Deciding on new GTX 960

[Asmodeus]

Hello , i am looking for some mid range Nvidia card for casual gaming (at 1080p) and stoped for the 960. Here in my country we have several 960's non-referenced cards all clocked at different speeds. I was looking for more future proof card even for 1080p.  Some games can actually require above the 2GB treshhold , or even in a year or two.

(Numbers below may be off a bit, cant look at the exact specs right now)

 

- MSI 960 2GB - Base: 1241 / Boost 1304 

- GB G1 960 / 2 GB- Base: 1241 / Boost: 1304

- GB WFOCX2 960 2 GB / 4 GB - Base: 1214 / Boost: 1272

- EVGA 960 2 GB - Base: 1272 / Boost: 1392

 

Currently i have stopped on the Windforce x2 OC 960 , being the only 4 GB in the affordable price range for me. My Question is how far would i be able to clock the WindForce ? Is it worth it to sacrifice the  2 gigs for the better stock clocked versions like G1 and EVGA. 

Watched a few benchmarks where the EVGA and G1 were clocked at stable 1520-40 Mhz , but then again the G1 has a x3 fan solution.

My goal is to make the windforce at atleast 1500-10 Mhz Stable clock speed. Is that realistic (with reasonable temps ofcourse)

Thanks !

[DarkBlade2117]

I highly suggest an R9 380. The 960 has no point with the R9 380 and R9 285

[Kobathor]

The GTX 960 is almost obsolete now, if you're going low-end get an R9 380 or something like an R9 285. That, or go cheaper and get a 950 or save and get an R9 390 or GTX 970.

[Asmodeus]

As far as pure performance goes i've watched ton of benchmarks between the 380 and 960 and in the end they are nearly equal . Maybe 380 pulls ahead with 5-0 frames but then again i've seen the 960 to pull ahead too in some games. Here my concern is more about heat output , power drain etc. 

Never had an nvidia card myself , used amd's cant really say anything good or bad about them . Never won me with anything besides crappy drivers and heat.

 

PS: Any why would you recommend 950 when its actually worse than the 960 / 380 / 285 ? If i had the money i would go for the 970 yes but i think the word casual pretty much implies that i am not going to utilize that 970 at all

[Hiebly]

As far as pure performance goes i've watched ton of benchmarks between the 380 and 960 and in the end they are nearly equal . Maybe 380 pulls ahead with 5-0 frames but then again i've seen the 960 to pull ahead too in some games. Here my concern is more about heat output , power drain etc. 

Never had an nvidia card myself , used amd's cant really say anything good or bad about them . Never won me with anything besides crappy drivers and heat.

 

AMD's cards consume more at the high end (once you get to R9 280X or R9 390 territory) but the R9 380 only consumes slightly more than the GTX 960... it's a very small margin. Having said that I really fail to understand why people hate the GTX 960 so much... it costs like $20 less than the R9 380, and performs about 10% worse... so really you're getting like the same performance per dollar.

 

Also worth noting is the GTX 960 easily gains ~15% performance with overclocking, putting it ahead of the stock R9 380 and very close to the overclocked R9 380. And in other countries outside of the US AMD cards are often very overpriced.

[Tangtawan]

If you like the GTX960, go for EVGA- its superior in terms of quality and performance.
the temps wont be much better for 3x fan from a gigabyte G1 series.

 

No idea why, but Gigabyte cards i have tested (980Ti) run into a crash even at stock settings on 3DMark, and last week I have tested GTX 950 Xtreme Gaming- the driver suddenly stopped responding. I have tested many cards, and by far 2 our of 3 cards from gigabyte have faulty issue.

 

I would recommend you to go with EVGA.

[Prysin]

As far as pure performance goes i've watched ton of benchmarks between the 380 and 960 and in the end they are nearly equal . Maybe 380 pulls ahead with 5-0 frames but then again i've seen the 960 to pull ahead too in some games. Here my concern is more about heat output , power drain etc. 

Never had an nvidia card myself , used amd's cant really say anything good or bad about them . Never won me with anything besides crappy drivers and heat.

 

PS: Any why would you recommend 950 when its actually worse than the 960 / 380 / 285 ? If i had the money i would go for the 970 yes but i think the word casual pretty much implies that i am not going to utilize that 970 at all

the 960 mainly pulls ahead in NVIDIA GAMES... you know, the ones with that green logo that says "The way it's meant to be played"...

Even then it just barely makes it past the 380...

 

Sorry mate. but a 960 is a waste. A R9 380 will smack it over the top of its head. And you can get 4GB models pretty darn cheap.

Do note: Whatever you do, DO NOT buy Asus or Gigabyte AMD Radeon cards. Gigabyte is voltage locked and has had several reports of malfunctioning fans and bioses. Asus simply puts a too weak cooler onto the AMD card. Their coolers cannot efficiently cool AMD cards.

[Asmodeus]

Here they are at the same price. But under load the 380 is a beast with much more consumed energy than 960 , 960 tops at 190 W while the 380 under load can top 280 W , i dont know why you would say the 380 and 960 consume the same (maybe at idle where the difference is much smaller )

 

http://cdn.eteknix.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/power.jpg

 

Small that is ! Sure 

[don_svetlio]

Here they are at the same price. But under load the 380 is a beast with much more consumed energy than 960 , 960 tops at 190 W while the 380 under load can top 280 W , i dont know why you would say the 380 and 960 consume the same (maybe at idle where the difference is much smaller )

 

http://cdn.eteknix.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/power.jpg

 

Small that is ! Sure 

[don_svetlio]

380 is 15% more powerful on average, consumes 10W more (holy cow, the draw.....) and outputs a similar amount of heat.

