With 3x DP, 2x DVI and 1x HDMI outputs, Gigabyte's GTX 960 G1 Gaming features the most complete output configuration. The card is also overclocked out of the box, and a powerful triple-fan thermal solution keeps it cool, yet it stays very quiet in gaming states and will stop the fans completely with idle and light loads.
Palit's GTX 960 Super JetStream is the highest-clocked GTX 960 we are reviewing today. It also comes with an overclock on the memory for that little bit of extra speed. The card is cooled by a dual-fan, triple-slot cooler that stops the fans in idle and light gaming.
With a single GTX 960 threatening to shake up the mid-range the way its bigger siblings did, the question on everyone's mind is whether two GTX 960 cards can measure up to single, bigger GTX 900 series cards, and on the cheap.
EVGA's GTX 960 SSC is built upon the company's famous ACX Cooler for extremely low noise levels, and it turns itself off completely while idling. The card is also overclocked out of the box with a sizable overclock that helps it gain 5% performance over the NVIDIA reference design.
MSI's new GeForce GTX 960 Gaming comes overclocked out of the box. Just like previous MSI Gaming cards, the board runs extremely quiet, emitting almost no noise while gaming, and it also turns off its fans in idle. With a price of $200, MSI has chosen to go with NVIDIA's reference-design pricing.
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.
With 3x DP, 2x DVI and 1x HDMI, Gigabyte's GTX 980 G1 Gaming features the most complete output configuration. The card is also overclocked out of the box, and a powerful triple-fan thermal solution keeps it cool. In our testing, we also found Gigabyte to have massively increased the power limit, which overclockers and voltmodders will find beneficial.
MSI's GTX 970 Gaming is probably the best GTX 970 on the market. It comes overclocked out of the box, with an amazing noise-less cooler for light gaming, one that is also extremely quiet with even the most demanding titles. Temperatures are great, too, so you should definitely consider this card if you are in the market for a GTX 970.
Every two or so years, AMD rolls out a year-end Catalyst driver update, which not only steps up performance and splats bugs, but also expands their own software feature-set. The new Catalyst 14.12 Omega is part of AMD's effort to catch up with and get ahead of NVIDIA's latest software features.
With a base clock of 1203 MHz, Colorful's iGame GTX 970 is one of the highest-clocked GTX 970 cards available on the market. Its triple-fan, dual-slot cooler achieves excellent temperatures and contributes to its overclocking potential, which is higher than with any other GTX 970 we have tested thus far.
PCI-Express x16 3.0 is well established in the market, and the majority of gamers are using the interface. But what happens if you end up in a slot-bandwidth-constrained situation? We are testing NVIDIA's latest GeForce GTX 980 flagship in 17 games, at four resolutions, including 4K, to assess what performance to expect.
The ASUS GTX 980 STRIX OC is the company's latest flagship, featuring a completely passive operation in idle and light load and an extremely quiet cooler during full-on gaming. The GTX 980 STRIX also impresses with its power consumption - lower than the NVIDIA reference design, it still has the card deliver more performance.
MSI's latest flagship is the GTX 980 Gaming. It delivers a super quiet gaming experience thanks to a powerful thermal solution and a well-crafted fan profile. In idle and light gaming, the fans will even stop completely. MSI has also overclocked their card out of the box, which yields around 10% extra performance.
NVIDIA's $550 GeForce GTX 980 shook up the high-end graphics card market, and today, we are testing two of these cards in SLI. This killer combination will let you build an Ultra HD capable gaming system, or enjoy smooth fragging with G-SYNC Surround.
Palit's GTX 970 JetStream is one of the highest-clocked, custom design GTX 970s out there. It features a triple-slot, dual-fan cooler that will completely stop the fans in idle and light gaming. Palit's card is also the most affordable custom design, with just a $15 price premium.
Today, NVIDIA releases their new GeForce GTX 980, which brings the Maxwell architecture to the high-end. It features massive power efficiency improvements and reduced noise, but also beats the GTX 780 Ti in raw performance. Pricing is quite acceptable, too, with an MSRP of $549.
