Early Verdict
Zotac’s Geforce GTX 960 AMP! Edition is not a bad card. In fact it’s quieter than most and performs very well, while requiring less power to do it. Sadly that’s not quite enough as it falls just short of the competition for the same GPU.
Pros
- +
Build quality • Design • Overclocking • Power usage
Cons
- -
Memory • Noise • Temperature
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Introduction
Anyone familiar with Zotac knows that the company has a history of offering some of the best values for Nvidia-based graphics cards. Not only does Zotac often hit attractive price points, but its engineers also come up with some of the highest-clocked components. The board we're looking at today is no exception, sporting a 1266MHz base clock rate and GPU Boost rating of 1329MHz. Couple that with a $210 price tag, and we could be looking at one of the better GeForce GTX 960s out there.
Grab the GeForce GTX 960 AMP! Edition and you'll immediately notice how sturdily-built it feels. There is a solid metal back-plate that wraps around the top and rear of the card. This protects the PCB from damage during handling, while significantly improving the card's rigidity.
Not that stiffness is all that important in a card this size. The GeForce GTX 960 AMP! is one of the smaller overclocked boards in our lab. A standard PCB is around 117mm tall. This one comes in at 111.15mm. Its not a dramatic difference, but when you consider that the GTX 980 AMP! Omega is 133mm tall, more diminutive dimensions are refreshing. Not only is the 960 AMP! shorter than most of its competition, but it's also 208mm long, so its length measurement registers on the more compact side. And despite that beefy-looking heat sink up front, the card is quite light as well, weighing in at 590 grams.
Zotac does a commendable job with its aesthetics. The gunmetal-colored shroud with carbon fiber accents looks fantastic, and the wrap-around back plate really complements the card.
Hidden below that lovely shroud is a large aluminum sink with two copper heat pipes running through aluminum fins. To bring in fresh air, dual 90mm fans are used. Zotac calls this its IceStorm Cooling System.
Given the card's conservative power specification, the GeForce GTX 960 AMP! Edition uses a single six-pin PCIe connector. Zotac's maximum consumption is rated for 120W, which matches Nvidia's reference. That's interesting if only because this board is running at a higher clock rate, suggesting Nvidia's spec had some headroom built in or Zotac has some hand-picked GPUs.
When it comes to display outputs, Zotac has you covered. Again sticking closely to the reference design, we find one dual-link DVI-I connector, full-sized HDMI and three DisplayPort outputs. Four of the five can be used simultaneously. And as with all GeForce GTX 960s, there is only one SLI bridge connector, enabling two-way configurations.
There really isn’t much to say about the bundle. You get the graphics card, a driver disc and a user manual in the box. Additionally, there is a dual four-pin molex to six-pin PCIe adapter. There are no included games, nor any stickers or posters. You get what you need and nothing else.
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