Asus GeForce GTX 960 Strix OC Edition

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Abula
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Re: Asus GeForce GTX 960 Strix OC Edition

Post by Abula » Thu Aug 20, 2015 7:31 am

CA_Steve wrote:Reviews are out for the 750. 90W TDP. Most of the cards are clocked faster than stock and end up with 760 performance levels. Many have passive fans with 2D load. I'll start a compilation page later today.
You mean 950? Btw looks amazing in the noise perspective, specially the Asus according to Techpowerup,
During serious gaming, the card stays extremely quiet for one of the lowest gaming-noise levels we have ever recorded.
Where its getting bashed is its pricing, i honestly thought was going to be $150.

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Re: Asus GeForce GTX 960 Strix OC Edition

Post by CA_Steve » Thu Aug 20, 2015 7:53 am

Can I blame the lack of caffeine in my system? :)

Nvidia set the price at $160. Halfway between the 750 Ti and the 960. <shrugs>

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Re: Asus GeForce GTX 960 Strix OC Edition

Post by Abula » Thu Aug 20, 2015 8:03 am

CA_Steve wrote:Can I blame the lack of caffeine in my system? :)
:)
CA_Steve wrote:Nvidia set the price at $160. Halfway between the 750 Ti and the 960. <shrugs>
I think the GTX750Ti should be $130, the GTX950 should be $150, and the GTX960 $200, those should be decent choices for 1080p gaming. To me, atm the GTX750Ti is the best offering ($130 on amazon), given that its not as powerful, what it can achieve with very little power still amazes me today, hope we see a decent replacement for it on Pascal.

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Re: Asus GeForce GTX 960 Strix OC Edition

Post by Smanci » Thu Aug 20, 2015 9:09 am

219€ for the Msi 950 Gaming. I'll pass.

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Re: Asus GeForce GTX 960 Strix OC Edition

Post by Das_Saunamies » Thu Aug 20, 2015 9:49 am

CA_Steve wrote:Reviews are out for the 950 (not 750...this is where I wish there was a strikethru code). 90W TDP. Most of the cards are clocked faster than stock and end up with 760 performance levels. Many have passive fans with 2D load. I'll start a compilation page later today.
Looking forward to it, this article post is going off the rails. :mrgreen: So far the Asus STRIX and the EVGA SSC look the best; Gigabyte does not have semipassive fans and the ZOTAC gets noisy under load (TPU).

Sadly the wattage is 100+; +20% performance for +30% power consumption over the 750 Ti (best card to best card on TPU). The price follows suit in the local shops: 21% difference between the cheapest performance 750 Ti (StormX OC single-fan) and the cheapest decent 950 (MSI Gaming/Asus STRIX). You can save even more if you go for a vanilla card that you then overclock yourself.

That wouldn't be so bad, but the line of 960s starts just around the corner for +€10 (add another 10 to get a semipassive Gigabyte card). Since you're already dumping >100 W peaks, you might as well slap on those last 20 W and €20 and get the enhanced performance. The pricing makes this a real lemon, and the 960 the better choice IMO. Still can't beat the 750 Ti for cool (though we can only dream of $130 prices here).

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Re: Asus GeForce GTX 960 Strix OC Edition

Post by fyleow » Thu Aug 20, 2015 10:28 am

The Asus 950 is about $20 cheaper than the Asus 960 on Newegg right now but the latter comes with a free game. If you're at all interested in the game or don't mind selling it on eBay the 960 is a better deal. These are launch prices so the 950 may be a better value later on.

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Re: Asus GeForce GTX 960 Strix OC Edition

Post by CA_Steve » Thu Aug 20, 2015 12:18 pm

Yeah - launch pricing is always higher than what you'll see in a month or so. Limited inventory, early adopters willing to pay whatever, etc..

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Re: Asus GeForce GTX 960 Strix OC Edition

Post by Das_Saunamies » Thu Aug 20, 2015 6:40 pm

We'll see - the titular 960 never came down much over here (still at or over 250). :?

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Re: Asus GeForce GTX 960 Strix OC Edition

Post by vmirjamali » Wed Aug 26, 2015 10:29 am

I'm building a mini itx z170 build for gaming and video encoding, and I'm curious if for my 1440p monitor, this video card will do at medium details?

