Evga Geforce Gtx 1060 Gaming Acx 30 Review
When the GeForce GTX 750 Ti, Nvidia's first video card based on its current "Maxwell" compages, launched in early 2014, we were impressed more with its size and power efficiency than its performance. The tiny card was small enough to fit in many small-class-factor (SFF) cases, and its threescore-watt thermal design power (TDP) rating meant that stock versions of the carte du jour wouldn't fifty-fifty demand an external power connector, as the PCI Express slot tin can deliver upward to 75 watts all on its own.
At present, here we are roughly eighteen months removed from that card'due south launch, and Nvidia has filled out its Maxwell-based product line with, among others, the GeForce GTX 980 Ti on the acme end (excluding the similarly performing, super-pricey GeForce Titan X) and the GeForce GTX 960 in the lower middle. The GTX 960 has an MSRP of $199, but its current street prices start at $189.
AMD has updated its high-terminate cards in the meantime, with the Radeon R9 Fury (we reviewed an Asus Strix version of this card), the liquid-cooled AMD Radeon R9 Fury X, and an upcoming compact version of these, the Radeon R9 Nano. Simply Squad Cherry-red has stuck with tweaked versions of existing chips for its lower-end offerings, increasing the GPU clock speeds and adding more memory to their 200-series parts and rebranding them as the 300 series. In the $150 price range, that includes the Radeon R7 370, a card that we've but finished testing (in XFX trim, as you'll see in our performance charts in a bit), but that we haven't had a chance to fully review quite nonetheless.
Similar Products
You Can Trust Our Reviews
Since 1982, PCMag has tested and rated thousands of products to help yous make ameliorate buying decisions. (See how nosotros test.)
The most interesting thing about the Radeon R7 370 is that the fleck at its core is an iteration of the Radeon Hd 7850—a bill of fare that was first released way back in January of 2012. It's impressive that AMD has managed to keep that component competitive, but it'due south hard to become overly excited nigh a bill of fare that's now been through 3 generations. (The Radeon R7 265 was also based on the aforementioned GPU.)
Peradventure partially to have advantage of AMD'south creaky architecture in this toll segment, but also to provide mainstream gamers an upscale selection to the GTX 750 Ti (itself now more than a twelvemonth-and-a-half one-time) and the even older GTX 650, Nvidia is today rolling out the GeForce GTX 950.
The GTX 950, which sells for $169 in the overclocked EVGA GeForce GTX 950 SSC model nosotros tested, isn't meant expressly to supervene upon the GTX 750 Ti. That carte du jour volition live on, at least for now, which is a practiced thing considering that the GeForce GTX 950 is a much larger menu. (Our EVGA review menu was 10.i inches long and occupied two slots.)
The GTX 950 too requires an external power connector, due to its 90-watt TDP. Some versions will use a vi-pin connector, but the GTX 950 SSC we tested has an eight-pin connector to give it a higher power envelope for overclocking. (More on that later.)
And then, the not-so-expert news? The GeForce GTX 950 is far less suited to meaty cases and low-output power supplies (similar the ones yous might find inside a big-name budget desktop) than the GTX 750 Ti was. The better news for those who care more about functioning and features: Nvidia'due south new card is based on the same GM206 scrap that's constitute in the pricier GeForce GTX 960, just with some of its CUDA cores disabled.
That means the GTX 950 greatly outperforms the GTX 750 Ti, and it bests AMD's Radeon R7 370, besides, while getting shut to the operation of the GTX 960. It's a skilful fit for 1080p gamers, though in some of our tests at loftier settings, the card couldn't quite deliver polish frame rates at that resolution.
Those spending their gaming days on 1080p screens and who want to be able to switch on more than centre candy will want to pace up to a GeForce GTX 960-based card. The iii GTX 960s that nosotros have tested always delivered smooth gaming at 1080p in our tests. Given that some GTX 960 cards cost simply $20 more (stock versions currently start at $189), that'due south not a huge financial step to make.
