In his obituary, the Times Higher Education described him as "one of the dominant international figures in the development of the theory of condensed matter".

[1] One of Győrffy's main contributions was as one of the pioneers of the application of the Korringa–Kohn–Rostoker coherent potential approximation (KKR-CPA) for first-principle calculations of the electronic structure of alloys.

[2] He is also known for his involvement of the development of the disordered local moment (DLM) picture—for describing the electronic structure of magnetic materials above their Curie temperature[3]—and for the Gaspari-Gyorffy method for obtaining the strength of electron-phonon coupling in transition metals superconductors.

He was a swimmer of Olympic standard, and this enabled him to secure a sports scholarship at Yale University.

[6] He was elected an external member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1995, Fellow of the Institute of Physics in 1998, was a co-recipient of the Gordon Bell Prize in 1998, and was given the 2001 William Hume-Rothery award by The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society.