Also newegg currently has a promo selling this for 170 after rebate is it worth buying this now, should I wait a few more months for a better one at similiar pricing/low noise levels, or should I get a different card alltogether (r9 290 refurb is 219 shipped.)? My budget for a video card is $250. Thanks

Looking for a low noise, low wattage but powerful gfx for occasional gaming.

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Re: Asus GeForce GTX 960 Strix OC Edition

Post by CA_Steve » Wed Aug 26, 2015 2:45 pm

Welcome to SPCR.

1440p @ medium settings: some games yes, some games no. It really depends on how graphic intensive the game is. What games are you looking to play?

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Re: Asus GeForce GTX 960 Strix OC Edition

Post by vmirjamali » Wed Aug 26, 2015 4:08 pm

I'm interested in playing games like crisis 3, gta5, final fantasy type 0, ori and the blind forent, battlefield:frontline. More or less the newer AAA title on the pc.

I'm also looking at the asus gtx 970 strix as well. My end goal is low watt usage, low noise, and ability to play newer games for the next 2-3 years at medium details.

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Re: Asus GeForce GTX 960 Strix OC Edition

Post by CA_Steve » Wed Aug 26, 2015 8:12 pm

At 1440p, I think you'd be better off with the 970.

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Re: Asus GeForce GTX 960 Strix OC Edition

Post by Das_Saunamies » Wed Aug 26, 2015 10:22 pm

I would second the 970 for resolutions above 1080p, that is definitely prime 970/980 territory, even if they can get toasty. Nowhere near as toasty as the R9 290 though.

PS. For reference, the latest TPU relative performance summary for 1440p: http://tpucdn.com/reviews/MSI/GTX_950_G ... l_2560.gif.
You should also check out the power consumption of the reference designs from the same review: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/ ... ng/28.html.

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Re: Asus GeForce GTX 960 Strix OC Edition

Post by vmirjamali » Wed Aug 26, 2015 10:52 pm

Thanks I'm looking into the gtx 970 strix now as the zotac extreme core edition seems to be 1 inch longer which means i'll have trouble fitting it in my core v1 case.

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Re: Asus GeForce GTX 960 Strix OC Edition

Post by Ken5d » Fri Sep 11, 2015 10:46 am

I was considering an Asus 960 Strix, but the report here about unfiltered spikes has me concerned:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/nvi ... 038-8.html

I haven't read about this in any other review, so I don't know if they are the only ones who checked this, or their sample happened to be bad. I wish they'd tested a second card.

Anyone have an opinion about this?

"The very frequent spikes beyond the motherboard slot’s supposed limit won’t cause immediate damage to the hardware, but there might well be long-term repercussions that are hard to judge now."

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Re: Asus GeForce GTX 960 Strix OC Edition

Post by Das_Saunamies » Fri Sep 11, 2015 10:45 pm

TPU test the PEG connectors, the slot, and peaks as well with a $2,000 bench multimeter. Tom's is not alone in this testing.

Tom's PCI-E 12 V Total consumption is in line with TPU results, http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS ... OC/27.html; 140+ W Maximum with 130 W Peaks. Tom's, however, uses two oscilloscopes at a temporal resolution of microseconds, whereas TPU use 12/sec = 83.333 milliseconds = 83,333.333 microseconds (if I didn't cock up the conversion). This is why Tom's may have picked up on far shorter peaks (spikes, if you will) than TPU, who also skip measuring the "warm-up period" prior to their tests. The charts from Tom's show the sharpest rises in the early parts of their 60-second run, which they may have performed on a cold card (they do not specify this or the number of repeats they do or do not perform).

I'm glad Tom's have stepped up their technical game, but their reporting of the method is a little lacking. Still, it is clear that the Asus card was measured performing oddly compared to a fair number of samples, and with accurate hardware. However, the spikes only seem to happen on the PEG side, so I can't tell why or how this would affect slot draw.

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Re: Asus GeForce GTX 960 Strix OC Edition

Post by Ken5d » Sat Sep 12, 2015 7:35 am

Thanks for the reply. I agree, Tom's should definitely have done a better job of explaining what they tested, and how. They should have mentioned if it was a cold card, and they needed to say that they (I hope) repeated the test several times (perhaps even after re-seating the card). And of course they should have gotten another sample card to test. While I agree it seems that the sharpest peaks (> 150W) were in the first 25 seconds, the comparison over the entire minute period with the Gainward card (never heard of them) is still startling.

