Gigabyte GeForce GTX 950 Xtreme Gaming Review

Nvidia's GeForce GTX 950 offers great value, performing nearly as well as the 960 for less money. Can Gigabyte's aggressively overclocked GeForce GTX 950 Xtreme Gaming outperform the more expensive GPU?

By Kevin Carbotte
published

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Conclusion

Gigabyte's GeForce GTX 950 Xtreme Gaming is another excellent value-oriented gaming graphics card. Given our experience with Asus' GTX 950 Strix, Gigabyte would have had to really drop the ball for its offering to be any less attractive. As it stands, the GTX 950 Xtreme Gaming shines compared to the competition, even though Asus' Strix also received a glowing recommendation.

Throughout the tests, Gigabyte's card consistently held a slight performance lead over Asus' board. The improvement was minimal in many cases, but it resulted in a consistent advantage. Adding 7 GT/s memory appears to have been a great move on Gigabyte's part.

Nvidia is aiming its GeForce GTX 950 at gamers using a GTX 660 or less. And for that market, its GM206 offers plenty of performance. With e-sports becoming more popular, fans of those fast-paced, competitive games will undoubtedly be looking for better GPUs at good prices. If you enjoy League of Legends, Heroes of the Storm and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, you don't need a GTX 980 Ti or R9 Fury to enjoy smooth frame rates. This is especially true if you use a monitor with a lower resolution.

Nvidia's GTX 950 gets the job done for most gamers on a budget. It serves up smooth performance at up to 1080p using reduced detail settings in the latest titles, and in the less demanding games Nvidia likes to talk about, it's more than ample. Among the 950s currently available, Gigabyte's GeForce GTX 950 Xtreme Gaming belongs on your short list.

MORE: Best Graphics CardsMORE: All Graphics Content

Kevin Carbotte is an Associate Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware, covering Graphics. Follow him on Twitter.

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Kevin Carbotte

 Kevin Carbotte is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware who primarily covers VR and AR hardware. He has been writing for us for more than four years. 

28 Comments Comment from the forums
  • chaosmassive
    for future benchmark, please set to 1366x768 instead of 720p as bare minimum
    because 720p panel pretty rare nowadays, game with resolution 720p scaled up for bigger screen, its really blur or small (no scaled up)
    Reply
  • kcarbotte
    for future benchmark, please set to 1366x768 instead of 720p as bare minimum
    because 720p panel pretty rare nowadays, game with resolution 720p scaled up for bigger screen, its really blur or small (no scaled up)

    All of the tests were done at 1366x768.
    Where do you see 720p?
    Reply
  • rush21hit
    I have been comparing test result for 950 from many sites now and that leaves me to a solid decision; GTX 750Ti. I'm having the aging HD6670 right now.

    Even the bare bone version still needed 6pin power and still rated 90Watt, let alone the overbuilt. As someone who uses a mere Seasonic's 350Watt PSU, I find the 950 a hard sell for me. Add in CPU OC factor and my 3 HDD, I believe my PSU is constrained enough and only have a little bit more headroom to give for GPU.

    If only it doesn't require any additional power pin and a bit lower TDP.
    Welp, that's it. Ordering the 750Ti now...whoa! it's $100 now? yaayyy
    Reply
  • ozicom
    I decided to buy a 750Ti past but my needs have changed. I'm not a gamer but i want to buy a 40" UHD TV and use it as screen but when i dig about this i saw that i have to use a graphics card with HDMI 2.0 or i have to buy a TV with DP port which is very rare. So this need took me to search for a budget GTX 950 - actually i'm not an Nvidia fan but AMD think to add HDMI 2.0 to it's products in 2016. When we move from CRT to LCD TV's most of the new gen LCD TV had DVI port but now they create different ports which can't be converted and it makes us think again and again to decide what to buy.
    Reply
  • padremaronno
    > mid-low end card
    > extreme gaming
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    17165047 said:
    now they create different ports which can't be converted
    There are adapters between HDMI, DP and DVI. HDMI to/from DVI is just a passive dongle either way.
    Reply
  • Larry Litmanen
    Obviously these companies know their buying base far better than i do, but to me the appeal of 750TI was that you did not need to upgrade your PSU. So if you have a regular HP or Dell you can upgrade and game better.

    I guess these companies feel like most people who buy a dedicated GPU probably have a good PSU.
    Reply
  • TechyInAZ
    Looks great! Right off the bat it was my favorite GTX 950 card since Gigabyte put some excellent aesthetics into the card, but I will still go with EVGA.
    Reply
  • matthoward85
    Anyone know what the SLI equivalent would be comparable to? greater or less than a gtx 980?
    Reply
  • silverblue
    How is the texture fillrate of the Strix ahead of the higher clocked Xtreme? :)
    Reply