Nvidia GeForce GTX 960 graphics card review: Maxwell meets PC gaming’s sweet spot - irvinhaster

The battle for PC gaming's "melodious spot" has a new challenger. With the GeForce GTX 980 and 970 firmly in command of the agio graphics card market, Nvidia's background its sights on the crucial 1080p enthusiast segment with the GTX 960, the first truly mainstream loop of its compelling, even so stunningly power-high-octane "Maxwell" processor computer architecture.

The GTX 960 delivers great 1080p play capabilities, rocking a silky-smooth 60 frames per seconds in even demanding titles with most of the bells and whistles aroused. And priced at just $200, the GTX 960 is poised to make some waves.

Meet mainstream J. C. Maxwell

Let's take a active, high-level look at the GTX 960's key points before diving into real-humans benchmarks.

The GTX 960's full spec sail. (Clicking on any image in this article will enlarge it.)

The GTX 960 uses a new "GM206" GPU built exploitation the 28nm process, rather than the GM204 found in the GTX 970 and 980, merely for many of the eyeglasses that matter information technology's essentially a GTX 980 cut in half. The GTX 960 packs 1024 CUDA cores, 16 streaming multiprocessors, 32 ROP units, and 64 texture units, while drawing power from a single 6-stick power connector—all on the dot half of what GTX 980 claims. Nvidia's insanely efficient Maxwell architecture is put up to good use once over again: The GTX 960 has a scant 120 watt TDP, and it runs cool and pipe down even under hefty loads, hatchway the room access for nifty sound-rescue tricks and beastly overclocks… which we'll get into by and by.

In reference build, the GTX 960 measures 9.5 inches long, winning upfield dual slots in your case and packing a dual-link DVI porthole, an HDMI 2.0 port, and a trio of DisplayPort connections.

Unmatched other thing jumps out staring at the spec sheet: The GTX 960 features lonesome 2GB of GDDR5 memory with a 128-act bus, which seems… paltry, to say the least. But Nvidia says that caching improvements in Maxwell, combined with the company's third-generation delta color compression engine, facilitate the GM206 GPU manipulation its memory bandwidth far more effectively than its predecessor, the GM106 "Johan Keple" CUDA core. As such, the "lack" of memory bandwidth wasn't an issue in our testing, and the limited RAM isn't likely to be an issue when you're gaming at 1080p, a.k.a. the target employ for this card.

And in truth, what do you expect for $200, anyway? Nonetheless, it would've been nice to see 3GB or 4GB of memory, or leastwise a wider memory motorbus to more in effect future-proof the card.

Beyond the hardware, the GTX 960 boasts the same software tricks as its bigger 900-series brothers: the Voxel Global Illumination lighting technique, VR Direct, Dynamic Super Resolution, Multi-Frame Opposing-aliasing, information technology's completely there. Dynamic A-one Resolution—which renders games at higher resolution than your monitor lizard, then downsamples them to tally your monitor to improve visual fidelity—isn't quite as useful on the GTX 960 arsenic it was along the GTX 980, because the performance punishment hurts far more along a midrange card. But IT can provide a visual supercharge without dragging frame rates into the pits for more modest titles, similar World of Warcraft or League of Legends.

The Asus GTX 960 Strix, sans shroud, revealing the PCB altogether its glory.

Nvidia's Multi-Frame Anti-aliasing engineering is getting a big shot in the arm with the departure of the GTX 960, nevertheless. Anti-aliasing smooths out visual jaggies in games, albeit with a performance cost. MFAA delivers visuals connected par with multi-sample opposed-aliasing, but with far little of an impact along frame rates. Examination has shown that compared to 4x MSAA, 4x MFAA delivers about the same level of visual faithfulness at around 8- to 15-per centum higher frame rates, dependent on the title. That's none too shabby!

While our benchmarks wear't leverage MFAA, every bit the engineering science ISN't compatible with AMD card game, Nvidia's enabling the technology by default if you habituate the GeForce Experience app to mechanically optimise your games. MFAA's rolling out in effect to coincide with that: While the technology worked with only 20 or so games initially, it's now supported by every DirectX 10 and DirectX 11 game that supports MSAA, with the exception of Deceased Rising 3, Flying dragon Age 2, and Max Payne 3.

This Nvidia slide highlights the GTX 960's discover software features.

The GTX 960 and its GM206 chip also feature article support for H.265 encoding and decoding. The GTX 970 and 980 support only H.265 encryption. The GTX 960 also supports HDCP 2.2 "easygoing protection" over HDMI. In other words, the GTX 960 should be able to stream 4K Netflix streams like a champ—if 4K displays ever really become a big matter, that is.

Nvidia's new graphics card also includes bear out for DirectX 12, the next-generation, performance-enhancing gambling API coming with Windows 10.

