Nvidia GeForce GTX 960: Maxwell In The Middle

Features
By Don Woligroski, Igor Wallossek
published

Partner Card Launch Round-Up
Asus GTX 960 StriX DirectCU II OC
EVGA GTX 960 SuperAC ACX 2.0

Gainward GTX 960 Phantom OC

Asus GTX 960 Strix DirectCU II OC

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EVGA GTX 960 SuperSC ACX 2.0

Gainward GTX 960 Phantom OC

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Galax/KFA² GTX 960 EX OC

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Gigabyte GTX 960 Gaming G1

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Note: The new BIOS 86.06.0D.00.76, which was used for all benchmarks in this review, isn't present on the first batch of Gigabyte's graphics cards. It can be downloaded from the company's webpage after the launch.

Gigabyte GTX 960 WindForce OC

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inno3D GTX 960 iChill

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Palit GTX 960 Super JetStream

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Zotac GTX 960 AMP! Edition

Don Woligroski
226 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Novuake
    This seems meh... Impressive but not phenomenal power consumption to performance numbers. Especially compared the GTX970/980.

    Would have liked to see two more things.

    1. More extensive AA. post processing and memory bandwidth testing. Pretty sure Nvidia hamstrung the card a bit in some scenarios with a 1280bit interface. I had to read it 4 times before I believed it and still am skeptical.

    2. Overclocking benchies.


    So otherwise I guess we are back to the "old" ti-designation setup where the GTX960ti SHOULD be based on GM206 and vanilla GTX960 is not.
    Reply
  • sconzen
    I may be blind, but I don't see the Zotax Amp! edition in the temperature and noise tests. Confirm?
    Reply
  • damric
    The R9 280 is the fast and cheap elephant in the room that was never mentioned in this review,
    Reply
  • Grognak
    Well, I'm not saying a 10% improvement on top of a reduced power consumption isn't nice, because it really is, however we're still quite far away from the 770. I suppose Nvidia has a card planned to fill the massive performance gap between the 960 and 970, one at 4Gb of VRAM maybe?
    Reply
  • ykki
    The damn arrows are STILL blocking the charts!
    Reply
  • sconzen
    I may be blind, but I don't see the Zotax Amp! edition in the temperature and noise tests. Confirm?
    Reply
  • ykki
    Great review.
    Now AMD, time to bust out the 270x!
    Reply
  • ykki
    Lol I meant the 370x!
    Reply
  • Novuake
    15117694 said:
    The damn arrows are STILL blocking the charts!

    I am not the only one! Thank you!
    Reply
  • ykki
    Novoake, I am very sorry but I stole your comment from an earlier review.
    But seriously, those arrows can block out the sun if tom's put 'em right.
    Reply