But that also begs the question of why most people would opt for a $169 GeForce GTX 950 when $189 GTX 960s are readily bachelor. Bear in heed, though, that $xx is as narrow as the price difference gets. EVGA's GeForce GTX 950 SSC is one of the higher-end GTX 950 options that EVGA is offer. Stock versions of the carte du jour will offset at a more distant $159. We'd withal similar to come across the card beginning at $150 to set itself further apart from the GeForce GTX 960. Perhaps, as GTX 950 cards permeate the marketplace, resellers will discount it to allow for that more than natural margin of price breathing room.
Design and Features
Nvidia's Maxwell compages is mature at this point, and as mentioned, the GM206 chip at the centre of the GeForce GTX 950 is substantially the same every bit the core GPU found in the GTX 960. Then there's non a whole lot of "new" under the hood of EVGA's GeForce GTX 950 SSC.
Rather than rattle off a laundry list of specs, here'south a chart detailing the stock version of the bill of fare, direct from Nvidia…
With the GeForce GTX 950, you become two fewer Streaming Multiprocessors and a 25 percent reduction in CUDA cores versus the GTX 960. That may sound similar a big difference, simply as nosotros'll encounter later in testing, the GeForce GTX 950 hews a lot closer to the GTX 960 than the GTX 750 Ti.
The base clock besides drops more than than 100MHz when yous get from the stock version of the GTX 960 and 950. But the EVGA GTX 950 SSC makes up that ground with a base clock that's actually higher than that plant on the stock GTX 960. Here'south a chart showing the specifics of the EVGA card…
EVGA, equally one of Nvidia's panoply of bill of fare partners at the GTX 950 launch, will actually be offering up iv versions of the GTX 950. The Super Superclocked (SSC) is the penultimate model, with a GTX 950 "FTW" version offering upwards even higher clock speeds. Really, though, if you're trying to push even more performance out of the GTX 950 than this card offers, you lot should probably just opt for a GTX 960 outright, equipped with more CUDA cores and other hardware enabled.
Nvidia has likewise ushered in a slew of new gaming-axial features with its Maxwell lineup, including Dynamic Super Resolution (DSR) and MFAA. Nvidia is pushing the GTX 950 heavily for those interested in MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) gaming. For those non in the know, that includes hugely pop games such equally DOTA two and League of Legends. These games generally aren't about as demanding as titles like Thousand Theft Auto 5. Simply beyond merely the hordes of coincidental players, there are millions who watch MOBA tournaments (either online or on TV), and an increasingly large number of people are competing in tournaments, which, in some cases, offer millions in prize money.
For MOBA gamers, the GTX 950 should offer more than than enough horsepower to play that class of titles at 1080p and the very highest detail settings. In addition, Nvidia points out that, compared to an older card like the GeForce GTX 650 (now a three-year-old entry-level card), the GeForce GTX 950 cuts response times (also known as "input lag") down from 80ms to 45ms, thank you to faster return times and what it calls "latency optimizations."
We don't have a way to examination this, but we practise know that faster response is of import to serious MOBA players, because these games require near-constant mouse movements to control characters, much like in existent-time strategy (RTS) games. The company'southward GeForce Experience (GFE) software will also feature i-click optimization for discrete MOBA games, which will tweak refresh and frame rates, also as latency and paradigm quality.
That existence said, we suspect those who are truly obsessed with MOBA operation would opt for slightly higher-end hardware (such as a GTX 960 or 970) to allow for more than performance overhead. In add-on, if you're entering high-level MOBA tournaments, in that location'due south a skilful chance that you'll have to use the hardware provided by the tournament organizer itself (to ensure a level playing field, and that no one has an unfair hardware advantage). So, the benefits of the GeForce GTX 950 (and other Maxwell cards that gain the optimizations through GFE) volition likely apply either to tournament gamers as a whole (if everyone is running Maxwell hardware), or to more amateur gamers, who may or may not encounter a substantive performance boost from lower latency. All we can say for certain: We're certainly not good enough at these kinds of games to feel the demand to cut our input latency. Our skills are the problem, not the game.