[Asmodeus]

Must be joking , 10 W more on load ? I dont know if you are blind but you can easily do a google search and compare the 960 and 380's consumption varies between 80-100 W. Furthermore according to this video the 970 flagship had near 380 fps performance hence you imply the 970 is equal to the 380 and better than the 960. That is BS. As far as rendering goes frame rate is not the ultimate mesuring unit in computer graphics, but rather the ms needed to render a single frame. 

And also pushing the clock on the 960 ,because it can handle it with its low TDP can pretty much make equal with the 380.

[don_svetlio]

Must be joking , 10 W more on load ? I dont know if you are blind but you can easily do a google search and compare the 960 and 380's consumption varies between 80-100 W. Furthermore according to this video the 970 flagship had near 380 fps performance hence you imply the 970 is equal to the 380 and better than the 960. That is BS. As far as rendering goes frame rate is not the ultimate mesuring unit in computer graphics, but rather the ms needed to render a single frame. 

And also pushing the clock on the 960 ,because it can handle it with its low TDP can pretty much make equal with the 380.

Can you please write in a coherent way? Thank you.

TDP and Power draw are not the same, 960 isn't magic, it uses 170W under load, 380 uses 180-190W.

Digital foundry are  highly respected in the PC world, you'd be crazy to go ahead and label them as biased.

[Asmodeus]

Can you please write in a coherent way? Thank you.

TDP and Power draw are not the same, 960 isn't magic, it uses 170W under load, 380 uses 180-190W.

Digital foundry are  highly respected in the PC world, you'd be crazy to go ahead and label them as biased.

1. Never Said TDP and Power Draw Are the Same 

2. You can not base a valid conclusion on one test.  I dont care who conducts it , its not enought to make a fair conclusion

3. I asked you nicely and conduct a small google search and see that 380 is not drawing as much power as you claim (under load)

 

My point is that i would can overclock the 960 alot. The EVGA is staying cool and nice at 75 degrees overclocked to 1540 Mhz. While the 380 will probably reach its TDP threshold because it runs much hotter at load, therefore much less clocking available at our hands.

[Asmodeus]

1. Never Said TDP and Power Draw Are the Same 

2. You can not base a valid conclusion on one test. I dont care who conducts it , its not enought to make a fair conclusion

3. I asked you nicely and conduct a small google search and see that 380 is not drawing as much power as you claim (under load)

 

My point is that i would can overclock the 960 alot. The EVGA is staying cool and nice at 75 degrees overclocked to 1540 Mhz. While the 380 will probably reach its TDP threshold because it runs much hotter at load, therefore much less clocking available at our hands.

[don_svetlio]

1. Never Said TDP and Power Draw Are the Same 

2. You can not base a valid conclusion on one test.  I dont care who conducts it , its not enought to make a fair conclusion

3. I asked you nicely and conduct a small google search and see that 380 is not drawing as much power as you claim (under load)

 

My point is that i would can overclock the 960 alot. The EVGA is staying cool and nice at 75 degrees overclocked to 1540 Mhz. While the 380 will probably reach its TDP threshold because it runs much hotter at load, therefore much less clocking available at our hands.

380 never reaches 70*C - no 380 can do that, however high you clock it. But nice to know the 960's cooler is so piss-poor it can't even manage to keep it under 70*C when overclocked.

Also, an OCed 960 is barely enough to reach a stock 380, once you OC the 380 it's right back where it started

[Asmodeus]

You know, i'd  rather stop this here. You are obviously some kind of a fanboy , acting like a wild bull. I will leave this here. The cards are pretty much equal. 

 

[don_svetlio]

You know, i'd  rather stop this here. You are obviously some kind of a fanboy , acting like a wild bull. I will leave this here. The cards are pretty much equal. 

 

Several other people said the same thing. Are they fanboys too?

[Tangtawan]

this topic is about "which 960" an R9 380 isnt a GTX 960.. so we better stick to the thread.

[NuclearPeace]

If you prefer NVIDIA cards or have some other reason, no matter how shallow it might seem, there's no reason to really stress over which one you should get. If you like NVIDIA cards and want the 960, then just get it. The difference isn't big enough between the 960 and the 380 to stress over the minute details. Besides, after overclocking, both are going to be rather equal.

[Kinda Bottlenecked]

Neh don't try guys. You won't be able to convince a nvidia fanboy to go with amd. For a 960, I'd recommend you to go with a G1. Oh and be sure to flash your bios for some heavy overclocking if you want to keep up with the 380.(don't do that if you're not confident)

[NuclearPeace]

Neh don't try guys. You won't be able to convince a nvidia fanboy to go with amd. For a 960, I'd recommend you to go with a G1. Oh and be sure to flash your bios for some heavy overclocking if you want to keep up with the 380.(don't do that if you're not confident)

Pretty much this.

 

From my time spent on all other tech forums and in life in general, if someone is dead set on getting something by X brand/manufacturer then its going to require an Herculean feat to convince them of otherwise.

[Asmodeus]

That's not it. As i said i have used AMD cards until now . I dont see how i can be a fanboy when i never had an nvidia card same goes for all of my CPUs as well - AMD. I see nothing special or magical about them. I see no reason to get the 380 when they are splitting hairs in performance. The 960 can easily top 1500 Mhz with MSI Afterburner.