Thursday, January 15th 2015

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 Specs Confirmed

by
btarunr
 Discuss (119 Comments)
Here's what NVIDIA's upcoming performance-segment GPU, the GeForce GTX 960, could look like under the hood. Key slides from its press-deck were leaked to the web, revealing its specs. To begin with, the card is based on NVIDIA's 28 nm GM206 silicon. It packs 1,024 CUDA cores based on the "Maxwell" architecture, 64 TMUs, and possibly 32 ROPs, despite its 128-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, which holds on to 2 GB of memory. The bus may seem narrow, but NVIDIA is using a lossless texture compression tech, that will effectively improve bandwidth utilization.

The core is clocked at 1127 MHz, with 1178 MHz GPU Boost, and the memory at 7.00 GHz (112 GB/s real bandwidth). Counting its texture compression mojo, NVIDIA is beginning to mention an "effective bandwidth" figure of 9.3 GHz. The card draws power from a single 6-pin PCIe power connector, the chip's TDP is rated at just 120W. Display outputs will include two dual-link DVI, and one each of HDMI 2.0 and DisplayPort 1.2. In its slides, NVIDIA claims that the card will be an "overclocker's dream" in its segment, and will offer close to double the performance over the GTX 660. NVIDIA will launch the GTX 960 on the 22nd of January, 2015.
Source: VideoCardz

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119 Comments on NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 Specs Confirmed

#101
rtwjunkie
PC Gaming Enthusiast
mxp02New games in 2015 will cost 2GB or more vram @720p.There were several games cost more than 2GB vram @1080p already last year.
Read up, and read the other 960 thread. It's not looking like it. RCoon is doing an in depth test. Some of you guys are way too pessimistic. Despite what you think, 2GB cards are not really using all their RAM at 1080p. Not even close on most of them.

And welcome to TPU!
Posted on Reply
#102
mxp02
rtwjunkieRead up, and read the other 960 thread. It's not looking like it. RCoon is doing an in depth test. Some of you guys are way too pessimistic. Despite what you think, 2GB cards are not really using all their RAM at 1080p. Not even close on most of them.

And welcome to TPU!
I'm pretty sure if you want to run games which look better than those in 2014 at 1080p high(not highest) smoothly(avg 50fps+ min 30fps maybe minor lag/stutter) this year,a card like GTX780 3GB is required.For highest setting 1080p~1440p,very smooth(min 50fps) a full size maxwell(maybe 990ti) is requried.
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#103
rtwjunkie
PC Gaming Enthusiast
mxp02I'm pretty sure if you want to run games which look better than those in 2014 at 1080p high(not highest) smoothly(avg 50fps+ min 30fps maybe minor lag/stutter) this year,a card like GTX780 3GB is required.For highest setting 1080p~1440p,very smooth(min 50fps) a full size maxwell(maybe 990ti) is requried.
You are missing the whole point of this card. It's meant to be affordable part of an affordable build. It's meant to be "pretty good" graphics-wise. There have always been very affordable models that will not play everything at max.

And thay's ok! Those are the volume models that bring people into pc gaming because that's all they can afford, giving them a fairly decent experience. These are where the money is at for both companies.
Posted on Reply
#104
64K
rtwjunkieYou are missing the whole point of this card. It's meant to be affordable part of an afgordable build. It's meant to be "pretty good" graphics-wise. There have always been very affordable models that will not play everything at max.

And thay's ok! Those are the volume models that bring people into pc gaming because that's all they can afford, giving them a fairly decent experience. These are where the money is at for both companies.
I'm jumping the gun a bit (need to wait for W1zard's review) but I think this GTX 960, if priced at $200, will be a very nice GPU for 1080p gaming. No, it won't do ultra settings on every game but I think it will deliver solid performance at that price point.
Posted on Reply
#105
Tsukiyomi91
To put this simple coz there are some who just can't get the full picture... the GTX960 fills the gap where buying a $350 video card proves too much for the majority of PC gamers who dun have the money & wanted a decent card that runs all their fave games at High with no AA on 1920x1080 comfortably without compromise. It's sub-$200 price tag IS VERY competitive, it's performance is also very competitive for it's class & best of all; it doesn't really kill you wallet/pocket. It's now considered as the best bang for your buck VGA card, just like the GTX760 when it came out back in June 2013. Remember... there are folks who wanted good performance across 1080p resolutions while keeping a decent level of eye candy without spending much is key.
Posted on Reply
#107
Tsukiyomi91
ASUS Strix variant is quite on the expensive side IMO. If you want the really affordable card aim for either EVGA, Leadtek or Gigabyte as they offer their cards at a much better price, but depends on availability.
Posted on Reply
#108
mxp02
rtwjunkieYou are missing the whole point of this card. It's meant to be affordable part of an affordable build. It's meant to be "pretty good" graphics-wise. There have always been very affordable models that will not play everything at max.

