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