EVGA Announces the GeForce GTX 950 Low Power Graphics Card

[btarunr]

The EVGA GeForce GTX 950 features a true gaming GPU designed for every PC gamer. It's built to the exact specifications of the GeForce GTX family and powered by NVIDIA Maxwell - the most advanced GPU architecture ever created - to deliver 3x the performance of previous-generation cards. More powerful than any console, this card delivers a truly interactive, cinematic experience in the latest games with advanced effects driven by NVIDIA GameWorks and DirectX 12.

The EVGA GeForce GTX 950 is now available in special low power models, but still retains all the performance intact. In fact, several of these models do not even have a 6-Pin power connector. Learn more at this page.



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[rruff]

Some with a slight OC are even running on slot only. No mention of how this "magic" is achieved.

 

[chlamchowder]

Aside from not requiring an additional power input (which is cool), it'd be great to see single slot cards again. It shouldn't be that hard - the 8800 GT was a 125W card and had a single slot cooler. The GTX 950 and 960 are 90W and 120W cards, respectively.

 

[L.ccd]

So in the end, are these low-power 950s the "950 SE" that nvidia was supposed to introduce last March, as announced here ? http://www.techpowerup.com/220126/nvidia-readies-geforce-gtx-950-se-graphics-card.html

Also, are there any reviews confirming that they indeed "retain all the performance intact"?

 

[rruff]

No reviews, but the processor clocks are a little over reference so they should perform at that level anyway. GTX 950s will typically OC to ~20% performance boost over reference though, and you won't be getting that with these slot only cards.

Other reports mentioned that high efficiency VRMs were responsible for saving power.

 

[RejZoR]

Now I feel tempted to fiddle with my GTX 980 and tune it down in such a way that I'd undervolt it as much as possible without hindering its clocks much if at all. I've clocked it high and made it hotter and louder, but going the other direction should be fun as well

 

[rruff]

Now I feel tempted to fiddle with my GTX 980 and tune it down in such a way that I'd undervolt it as much as possible without hindering its clocks much if at all. I've clocked it high and made it hotter and louder, but going the other direction should be fun as well

I went to undervolt my 950 but Nvidia Inspector only allows overvolting. Would I need a bios hack?

 

[RejZoR]

Yeah, Maxwell II Tweaker allows downvolting/undervolting. You just have to be careful to not go too low, otherwise you could make it unbootable and you'll have to flash it using backup card. So be careful with that. Don't touch voltages within 2D workload range and you should be fine. In that case you'll at least be able to easily use Windows and flash it, even if it can't actually run anything 3D.

 

[rruff]

So when you undervolt it drops even the idle voltage? Right now mine is running at .843v. If not then I wonder why it would fail to boot?

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

I went to undervolt my 950 but Nvidia Inspector only allows overvolting. Would I need a bios hack?

EVGA precision x allows you to undervolt IIRC. Afterburner allows it on a card by card basis.

 

[hojnikb]

Are we gonna get a review of one of those low power 950gtx cards ?

 

[W1zzard]

Are we gonna get a review of one of those low power 950gtx cards ?

I have the ASUS card coming in

 

[rruff]

EVGA precision x allows you to undervolt IIRC. Afterburner allows it on a card by card basis.

Thanks for the tip. I'm definitely not going to bios hack, and I may not even try new software. I was just curious. I have my card OC'd to the max (on stock voltage) and that's how I plan to keep running it.

 

[Ruru]

I've always thought that even 960 was fairly mid-end card when released over a year ago, and a gimped chip from it, has been a highest performance low-end card, so it should have been released without a 6-pin when the reference card came out.. but that's just my opinion. I rather get older, higher performance (and more power hungry, but I don't care about that, I just want performance) cards for the price of newer low-performance cards.

But as I said, that's just my opinion. Last time when I bought a new card, it was R9 280 because it was cheap. Otherwise I'd bought an used 7950 since it's the same card, but with a lesser warranty period.

 

[rruff]

it should have been released without a 6-pin when the reference card came out.

Check the TPU reviews of the 950s. Power consumption is typically way over the 95W rating. Getting one to run over reference clocks with <70W is quite an achievement.

The only thing I've seen to account for it is high efficiency VRMs. I guess we will see when W1zzard tests it.

 

[Ruru]

Check the TPU reviews of the 950s. Power consumption is typically way over the 95W rating. Getting one to run over reference clocks with <70W is quite an achievement.

The only thing I've seen to account for it is high efficiency VRMs. I guess we will see when W1zzard tests it.

Damn, is that truly so? I have to admit that I don't read every review, so I understand if I am wrong. Can't they cherrypick the chips with a little leakage for low-power models or something like that?

 

[L.ccd]

Yeah, that's probably what they're doing too.

 

[jabbadap]

Aside from not requiring an additional power input (which is cool), it'd be great to see single slot cards again. It shouldn't be that hard - the 8800 GT was a 125W card and had a single slot cooler. The GTX 950 and 960 are 90W and 120W cards, respectively.

Well those were noisy things... In quadro line there are still many single slot cards i.e. m4000 aka "8GB gtx970":
https://www.pny.com/nvidia-quadro-m4000?sku=VCQM4000-PB&type=m