A Look at EVGA's GTX 950 Super SuperClocked
Every bit for EVGA's Super SuperClocked (SSC) version of the GTX 950, it looks quite similar to the company'southward GeForce GTX 960 SSC ACX 2.0+, which we looked at earlier in 2015.
Nosotros didn't wait a carte at this price to exist quite so big, though. The ten.1-inch-long GeForce GTX 950 SSC features a dual-width, dual-fan libation, with straight heat pipes that run vertically forth the length of the card...
You can see the pipes peeking out the abaft edge of the card here...
The company claims that this results in 6 percent better cooling than curved heat pipes. While we tin't verify that, we tin can say our card ran quietly under load, until we manually cranked the fan way up for overclocking (more on that soon). Aesthetically, the card is covered with an understated, clean-looking black-and-greyness shroud that isn't as flashy equally those on some other carte du jour designs. But we actually find the look of EVGA's carte refreshing.
Equally stated before, this card requires an 8-pivot power connector from your power supply (PSU)...
If your PSU doesn't have i, the company does include an adapter in the box. It will convert two vi-pin connectors to a unmarried eight-pin.
Only annotation that this card may tax your power supply more than the stock version's 90-watt rated TDP. The EVGA card has an "optimized power target" of up to 160 watts, versus 125 watts on the stock version of the card. The college ability draw should mean higher stable overclocks—at least, theoretically.
The bill of fare's connectors don't offer upwards whatever surprises. You get a DVI port, 3 full-size DisplayPorts, and an HDMI 2.0 connector.
HDMI 2.0 is of import for delivering 4K at 60Hz on new 4K TVs (which mostly lack DisplayPorts). AMD's nearly recent cards lack HDMI ii.0, only don't consider that a major win for this GTX 950-based bill of fare. You'll take to opt for a much pricier bill of fare to do whatever existent 4K gaming, anyway (even at 30Hz, let lonely 60Hz). Then its inclusion here, while welcome, is not a pregnant advantage over, say, cards based on AMD'south competing Radeon R7 370.
Performance Testing
Before we go into the dingy details of our criterion tests, it's important to note that nosotros tested this card at its out-of-the-box settings (that is, with a base clock speed of 1,190MHz). The menu comes factory-overclocked. You tin endeavour, of class, to overclock the carte du jour further.
EVGA's PrecisionX sixteen overclocking and GPU-monitoring app is one of our favorites for tweaking Nvidia cards. With it, nosotros were able to push the card 10 percent above its out-of-the-box speed (to a core clock of one,308MHz). Overclocking abilities tend to vary from bill of fare sample to card sample, so your mileage may vary. (More on our overclocking results later on on, afterward we run through our examination results at stock speeds.)
3DMark (Fire Strike)
We started off our testing with Futuremark's 2013 version of 3DMark, specifically the suite'south Fire Strike subtest. Fire Strike is a synthetic test designed to measure out overall gaming performance potential.
In the Graphics Subscore, which isolates our testbed's graphics hardware, the EVGA GTX 950 SSC landed an impressive 63 percent ahead of the stock GeForce GTX 750 Ti, and about thirteen percent backside EVGA's own GeForce GTX 960 SSC (a carte that currently costs virtually $210, or $twoscore more).
Heaven 4.0
Our Sky DirectX eleven benchmark test is not strictly a game, merely a demanding DirectX 11 conditioning that displays a complex, game-like graphics scenario. Information technology's developed by Unigine.
In this initial frame-rate exam, the GeForce GTX 950 managed to best the GTX 750 Ti by a full 50 percent at 1080p, while delivering a smooth 30 frames per 2nd (fps) and sticking reasonably shut to the costlier GeForce GTX 960. As you tin see from the higher resolutions, though, this carte (likewise as the GTX 960) isn't really upwardly to the task of gaming to a higher place 1080p unless you dial back your game settings quite a ways.
