EVGA GeForce GTX 960 SuperSuperClocked Review

[logainofhades]

All you 128-bit bus morons...crawl out from under the AMD rock you've been living under. The GeForce 980, with a 256-bit bus will beat an AMD 290X, with a 512-bit bus, in just about any game under the sun.

Efficient use of the bus is more important than "bits"!

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/shadow-of-mordor-performance,3996-4.html
Look at 4k bench.

http://www.techspot.com/review/962-evolve-benchmarks/page4.html

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/far-cry-4-benchmark-performance-review,4019-4.html
Look at 4k bench.

I am confused why the 4k benches matter, in this discussion. The GTX 960 is targeted at the 1080p crowd.

 

[junkeymonkey]

its not that there not mainstream its just there not dealing in north America.. palit and grainward are the same company as well out of Germany

 

[Justin C]

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/shadow-of-mordor-performance,3996-4.html
Look at 4k bench.

http://www.techspot.com/review/962-evolve-benchmarks/page4.html

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/far-cry-4-benchmark-performance-review,4019-4.html
Look at 4k bench.

So you found one, ONE benchmark which puts the vanilla 4GB 290X above a 980........bravo. It's also from TechSpot, who isn't exactly known for doing very good performance reviews since their numbers often conflict with more well know outfits like TechPowerup, Toms, or Anandtech Not to mention that anyone in their right mind knows 1-2 fps difference is within the margin of error. Do us all a favor and go run one benchmark yourself, at the same settings each time on the same hardware, and tell us the various runs are not varying by a couple fps.

You post a Shadow of Mordor benchmark showing a less than 2 fps lead for a 8GB 290X, not a vanilla 4GB variant.

You post a Far Cry 4 benchmark that once again, shows an 8GB 290X being less than 1 fps faster at 4K.

 

[junkeymonkey]

I take bench reviews with a grain of salt - cause sometimes it looks like that card in review does so well over the rest in its own review but funny how I look at another cards review things now look a lot more even??
plus most are from first release cards and updated to todays release cards with updated drivers .. so now you got a new card with the latest driver to the day compared to a older card on a older driver in the results ?? how fair is that ??

 

[Allan Nichols]

So the GTX 460 and 560 had 256 bit memory then the 660 had 192 Bit Memory and now the GTX 960 has 128 Bit Memory.....

Makes perfect sense ! lol

 

[junkeymonkey]

lol, ya

nividia must know what works for them or they would not be where they are today and hold there own

 

[RexxarRoar]

The 4gb version now available for $249. I'm ready to check out the shopping cart.
http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeForce-128bit-Graphics-04G-P4-3966-KR/dp/B00UOYQ5LA/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1426873036&sr=8-4&keywords=evga+gtx+960

 

[junkeymonkey]

I'm n expert on this but I do read where its said having that extra memory on that 128 bus is kinda a waste ??? i'll have to look that back up

now if tit was a new card with a 256 and 4gb maybe

 

[laststop311]

I have been recommending the 4GB EVGA GTX 960 SSC. It's only 30 more dollars so 240 and the 4GB memory should be enough for all games for the expected lifetime of the card at 1080p

 

[logainofhades]

For a mini-itx rig, I could see using the 4gb GTX 960. At that cost though, you would be better off getting an R9 280x.

 

[junkeymonkey]

recommend it funny why the comments of the articles on them go like this

A couple of additional numbers worth paying attention to: The 128-bit memory bus of the original GTX 960 cards doesn’t appear to have been expanded for the 4GB variants

Can we please get a review of one of these 4gb 960's they seem like a huge waste of 4gb even in sli

no point in buying the gtx 9604gb version because the bandwidth and process power is not enough for 4gb vram anyway

but as allways it seems hype sell's over fact

 

[rwinches]

EVGA has three 960 4GB cards
including a FTW at $264 on Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00UOYQ9N4/ref=twister_B00UTH4YPG?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

Geforce GTX 960 4GB FTW,
Geforce GTX 960 4GB SuperSC
standard EVGA GTX 960 4GB

So it is time for an up to date test to verify if the extra GBs make a difference.

 

[InvalidError]

no point in buying the gtx 9604gb version because the bandwidth and process power is not enough for 4gb vram anyway

but as allways it seems hype sell's over fact

People will likely pull out the "futureproofing" argument for when games will actually start using that much memory for textures and whatever else.

People who look at GPU memory usage on 256/384/512bits GPUs usually overlook the fact that most extra memory use on GPUs with wider memory interface is simply the same 500-800MB of artwork, geometry and shader code/data replicated across multiple channels eating up that 1.5-3.5GB.

Until games start using nearly 2GB worth of unique data, I agree there would be little to no reason to expect much of a performance gain from slapping 4GB on a 128bits GPU. I tried a handful of games on my 1GB HD5770 and none of them used more than 750MB of GPU RAM with most graphics options at ultra, so I would not expect 2GB 128bits GPUs to run out of steam due to memory size any time soon..

 

[Karsten75]

OK, let me ask the Illuminati posting here. This card is an open-air card, right? As opposed to a blower card. Blowers have a shroud and open-air cards have more than one fan open to the case inside, as far as I understand this.

Thanks.