And thay's ok! Those are the volume models that bring people into pc gaming because that's all they can afford, giving them a fairly decent experience. These are where the money is at for both companies.
No,not me,I didn't and won't want everything max out on this card.1080p gaming 60fps at high settings is what they said in the official ppt which looks kinda overrated as always.Just suppose the ppt is not exaggerated,then read the tiny remarks below carefully ,those games were relesed in 2014 even 2013.Will this card be able to maintain 1080p gaming 60fps high settings in 2015?In my opinion,no way this gonna happen.What about 50 fps without severe lag/stutter?I seriouly doubt that.
Posted on Reply
#109
rtwjunkie
PC Gaming Enthusiast
mxp02No,not me,I didn't and won't want everything max out on this card.1080p gaming 60fps at high settings is what they said in the official ppt which looks kinda overrated as always.Just suppose the ppt is not exaggerated,then read the tiny remarks below carefully ,those games were relesed in 2014 even 2013.Will this card be able to maintain 1080p gaming 60fps high settings in 2015?In my opinion,no way this gonna happen.What about 50 fps without severe lag/stutter?I seriouly doubt that.
You're right, but it's not meant to be "future game proof." It's meant to provide the VAST majority of people who game on average hardware and who expect to replace a mid-grade card every year. And those people are just fine with how they play, with 20 up to 60 fps. 30 is still pretty darned playable.
Posted on Reply
#110
rruff
rtwjunkieYou're right, but it's not meant to be "future game proof."
Serious gamers must be a small % of the market. More are probably about like me... don't game all that much, and are ok with getting games that are a few years old that are almost free, and thoroughly patched and modded. If I was spending $500/yr on games, then sure it would make sense to spend a similar amount on hardware, but I don't. I bet Nvidia will sell a lot more 960s than 980s, and a lot more 750s than 960s. With a 750 you can play most 2014 games well enough, and one 2014 title (Divinity Original Sin) I have everything on Ultra, 1080p and it's 30-60 fps.

The 960 is half a GTX 980 (Nvidia's top card) and 2x a GTX 750 (bottom of the "gaming" range), so it seems pretty "midrange" to me. If it gets cheap by next BF it will be a big upgrade, but currently I'm not lusting after anything that my 750 can't handle.
Posted on Reply
#111
rtwjunkie
PC Gaming Enthusiast
rruffSerious gamers must be a small % of the market. More are probably about like me... don't game all that much, and are ok with getting games that are a few years old that are almost free, and thoroughly patched and modded. If I was spending $500/yr on games, then sure it would make sense to spend a similar amount on hardware, but I don't. I bet Nvidia will sell a lot more 960s than 980s, and a lot more 750s than 960s. With a 750 you can play most 2014 games well enough, and one 2014 title (Divinity Original Sin) I have everything on Ultra, 1080p and it's 30-60 fps.

The 960 is half a GTX 980 (Nvidia's top card) and 2x a GTX 750 (bottom of the "gaming" range), so it seems pretty "midrange" to me. If it gets cheap by next BF it will be a big upgrade, but currently I'm not lusting after anything that my 750 can't handle.
You are quite correct! Serious gamers, or those that buy top-end hardware are only a small percentage of the market. Most are like you and quite content with average, but still worthwhile performance.

You are exactly the kind of person Nvidia is marketing the 960 to. Cheers!
Posted on Reply
#112
Octavean
jabbadapAny word about video decoding options, tegra x1 has full h265/vp9 deocoding. Really hope this has too.
Reviews I have been skimming seem to indicate HEVC / H.265 encode and decode support for the GTX 960.
Posted on Reply
#113
Xzibit
OctaveanReviews I have been skimming seem to indicate HEVC / H.265 encode and decode support for the GTX 960.


Yes, Limited to 8-bit or lower.
Posted on Reply
#114
Nabarun
Apparently there's gonna be a 4GB variant of this card (from JJ's overview). I wonder if that's gonna make any difference to the 1080p segment. Anyway, please stop calling it a "$200 card", because it's not. Not here in India at least. Here all the 960s are priced around USD 300. Price/performance wise that's where I see the R9s winning. Although, cost of electricity being equally high here in this hell hole, we're f*cked both ways :banghead:
Posted on Reply
#115
HumanSmoke
NabarunAnyway, please stop calling it a "$200 card", because it's not. Not here in India at least. Here all the 960s are priced around USD 300
Well, you call it a $300 card, and everyone else who lives in a country where it is $200can call it a $200 card. Would that make you feel better?

I could say exactly the same thing about the R9 285 ( $NZ415or $US311 with free delivery! w00t), but I am well aware that my local pricing doesn't reflect that of the majority of markets.
Posted on Reply
#116
rruff
NabarunAnyway, please stop calling it a "$200 card", because it's not.
You... well maybe not you, but those of us in the US can choose from several at Newegg, ~$180 shipped on day one. So I call it a $180 card, and that will likely decline further very soon.
Posted on Reply
#117
Nabarun
Well, I rest my case. It's priced <= USD 200 in the US ONLY - not anywhere else in the world. So stop putting a false price tag on it.
Posted on Reply
#118
HumanSmoke
NabarunWell, I rest my case. It's priced <= USD 200 in the US ONLY - not anywhere else in the world. So stop putting a false price tag on it.
In a lot of cases that comes down to import tax structure of the countries concerned and how the AIB's allot initial shipments to the various geographic distribution areas. Even with 19% tax,these German/Austrian sellershave the cards at nowhere near $US300, and the R9 285 isn't any cheaper.
Posted on Reply
#119
Nabarun
Well, I appreciate your time in the market research. Here the tax rates are ABNORMALLY high. But the extremities are around 30% only. And If you are really interested about the current prices, look at my earlier post, ... or THIS.

"Import tax structure"

And, just to remind you, read btarunr's last 2 lines in his 960 sli review.
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