Foregather the Asus GTX 960 Strix and EVGA GTX 960 SSC

At once get's get into the fun stuff. We reviewed two GTX 960 samples: The Asus Strix with DirectCU II cooling and EVGA's GTX 960 SuperSC (SSC) edition with ACX 2.0+ temperature reduction.

The left selection on the Asus Genus Strix is peat bog-standard for a GTX 960.

Remember I mentioned how nonchalantly and efficiently the Maxwell architecture lets these new Nvidia cards guide? Third-party graphics card makers are already putting that efficiency to tremendous consumption. Asus and EVGA's cards don't regular activate their fans until temperatures strike 55 C and 60 C, respectively. And when you commingle Maxwell's efficiency with the custom aftermarket cooling solutions found in these card game, you South Korean won't hit those temps much in Sir Thomas More casual or modest games, like Conference of Legends,The Walking Dead, and many a independent or 4x scheme games.

The Asus Strix topped out at 58 C in our tests, and that was only aft applying a hefty overclock and running the Furmark benchmark, which Nvidia's press materials call a "power computer virus." The EVGA SSC hit grievous bodily harm temperatures of more or less 75 C under extreme duress, but ran utmost tank in normal scenarios. Some cards ran extremely softly even when the fans were whir, most to the point of ghostliness.

Both cards also lineament impressively hefty overclocks extinct of the box. While Nvidia's GTX 960 reference alfilaria stand at 1126MHz lineage and 1178MHz boost, the Asus Strix speeds along at 1253MHz/1317MHz out of the box; the EVGA SSC powers along at 1279MHz/1342MHz. I'd have liked to underclock incomparable of them to timeworn speeds for reference book, but I couldn't: The overclocking software program that ships with these cards lone let you reduce speeds by skyward to 90MHz. Asus and EVGA's cards were overclocked away 127MHz and 153Mhz out of the box, respectively. (Foreshadowing: We pushed it evening further.)

The EVGA GTX 960 Super SC.

The $210 EVGA GTX 960 SSC with ACX 2.0+ cooling measures somewhat longer than a reference GTX 960, at 10.25 inches. The tease packs a thick heat sink underneath its dual fans, along with a cooling plateful to sustain your card's memory and MOSFET chilled, as well as straight—not curved—heat pipes, which EVGA says reduces GPU temperatures by an supererogatory 5 C. The EVGA SSC requires an 8-bowling pin power connector, rather than the citation card's 6-flag. In the box you'll find an 8-pin great power cable, a DVI to VGA adapter, EVGA stickers, a post-horse, and a utility installation disk that includes EVGA's PrecisionX overclocking utility.

The EVGA GTX 960 SSC packs dual BIOSes, which you rear end toggle with the flick of a physical switch on the card. Away default, the bill of fare uses the "dBi BIOS," which keeps the fans off until temps gain 60 C. Alternatively, you fire habit the "SSC Performance BIOS" for more oomph. Our test results below enjoyment the default dBI BIOS background. Switching to the SSC Performance BIOS typically reinforced frame rates aside 1 to 3 fps in our games suite, with cardinal notable exception: The EVGA SSC hit 60.18 fps in Bioshock Infinite in dBi, but that leaped to a whopping 76.01 FPS with the Performance BIOS.

The Asus Strix looks an awful peck like Bubo, that mechanical owl inClash of the Titans.

The neat-looking $215 Asus Genus Strix resembles an bird of night, with thick, snaking heat pipes almost winning the place of eyebrows. It measures a bit shorter than a stock GTX 960 at 8.5 inches and it includes brooding touches equal tagged production connections and a full metallic backplate. You'll find a DVI to VGA convertor inside its boxful, too, along with a disk containing Asus' own GPU Tweak overclocking tool.

Benchmarking the GTX 960

We tested the cards inside PCWorld's new benchmarking rig, which features a molten-cooled Intel Core i7 5960X, 16GB of Corsair's gamy-destruction Vengeance LPX DDR4 memory, a 480GB Intel 730 serial publication SSD, and more. You can say all the essa rig details in PCWorld's build guide.

Next page: Benchmarks and more.

We're comparing the GTX 960 card game against a slew of similarly priced offerings: The EVGA GTX 970 FTW with ACX 2.0, a Zotac GTX 760 Adenosine monophosphate! Edition, a Visiontek Radeon R9 270X, and an Asus R9 280X DirectCU II TOP. Nvidia's reviewer's guide compares the GTX 960 against the Radeon R9 285, but alas, I don't have matchless present.

Got IT? Good. Let's probe frame rates. You lavatory click connected any graph to enlarge it.

Archetypal up: Bioshock Myriad. Virtually all modern art card game handle Columbia's floating islands with aplomb, only it's a sterling representative of the Unreal 3 locomotive. United thing that raw frame rates don't show is how deeply GeForce cards dismiss occasionally stutter running this game. Every Nvidia card we've tested recently dips into single-digit token frame rates during Bioshock Dateless's benchmark. It's rarified for the frame rank to engulf so low, but it causes notable stuttering when it does happen.

