTX 970. As a result, the GTX 960 Ti exhibits a 5.5 GPixel/s better Pixel Fill Rate than the GTX 970. However, both GPUs support DirectX 9 or above, and pixeling performance is only really relevant when comparing older cards.

The GTX 960 Ti was released over a year more recently than the GTX 970, and so the GTX 960 Ti is likely to have better driver support, meaning it will be more optimized for running the latest games when compared to the GTX 970.


The GeForce GTX 960 Ti 4GB and the GeForce GTX 970 MSI Armor 2X OC 4GB Edition have the same amount of video memory, but are likely to provide slightly different experiences when displaying game textures at high resolutions.

The memory bandwidth of the GeForce GTX 960 Ti 4GB and the GeForce GTX 970 MSI Armor 2X OC 4GB Edition are the same, which means the GTX 960 Ti and the GTX 970 have equal limitations when it comes to graphical data transfer.

The GeForce GTX 960 Ti 4GB has 1536 Shader Processing Units and the GeForce GTX 970 MSI Armor 2X OC 4GB Edition has 1664. However, the actual shader performance of the GTX 960 Ti is 1809 and the actual shader performance of the GTX 970 is 2788. The GTX 970 having 979 better shader performance and an altogether better performance when taking into account other relevant data means that the GTX 970 delivers a noticeably smoother and more efficient experience when processing graphical data than the GTX 960 Ti.

The GeForce GTX 960 Ti 4GB requires 140 Watts to run and the GeForce GTX 970 MSI Armor 2X OC 4GB Edition requires 148 Watts. We would recommend a PSU with at least 450 Watts for the GTX 960 Ti and a PSU with at least 500 Watts for the GTX 970. The GTX 970 requires 8 Watts more than the GTX 960 Ti to run. The difference is not significant enough for the GTX 970 to have a noticeably larger impact on your yearly electricity bills than the GTX 960 Ti.

Game FPS Benchmarks On Ultra

GPU Architecture

Core Speed1050 MHzvs1102 MHz
Boost Clock1178 MHzvs1241 MHz
ArchitectureMaxwell GM204-200-KDMaxwell GM204-200-A1
OC Potential Fair vs Fair
Driver Support - vs Great
Release Date31 Oct 2015vs19 Sep 2014
GPU LinkGD LinkGD Link

Resolution Performance

1366x768 - vs green tick
1600x900 - vs green tick
vs green tick
2560x1440 - vs green tick
3840x2160 - vs green tick

GPU Memory

Memory4096 MBvs4096 MB
Memory Speed1753 MHzvs1753 MHz
Memory Bus256 Bitvs256 Bit
Memory TypeGDDR5vsGDDR5
Memory Bandwidth224.4GB/secvs224.4GB/sec
L2 Cache 0 KB vs green tick 1792 KB
Delta Color Compression no vs yes
Memory Performance 0% green tick vs green tick 0%

GPU Display

Shader Processing Units1536vs1664
Actual Shader Performance87%vs100%
Texture Mapping Units96vs104
Texture Rate100.8 GTexel/svs114.6 GTexel/s
Render Output Units64vs56
Pixel Rate67.2 GPixel/svs61.7 GPixel/s

GPU Outputs

Max Digital Resolution (WxH)4096x2160vs5120x3200
VGA Connections0vs0
DVI Connections2vs1
HDMI Connections1vs1
DisplayPort Connections0vs-

GPU Power Requirements

Max Power140 Wattsvs148 Watts
Recommended PSU450 Watts & 33 Ampsvs500 Watts & 37 Amps

GPU Features

Shader Model5.0vs5.0
Open GL4.5vs4.5
Open CL-vs-
Notebook GPUnono

GPU Supporting Hardware

Recommended ProcessorIntel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHzvsIntel Core i7-4770K 4-Core 3.5GHz
Recommended RAM8 GBvs8 GB
Maximum Recommended Gaming Resolution1920x1080vs2560x1440

Gaming Performance Value

Performance Value

GPU Mini Review

Mini ReviewOverview





Power Consumption

Coming Soon!

System Suggestions
GeForce GTX 970 MSI Armor 2X OC 4GB Edition is a special edition of NVIDIA's high-end GeForce GTX 970 4GB created by MSI. It features a new Cooling Solution and overclocking out of the box. Read below to know more.

Overclock: Central Unit
The Central Unit now runs at 1102MHz, instead of 1051MHz. The Boost Clock is now of 1241MHz, instead of 1178MHz.

Overclock: Memory Clock
The Operating Memory Clock still runs at 1753MHz and the Frame Buffer is still 4GB. This is adequate for the GPU.

Cooling Solution
The reference NVIDIA Single-Fan Cooling System has been replaced by MSI's Armor 2X Cooling Solution. This means the card runs cooler under load.

Benchmarks indicate a 5% performance over the reference GeForce GTX 970 4GB.
Recommended CPU
Possible GPU Upgrades
GPU Variants