NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 vs NVIDIA P106-090 Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The benchmark data shows a clear overall victory for the NVIDIA P106-090, which wins both head-to-head tests against the GeForce GTX 950. The most decisive result comes in the Geekbench OpenCL test, where the P106-090 scores 21,304 against the GTX 950's 15,662. That is a 36% lead, a substantial margin that reflects the mining card's advantage in raw compute throughput. The gap is narrower in the Geekbench Vulkan test, but the P106-090 still comes out ahead with 18,596 points versus 16,734 points for the GTX 950, a delta of 11.1%.

Looking at the broader average benchmark score, the P106-090 posts an average of 13,470 across all tests, while the GTX 950 averages 13,189. That difference of roughly 281 points places the P106-090 in the 54th percentile of all GPUs, one point ahead of the GTX 950's 53rd percentile. The near-rival comparison reinforces the P106-090's position: its average score sits within 0.5% of the AMD Radeon Pro 555 and within 0.3% of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570. The GTX 950, meanwhile, lands within 0.9% of the NVIDIA Tesla M2090 and 0.8% of the GTX 480.

The P106-090's OpenCL advantage is especially notable because both cards share the same shading unit count of 768. Yet the P106-090's higher clock speeds — a 1,354 MHz base and 1,531 MHz boost versus 1,024 MHz and 1,188 MHz for the GTX 950 — translate into a 28.9% faster FP32 throughput at 2.352 TFLOPS versus 1.825 TFLOPS. That compute headroom is the primary driver of its 36% OpenCL win. The Vulkan result, while still a win for the P106-090, is closer because API overhead and memory access patterns can mitigate raw compute differences. Still, the data shows the P106-090 winning every measured test, with no single benchmark where the GTX 950 pulls ahead.

Where Each One Wins

The P106-090 is the clear winner in compute-oriented workloads. Its OpenCL score of 21,304 demonstrates a commanding lead in general-purpose GPU compute, which matters for tasks like rendering, physics simulation, and data processing. The Vulkan score of 18,596 also favors the P106-090, indicating stronger performance in modern graphics APIs that leverage low-level hardware access. The P106-090's 3 GB of GDDR5 memory, paired with a 192-bit bus and 192.2 GB/s of bandwidth, gives it a memory bandwidth advantage of 81.7% over the GTX 950's 105.8 GB/s. That bandwidth headroom helps in texture-heavy scenes and larger working sets.

The GTX 950, despite losing both head-to-head tests, has its own areas of strength. It is the only card of the two with display outputs — 1x DVI, 1x HDMI 2.0, and 3x DisplayPort 1.2 — making it the only viable option for actually driving a monitor. The P106-090 has no outputs at all, which is expected for a mining-focused product. The GTX 950 also has a more conventional bus interface: PCIe 3.0 x16 versus the P106-090's PCIe 1.0 x1. That means the GTX 950 can slot into standard desktop motherboards without bandwidth bottlenecks, while the P106-090's x1 interface severely limits data transfer to and from the host system. For gaming, the GTX 950's 2 GB of VRAM is smaller, but its 1,188 MHz boost clock and 57.02 GTexel/s texture rate still provide competent 1080p performance for its era. The GTX 950 also supports the same DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4 APIs as the P106-090, so software compatibility is identical.

The GTX 950's predecessor is the GeForce 700 series, and its successor is the GeForce 10 series, placing it in a well-trodden product lineage. The P106-090, by contrast, belongs to the "Mining GPUs" generation, with no predecessor or successor listed. That distinction matters: the P106-090 is a specialized tool, while the GTX 950 is a general-purpose graphics card.

Architecture Differences

The P106-090 is built on NVIDIA's Pascal architecture, fabricated on a 16 nm process at TSMC. The GTX 950 uses the older Maxwell 2.0 architecture on a 28 nm process, also at TSMC. The process node shrink is significant: 16 nm versus 28 nm allows the P106-090 to pack 4,400 million transistors into a 200 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 22.0 million transistors per mm². The GTX 950's GM206 chip contains 2,940 million transistors on a larger 228 mm² die, resulting in a much lower density of 12.9 million per mm². The Pascal chip is physically smaller but electrically denser, which explains how it achieves higher clock speeds and efficiency despite a lower TDP.

