NVIDIA's new GTX 960 is a solid entry into the sweet-spot $200 segment. The new card offers the same phenomenal power efficiency as the GTX 970 and 980, but at a much lower price point. The GTX 960 is great for 1080p gaming with all titles, but some of the more recent ones may require you to drop details a bit, or turn anti-aliasing off. In terms of performance, we only see a disappointing 9% improvement over the previous-generation GTX 760, as compared to the GTX 660 (from which a lot of users might upgrade) with a 27% improvement. The GTX 660 Ti lags behind by 14%. AMD's offerings in this segment are strong as the R9 285 roughly matches what the GTX 960 offers in performance, while the R9 280X is around 15% faster. Unfortunately, we couldn't include the R9 280 Non-X in our benchmarks because AMD never bothered to sample the card to us. NVIDIA's own GTX 970 is 58% faster than the GTX 960, which suggests that we will definitely see a GTX 960 Ti variant that sits in the middle in both price and performance. All data in this review was obtained using a new BIOS from Gigabyte that significantly increases maximum Boost clocks; the card will on average run 1500 MHz out of the box! Gigabyte assures us that this BIOS will be used on all mass-produced cards, and I've posted it here. With such high clocks, the GTX 960 G1 Gaming achieves an 8% performance increase over reference, which is bigger than any other GTX 960 we tested so far. I only wish Gigabyte had overclocked the memory, too, which would have netted it another performance boost.
Where the GTX 960 really excels because of the Maxwell architecture is power efficiency. The card is around 25% more power-efficient than the GTX 760, which not only reduces power requirements (think PSU capacity), but it also reduces heat output considerably. Thanks to these improvements, all GTX 960 cards we tested so far run extremely quietly and even turn their fans off completely in idle or light gaming. This approach is a godsend for all office- and Media-PC systems where keeping things as quietly as possible is paramount. Start gaming and all our tested cards run at an extremely quiet 27 dBA, which makes them inaudible when installed into a closed case.
We've seen Gigabyte's triple-fan WindForce cooler before and it does an excellent job at keeping the card cool, while impressing with low noise output at the same time. With 30 cm, I find the card a bit long, but it should fit into almost any case available today. The included metal backplate adds to its overall look and feel, and helps protect against damage during handling.
Overclocking potential of all cards is roughly the same, too. The way we present our results as base clock seems a bit misleading because of the high Boost clocks of the G1 Gaming. It actually reaches about the same real clocks as the other tested cards. Since all cards use the same memory chips, memory overclocking results are also similar.

What is truly unique to the Gigabyte card, though, is the monitor output configuration. Gigabyte crammed three DisplayPorts, two DVI ports, and an HDMI port onto their board, which is more than anyone else. Since the GTX 960 GPU can not support that many outputs at the same time, Gigabyte added a TMDS switch chip that automatically decides how to route these outputs. This could prove useful to gamers with exotic monitor output configurations, or as a means to simplify connectivity. I am not yet completely convinced it is worth the extra cost, though.

In terms of pricing, NVIDIA has set a $200 MRSP, which is very reasonable, but not good enough to take over the price/performance crown in this segment, which AMD has covered with such competitively priced cards as the R9 280, R9 285, and the R9 280X. All of those have a slightly better price/performance ratio than the GTX 960. The current price/performance king is the R9 290, which, at $270, isn't completely out of reach either. However, the integral difference to me and a ton of users is that NVIDIA's new GTX 960 is so very power efficient, which makes it run much cooler and quieter than AMD's cards. What makes me a little sad with this review is that all the cards I reviewed are pretty much identical; same performance, same temps, same power, and same noise. The only noteworthy thing to set them apart is form-factor and pricing. This tells me that NVIDIA is exercising a lot of control over what board partners can and can't do. Such definitely worked out well in terms of fan noise, but a little more variation would have been nice. I like Gigabyte's move to increase Boost clocks so much as it provides extra performance most other GTX 960 cards won't reach. It's certainly not a night-and-day difference, though. I find the price, $230, a $30 increase over reference, a bit steep. Other vendors have custom-design, overclocked cards that retail at $210 for pretty much the same overall experience.

Personally, I don't think upgrading from a GTX 760 is worth the cost, and upgrading from a GTX 660 Ti probably isn't worth it either. If you have a GTX 660 and some money to spend, or are looking for a card to drive your new PC, the GTX 960 is definitely an excellent choice. Value-oriented buyers should also consider used GTX 680/770/780 class cards which should hit the market soon. I'm expecting AMD to react to the GTX 960 with new price reductions which will probably stir things around a bit, but ultimately, NVIDIA seems to have captured this segment as well, with a cheap-to-make GPU they paired with an extremely cost-efficient PCB design that has loads of margins in it for future price wars with AMD.