ASUS just released their GeForce Strix GTX 970 OC, an overclocked version of the GTX 970 with its own custom-PCB. What is special about the STRIX technology is that it will shut off the fans completely during idle, media playback, and light gaming, resulting in a completely noiseless experience.
At half the price of a GeForce GTX 780 Ti, the GeForce GTX 970 can tempt you into buy a pair of them. With Ultra HD monitors dropping below the $500 mark, a playable Ultra HD gaming PC under $2000 suddenly sounds realistic. Here's why spending 3 grand on a GTX TITAN-Z was a bad idea.
EVGA's brand-new GeForce GTX 970 SC ACX uses the company's latest ACX cooler, which promises to improve its noise and temperatures over the reference design. It is also overclocked out of the box for that little bit of extra performance it needs to beat the Radeon R9 290X.
Today, AMD launches the Radeon R9 285 based on their brand-new Tonga GPU, which replaces Tahiti, promising to be faster and more power efficient. Sapphire's board comes with a custom cooler and is overclocked out of the box for some extra performance.
Palit's GeForce GTX 750 Ti KalmX is the first completely fanless NVIDIA graphics card in a long time to offers performance that doesn't suck. Thanks to its fanless design, there is no noise from the card itself, which is important for media PC systems or quiet office PCs.
Sapphire's R9 290 Vapor-X comes highly overclocked out of the box, matching the R9 290X in performance. The card's triple-fan, triple-slot cooler manages temperatures very well and offers a unique feature: you decide whether the card idles with one or three fans running, which lets you focus on temperature or noise.
The new ASUS GTX 780 STRIX introduces a completely passive operation while the card is idling, which provides a noise-free experience. The GTX 780 STRIX 6 GB also features twice the memory capacity of the regular GTX 780 and a large overclock out of the box.
MSI's new GTX 780 Gaming 6 GB doubles the available video RAM over the reference design, which just has 3 GB. With the latest titles requiring 3 GB VRAM minimum for textures at Ultra, this 6 GB card could help provide a performance advantage. We will investigate this claim by using our brand-new VGA test suite.
MSI's Radeon R9 280X Gaming 6 GB comes with twice the video memory of the reference design. We will test multiple resolutions, including EyeFinity and 4K, to see whether it really makes a difference. Another highlight of the card is that it's really quiet, quieter than any other R9 280X we've tested before.
The $700 MSI R9 290X Lightning is MSI's latest flagship card geared toward overclockers and enthusiasts. It comes with a large overclock out of the box, higher than any other custom R9 290X available today. The board is cooled by a large triple-slot, triple-fan cooler that yields excellent temperatures.
Today, AMD is launching their Radeon R9 295X2, a dual-GPU card based on two fully unlocked, fully clocked Hawaii graphics processors. As a result, the card delivers impressive numbers in 4K and EyeFinity. But with a price of $1500, it is certainly not cheap, no matter how you look at it.
PowerColor's R9 290X PCS+ uses a large triple-fan, triple-slot cooler, which promises improved temperatures and noise levels over the AMD reference design. The card is also overclocked out of the box by +50 MHz GPU and +100 MHz memory, making it the highest-clocked R9 290X available today.
MSI's Radeon R9 290X Gaming comes with the company's well-known TwinFrozr dual-fan cooler, which should improve temperatures and noise levels over the AMD reference design significantly. The card is also overclocked out of the box for some extra performance.
Unlike most other GTX 750 Tis, ASUS has placed an additional 6-pin power connector on their GTX 750 Ti OC, which promises improved overclocking potential and may even improve out-of-the-box performance due to GPU Boost. The card is also extremely quiet thanks to its dual-fan thermal solution.
Today, NVIDIA also launched the GeForce GTX 750, which is similar to the GTX 750 Ti, just with fewer shaders and lower clocks. The ASUS GTX 750 OC is overclocked out of the box to provide some extra performance while still being power efficient, cool, and quiet.
MSI's GTX 750 Ti Gaming is the quietest GTX 750 Ti we reviewed today. It is whisper quiet in both idle and during gaming, even with the included overclock out of the box. Thanks to NVIDIA's Maxwell architecture, the card also runs incredibly cool and consumes very little power.
