how good is the gtx 950/960

[GammaProX]

in today's standards in games like gta 5 and fallout 4 how good is the gtx 950/960

[DarkBlade2117]

Not as good as the R7 370 or R9 380

[asiancorruption]

they're good cards, for being the lowest end for this gen's nividia's cards, they're gonna give you a solid 50-60 fps with high settings for the 950, and 60-70fps for the 960 on average.

Edit: if you want a 4gb 960, the r9 380 is on average 10-15% better, so get that. 

[JebKerman]

no idea for fallout, but 950 in GTA V should manage 60fps at high-medium (not very high/ultra) settings, the 960 should manage high-very high

[GammaProX]

Not as good as the R7 370 or R9 380

idk bout the R7 370 but people said the 950/960 wouldn't bottleneck on my CPU thats why im thinking of getting it

[Jacktastic-Mofo]

The GTX 950 is by far the best sub 200$ card but right at the 200$ mark you have the GTX 960 and R9 380 which contrary to popular belief actually perform nearly identically with the two cards trading blows in games that are more optimized for NVIDIA and AMD. From personal experience with a GTX 960 2GB I can pretty much fully max out GTA 5 (high textures, everything else maxed) and maintain a pretty constant 40-50FPS, however I have two GTX 960's now and get around 80FPS on maximum settings all around the board.

Also the GTX 960 can use all 4GB's of VRAM due to delta color compression.

[Guest Kloaked]

they're good cards, for being the lowest end for this gen's nividia's cards, they're gonna give you a solid 50-60 fps with high settings for the 950, and 60-70fps for the 960 on average.

 

Not for GTA 5 and Fallout 4.

[SteveGrabowski0]

Not as good as the R7 370 or R9 380

 

The 950 is better than the 370, the 380 is better than the 960

[i_build_nanosuits]

The GTX 950 is by far the best sub 200$ card but right at the 200$ mark you have the GTX 960 and R9 380 which contrary to popular belief actually perform nearly identically with the two cards trading blows in games that are more optimized for NVIDIA and AMD. From personal experience with a GTX 960 2GB I can pretty much fully max out GTA 5 (high textures, everything else maxed) and maintain a pretty constant 40-50FPS, however I have two GTX 960's now and get around 80FPS on maximum settings all around the board.

Also the GTX 960 can use all 4GB's of VRAM due to delta color compression.

fun fact: the R9 380 is much stronger across the board and actually perform heads and shoulders above the GTX 960 in nearly every games...

http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-960-vs-AMD-R9-380/3165vs3482

 

 

The 950 is better than the 370, the 380 is better than the 960

^^this...but in this price range OP, personally...i would look at better performing used GPU's such as maybe a second hand R9 280X/290 or GTX 680/770/780 for example...

[asiancorruption]

Not for GTA 5 and Fallout 4.

for gta 5 ive seen a 950 get 55fps on the benchmark.

[Guest Kloaked]

for gta 5 ive seen a 950 get 55fps on the benchmark.

 

No way it'll get that in the game itself on all high settings.

[asiancorruption]

No way it'll get that in the game itself on all high settings.

on high? possible, if it was ultra everything maxed out it would probably be under 40fps. 

[GammaProX]

No way it'll get that in the game itself on all high settings.

my current R7 260 can get 20-30fps on low and some setting on medium, so i'd believe it 

[GammaProX]

my PSU is a EVGA 430w   will it have the right power connectors for the gtx 950? https://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-power-supply-100w10430kr

[MageTank]

The GTX 950 is by far the best sub 200$ card but right at the 200$ mark you have the GTX 960 and R9 380 which contrary to popular belief actually perform nearly identically with the two cards trading blows in games that are more optimized for NVIDIA and AMD. From personal experience with a GTX 960 2GB I can pretty much fully max out GTA 5 (high textures, everything else maxed) and maintain a pretty constant 40-50FPS, however I have two GTX 960's now and get around 80FPS on maximum settings all around the board.

Also the GTX 960 can use all 4GB's of VRAM due to delta color compression.