I'm going to be building a new computer in the next month or two. And now I'm thinking that perhaps I will use the i-7 6700K's built-in graphics capability initially, and wait for Pascal. That means I'll most likely defer stepping up to a 4K monitor for a while, but from the hype I've read about Pascal, it seems worth waiting for. (Sorry for straying off-topic.)

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Re: Asus GeForce GTX 960 Strix OC Edition

Post by Das_Saunamies » Sat Sep 12, 2015 7:56 am

Since Pascal is a valid 960 option, it's not that far off topic! :mrgreen:

To be frank, I would almost wait for the next-gen value and mainstream cards to hit as well, if you're not in a hurry. The 970 and 980 are superb, but I just can't get excited about the 950 or the 960 compared to the ol' 750 Ti - at least from a Silence/efficiency perspective.

Then again, that test had a lot of better-behaved cards, and what's wrong with a semi-passive MSI or Gigabyte card (or Palit even)? Not much, if anything at all - MSI keep posting solid cooling figures and Gigabyte is a reliable if dull standby (bar the chafing fan blades on previous-gen cards). Palit cards have seen good scores on performance, and I think they've reined in their cooling on some models.

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Re: Asus GeForce GTX 960 Strix OC Edition

Post by Ken5d » Sat Sep 12, 2015 8:40 am

Well, then, continuing not too far off topic .... :D I'm always in a hurry. I wanted to upgrade my computer earlier this year, but waited patiently for Skylake, because the tocks are always so much better than the ticks. Well, I'm going to get the power efficiency, which is good, but for my work I'd be better off with a Haswell-E. So I'm a bit disappointed after waiting so long only to find out Skylake didn't quite meet my expectations.

Which is a long-winded way of saying, I sure hope Pascal doesn't disappoint me, too. I'm hoping to get 980 performance (or better, from the hype!), but with 950 power sipping. :?: I guess I'll find out. I'd rather not spend $200+ now if the 6700K's gpu will work for me for however long it takes (6-12 months?) until Pascal is finally out. That $200 can go towards what will undoubtedly be an expensive Pascal card.

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Re: Asus GeForce GTX 960 Strix OC Edition

Post by Abula » Sat Sep 12, 2015 8:48 am

Das_Saunamies wrote:To be frank, I would almost wait for the next-gen value and mainstream cards to hit as well, if you're not in a hurry. The 970 and 980 are superb, but I just can't get excited about the 950 or the 960 compared to the ol' 750 Ti - at least from a Silence/efficiency perspective.
I owned a MSI GTX750Ti and a MSI GTX960 ME, and while to some point i agree with you in the terms of efficiency, on the silence part i don't, both are remarkble gpus, i cant hear either on a gaming load or idle. Where it lacks is the GTX960 wasn't the usual X60 GPU where you get a lot of bang on the buck, where it makes almost the X70 series not worth it, this gen was backwards, Nvidia intentionally crippled the GTX960 to not be as appealing (there are rummors on a GTX960Ti on the works, that i dont think will ever come out with how AMD released their mid end gpus), this makes the GTX970 to be (imo) the best bang for the buck for a 1080/1440p gamer, that said, the GTX960 still holds its own on most titles, but it does struggle in some with high settings, either way besides the MSI GTX750Ti, if you need more GPU power, i see the MSI GTX960 as a great option and do recommend it.

I have high hopes for Pascal, seems Nvidia has gotten their last gens right, specially getting better in terms of efficiency, allowing very powerful and quiet gpus in all their range of offerings, my dream is that single gpu (probably the highest of their line) can drive 4k fine in quiet fashion.... then again just dreams in my world, will see in a year or so.
So I'm a bit disappointed after waiting so long only to find out Skylake didn't quite meet my expectations.
I agree with you, i though Skylake was going to be a really good boost and ended up like all past gens with minimum cpu upgrade, all the latest gens is more about the extras like USB3 and now 3.1, Sata3 and now Sata Express, DDR4, and maybe in a gen or two (i was expecting skylake to have it) PCIe 4.0. Personally i will wait one or two more gens, if i don't see a 6 core or a big jump on 4 cores, ill probably move toward Skylake E or whatever is by that time, sadly at this rate, that PC wont get upgrade in 4-6 years with the intel current release strategy.

