Asus GeForce GTX 950 Strix Review

[Math Geek]

did you read the actual review?

it says in the article that it is sli compatible.

 

[TechyInAZ]

Wow nice! Very impressed with the 950s performance. Outdoes even the 750 ti and 650 ti boost.

I'm assuming no GTX 950 tis then since this GTX 950 defiantly fills both the non ti and ti rolls just fine.

 

[Onus]

Having SLI is a plus. That's the one irk I have about the GTX750Ti, even though I'm unlikely to run two cards.
I've over-bought for the sake of future-resistance, but since I'm still playing and enjoying the same games, I probably didn't need to. Ah, but what if....?

 

[Math Geek]

Wow nice! Very impressed with the 950s performance. Outdoes even the 750 ti and 650 ti boost.

I'm assuming no GTX 950 tis then since this GTX 950 defiantly fills both the non ti and ti rolls just fine.

yah it does look like a 950 ti would beat a 960 for sure. no reason to have that model.

 

[10tacle]

First, it looks from the pix like this card can be SLI'd. Any official word on this?
Second, a disappointment as far as connectivity. Die, DVI, die! Moar DisplayLink!

Yes. Guru3D did an SLI test on an MSI 950 variant. For less money and less power use (and less SLI headaches), a single 970 roughly equals 950 SLI on 3DMark (not to mention the 970 having 75% more physical VRAM).

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/msi_geforce_gtx_950_gaming_2_way_sli_review,23.html

 

[TheSecondPower]

"In fact, Valve's most resent [sic] Steam survey showed that more than 26% of gamers are running at 1366x768." Why would you mention this statistic? Most laptops still sell with that resolution, but very few desktop monitors have ever used it. Most people I know who would be interested in a $150 graphics card already have a 1920x1080 monitor. I'd imagine that the few who don't are probably using something like 1600x900. And looking at the statistics, the number of people using Intel processors clocked at laptop speeds is a lot more than 26%, so even among laptop users only a subset are using 1366x768. It is useful to have the number in benchmarks though, as they give an idea where performance will fall if you choose to experiment with (*gasp*) lowering resolution in favor of other graphics settings and higher frame rates.

 

[Math Geek]

will have to see more benchmarks but somehow i doubt 2 950's will keep up with a 970 at about the same price. this is the consideration with sli. next year when you want to upgrade from a single 950 it might be worth it. but a new build with it is probably better off with a 970 or 390 instead.

plus the power usage over a single 970 would be a wee bit more.....

 

[Onus]

I don't think starting out with two cards over a single stronger one is commonly recommended (which, imho, is appropriate). You'll see two cards at the outset only where two high-end cards are needed, and/or where the single card equivalent is a grossly overpriced flagship. Starting with one of these now, thinking to add a second (maybe after getting a 2K monitor) might work out pretty well though.

 

[silverblue]

There does appear to be credit to the 370x rumours:

http://vga.zol.com.cn/533/5333929.html

...and slightly less credit (it IS WCCFTech, after all):

http://wccftech.com/powercolor-devil-r9-370x-review-leaked-launch-1180-mhz-clock-frequency-20w-power-consumption/


The likelihood is we'll see a card that's 10-15% faster than the 270X and a little better on power. Though it's fun to attempt to read a Chinese article, I'd prefer to wait for English ones.

 

[FormatC]

I've tested SLI. The frame time variance is a big problem. It is really not worth to think about it. A small memory interface and too less ram. You'll get a nice stuttering for the money

The performance is a lot better than R7 370 and more or less similar with an oc'ed R9 270X.

 

[10tacle]

I've tested SLI. The frame time variance is a big problem. It is really not worth to think about it. A small memory interface and too less ram.)

Excellent info, thanks!

 

[turkey3_scratch]

As an owner of a 750Ti, I will happily purchase a GTX 950. I was looking at the 960, but the performance of the 950 to its price just settled that! It delivers 50% more performance than the 750Ti according to the frame rate charts.

 

[miroslavhm]

NVidia has relevant hardware for irrelevant prices, as usual. Which probably doesn't matter, since people buy it regardless. bur for pure gaming purposes, I would say the 4GB R9 380 is the minimum, with nothing in its street price range of $150-189 to compete. GTX 960 4GB is worthless, the memory bus cannot utilize more than 2GB anyway. That's the reason 950 and 960 game performance is so close - the 128bit memory bus.

