NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 Specs Confirmed

[btarunr]

Here's what NVIDIA's upcoming performance-segment GPU, the GeForce GTX 960, could look like under the hood. Key slides from its press-deck were leaked to the web, revealing its specs. To begin with, the card is based on NVIDIA's 28 nm GM206 silicon. It packs 1,024 CUDA cores based on the "Maxwell" architecture, 64 TMUs, and possibly 32 ROPs, despite its 128-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, which holds on to 2 GB of memory. The bus may seem narrow, but NVIDIA is using a lossless texture compression tech, that will effectively improve bandwidth utilization.

The core is clocked at 1127 MHz, with 1178 MHz GPU Boost, and the memory at 7.00 GHz (112 GB/s real bandwidth). Counting its texture compression mojo, NVIDIA is beginning to mention an "effective bandwidth" figure of 9.3 GHz. The card draws power from a single 6-pin PCIe power connector, the chip's TDP is rated at just 120W. Display outputs will include two dual-link DVI, and one each of HDMI 2.0 and DisplayPort 1.2. In its slides, NVIDIA claims that the card will be an "overclocker's dream" in its segment, and will offer close to double the performance over the GTX 660. NVIDIA will launch the GTX 960 on the 22nd of January, 2015.



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[64K]

Looks like a very nice card for 1080p gaming. I hope the rumored $200 price point is true. It will be very successful if so.

 

[rtwjunkie]

So, double the 660 performance means Nvidia is saying hands-down this beats a 770, correct?

 

[Eternalchaos]

So, double the 660 performance means Nvidia is saying hands-down this beats a 770, correct?

I think it will probably match the GTX770 @ 1080p

 

[Tsukiyomi91]

This new card is very promising for both NVIDIA & new gamers who are looking for a card that's affordable & runs most title at 1080p/60fps. $200 price point is VERY compelling, but hopefully they're right about the pricing.

 

[dj-electric]

So, double the 660 performance

Nobody said its double the performance, just double the efficiency.

Judging by the graphs here, looks like about 60% more performance.
According to TPU, that will put the GTX 960 on 64% here
http://tpucdn.com/reviews/Gigabyte/GeForce_GTX_980_G1_Gaming/images/perfrel_1920.gif
My guess? it will be on 60-61% relative to this graph, at about GTX 770 performance

 

[ZoneDymo]

getting so sick of these terrible terrible presentation chart images

 

[jabbadap]

The core is clocked at 1127 MHz, with 1178 MHz GPU Boost, and the memory at 7.00 GHz (112 GB/s real bandwidth). Counting its texture compression mojo, NVIDIA is beginning to mention an "effective bandwidth" figure of 9.3 GHz.

So in other words it has 9.3*128/8=148.80GB/s of "effective bandwidth", comparable for gtx660 with 144GB/s but fall way short of gtx770 with 224 GB/s or even gtx760 with 192 GB/s. How this effect on AA and higher textures will be interesting to see.

Any word about video decoding options, tegra x1 has full h265/vp9 deocoding. Really hope this has too.

 

[RCoon]

It's a 770, with lower power consumption requirements, Maxwell features (a la texture compression method), and quite possibly a lower cost.
Seems reasonable for those looking for a cheap option into 1080p gaming without spending money on fancy PSU's.

The point of this card is to make its competition in the similar price range irrelevant, in both performance and power consumption.

As always, the performance graphs from the manufacturer is the most obscure and pointless arrangement, so wait for reviews.

 

[gigantor21]

I really want this, but 2GB of RAM on a 128-bit bus...I'll have to wait for reviews, or possibly a 960Ti. :/

 

[rtwjunkie]

Nobody said its double the performance, just double the efficiency.

Judging by the graphs here, looks like about 60% more performance.
According to TPU, that will put the GTX 960 on 64% here
http://tpucdn.com/reviews/Gigabyte/GeForce_GTX_980_G1_Gaming/images/perfrel_1920.gif
My guess? it will be on 60-61% relative to this graph, at about GTX 770 performance

Actually, the 2nd to last sentance it says "close to double the performance over the 660."

 

[Fluffmeister]

As with other Maxwell based cards these should indeed overclock like a trooper, a nice refresh for their existing cards and should equally give aging Tahiti based cards a great run for their money whilst using half the power.

 

[Octavean]

Any word about video decoding options, tegra x1 has full h265/vp9 deocoding. Really hope this has too.

I haven't heard anything credible yet on that front.

I've been trying to decide between the GTX 970 and the upcoming GTX 960. The ~$200 price point of the GTX 960 is attractive but the prowess of the GTX 970 is also attractive as well as its current availability.

The introduction of hardware HEVC / H.265 and VP9 decoder support on the GTX 960 would be a very nice addition though. It could make a hard decision very easy.

