NVIDIA recently launched the GTX 970 and GTX 980 based on its new "Maxwell" architecture, torching the market with an unreal combination of performance, power-draw, and fan-noise, which made them overkill for Full HD. The two can handle any game at QHD [1440p] and can provide playable frame-rates at 4K, with some eye-candy lowered.
That creates the need for NVIDIA to come up with a GPU that's just right for Full HD, but with low power-draw and pricing to benefit from the new architecture. "Maxwell" also presents NVIDIA with an opportunity to cut costs because its current sweet-spot graphics card, the GeForce GTX 760, is based on a 3.5 billion-transistor GPU with a surface area of 294 mm² and just 24 percent less power draw than GTX 970 for 51 percent lower performance. Since NVIDIA is still on the 28 nm process, it might as well build a smaller GPU based on "Maxwell" to cut on costs, while hopefully transferring those savings to the consumer.
Full HD is still the most popular gaming-PC resolution, and the advents of 4K and affordable 1440p haven't managed to shake its dominance yet. People still seem to be buying monitors based on panel-size rather than resolution and are also happy to hold onto a monitor for several years. There are, hence, three kinds of consumers: First are those on a tight budget and the ability to buy a reasonably big [24-inch] Full HD monitor for cheap. Second are those who want to convert their vanilla desktops into gaming PCs to game on their Full HD TVs. The third kind is holding onto an old Full HD monitor and drifts between a mid-range graphics card every other year. NVIDIA and AMD can hence ill-afford to leave this resolution unaddressed with each new architecture.
That brings us to NVIDIA's most important launch ahead of Spring-Summer 2015, the GeForce GTX 960. This card is based on a brand-new silicon codenamed GM206. NVIDIA's third chip based on "Maxwell", the GM206 is supposed to be a successor to the GK106 on which NVIDIA built the GeForce GTX 660. The new GTX 960, however, is meant to replace the GTX 660 and GTX 760 in the product stack, offering slightly higher performance at much lower power draw and noise, with greater room for price-cuts. It also brings some of the new features introduced with "Maxwell" to the masses, such as real-time voxel illumination, MFAA [multi-frame sampled anti-aliasing], Dynamic Super-Resolution, VR Direct, Turf Effects, and PhysX Flex, along with community favorites like G-Sync and ShadowPlay.
NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 960 is priced at just $200, which is lower than what the GTX 760 was priced at on launch [$250]. NVIDIA has clearly transferred some of the cost-savings due to a smaller chip with lower power-draw, which translates into a cheaper VRM, fewer memory chips, and a lighter cooler, to the consumers. We are also convinced that there is room for more cost-cutting.
In this review, we have with us the ASUS GTX 960 STRIX OC, featuring the company's signature STRIX cooling solution that turns off the fans while in idle or light gaming. ASUS has overclocked both GPU and memory, and also included a backplate with their card. What makes the card special is that it is quite compact, which could be useful for a small form-factor PC or media PC system.
In terms of pricing, ASUS is expecting a $210 price for their card, which is only a small increase over the reference-design price.
The AMD v NVIDIA war for graphical dominance has raged well into eternity with both companies constantly trying to out-do each other. It’s been widely noted and correct me if I am wrong, but AMD tend to dominate the lower end budget focused market with usually better bang for buck whereas NVIDIA tends to out-perform AMD and ride along with the premium price tags. What would you think though if I said that NVIDIA have attempted to flip this entire hypothesis on its head? Well, it is highly possible given today’s release…
Enter the GTX 960, the latest graphics card based on the Maxwell architecture. It has been highly anticipated with a lot of hype surrounding it and has even been touted as the next big thing among gamers wanting solid and affordable bang for buck. It’s hard to disagree looking at the specs with the GTX 960 coming with a stock [reference] clock speed of 1126MHz on the core; NVIDIA boost pushing this up to 1178MHz effectively. This is coupled with an effective memory speed of 9300MHz over a smaller but more efficient 128-bit memory bus. It was rumoured that the GTX 960 would have at least a 256-bit bus, but it just wasn’t meant to be. This hasn’t really affected memory bandwidth available on the GTX 960 as NVIDIA has equipped the card with 112GB/s; compared to the GTX 760 this is quite a jump considering the Maxwell card has half the bus but the memory bandwidth on the older Kelper card does look better on paper.
With all that being said, today I will of course be taking a look at a GTX 960, but in particular one from ASUS; The ASUS GTX 960 Strix 2GB graphics card. This features a higher than reference clock speed on the core of 1228MHz [1291MHz boost] with an overclock mode guided clock speed of 1253MHz [1317MHz boost]. With a TDP of 120watts, Maxwell sure is efficient and with one 6-pin connector powering it, those expecting GTX 980 like performance should re-think their entire expectations from a card aimed at the budget end of the market, but I think it’s time to see what the GTX 960 brings to the table and if ASUS can lead the way in aftermarket variations…