What exactly does DCC have to do with anything? Yes. it reduces the bandwidth requirements by up to 25%, but that's not the problem. The problem with the GTX 960 is that it will choke from lack of raw power long before that 4gb buffer can ever be filled. Even if you were to throw more bandwidth at it, it just lacks the raw horsepower to go anywhere. It is a 1080p card, that's it. In fact, it can't even max ALL 1080p titles, so i still imply that term loosely. 

 

As far as best sub $200 card, that simply is not true. You can argue its price:performance might be better than some in that category, but to say its better than all cards under $200, by far? Sorry, that is just not true. The GTX 960 has plenty of offerings at $180, and the same can be said of the R9 380. Both of which outperform the 950. That alone prevents the 950 from "being the best by far".

 

Honestly, the only thing that matters, is getting the most performance for your money. Brand means nothing. GTX 950 and GTX 960 are great if you absolutely need the Nvidia proprietary features, and don't have a lot to spend. Otherwise, AMD dominates that price bracket. Anyone with access to the internet can google plenty of benchmarks to back that claim. 

[i_build_nanosuits]

snip!

agree...the 960 should be cheaper and nvidia should have a 960ti to compete with the 380.

The 380 is like 15 to 20% faster in benchmarks and games...it's not even funny and they ask the same.

i have no problem with the 970 vs 390 they are fairly similar in performance therefore can cost the same both are good choices for different reasons but the 960 i'm sorry but you aint gonna run gameworks features or advanced physics on such a weak ass card anyways...

[MageTank]

agree...the 960 should be cheaper and nvidia should have a 960ti to compete with the 380.

Honestly, i still don't think a 960 Ti would work. The GTX 970 is barely a 1440p card. In fact, i think the current 970 should have been called the GTX 960 Ti. Maybe then people wouldn't have been so bummed during the debacle that shall not be named.

[i_build_nanosuits]

Honestly, i still don't think a 960 Ti would work. The GTX 970 is barely a 1440p card. In fact, i think the current 970 should have been called the GTX 960 Ti. Maybe then people wouldn't have been so bummed during the debacle that shall not be named.

the 970 still has time to shine i wouldnt call it dead just yet though, it's still a powerful GPU and it can certainly play games at 1440p relatively well if my 780 is doing it no reason a 970 couldnt...but i see what you mean the 980ti is so so strong up above it would have been nice to have something a bit stronger...but it's still priced well for what the 970 has to offer if you like nvidia features and a card that can overclock a ton and remain cool and quiet.

[MageTank]

the 970 still has time to shine i wouldnt call it dead just yet though, it's still a powerful GPU and it can certainly play games at 1440p relatively well if my 780 is doing it no reason a 970 couldnt...but i see what you mean the 980ti is so so strong up above it would have been nice to have something a bit stronger...but it's still priced well for what the 970 has to offer if you like nvidia features and a card that can overclock a ton and remain cool and quiet.

I mean no disrespect towards the 970. It is by far the best price:performance GPU Nvidia has done in recent years. It can game at 1440p for most titles, but it cannot max all of them. I just feel that the gaps between performance, and pricing of the higher end Nvidia GPU's are too large. Look at the 980 Ti and Titan X. $350 price difference, but almost no difference in performance in gaming. 980 Ti is only $100-$150 more than a 980, but performs so much better. GTX 980 is $200 more than a GTX 970, but only performs 20% faster on average.

 

It just feels... weird. I know there must be premiums for higher end hardware, but honestly, at this point, only the GTX 970 and GTX 980 Ti make sense. 

[i_build_nanosuits]

I mean no disrespect towards the 970. It is by far the best price:performance GPU Nvidia has done in recent years. It can game at 1440p for most titles, but it cannot max all of them. I just feel that the gaps between performance, and pricing of the higher end Nvidia GPU's are too large. Look at the 980 Ti and Titan X. $350 price difference, but almost no difference in performance in gaming. 980 Ti is only $100-$150 more than a 980, but performs so much better. GTX 980 is $200 more than a GTX 970, but only performs 20% faster on average.

