ASUS GTX 960 STRIX OC 2 GB

[W1zzard]

The ASUS GTX 960 STRIX OC is a custom variant of the GTX 960 that comes with an overclock out of the box on both GPU and memory. It is also the only card that features a backplate. Like all other boards, it will completely turn off its fans in idle and light gaming for the perfect noise-free experience.

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[dj-electric]

Mixed feelings all around. It is a 1080P champ, no doubt and GTX 770 and GTX 760 can now finally rest. It's just that... there's no big price to performance leap here.

260~$ model, let's see what you'll bring.

 

[64K]

Well, it looks like what was rumored is true. It falls in between a GTX 760 and a GTX 770 and is priced $10 more than the reference GTX 960 (if they release one). I think it's a nice 1080p card. The next GPU should be either a GTX 960Ti or a GTX 965 and will probably fall in between a GTX 770 and a GTX 780.

 

[damric]

While it might smell sour, it's still $50 cheaper than when the GTX 460 made its debut, and we loved that. Problem here is the R9 280 is so fast and cheap even if it is a power hog.

 

[dj-electric]

R9 280 is also hell of an overclocker (when got the HD 7950 when slightly before it was out, and took the core from 800 to 1150, my mind was blown to bits from not being able to tell anybody).

 

[Nabarun]

So this card is aimed at 1080p, but still performs very poorly for AAA titles like Crysis 3. Even FC4 isn't anywhere near 60fps. the R9 280/285/280x seem to be performing much better, although consuming more power. The sad thing is, even with 2-way sli the performance for crysis 3 doesn't seem to be getting anywhere near 60fps. Crysis 3 is definitely not a game to judge this card with, but still

 

[W1zzard]

We are using Crysis 3 Ultra with 4x AA

 

[Nabarun]

We are using Crysis 3 Ultra with 4x AA

Thanks for reminding that. I'd like to see how it does in "high" settings with no AA. The prices here are much more that what the import reports are showing. Will wait to see more price wars.

 

[krusha03]

Always love the TPU GPU reviews, however as others stated, 280 uses more power but can be had for up to $50 less in the US

Display connectivity options include one DVI port, one HDMI port, and three mini-DisplayPorts.

Small note about the text, from what i can see those are full sized DisplayPorts. I think the same was written for the other GTX 960s as well

 

[W1zzard]

full sized DisplayPorts

Fixed. I swear I read that passage like 10 times ..

 

[jabbadap]

Full hevc or not? Anandtech says full fixed hw hevc, can you confirm?(Pardon if it reads somewhere, did not catch my eye)

 

[W1zzard]

Full hevc or not? Anandtech says full fixed hw hevc, can you confirm?(Pardon if it reads somewhere, did not catch my eye)

Because of its low power operation, some potential GeForce GTX 960 users may wish to use this GPU inside their home theater PC. Therefore to satisfy the needs of this audience, one new addition that’s been added to GM206 is support for H.265 (HEVC) encoding and decoding. GTX 980’s NVENC video engine offers native support for H.265 encode only, no decode. With the amount of 4K content expected to explode in the coming years, GM206 also adds native support for HDCP 2.2 content protection over HDMI.

 

[DarkOCean]

An r9 290 is 64% faster and only costs 35% more or even 25% more if you count the rebate while having double the ram (and uses more power , I know) so what can I say? ...this one sucks, badly, imho.

 

[newtekie1]

So this card is aimed at 1080p, but still performs very poorly for AAA titles like Crysis 3. Even FC4 isn't anywhere near 60fps. the R9 280/285/280x seem to be performing much better, although consuming more power.

In FC4 this card is only 2 FPS slower than a 780! And in Crysis3, none of the cards, not even the 290, were close to 60FPS. That game is a GPU killer.

An r9 290 is 64% faster and only costs 35% more or even 25% more if you count the rebate while having double the ram (and uses more power , I know) so what can I say? ...this one sucks, badly, imho.

64% Faster? This looks like 38% faster to me:

And the 280 costs right about 35% more. Seem right in line to me. And the 290x is ~50% faster and costs ~50% more. It seems like the 960 fits right in line.