Palit's new GTX 750 Ti StormX Dual comes with the fantastic power consumption improvements of the Maxwell architecture, but also includes a large overclock out of the box. Additional overclocking potential is also excellent, making this the card you want if you are after maximized performance.
Today, NVIDIA launched their GeForce GTX 750 Ti, which is based on the new GM107 graphics processor introducing NVIDIA's Maxwell graphics architecture. Power consumption of the new card is at a record low, which means temperature and noise levels are impressive as well.
AMD today released their Radeon R7 265 in a preemptive strike to cover their bases against NVIDIA's upcoming GTX 750 Ti. While the card is based on the aging HD 7850, it still offers good gaming performance and comes with an excellent price/performance ratio.
Sapphire's custom design R9 290X Tri-X OC impresses with low noise levels that still run the card at cool temperatures. The card is also overclocked out of the box, which makes it faster than the GTX Titan. In Europe, the price over reference is just 10%, which makes the choice a no-brainer.
The MSI GTX 760 Mini-ITX Gaming should definitely be on your short list if you are looking to build a SFF gaming PC or compact Steam Box. It runs quieter than any other compact graphics card we ever tested, yet still has enough power to play all the latest titles at full HD, with maximized settings.
The ASUS R9 290X DirectCU II OC is R9 290X done right. It is overclocked out of the box, but doesn't suffer from the throttling issues of AMD's reference design. The card is also quieter, even in performance mode, and you can activate the second, quiet BIOS for a very low noise experience.
EVGA's GTX 780 Ti Classified is the fastest GTX 780 Ti we ever tested. It comes with a large overclock out of the box that makes it run above 1175 MHz most of the time. The dual-fan ACX heatsink also provides good cooling, resulting in low temperatures and a stable operation at all times.
MSI's GeForce GTX 780 Ti is the best graphics card I've reviewed in a long time. It is very fast because of its overclock out of the box, but doesn't run hot at all. Its powerful TwinFrozr cooler also enables MSI to run the card at fantastic noise levels that are quieter than most other graphics cards on the market.
The new ASUS GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC offers amazing performance out of the box that is 6% higher than the already fast GTX 780 Ti reference design. ASUS is also using their large dual-fan DirectCU II heatsink to ensure that the card runs cool enough for maximized performance.
MSI's R9 270X GAMING provides the lowest noise levels of any card in its performance class thanks to its dual-fan TwinFrozr cooler. It is also overclocked out of the box, giving it a 3% performance advantage, which matches HD 7950 performance.
ASUS engineered a truly unique product with their ROG MARS GTX 760. It is based on two GTX 760 GPUs on a single card, which provides amazing performance sitting right between the GTX 780 and 780 Ti. The cooling solution is also decent and makes sure the card always runs full NVIDIA Boost clocks.
Palit's GeForce GTX 780 Ti Jetstream comes with company's triple-fan, triple-slot cooler, which provides impressive temperatures. The card is also overclocked out of the box, making it faster than the $1000 dual-GPU GTX 690 on average. Overclocking works great, too, thanks to the new GTX 780 Ti GPU.
PowerColor's R9 270X PCS+ comes overclocked out of the box and introduces a completely new cooler design. In our testing, the card delivers good temperature and noise levels. With a price of $200, it's also the cheapest R9 270X available at this time.
The ASUS R9 270X DC II TOP comes overclocked out of the box and features the well-known ASUS Direct CU cooler, which results in excellent temperatures and very low idle noise levels. The card ends up a bit noisier during gaming, though. With a price of $210, it's just marginally more expensive than the cheapest R9 270X on the market.
The HIS R9 270X IceQ X² Turbo Boost comes at reference-design pricing, $200, which makes it the cheapest, highest-clocked R9 270X available at this time. Not only do you get the free overclock out of the box; you also get a better cooler that provides very low temperatures, but ends up slightly noisier.