 

It just feels... weird. I know there must be premiums for higher end hardware, but honestly, at this point, only the GTX 970 and GTX 980 Ti make sense.

yeah, but the titanX is like this halo product that only the hardcore enthusiasts should even consider...and the 980 used to be the best until the full blown GM200 came out...it's price should have gone down a bit more than it has IMHO that's where the problem lies...if the 970 was 20$ cheaper on average it would make it cheaper than the 390 (it's already cheaper in many countries though...many sites have the 390 noticeably more expensive over in europe and asia) and the 980 should cost the same as the 390X+20$ since the 980 is a faster card.

They are not too far off, but considering the AMD cards have more memory and nvidia DX12 performance is still unknown but does not look to be that promising i think they should realign the prices fairly soon to stay competitive or just launch some new GPU's...

[GammaProX]

does the GTX950 only take a 8 pin power connecter? 

[i_build_nanosuits]

does the GTX950 only take a 8 pin power connecter?

depend on the model i think...most of them only have a single 6 or 8pin yes.

EDIT: in fact i'm looking at it and it looks like most of them use only a single 6 pin...very energy efficient.

The ''higher-end'' 950's that are more geared toward overclocking have the 8pin connector but i do not recommend you buy one of these since they cost about the same as a cheap 960 which will outperform an overclocked 950 every day of the week.

[GammaProX]

depend on the model i think...most of them only have a single 6 or 8pin yes.

EDIT: in fact i'm looking at it and it looks like most of them use only a single 6 pin...very energy efficient.

The ''higher-end'' 950's that are more geared toward overclocking have the 8pin connector but i do not recommend you buy one of these since they cost about the same as a cheap 960 which will outperform an overclocked 950 every day of the week.

what do you think i should get? my CPU is a X4 760k so i dont want it to bottle neck. i was thinking of this http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeForce-Cooling-Graphics-02G-P4-2958-KR/dp/B013WQC9U2 its a little abouve my proce but my mom might be able to cover it

[i_build_nanosuits]

what do you think i should get? my CPU is a X4 760k so i dont want it to bottle neck. i was thinking of this http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeForce-Cooling-Graphics-02G-P4-2958-KR/dp/B013WQC9U2 its a little abouve my proce but my mom might be able to cover it

ohh yeah with that CPU honestly AMD is out of the equation because AMD DX11 drivers require a lot more CPU overhead..that means that you need a more powerful CPU to be able to get good framerates...so in your situation i would stick to nvidia unless you plan a platform upgrade to a faster intel CPU soon or something.

About the card on amazon...it's grossly overpriced...this is what a 950 is worth:

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-video-card-gtx9502gd5toc

if your mom can bump your budget to 200$ then this mean you should get this card instead:

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-video-card-gtx9604gd5toc

it might be abit fast for your CPU, but a stronger GPU is always better it will still allow you to run better settings especialy the GPu demanding ones such as higher anti-aliasing and texture filtering for example.

You game at 1080p?

If you really want a 950 for the low power consumption and absolutely want to order from amazon, this is the best deal they have right now:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0148UVZ5G/?tag=pcpapi-20

This card is VERY quiet too...one of the quietest GPU available actually...this is a top of the line fan and it's big and it will keep the card very cool and quiet...it's a good product for people on budget.

[GammaProX]

ohh yeah with that CPU honestly AMD is out of the equation because AMD DX11 drivers require a lot more CPU overhead..that means that you need a more powerful CPU to be able to get good framerates...so in your situation i would stick to nvidia unless you plan a platform upgrade to a faster intel CPU soon or something.

About the card on amazon...it's grossly overpriced...this is what a 950 is worth:

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-video-card-gtx9502gd5toc

if your mom can bump your budget to 200$ then this mean you should get this card instead:

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-video-card-gtx9604gd5toc

it might be abit fast for your CPU, but a stronger GPU is always better it will still allow you to run better settings especialy the GPu demanding ones such as higher anti-aliasing and texture filtering for example.

You game at 1080p?

my moniter is 1280x1024 so i game at that. im hoping in to get 1080p moniter in august. still a ways away