Nvidia GeForce GTX 960 Review: feat. Asus

Asus Strix GeForce GTX 960 DirectCU II OC 2GB Review - The Card

Manufacturer: Asus
UK price (as reviewed): £189.95 (inc VAT)
US price (as reviewed): TBC

With the launch of the GTX 970, we saw Asus's Strix model, and the Strix variant of the GTX 960 has a similar design and features. The two 80mm fans carry the owl eye design. The black and red shroud is formed from plastic, but it's solid, and the metal backplate increases the card's rigidity too.


Bundled in the box is a DVI to VGA adaptor and a driver CD with the latest version of the GPU Tweak overclocking and monitoring software, which now features the Xsplit Gamecaster streaming and recording software.

The card is slightly taller than the PCI bracket edge by about 17mm, but should still fit into most SFF cases without any issues. The PCB is 175mm long but the cooler takes the total length to 215mm. Asus has stuck to the single 6-pin power input, equipping it with a red LED that turns white to let you know you've properly connected it. It also has stuck with the reference set of display outputs, so there's plenty of flexibility.


The default clock is 1,228MHz (1,291MHz boost), a 9 percent increase over stock. However, the card also has a further OC mode, and this is actually the speed it was running at out of the box, and is the speed we'll be testing at. This is 1,253MHz (1,317MHz boost), which is 11 percent faster than the reference speeds. We were also pleased to discover that the memory frequency has been increased to 7.2GHz as well, a small but welcome 3 percent boost.


With these speeds, Asus claims its card is up to 12 percent faster than reference, although this is hard to demonstrate as there's no true reference cards. Furthermore, even at reference clocks, different cards will perform differently based on how their boost profiles have been programmed.

The Strix GTX 960 is outfitted with the DirectCU II cooler with 0dB fan technology. The fans are controlled together by a single 4-pin header, and remain completely off up to a certain temperature, which in this case is 55-57°C. Asus claims its card is 30 percent cooler and 3 times quieter than reference, although again there's no true reference model to compare to.


The cooler comprises four U-shaped, nickel-plated heat pipes. Only the two 8mm ones in the centre make direct contact with the tiny GPU, but each of these has a secondary 6mm heat pipe soldered to it for more heat transfer. The fins on the cooler are not too dense, and span essentially the whole length of the card. They are not fully enclosed by the shroud, so warm air will be exhausted in all directions, including into your case.


The PCB reveals a 4+1 phase power arrangement. As always with Asus's higher-end cards, the card features Asus's Super Alloy Power components here, including concrete alloy chokes for reducing buzzing, longer lifespan capacitors and MOSFETs that are said to provide a 30 percent higher threshold for better overclocking. These MOSFETs have their own small, black heatsink to keep them cool.


Finally, we also see the same Samsung K4G41325FC-HC28 memory chips used on all GTX 970s and GTX 980s (that we've seen, at least). Two are found on the GPU side, and two on the rear, though none are directly cooled by the cooler or backplate, as there are no thermal contact pads on them. That said, we've never found that this affects their overclocking potential.

Specifications

• Graphics processor Nvidia GeForce GTX 960, 1,253MHz (boost 1,317MHz)
  
• Pipeline 1,024 stream processors, 64 texture units, 32 ROPs
  
• Memory 2GB GDDR5, 7.2GHz effective
  
• Bandwidth 115.2GB/sec, 128-bit interface
  
• Compatibility DirectX 12, OpenGL 4.5
  
• Outputs/Inputs 3 x DisplayPort 1.2, Dual Link DVI-I, HDMI 2.0
  
• Power connections 1 x 6-pin PCI-E, top-mounted
  
• Size 215mm long, dual-slot
  
• Warranty Three years