 

[ensabrenoir]

An r9 290 is 64% faster and only costs 35% more or even 25% more if you count the rebate while having double the ram (and uses more power , I know) so what can I say? ...this one sucks, badly, imho.

comparing a top tier card with an entry level one....... Given the top tier is ridiculusly cheap right now....but still a fight between an in his prime Mike Tyson vs a Sugar ray lennord.... man i'm showing my age on that one.

 

[rainzor]

A bit of OT, but i was just wandering what the hell is going on with AMD cards in WOW benchmark? They don't seem to lose a single fps switching from 1440p to 4K I'm sorry if this was mentioned before, i din't see it.

 

[W1zzard]

A bit of OT, but i was just wandering what the hell is going on with AMD cards in WOW benchmark? They don't seem to lose a single fps switching from 1440p to 4K I'm sorry if this was mentioned before, i din't see it.

i've noticed it too. and double checked, no idea what's happening. it's really running at that res

 

[newtekie1]

You know, I just noticed on this card that only 2 of the heatpipes actually make contact with the GPU due to the rectangular shape of the GPU die. Not that it really makes a difference in the temps, obviously from the results. I just found it interesting and remember how everyone jumped down EVGA's throat saying their cooler was "defective" because one of the heatpipes didn't touch the GPU...

 

[RCoon]

i've noticed it too. and double checked, no idea what's happening. it's really running at that res

Running in DX11 mode?
I've also heard older drivers from AMD work way better than their new drivers for WoW. Most if not all of my old guild are running AMD cards for WoW on year old drivers because of the better frames at 1440/1600p. Most WoW forums recommend AMD cards, not sure if for this reason, or just cost.

 

[yogurt_21]

wow 760 - 770 was a 20% gap, 960 - 970 is 58%... almost seems like there's room for 2 cards in between there, not just a 960 ti. Trouble is there's only a 100-130$ window to work with in price difference. The card seems to fit perfectly within the maxwell mentality almost no noise, super low power draw, affordable, yet still plays everything at 1080p. I'm with newtechie1 here, what's not to like?

 

[DarkOCean]

In FC4 this card is only 2 FPS slower than a 780! And in Crysis3, none of the cards, not even the 290, were close to 60FPS. That game is a GPU killer.



64% Faster? This looks like 38% faster to me:

And the 280 costs right about 35% more. Seem right in line to me. And the 290x is ~50% faster and costs ~50% more. It seems like the 960 fits right in line.

...

 

[ChristTheGreat]

Well, it looks like what was rumored is true. It falls in between a GTX 760 and a GTX 770 and is priced $10 more than the reference GTX 960 (if they release one). I think it's a nice 1080p card. The next GPU should be either a GTX 960Ti or a GTX 965 and will probably fall in between a GTX 770 and a GTX 780.

That is what I saw too.. The difference betweem the GTX 970 and the GTX 960 is just huge. performance per watt isn't as good as the 970 and 980.

But the card at this price, will be nice in steam console for sure! low heat, great performance!

 

[newtekie1]

Obviously someone didn't read the review. What a shame, W1z spent all that time doing a huge write-up on the purpose of the card and you just ignored it...

If you want an idea of how insignificant 3840x2160 just take a look at the Steam hardware survey for resolution. As of Dec 2014 3840x2160 made up a whopping 0.04% of steam users, while 1920x1080 and below make up over 65%. But yeah, an inexpensive card targeted at 1080p gaming "sucks" because it can't compete with more expensive cards in resolutions that no one is using...

 

[DarkOCean]

Obviously someone didn't read the review. What a shame, W1z spent all that time doing a huge write-up on the purpose of the card and you just ignored it...

???

 

[N3M3515]

In FC4 this card is only 2 FPS slower than a 780! And in Crysis3, none of the cards, not even the 290, were close to 60FPS. That game is a GPU killer.



64% Faster? This looks like 38% faster to me:

And the 280 costs right about 35% more. Seem right in line to me. And the 290x is ~50% faster and costs ~50% more. It seems like the 960 fits right in line.

Asus gtx 960 strix costs $210
gigabyte r9 280x windforce oc costs $240
That's like 14% ?
Anyway you're right, same increase in $ and in perf.
PD: Or maybe you where talking about the 290, my bad if that's the case.