So, for the three gaming segments we have: R9 380 4GB < R9 4GB 290 /yes the $220-240 street price R9 290/ < you choice of AMD Fury or GTX 980.

 

[madmatt30]

Always said that nvidia didn't have anything at the 270/370 pricepoint - they do now - looks seriously seriously impressive to me as long as retailers don't drop silly markups on the initial release.

 

[FormatC]

Excellent info, thanks!

Read here. The charts below the text are all in English

 

[madmatt30]

Well just checked & at the moment its selling for a grand total of £10 less than an equivalent model 960!!

Knew that would happen - greedy retailers.

 

[Math Geek]

Always said that nvidia didn't have anything at the 270/370 pricepoint - they do now - looks seriously seriously impressive to me as long as retailers don't drop silly markups on the initial release.

i went with a 270 upgrade at christmas time since it was the best bang for the buck then but now this 950 is clearly taking that slice of the market. remember not too long ago the amd cards were all over the gpu chart here. nvidia has done a good job slowly pecking away at that and now amd has little to offer the entry and mid segments. sure they have cards that compete but overall unless your a fanboy then the nvidia line is at the top of the list. next year i'm sure amd will do something with the new memory at the lower end which may leapfrog them but only time will tell.


where are you seeing prices matt? i have not looked much but did not turn up any street prices so far.

 

[madmatt30]

Math geek - overclockers have the msi & zotac amp in stock £142.99.

You can get a 960 with the new mgs game for £150!

Priced itself out of the market instantly IMO - completely worthless buy - it needed to be at the £120-125 pricepoint to even be viable.

 

[madmatt30]

I feel sorry for the people who sat waiting for the 960 & for the amd 3** range earlier this year which were ultimately just a rehash at a higher price point.

There were 285's going for £110 ,280's for £120, 280x's for £130 etc,etc.
All better buys by far - alas I don't think we'll ever see those kind of bargains again.

 

[Math Geek]

yah that's a bit high considering the article says $160 which is only about 105 pounds or so. that is well overpriced and defeats the purpose really.

newegg has them now at $160-$180 which is better at least. guess we have to let the newness wear off for the price to drop to where it should be. oh well was a nice dream while it lasted.

 

[Mousemonkey]

370x, it's It's incoming, thought it was launched. 380 4gb should be wiping the floor with 960 and 950...seems off. Of course they use the slowest smallest 380 2gb they could find.

As the 380 is little more than a tweaked 7950, it's difficult to believe that you expected more from a GPU that's nearly four years old.

 

[miroslavhm]

370x, it's It's incoming, thought it was launched. 380 4gb should be wiping the floor with 960 and 950...seems off. Of course they use the slowest smallest 380 2gb they could find.

As the 380 is little more than a tweaked 7950, it's difficult to believe that you expected more from a GPU that's nearly four years old.

That's the sad thing, a GPU as old as the R9 380 is still most relevant for its price.
4GB is a must at this point of time btw. Every game engine maker is doing massive rich texture games, due to the 4-5GB available in consoles and their slower GPUs. This paradigm will not change anytime soon - it is much cheaper to make massive fast memory today, and future console RD will have even larger memory, i.e. which means larger rich texture emphasized game engines....NVidia should not cheap out on memory, but they do, and target their GPUs toward online casual gamers. This is a GPU dedicated to MMOG as Leage of Legends.

 

[jeremymau]

I will say it once and I will even say it twice, the best value in video cards today is the AMD R9 280x, it trounces all of the cards listed here with a price under $200. I actually got mine for $175 with discounts. If you are hard up for money, you can buy a refurbished card from gpushack.com which comes with solid 2 year warranty.

 

[madmatt30]

I will say it once and I will even say it twice, the best value in video cards today is the AMD R9 280x, it trounces all of the cards listed here with a price under $200. I actually got mine for $175 with discounts. If you are hard up for money, you can buy a refurbished card from gpushack.com which comes with solid 2 year warranty.

hard to get hold of new now - if you can theyre overpriced.
second hand you really really have to watch out for ex bitcoin minig cards that havent been looked after well

 

[ganons]

Well I guess £130+ means no purchase from me

Guess I'll pick up the EVGA GTX 750 Ti for £83 (new) instead for my budget emulation PC

Asus Maximus VI Impact (£46 - Bought from ebay as untested but works)
Pentium G3258
HyperX FURY Series 8GB (2x 4GB) DDR3 1866MHz CL10 DIMM
Be Quiet Pure Power L8-CM 430W PSU