Huawei Ascend 960 vs Huawei Ascend 970

The Ascend 970 delivers 2.0x the FP8 throughput of the Ascend 960 (4,000 vs 2,000 TFLOPS dense).

Ascend 960: Da Vinci v4 (chiplet), 2027 Ascend 970: Da Vinci v5, 2028

FP8 dense lead

2.0x

Ascend 970: 4,000 vs 2,000 TFLOPS

Memory

288 vs 288 GB

Same capacity

Bandwidth

9.6 TB/s vs 14.4 TB/s

Ascend 970 moves data faster

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Huawei Ascend 960

Full specs →

What is the Huawei Ascend 960?

The Ascend 960 is an NPU from Huawei on the Da Vinci v4 (chiplet) architecture, an accelerator built for AI inference. It is an OAM module, the open accelerator format used in multi-GPU servers. It has been announced but is not yet shipping. Ascend 960 full specifications →

Can I rent the Ascend 960 in the cloud?

Flopper is not tracking any live rental listings for the Ascend 960 yet. The provider directory lists the clouds that rent comparable accelerators on demand. GPU cloud providers →

How does the Ascend 960 compare with other accelerators?

This page sets the Ascend 960 against the Ascend 970. The Ascend 960 is the older generation of the two. Both are Huawei parts, and both ship as an OAM module, so they fit the same class of system. The compare tool builds the same comparison for any two parts in the catalogue. All GPU comparisons →

Where do the Ascend 960 figures come from?

Huawei published the Ascend 960 figures in marketing material rather than a datasheet, and Flopper has no independent confirmation of them. How Flopper verifies specifications →

Huawei Ascend 970

Leads on FP8 Full specs →

What is the Huawei Ascend 970?

The Ascend 970 is an NPU from Huawei on the Da Vinci v5 architecture, an accelerator built for AI inference. It is an OAM module, the open accelerator format used in multi-GPU servers. It has been announced but is not yet shipping. Ascend 970 full specifications →

Can I rent the Ascend 970 in the cloud?

Flopper is not tracking any live rental listings for the Ascend 970 yet. The provider directory lists the clouds that rent comparable accelerators on demand. GPU cloud providers →

How does the Ascend 970 compare with other accelerators?

This page sets the Ascend 970 against the Ascend 960. The Ascend 970 is the newer generation of the two. Both are Huawei parts, and both ship as an OAM module, so they fit the same class of system. The compare tool builds the same comparison for any two parts in the catalogue. All GPU comparisons →

Where do the Ascend 970 figures come from?

Huawei published the Ascend 970 figures in marketing material rather than a datasheet, and Flopper has no independent confirmation of them. How Flopper verifies specifications →

Specifications

Ascend 960

Ascend 970

Architecture

Da Vinci v4 (chiplet)Da Vinci v5

Launch Year

20272028

Form Factor

OAMOAM

Memory

288 GB288 GB

Memory Bandwidth

9.6 TB/s14.4 TB/s

TDP

——

Process Node

——

Spec

Ascend 960

Ascend 970

Architecture Da Vinci v4 (chiplet)Da Vinci v5

Launch Year 20272028

Form Factor OAMOAM

Memory 288 GB288 GB

Memory Bandwidth 9.6 TB/s14.4 TB/s

TDP ——

Process Node ——

Performance (TFLOPS)

Ascend 960

Ascend 970

1,000 TFLOPS 2,000 TFLOPS

2,000 TFLOPS 4,000 TFLOPS

FP6

4,000 TFLOPS 8,000 TFLOPS

Precision

Ascend 960

Ascend 970

1,000 TFLOPS 2,000 TFLOPS

2,000 TFLOPS 4,000 TFLOPS

FP6

4,000 TFLOPS 8,000 TFLOPS

Figures are dense. Where a vendor publishes a figure it sits under the dense one and never decides a winner. Hover any precision for its definition, or read the GPU glossary.

FLOPS by Precision

What actually differs

The Ascend 970 is the newer part: Da Vinci v5 (2028) against the Ascend 960's Da Vinci v4 (chiplet) (2027).

Both carry 288 GB of memory. Bandwidth is 9.6 TB/s against 14.4 TB/s, which sets the ceiling on decode speed.

Weight the FP8 and FP16 rows for LLM work and the FP64 row for HPC.

New to the terms? The glossary explains BF16, FP16, FP8, FP4, Sparsity and TFLOPS.

Frequently asked questions

What is better, the Ascend 960 or the Ascend 970?

The Ascend 970, on throughput. At FP8 precision the Ascend 970 reaches 4,000 TFLOPS dense against 2,000 TFLOPS for the Ascend 960. The performance table on this page lists every published precision for both GPUs.

Which should you choose, the Ascend 960 or the Ascend 970?

Choose the Ascend 970 for training and high-throughput inference: it has 2.0x the FP8 throughput of the Ascend 960.

Which has more memory, the Ascend 960 or the Ascend 970?

Both GPUs carry 288 GB of memory. Memory bandwidth is 9.6 TB/s for the Ascend 960 and 14.4 TB/s for the Ascend 970.

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Open in Full Compare Tool → Ascend 960 full specs Ascend 970 full specs Estimate cluster cost in the calculator →

Huawei Ascend 960 vs Huawei Ascend 970

Huawei Ascend 960

What is the Huawei Ascend 960?

Can I rent the Ascend 960 in the cloud?

How does the Ascend 960 compare with other accelerators?

Where do the Ascend 960 figures come from?

Huawei Ascend 970

What is the Huawei Ascend 970?

Can I rent the Ascend 970 in the cloud?

How does the Ascend 970 compare with other accelerators?

Where do the Ascend 970 figures come from?

Specifications

Performance (TFLOPS)

FLOPS by Precision

What actually differs

Frequently asked questions

What is better, the Ascend 960 or the Ascend 970?

Which should you choose, the Ascend 960 or the Ascend 970?

Which has more memory, the Ascend 960 or the Ascend 970?

Get Comparison Updates

Stay Updated on GPU Specs