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Re: Asus GeForce GTX 960 Strix OC Edition

Post by Das_Saunamies » Sat Sep 12, 2015 10:29 am

Do mind that HEAT is a component in the efficiency equation. I don't want a 100+ W card - I would feel it, even if I can't hear it. :wink:

I think I need to refine my wording, as Silence isn't the be-all and end-all goal for me anymore. Comfort (acoustic AND thermal)?

And yeah, that is the problem with waiting based on nothing but promises - promises can get broken or just fall short. Skylake as a platform is very expensive (for now) and touts the same 65 W TDP that efficient Haswell models have with no significant advantage for gaming (that I know or have seen mention of, at least).

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Re: Asus GeForce GTX 960 Strix OC Edition

Post by CA_Steve » Sun Sep 13, 2015 10:58 am

Das_Saunamies wrote: Skylake as a platform is very expensive (for now) and touts the same 65 W TDP that efficient Haswell models have with no significant advantage for gaming (that I know or have seen mention of, at least).
Skylake advantages for gaming if using the 65W TDP CPUs:
- DX12 support <- this has a huge potential benefit down the road.
- lots 'o extra PCIe lanes that can be used for SSD, etc.. w/o conflicting with video lanes.
- did you see the Fan Xpert functionality in the UEFI BIOS?!

It's been a while since we've seen huge jumps in CPU performance (ie: Sandy Bridge). In any case, games don't care. They are overwhelmingly gpu dependant.

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Re: Asus GeForce GTX 960 Strix OC Edition

Post by Das_Saunamies » Sun Sep 13, 2015 11:07 pm

Thanks for the list, Steve, food for thought.

I only ever see DX12 mentioned in conjunction with GPUs. Seeing your list, I went and dug up articles about DX12's CPU benefits, and apparently they can be quite hefty:
There are immense boosts to draw call throughput from start to finish on every processor tested, the largest boost coming from the FX 8350 where the R9 290X receives a frankly monumental boost to performance in the order of 1,600 per cent when single-core DX11 and DX12 scores are compared. Remember, we are only benching one particular element of the rendering process - but regardless, the uplift is phenomenal.
-http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digit ... amechanger (ew)

Even with the humble 750 Ti the figure goes up from 1.1-1.3 million to 7.7-8.1 million. Somehow I've missed all the articles on tech sites about this; I never go to "gaming" sites if I can avoid it, as they've been sensationalist shill at best.

Since I'm on Ivy Bridge, I guess I just assumed Haswell solved the lanes already (it's been at least three generations of MacGyvering it, after all) without actually seeing proof of it. Glad they've finally got it, then, even if PCIE SSDs won't become mainstream any time soon with their current prices, and micro-ITX is increasingly popular (single x16 slot) - i.e. "what did we want extra lanes for again?" :wink:

What's this about Skylake-related fan control though? Probably a joke I just don't get, but that's fine - I'm a serious Finn, so I don't get online sarcasm unless very explicitly expressed. :mrgreen:

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Re: Asus GeForce GTX 960 Strix OC Edition

Post by Cistron » Mon Sep 14, 2015 1:12 am

Das_Saunamies wrote:Thanks for the list, Steve, food for thought.

I only ever see DX12 mentioned in conjunction with GPUs. Seeing your list, I went and dug up articles about DX12's CPU benefits, and apparently they can be quite hefty:
There are immense boosts to draw call throughput from start to finish on every processor tested, the largest boost coming from the FX 8350 where the R9 290X receives a frankly monumental boost to performance in the order of 1,600 per cent when single-core DX11 and DX12 scores are compared. Remember, we are only benching one particular element of the rendering process - but regardless, the uplift is phenomenal.
-http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digit ... amechanger (ew)

Even with the humble 750 Ti the figure goes up from 1.1-1.3 million to 7.7-8.1 million. Somehow I've missed all the articles on tech sites about this; I never go to "gaming" sites if I can avoid it, as they've been sensationalist shill at best.