 

[damric]

If Nvidia operated like AMD they would have taken the 4 year old GTX 580 and overclocked it to the max and then slapped a GTX 960 sticker on it. Instead they came out with new silicon that sips energy, is cool and doesn't even need the fans to run most of the time.
I guess for some people you are not "gaming" unless your video card sounds like a leaf blower, is able to heat a wooden shack in Montana in January and causes a brown out in your neighborhood every time you run Furmark.

The gtx 760 and 770 would like to have a discussion with you. Nvida and AMD both are guilty of rebrands. Turn off the fanboy mode.

Benchmarks show the GTX 960 is faster than the 280, and uses less power doing so. Yes, some titles the 280 might be better in, due to the ram limitation. The cards are in direct competition. Both are great cards, and have their strength and weaknesses. The GTX 960ti will hopefully be released and be the card that people actually were hoping for out of the GTX 960.

OK, let me ask the Illuminati posting here. This card is an open-air card, right? As opposed to a blower card. Blowers have a shroud and open-air cards have more than one fan open to the case inside, as far as I understand this.

Thanks.

Yes, which means you need good case airflow. The exhaust blower style coolers are more forgiving to cases with low air flow, but tend to be louder and run hotter than "open air" cards in cases with good flow.

 

[Karsten75]

OK, let me ask the Illuminati posting here. This card is an open-air card, right? As opposed to a blower card. Blowers have a shroud and open-air cards have more than one fan open to the case inside, as far as I understand this.

Thanks.

Yes, which means you need good case airflow. The exhaust blower style coolers are more forgiving to cases with low air flow, but tend to be louder and run hotter than "open air" cards in cases with good flow.

Which brings us to the perennial issue of how to use open-air GPUs in conjunction with AIO closed-loop water coolers for the CPU. Either the AIO cooler's radiator blows pre-heated air into the case, impacting the GPU, or the reverse, the CPU gets cooled with the heated air inside the case, leading to reduced thermal efficiency for the CPU cooler.

I'm very tempted to switch to AIO cooling for the GPU in my next PC build, just to check out how that shakes out.

 

[damric]

OK, let me ask the Illuminati posting here. This card is an open-air card, right? As opposed to a blower card. Blowers have a shroud and open-air cards have more than one fan open to the case inside, as far as I understand this.

Thanks.

Yes, which means you need good case airflow. The exhaust blower style coolers are more forgiving to cases with low air flow, but tend to be louder and run hotter than "open air" cards in cases with good flow.

Which brings us to the perennial issue of how to use open-air GPUs in conjunction with AIO closed-loop water coolers for the CPU. Either the AIO cooler's radiator blows pre-heated air into the case, impacting the GPU, or the reverse, the CPU gets cooled with the heated air inside the case, leading to reduced thermal efficiency for the CPU cooler.

I'm very tempted to switch to AIO cooling for the GPU in my next PC build, just to check out how that shakes out.

For a scenario like that, I'd have all the radiators set to exhaust and have some high pressure fans for case intakes. Strongly consider custom loop or at least expandable AIO models.

OR

Just get a HAF XB and AIR COOL EVERYTHING. Heat does not stand a chance!

 

[littleleo]

All you 128-bit bus morons...crawl out from under the AMD rock you've been living under. The GeForce 980, with a 256-bit bus will beat an AMD 290X, with a 512-bit bus, in just about any game under the sun.

Efficient use of the bus is more important than "bits"!

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/shadow-of-mordor-performance,3996-4.html
Look at 4k bench.

http://www.techspot.com/review/962-evolve-benchmarks/page4.html

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/far-cry-4-benchmark-performance-review,4019-4.html
Look at 4k bench.

Ouch did you see the time variance on Far Cry 4, wow. On the plus side the R9-290x will help keep your house warm which is important in your having problems with lots of snow.

 

[Thomkat2]

Who wants to wait months for a good driver on a new card? Nvidia gets on it pretty quick from what ive seen, at least since a couple years ago. AMD has good cards, but Nvidia has them worried obviously. I mean, why release the first Dual GPU in a single card and not have ungodly amounts of frames per second on every game title... they chewed off too much too fast and are now in a hurry to get decent drivers for their customers. Far Cry 4 performance levels compared to GTX 980 levels indicate they (AMD) are not getting the results they hoped for in the card. Maybe in the next round of AMD cards they will have lower heat, watts, and better drivers...
This is my opinion, no reason for hateful remarks..

 

[westmc45]

Don't forget sometimes B & H Photo believe it or not has good prices I bought mine there, Amazon now charges tax, B&H no tax and expedited shipping on many parts. I know saving a little tax money may sound stupid but it adds up.

 

[Karsten75]

Don't forget sometimes B & H Photo believe it or not has good prices I bought mine there, Amazon now charges tax, B&H no tax and expedited shipping on many parts. I know saving a little tax money may sound stupid but it adds up.

You're not the only one buying from B&H Photo... They're probably my #3 site.

 

[Anirudh 07]

I'm having a
i3 540 @ 3.06 processor
12 gb corsair vengeance ram
and an Intel motherboard
Which is the best graphics card I can buy?..........I'm thinking of buying a asus gtx 960 ....is my decision right....plzzzzzzzzz tell me....be honest....Thanks in advance

 

[logainofhades]

Depends on your power supply.

 

[littleleo]

An i3-540 wow that has been around a while. Logain is right with out knowing what type of power supply we can't really help you.

 

[General_Butts]

will this card work in a stalk XPS 8700?