 

[W1zzard]

Actually, the 2nd to last sentance it says "close to double the performance over the 660."

I'd guess Legal would define "close to double" as 50.1% faster and more which is what the 3rd slide supports.

For the record I have not done any testing on these cards, so I have no idea about actual numbers.

 

[DarkOCean]

only 2gb of vram for a 2015 card... LOL

 

[rtwjunkie]

only 2gb of vram for a 2015 card... LOL

That should be plenty in the 1080p segment this card is meant for.

 

[Blue-Knight]

Key slides from its press-deck were leaked to the web, revealing its specs.

People are so impatient. Knowing its specifications is just a matter of time, but people cannot wait for some reason.

for a card that's affordable & runs most title at 1080p/60fps.

At maximum settings, as defined by most people on the forum is: 16/32x AA, 16xAF, object occlusion, vsync, all items at nvidia control panel to the maximum, and every slider in game to maximum, obviously.

No card configuration can do that with current games.

NVIDIA claims that the card will be an "overclocker's dream" in its segment, and will offer close to double the performance over the GTX 660.

Performance in what? Overclock or gaming performance?

I guess it is overclock.

Because if it is gaming performance, an increase in performance compared to the ancient GTX 660 is more than expected, otherwise what is point in buying it? It should be faster than the GTX 760 first, to make any sense. If it will match or outperforms the GTX 770, and I hope it outperforms it (in such case the difference will not be large), it will be good.

But there other improvements to care more about, people seems to care only about performance and forget other things.

 

[john_]

The price will decide if this card holds any value.

At $150, it is a true 2015 card. Many reasons to buy it. Only mistake the name. It should have been called 950Ti.

A $200 price is just hi for a 128bit card in 2015, even with the better efficiency in memory.

More than $200, lets say $250, and it is a "no go".

As I said, this is 950Ti in my opinion, NOT 960. Based on specs and the fact that this is not 2012. OK Nvidia calls it 960 to justify a higher price, possibly that $200, but in my opinion those specs scream 950Ti.
And although it might look as a good option today for 1080p, a couple more AAA games in 2015 that ask for higher bandwidth and more memory, will sent many people who will buy this card today, to start searching for a better card in 6 months from now. I guess that 128bit also kills any ideas about SLI, IF this card supports SLI.

 

[RCoon]

only 2gb of vram for a 2015 card... LOL

You'd be surprised. Here are my total figures for VRAM usage on 1440p. I like to think I review a spread of varied games of all styles. Some of those include Early Access titles which are optimised horribly.

 

[LiveOrDie]

WTF they compare it to a GTX660 why not the GTX760?

 

[Tsukiyomi91]

if you guys have issues of a card that has 2GB of VRAM & 128-bit bus width, then I think you're looking at the wrong card as NVIDIA stated that this 960 is a perfect card for those who are using 1080p monitors & doesn't play on the highest possible settings on games like FC4, Shadow Of Mordor & other as they wanted a balance of eye candy & decent frame rate. Also, not everyone in the world is capable of buying a GTX970, so the GTX960 is here for this reason. This card IMO will be considered as the new budget VGA card in the market, in which will supersede the GTX750 & it's Ti variant. My GTX760 may not be the fastest Kepler based card, but it's enough to run all the demanding games at High @ 1080p without giving me headache or eye strains. Keep your negative thoughts to yourself.

 

[RCoon]

This card IMO will be considered as the new budget VGA card in the market

It's also liable to become the top card in the Chinese market for Colorful and similar manufacturers from that ilk.

 

[Cheeseball]

You guys think this would be a good replacement for my aging HD 7870 XT (Tahiti LE, 1536 cores) on my secondary PC?

 

[RCoon]

You guys think this would be a good replacement for my aging HD 7870 XT (Tahiti LE, 1536 cores) on my secondary PC?

Wait for W1zzard's review. Nobody knows how it will perform yet.

 

[GhostRyder]

The card is designed to be for 1080p and on the midrange so I see the 2gb as enough to get buy and not really a downside because I mean 4gb would be overkill and I doubted they would do 3gb with this card anyway. It will be nice for people at a $200 price point since the consensus is that is where it will be (Which honestly would make the most sense especially if we factor the possibility of a 960ti variant).

Honestly going to be a great card for those on a budget, like the single 6 pin connector as that opens up the possibility of just something on the small side of PSU's and gives a very wide range of options for PSU.

You guys think this would be a good replacement for my aging HD 7870 XT (Tahiti LE, 1536 cores) on my secondary PC?

Probably would get an upgrade of course but that would depend on how much your hoping for because I don't think its going to be night and day but more of a decent improvement card to card. But this is just early speculation of course as its guaranteed to be better but just how much has yet to be seen.