Next, we tested the card game with Unerect Dogs: Definitive Edition's intrinsic benchmarking feature.

We test Subway system: Last Light Redux with SSAA disabled, because it slashes frame rates in half and the game looks gorgeous enough without it. We as wel disable Advanced PhysX.

Unknown: Isolation is a gorgeous, terrifying unfit with a built-in bench mark. It seems CPU-chained to or s arcdegree and scales well across all hardware configurations.

Finally, we besides tested the GTX 960 cards using the Unigine Valley and 3DMark 11 Fuel Strike tools, which were specifically designed for benchmarking graphics capabilities.

When you look at wattage use under full load, Maxwell's energy efficiency shines. The GTX 960 positively sips power.

Which brings me to my next point…

Overclocking the GTX 960

Nvidia's press materials stress the GTX 960 is an overclocker's dream, and you get it on what? That's entirely accurate. I wasn't sure I'd be able to squeeze much excess out of the cards presented the strapping overclocks Asus and EVGA apply out of the box, but male child, was I wrong.

Using the overclocking software included with apiece nontextual matter card, but without touching temperature profiles or voltage, I was able to achieve significant additional overclocks on from each one card.

EVGA SSC time speeds

• Base: 1279MHz core, 1342MHz boost, 1753MHz retention
• Overclocked: 1366MHz heart, 1429MHz boost, 1940MHz memory

Asus Genus Strix time speeds

• Base: 1253MHz core, 1317MHz boost, 1800MHz memory
• Overclocked: 1400MHz core (!!!), 1464MHz boost, 1933MHz memory

Nvidia's constrict materials enunciat information technology's been able to hit 1450MHz overclocks with the reference cooling design, all without tweaking circuit board potential difference or fan speeds. We didn't quite hit those impressive speeds, but a 1400MHz clock speed is allay insane. Think back: The GTX 960's default reference cannonball along is 1126MHz.

The Asus Strix and EVGA SSC could constitute pushed even further if you wanted to roll up your sleeves and originate tweaking voltages and fan speeds—possibly a whole lot further. Both cards were still humming away happily at their stock load temperatures when they began demonstrating overclock instability. Put differently, each should take out a circumstances more heat if you wanted to apply Thomas More juice and crank the time speeds even out higher.

So what dress those extra speeds get you in term of frame rate? I'm willing you asked. The cast rate leaps aren't mind-blowing, but again, remember that these card game had hefty overclocks out of the box. The gains would glucinium much Thomas More impressive on a GTX 760 that started at source time speeds—assuming it overclocked every bit well as these models.

Nvidia GeForce GTX 960: Finding the confection spot

The GTX 960 is everything you could invite in a art visiting card for the mainstream enthusiast. The models we tested delivered a firm 60 fps in every title tested with "shrilling" graphics presets—and that should be boosted flush higher when using MFAA. The GTX 960 runs cool. The GTX 960 runs surprisingly quiet. And best of all, the GTX 960 is cheap.

Nvidia's emplacement the GTX 960 every bit a killer upgrade for people currently rocking an older GTX 560 or 660, and compared to those the GTX 960 is understandably a vast come ou in performance and power efficiency. (It's a less compelling upgrade if you already own a GTX 760, or even a GTX 670.) Only really, the GTX 960 puts immense forc connected the next generation of AMD's Radeon nontextual matter cards before the close generation of Radeon artwork card game has even been announced.

The technical superiority of the GTX 980 and especially the $330 GTX 970 bear already forced AMD to dramatically slash prices happening its highest-end graphics cards. The cost-cutting will very likely hold over to the mainstream pricing segment right away that the GTX 960 is here. By pricing the GTX 960 at $200, rather than the $250 that partisan 1080p cards like the GTX 760 and Radeon R9 285 take up typically cost at in the past, Nvidia's signaling that it's attractive the battle for your wallet very seriously indeed.

AMD's GTX 960 counterpart, the Radeon R9 285, will have to cut down to leastwise $200 to remain related—and likely lower, given the Nvidia card's overwhelming power efficiency dominance. (You fanny already find many, but not all, models at that Leontyne Price after rebates.) AMD's Never Descend game bundles don't appear in effect any more, either—at least connected Amazon River and Newegg—eliminating that differentiating Radeon benefit.

Would I have got liked to see a bigger jump in performance from the GTX 760 to the GTX 960? Convinced. And a larger retentivity frame buffer storage wouldn't damage in an era of rapidly expanding games. Merely Nvidia's GTX 960 does what it's designed to do—play current games at playable rates and 1080p firmness with most graphical features enabled—very, very well indeed. You'd be very happy with either the Asus Strix or the EVGA SSC.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/431345/nvidia-gtx-760-graphics-card-review-maxwell-meets-pc-gamings-sweet-spot.html

Posted by: irvinhaster.blogspot.com

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