Last week, AMD released their R9 270 Non-X, which is built on the same Pitcairn GPU as the HD 7800 Series before. Unlike the HD 7850, it comes with all its shaders enabled, though. The ASUS R9 270 Direct CU II OC improves on that with a better cooler and overclock out of the box.
EVGA strapped their ACX cooler onto the GTX 780 Ti just days after NVIDIA's launch. The new card is also overclocked out of the box, which results in a large performance increase over the stock GTX 780 Ti - EVGA's latest card now even matches the performance of the dual-GPU GTX 690.
NVIDIA's new GTX 780 Ti uses a full GK110 GPU with 2880 shaders. This enables impressive performance that is 10% faster than the GTX Titan / R9 290X. The card also comes with massive overclocking potential that let us overclock GPU frequency by almost 30%.
AMD is launching their new Radeon R9 290 today. It comes with slightly weaker specifications than the R9 290X, but can compete with its bigger brother in benchmarks. Thanks to the fantastic price of just $399, the card is also extremely affordable.
PowerColor's Radeon R9 290X is built on AMD's reference design.Using a 30 MHz overclock on the GPU and coming at reference design pricing, the decision whether this card is worth the money is really a no-brainer.
The HIS R7 260X iPower IceQ X² comes with a greatly improved dual fan heatsink that is just so much better than the AMD reference design cooler. Unfortunately, HIS did not overclock their card out of the box, which would have been easy given the numbers we've been seeing during manual overclocking.
AMD's new Radeon R9 290X launches today. Based on a new Hawaii GPU, the card promises record-breaking performance. Not only performance is impressive: With a price of $549, it's also the most affordable high-performance option, which will certainly put massive pressure on NVIDIA.
In this review, we put two AMD Radeon R9 290X cards into a CrossFire configuration, delivering massively improved framerates that will easily handle the latest and greatest titles. With the pair of cards retailing at just $100 more than a single GTX Titan, this is also quite an affordable combination.
Gigabyte's R9 280X OC comes at no price premium, yet features an overclock out of the box and uses the company's famous triple-fan WindForce 3X cooling solution. With a 100 MHz GPU overclock, it manages to beat the much more expensive GTX 770 in real-life performance.
MSI uses the same cooler as on their R9 280X cards on the R9 270X HAWK, which leaves the HAWK with a cooler that has lots of power to spare, resulting in amazing noise levels at reasonable temperatures. The card is also overclocked out of the box for a nice performance boost.
ASUS is using a completely revamped PCB design and the cooler from their GeForce GTX 780 DC II on their latest R9 280X card. The card also comes overclocked out of the box with an overclock on both memory and GPU, which provides a serious performance advantage over the reference design.
The new Radeon R9 280X is based on the AMD HD 7970 GHz Edition design. MSI has taken their highly successful dual-fan cooler from the GAMING Series and put it on the new card. They also included software voltage control and an overclock out-of-the-box.
AMD's new Radeon R9 270X matches last generation's HD 7950 in performance while still coming at an attractive $200 price point. We were a bit disappointed by the reference-design cooler, but board partners will soon release their own designs with custom heatsinks that will perform better.
Based on the Bonaire GPU, just like the HD 7790, and priced at $140, AMD's R7 260X is a new offering that falls into the low midrange segment. The card faces tough competitors from not only NVIDIA but also AMD's own product stack in this popular price category.
MSI's new GTX 660 GAMING seeks to introduce the popular MSI GAMING brand to the GTX 600 Series. The card, which comes overclocked out of the box, was very quiet in our testing and is available online at an affordable $210.
The ASUS GTX 760 DirectCU Mini is an ultra-compact GTX 760, which enables you to play all the latest games with a mini-ITX system. ASUS even managed to squeeze an overclock into this tiny package, and pricing of the card is quite reasonable, with just a $20 premium over the GTX 760 reference design.
Palit's GTX 780 Super JetStream is one of the highest-clocked GTX 780s on the market. In our testing, its performance beats NVIDIA's GTX Titan, yet its price doesn't break the bank. With a retail price of around $670, it is cheaper than any other custom-design, overclocked GTX 780 card.