Aliens vs. Predator
Moving on to the less-demanding older DirectX 11 championship Aliens vs. Predator, the relative results were similar, although the frame rates were higher overall…
On this less-enervating test, the EVGA GeForce GTX 950 SSC didn't height the GTX 750 Ti by quite every bit much, only it notwithstanding left it far behind at 1080p, while hailing within 5fps of the GTX 960. AMD's Radeon R7 370, meanwhile, lagged 5fps behind Nvidia'southward newest carte du jour.
Tomb Raider
Here, we fired up the 2013 reboot of the classic title Tomb Raider, testing at two levels of detail and three resolutions. ("Ultimate" is a tougher workout than "Ultra.")
On the more-demanding Ultimate exam, the GTX 950 pulled further alee of XFX'due south version of the AMD Radeon R7 370 hither, every bit well as leaving the GTX 750 Ti further behind at 1080p. In that location's no question that the GTX 950 as a platform is a much better option for 1080p gaming over the GTX 750 Ti, if your case has the space and power-supply oomph for it. Only the GTX 960 tacked nigh another 10fps atop the performance of the GTX 950 at 1080p here. And stock versions of the GTX 960 commencement at just $20 more than than this model of the GTX 950. That'southward hard to ignore.
Unigine Valley
Next upwardly was Unigine'southward Valley benchmark test. Valley, like Unigine's Heaven, is not a game, but a graphical workout that'south a taxing measure out of DirectX eleven prowess.
Here, the AMD Radeon R7 370 stayed closer to the GTX 950, only it was even so substantively behind at 1080p, and the GeForce GTX 750 Ti lagged more than 10fps behind its newer Nvidia sibling. But the GTX 960 was still near 5fps ahead at 1080p, giving that card more overhead as new games get more demanding.
Sleeping Dogs
Adjacent, we rolled out the very enervating real-globe gaming benchmark test congenital into the championship Sleeping Dogs…
On this test, the EVGA GeForce GTX 950 was nearly 75 percentage faster than the GTX 750 Ti at 1080p—a stunning margin for a carte du jour that's one step upwardly the functioning stack and part of the same bill of fare generation. AMD'south Radeon R7 370 connected to lag about 7fps behind at 1080p, while the GeForce GTX 960 did substantively amend than the lesser cards hither.
Bioshock Space
The popular championship Bioshock Infinite isn't overly demanding, every bit recent games go, but it's a popular ane with stellar good looks. In its congenital-in criterion program, we set the graphics level to the highest preset (Ultra+DDOF)…
The aforementioned trends continued here, with the GeForce GTX 950 leaving the GeForce GTX 750 Ti far behind. The Radeon R7 370 didn't quite become routed, just it wasn't terribly shut to the competing card, either. And the GeForce GTX 960 continued to make the case for spending a niggling extra, by adding near 10fps to the GTX 950's numbers at 1080p.
Metro: Terminal Light
Side by side, we ran the benchmark exam congenital into the very demanding game Metro: Last Light. We used the Very Loftier preset at each resolution…
Here, we started to see the GeForce GTX 950 SSC choke, slipping below 30fps, while the GTX 960 was able to stay a few fps higher up that line. Both the Radeon R7 370 and GeForce GTX 750 Ti just couldn't cutting information technology hither, delivering choppy performance at 1080p.
Hitman: Absolution
Last upwardly was Hitman: Absolution, another recent game that's hard on a video card at its highest settings.
On this final test, the XFX Radeon R7 370 pulled off an upset, at 1080p tying the GTX 960 and outpacing the GTX 950 by near 3fps, while the GTX 750 Ti dipped below 20fps. We're non sure exactly why the XFX Radeon R7 370 carte did so well hither, but its showing at 2,560x1,600 leads us to believe its 1080p run might be a fluke, peculiarly considering how the GTX 950 SSC consistently bested information technology past a substantive amount on all our other tests.