Since I'm on Ivy Bridge, I guess I just assumed Haswell solved the lanes already (it's been at least three generations of MacGyvering it, after all) without actually seeing proof of it. Glad they've finally got it, then, even if PCIE SSDs won't become mainstream any time soon with their current prices, and micro-ITX is increasingly popular (single x16 slot) - i.e. "what did we want extra lanes for again?" :wink:

What's this about Skylake-related fan control though? Probably a joke I just don't get, but that's fine - I'm a serious Finn, so I don't get online sarcasm unless very explicitly expressed. :mrgreen:
But didn't Mantle show similar performance "increases"? "Increases", because in real-world conditions on not-completely-underpowered-PCs these had only negligible effect on the gaming performance.

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Re: Asus GeForce GTX 960 Strix OC Edition

Post by Das_Saunamies » Mon Sep 14, 2015 1:23 am

Mantle was a stunt like so many mfg-specific technologies are, but DirectX is not. That's why it's good they included results for both Intel and AMD CPUs and Nvidia and AMD GPUs. There is potential, according to what testing tools are available, but how much of it will be realised or can actually affect real-world (gaming) performance remains to be seen; again, "potential benefit" and "games don't care [about CPUs, as long as they are reasonably powerful]".

We can wait and see, but anyone who needs to buy today cannot. If they can afford the premium, then there are more good things about Skylake than I for one had previously thought.

PS. You can see the Mantle results in that article as well and can draw your own conclusions. The Mantle and DX12 figures are quite close, but the difference again is that Mantle was/is a stunt by a manufacturer and DirectX is the same for all manufacturers.

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Re: Asus GeForce GTX 960 Strix OC Edition

Post by CA_Steve » Mon Sep 14, 2015 6:16 am

I wouldn't call Mantle a stunt. It showed how much benefit could be provided if they went back to writing lower level software. Apple followed suit with the apply named Metal for MacOS and Chronos is doing the same for OpenGL. DirectX 12 does similar stuff. Two big take aways from DX12 are:
- greatly reduced overhead provides much greater productivity. More tasks become GPU only rather than GPU with CPU supervisor.
- distributing the lowered CPU supervisory tasks from one core to multicore. With DX 11, you could have a game become CPU bound just because the supervisory core is pegged at 100% while the other cores might be at 60%. With DX 12, this won't happen, unlocking a whole lot of unused CPU capability. So, older CPUs might get another year or two of life in your gaming build and it also implies that you might not need to get the fastest CPU to get the most benefit out of games. Won't really know until some DX 12 AA games come out.

So, really this is a Win 10 benefit, not a Skylake one. :)

The BIOS and Fan Xpert thing: Asus put a lot of their Fan Xpert functionality into the Z170 UEFI. Looks to be the best BIOS based fan control out there.

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Re: Asus GeForce GTX 960 Strix OC Edition

Post by Das_Saunamies » Mon Sep 14, 2015 9:00 am

I'm no Nvidia fanboy (been back at their ol' game of cheats and lies), but recently they've been the ones providing the builds I make with tangible benefits, not potential ones. Maybe on the theory side Mantle was/is better than my perception of it, but it never became a factor in any purchasing decisions for a good bunch of rigs, as tangible benefits remained elusive.

It's great if it moved the industry forward, but I can't see it moving that many SKUs.

Thanks for clarifying about the UEFI; as I'm moving to Linux, I think I will appreciate BIOS/UEFI fan control a lot more!

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Re: Asus GeForce GTX 960 Strix OC Edition

Post by Cistron » Mon Sep 14, 2015 4:14 pm

I wouldn't call Mantle a stunt. It showed how much benefit could be provided if they went back to writing lower level software.
#2. As far as I can tell it 'inspired' the others to up their game.
Das_Saunamies wrote:Maybe on the theory side Mantle was/is better than my perception of it, but it never became a factor in any purchasing decisions for a good bunch of rigs, as tangible benefits remained elusive.
But neither would DX12 become a decision factor for your processor. Unless you like to game on the integrated graphics.

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Re: Asus GeForce GTX 960 Strix OC Edition

Post by Deer87 » Mon May 09, 2016 2:52 am

Does anyone have a "chart" over ideal temps for this card?

I am trying to achieve a balance between low noise and acceptable temps for my Strix 960, and yesterday i reached 94 degrees Celcius (i was experimenting with GPU Tweak while playing Dragon Age Inquisition set on High).
Im a little worried that 94 degrees is too high, so i will increase the Fan power next time i play, but if someone already did the math, it could save me some time.

Btw, I use a FD Node 304, and it is placed inside a desk closet (its not optimal ventilation, i know).

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