The core configurations differ in one key area: both cards have 768 shading units and 48 TMUs, but the P106-090 has 48 ROPs versus the GTX 950's 32 ROPs. That 50% increase in ROP count directly contributes to the P106-090's pixel rate of 73.49 GPixel/s, nearly double the GTX 950's 38.02 GPixel/s. The texture rate also favors the P106-090 at 73.49 GTexel/s versus 57.02 GTexel/s, driven by its higher boost clock.

FP16 compute is another differentiator: the P106-090 lists 36.74 GFLOPS at a 1:64 ratio, while the GTX 950 has no FP16 data listed. That suggests the Pascal card has at least some half-precision capability, however limited, whereas the Maxwell part does not expose any. Both cards share the same API support — DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4 — so there is no architectural difference in software feature levels, but the underlying hardware implementations are generations apart.

Specification Differences

The two cards diverge on nearly every measurable specification. The P106-090 uses the GP106 chip, while the GTX 950 uses GM206. Process node: 16 nm versus 28 nm. Transistor count: 4,400 million versus 2,940 million. Die size: 200 mm² versus 228 mm². Transistor density: 22.0M/mm² versus 12.9M/mm². Base clock: 1,354 MHz versus 1,024 MHz. Boost clock: 1,531 MHz versus 1,188 MHz. Memory clock: 2,002 MHz (8 Gbps effective) versus 1,653 MHz (6.6 Gbps effective). Memory size: 3 GB versus 2 GB. Memory bus width: 192-bit versus 128-bit. Memory bandwidth: 192.2 GB/s versus 105.8 GB/s. ROPs: 48 versus 32. Pixel rate: 73.49 GPixel/s versus 38.02 GPixel/s. Texture rate: 73.49 GTexel/s versus 57.02 GTexel/s. FP32: 2.352 TFLOPS versus 1.825 TFLOPS. TDP: 75 W versus 90 W. Bus interface: PCIe 1.0 x1 versus PCIe 3.0 x16. Display outputs: none versus 1x DVI, 1x HDMI 2.0, 3x DisplayPort 1.2. Dimensions: 250 mm (9.8 inches) versus 202 mm (8 inches). Release date: 2017-07-30 versus 2015-08-19. Generation: Mining GPUs versus GeForce 900.

The two cards are identical in several areas: 768 shading units, 48 TMUs, 1x 6-pin power connector, 250 W suggested PSU, dual-slot width, DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, Vulkan 1.4, and end-of-life production status. The GTX 950 has a launch MSRP of 159 USD; the P106-090 has no listed MSRP.

FAQ

Q: Which card has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA P106-090 averages 13,470 across all tests, compared to 13,189 for the GeForce GTX 950. The P106-090 sits in the 54th percentile of all GPUs, while the GTX 950 is in the 53rd.

Q: How much faster is the P106-090 in OpenCL?

A: The P106-090 scores 21,304 in Geekbench OpenCL versus 15,662 for the GTX 950, a 36% advantage. This is the largest performance gap between the two cards in any tested workload.

Q: Does the GTX 950 support display outputs?

A: Yes. The GTX 950 includes 1x DVI, 1x HDMI 2.0, and 3x DisplayPort 1.2 outputs. The P106-090 has no display outputs, making it unsuitable for direct monitor connection.

Q: What is the memory bandwidth difference?

A: The P106-090 offers 192.2 GB/s over a 192-bit bus with 3 GB of GDDR5. The GTX 950 provides 105.8 GB/s over a 128-bit bus with 2 GB of GDDR5. The P106-090 has 81.7% more bandwidth.

Q: Which card has a lower TDP?

A: The P106-090 has a 75 W TDP, while the GTX 950 is rated at 90 W. Both require a 1x 6-pin power connector and a 250 W suggested PSU.

Q: Do both cards support the same APIs?

A: Yes. Both support DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, despite the P106-090 using the older PCIe 1.0 x1 bus interface versus the GTX 950's PCIe 3.0 x16.