The GeForce GTX 950 is NVIDIA's contender for the entry-level $150-$190 segment, where it will compete with AMD's Radeon R7 370 and R9 285. Gigabyte's WindForce OC comes with a relatively small overclock, resulting in a 4% performance improvement over the reference GTX 950, which has the card beat the R7 370 by 17%. The R9 270X is 4% behind and the R9 285 is 15% faster. Against its bigger brother, the GTX 960 it is based on, the Gigabyte GTX 950 OC is 12% behind. I would recommend the GTX 950 for 900p gaming, or 1080p with reduced details or less demanding games, like MOBA titles.

Gigabyte is using a really simple cooler on their card, one without any heatpipes - it's just a piece of metal that soaks up the heat the GPU produces. Looking at the low temperatures alone, this approach seems to work very well. Unfortunately, noise levels are not so good. While all other GTX 950s we tested today turn off their fans completely in idle, Gigabyte's card keeps them running, and way too fast, so the fans are always noticeable. During gaming, the card doesn't get as noisy as the ZOTAC AMP! Edition, but it's much louder than the remaining GTX 950s we tested, which are incredibly quiet. ZOTAC has included a backplate on their GTX 950 AMP Edition, which definitely adds to the product's feel and look, and I wish Gigabyte had done the same, even though it is not a requirement in this particular market segment.

Power efficiency of GTX 950 is excellent, just like on all recent NVIDIA Maxwell cards. In all non-gaming states, including Blu-ray playback, we see power draw hover at around the 10 watts mark, which makes it a good candidate for a quiet media PC. Typical gaming power draw is low too, with around 100 watts, which even the weakest PSU should be able to handle.

Overall, the GeForce GTX 950 seems like a very good card, but it is held back by pricing, just like the GTX 960 it is based on. The GTX 950 is basically a cheaper GTX 960 with proportionately less performance but the same feature set. NVIDIA's MSRP is $160 and Gigabyte is asking another $10 for their OC version, which is a stretch. When comparing this card to other boards, I'd say it should be sold at reference design pricing. While there are other GTX 950s, there are several other alternatives. When looking at price/performance only, AMD's R9 285 should be on your shopping list as it offers much better performance at an excellent price of $170, a price that could be lower if you are on the market for used cards. AMD's R7 370 is too slow and barely cheaper, and the same goes for the R9 270X. NVIDIA's GTX 960 is another good option if you have a few more dollars to spend.