Overclocking
As noted earlier, we were able to push the EVGA GeForce GTX 950 SSC'due south clock speed ten percent beyond the out-of-the-box speed, up to ane,308MHz, thanks to a 20 per centum increase in the "ability target" settings. At those settings, the bill of fare ran through our total criterion suite without a crash or a performance hitch.
With our overclock, the EVGA carte du jour delivered a 3DMark Burn down Strike Graphics Score of 7,187, a roughly six percent boost over the carte du jour's out-of-the-box score on the same test (half-dozen,792). Nosotros also reran most of our other game tests with the overclocked settings in play at 1080p. In general, that resulted in ii or 3 extra frames per second on our game benchmarks, with the exception of Hitman: Absolution, which simply added an extra frame per sec, because the frame rate there was lower overall.
Determination
Looked at as a step-up card from the GeForce GTX 750 Ti, the GeForce GTX 950 Ti delivers a very impressive amount of added performance—at to the lowest degree in the form of the overclocked EVGA SSC card we tested. With real-earth gains at 1080p often topping 50 percentage over the older carte du jour, it'southward a much ameliorate pick for those who are focused primarily on performance at 1080p. But it'southward also a larger, ability-greedier card that expressly requires a secondary power connector, something the stock GeForce GTX 750 Ti didn't.
The GeForce GTX 950 SSC too substantively bested AMD'southward Radeon R7 370 at 1080p in our testing in all but one exam. Given that in that card, AMD is working with a reworked 2012-era chip, that'southward non terribly surprising. But the AMD card besides sold for almost $10 to $20 less than this GeForce GTX 950 version when nosotros wrote this. So, if your budget is tight, it may be worth considering.
The bigger competitive "problem," if y'all might phone call it that, for the GeForce GTX 950 lies with Nvidia's own GTX 960, which currently starts at about $189. That's about $twenty more than the EVGA GTX 950 SSC we tested, or $30 more than basic versions of the GeForce GTX 950 with less elaborate coolers and less aggressive (if any) out-of-the-box overclocking.
If you're playing simply MOBA games that aren't that demanding, then paying extra for one of the many GTX 960 cards out there might not make a lot of sense—at least in the short term. Merely as we saw with some of our more-demanding benchmarks, the GeForce GTX 950 SSC couldn't ever deliver frame rates above 30fps at very high settings, while the GTX 960 did.
Considering that both cards are about the same size in most iterations (nigh ten inches long) and take similar power requirements, we call up most gamers with a 1080p monitor would exist better off spending a footling extra for the GeForce GTX 960—especially if they want a card that they won't want to upgrade in the next twelvemonth or so.
If you tin find a GeForce GTX 950 carte of some stripe—not necessarily the EVGA SSC version—for virtually $150, it would be a worthwhile savings off of pricier alternatives. But if you lot're going to spend $160 or $170, we'd propose skipping a few gourmet coffees and using the savings to pace up to a card based on the GeForce GTX 960 or AMD's Radeon R9 380. Both evangelize noticeably amend performance, and both start at about $190.
EVGA GeForce GTX 950 SSC
The Bottom Line
This affordable graphics card offers a marked performance heave over the GeForce GTX 750 Ti while running quietly, though it can't quite maintain smooth frame rates at the highest settings.
Like What You're Reading?
Sign upward for Lab Report to become the latest reviews and summit product advice delivered correct to your inbox.
This newsletter may comprise advertisement, deals, or chapter links. Subscribing to a newsletter indicates your consent to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Yous may unsubscribe from the newsletters at any fourth dimension.
Source: https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/evga-geforce-gtx-950-ssc
0 Response to "Evga Geforce Gtx 1060 Gaming Acx 30 Review"
Post a Comment