MSI's new GTX 780 Lightning is built to provide a ton of overclocking features for enthusiasts and record breakers. Its large overclock out of the box makes this card faster than the GTX Titan, yet it still has more headroom inside, as our manual overclock yielded another hefty 14% performance increase.
MSI's new GeForce GTX 760 HAWK comes with several features for overclockers, like LN2 Dual-BIOS and voltage measurement points. For normal users, the card has been heavily overclocked out of the box, making it the fastest GTX 760 we tested so far.
The PowerColor HD 7870 Devil is a highly overclocked custom design that comes with a triple fan cooler and software voltage control. Priced at $240, it sits right in the sweet-spot segment of cards that provide a decent gaming performance without breaking the bank.
MSI's GeForce GTX 780 GAMING is a factory overclocked custom design of the GTX 780. It is the quietest GTX 780 we tested so far, making it a great choice for gamers who want low noise levels. With a price of $650, it is just $10 more expensive than the reference design, a reasonable price increase.
The ZOTAC GTX 770 introduces a new dual-fan cooler that looks quite sleek. Even though the card isn't overclocked, it delivers improved performance thanks to ZOTAC's smart thermal design.
MSI's GTX 760 TwinFrozr GAMING comes with the same powerful cooler as their GTX 770. This means that the card is extremely quiet in both idle and load, yet doesn't run hot at all. The card is also overclocked out of the box.
EVGA's GTX 760 SC comes overclocked out of the box and uses the company's new SCX cooler that promises good performance and low noise levels.
Gigabyte is launching the new GTX 760 with their WindForce 3X triple-fan cooler. The card is also overclocked out of the box, which provides a nice performance boost over the reference design.
The ASUS GTX 760 DirectCU OC uses the same compact PCB as the DC II Mini, which makes it the smallest GTX 760 reviewed today. Its new DirectCU II cooler keeps temperatures low and noise levels in check. An overclock out of the box is also provides an extra performance boost.
Palit's GeForce GTX 760 JetStream comes with a large overclock out of the box, on both GPU and memory. This makes it one of the fastest GTX 760s reviewed today. The card also uses a dual-fan, triple-slot cooler, and Palit is only asking a $5 price premium over the reference design.
Today, NVIDIA launches their new GTX 760 that sets out to provide affordable gaming to the mass market. With a competitive price of $249, it easily beats everything AMD has to offer.
MSI's new GeForce GTX 770 Gaming is optimized for the demands of gamers. It comes overclocked out of the box, but what's more important is that it runs extremely quiet in both idle and load. With no premium over the reference design, it is also one of the most affordable GTX 770s out there.
MSI's GeForce GTX 770 Lightning uses a completely re-engineered PCB design with a large dual-fan cooler. The card is also overclocked out of the box, which gives it an additional performance advantage.
With the GTX 780 DirectCU II OC, ASUS introduces a new cooler design with upgraded heatpipes capable of carrying even more heat and two new fans that optimize airflow. The card is also overclocked out of the box and comes with a 10-phase power design.
Today, Intel released their new Haswell processors which include improvements to the integrated graphics core. We test 17 of the latest games to investigate whether the Intel HD Graphics 4600 is of any use for serious PC gaming.
The ASUS GTX 770 employs the company's well-known DirectCU II thermal solution using heatpipes that directly touch the GPU surface for optimum heat transfer. The card is also overclocked out of the box.
Palit has equipped their GTX 770 JetStream with a 2.5-slot cooler that promises lower temperatures and improved fan noise. The card also comes with a large 100 MHz overclock, which is amongst the highest available.
Gigabyte's GeForce GTX 770 features the company's new WindForce 3X cooler with three fans to keep the card cool. The card is also overclocked out of the box for an extra performance boost.
Today, NVIDIA released their new GeForce GTX 770, which is based on an improved GTX 680 design. The card features higher clocks and the new Boost 2.0 algorithm. It also comes with shiny new 7 Gbps GDDR5 memory, which is a first for a graphics card.
PowerColor's HD 7850 SCS3 is a fanless implementation of the HD 7850, which means that it does not emit any noise while offering enough performance for serious gaming in full HD. With a price increase of $25 over the reference design, it's not too expensive either.
EVGA has engineered a new cooler for their GeForce GTX 780 called ACX--Active Cooling Xtreme. This dual-fan design delivers temperatures and noise levels that match the quiet NVIDIA reference design. The GTX 780 SC ACX is also overclocked, which yields performance higher than the Titan.
Gigabyte's GTX 780 WindForce OC introduces a brand-new triple-slot cooler design that uses improved heatpipe technology. Thanks to a large overclock out of the box and clever thermal engineering, the card ends up faster than the GeForce GTX Titan.
NVIDIA's new GeForce GTX 780 delivers impressive performance. We put two of them into an SLI configuration to see what you can expect when doubling down on the GTX 780.
Today, NVIDIA released their new GeForce GTX 780, which is based on the GK110 GPU - just like the GTX Titan. The new card not only inherits the fantastic looks of the Titan, but is also very close to it in overall performance. NVIDIA's pricing is certainly not cheap at $649.
ZOTAC's GTX Titan AMP! Edition comes with increased GPU and memory clocks for an extra performance boost. The package also includes three Assassin's Creed games and a Metro: Last Light coupon. But with pricing of $1139 is it worth it?
MSI's GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost Gaming uses the company's famous TwinFrozr dual-fan cooler. In our testing, we see fantastic noise levels that make the card almost inaudible even during heavy gaming. The card is overclocked, too, which makes it a great buy, being just $5 more expensive than the reference design.
Inno3D has engineered a unique GTX 650 Ti Boost using the company's iChill triple-slot, dual-fan cooler. It provides amazing noise levels, which makes the card almost inaudible during gameplay. Temperatures are also much improved, so the triple-slot design certainly paid off. The card is also overclocked and comes at a reasonable $190 price-point.
Today, AMD releases their highly anticipated HD 7990 dual-GPU flagship. It is based on two full Tahiti GPUs running at 1000 MHz. AMD has also worked hard to keep power draw and noise in check, but can this $1000 card compete with NVIDIA's GTX 690 and GTX Titan?
XFX has completely revamped the HD 7790 reference design, optimizing it around their requirements. The R7790 Black Edition OC 2 GB comes at the reference design price of $150, yet is overclocked out of the box and provides twice the video memory. But can its extra memory make a difference?
EVGA's GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost SuperClocked comes with a large overclock of 92 MHz out of the box which gives it a significant performance boost over the reference design. Since it's only $10 more expensive than the reference GTX 650 Ti Boost, the card actually offers a better price/performance ratio than the original.
The ASUS GeForce GTX 670 DirectCU Mini promises to revolutionize the small-form-factor gaming market. It finally enables you to build a powerful mini-ITX gaming rig that can handle all the latest titles in full HD at highest settings. Our testing shows that there are no compromises to be made in terms of noise and performance.
With GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost having just been released last week, at amazing pricing, we were curious to see how two of these cards in SLI handle our test suite of 17 games. Scaling worked very well and performance easily matched the GTX 680 and HD 7970 GHz Edition, with a much better price/performance ratio.
ASUS has equipped their GTX 650 Ti Boost with a silent Direct CU II cooler and a small GPU overclock out of the box. They also changed the voltage regulation circuity, which results in a 5% efficiency improvement. Pricing is up by a reasonable $10, resulting in a price of $179.
ZOTAC's GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost uses a compact dual-fan cooler to significantly improve noise levels and temperatures over the GTX 650 Ti reference design. The card comes at the reference design price of $169, which makes it a great choice for anyone looking for a card in the sub-$200 market.
Today, NVIDIA launches their new GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost offering a large performance increase thanks to the added Boost algorithm and wider bus interface. With a price of only $169, it is the new price/performance king in the sub-$200 segment.
PowerColor's new HD 7790 is a custom design, overclocked implementation of the HD 7790. It uses a dual-fan cooler and comes at $149, so there is no price premium for a better cooler or an overclock out-of-the-box.
