MSI GeForce GTX 960 Gaming 2G

The GTX 960 sees Nvidia finally bringing its Maxwell architecture to the all-important mid-range market. It replaces GTX 760, but it’s designed more as an upgrade for GTX 660 and GTX 560 users, which still make up a large portion of the market. The GTX 960 starts at £160, and MSI’s card is one of the cheaper models at £170. It mainly competes with AMD’s R9 285 (£175) and R9 280 (£150).

The GTX 960 uses GM206, a new 28nm, 2.94 billion-transistor GPU with a 227mm2 die. It’s equipped with eight Maxwell streaming multiprocessors (SMMs) split evenly across two GPCs for a total of 1,024 stream processors and 64 texture units. By comparison, the GTX 660 has 960 stream processors and the GTX 760 actually has more (1,152), but the new, streamlined SMM design means each stream processor does approximately 1.4 times more work than those in an equivalent Kepler GPU. The GTX 960 has a reference base clock of 1,127MHz  (boost 1,178MHz), but MSI has overclocked it to 1,216MHz (boost 1,279MHz).

With just two memory controllers, the GTX 960’s memory interface is narrow at 128-bit, and its 2GB frame buffer is small as well – AMD’s competing cards have at least 256-bit interfaces and some have 3GB of GDDR5. However, Nvidia has ways of negating the impact of its relatively low-spec memory system. Firstly, it uses a large1MB L2 cache, reducing calls to main memory. It also uses fast (7GHz effective) memory.

However, this setup still only provides a total memory bandwidth of 112GB/sec (compared to 192GB/sec on the GTX 760 and 176GB/sec on the R9 285). As such, Nvidia also employs its third-generation delta colour compression technology, which reduces the bytes needed per frame by around 25 per cent on average. However, this system relies on the data being lossless-compressible, which won’t always be the case – there are definitely some valid concerns about the longevity of the GTX 960, as games are being developed with ever higher resolution textures. Rounding out the specs is a set of 32 ROPs, meaning the back end of the GPU shouldn’t be a bottleneck, even at 2,560 x 1,440.

Maxwell’s efficiency is immediately obvious, as the GTX 960 requires just one 6-pin PCI-E power connection. MSI has upgraded it to an 8-pin socket, potentially providing more power for overclocking, but also includes an adaptor for 6-pin cables so people with older PSUs can still use it.

The card has ample display connections, with HDMI 2 support being a first for this market segment. The GTX 960 can support up to 5K resolutions too, and up to four 4K MST displays. The GTX 960’s dedicated encode/decode hardware block (NVENC) now offers full encode and decode for H.265 content as well, which is good news for budding HTPC owners. Naturally, G-Sync is fully supported, as are other graphics rendering and display technologies introduced with the GTX 980, such as MFAA and DSR.

Meanwhile, MSI’s Twin Frozr V cooler is very large, measuring 270mm long and being around 30mm taller than an expansion slot bracket. It has an open, plastic shroud, meaning hot air will mostly be exhausted into your case. Heat is drawn away from the GPU via a baseplate and three nickel-plated copper heatpipes, and then dispersed by two large downdraft fans, which will switch off entirely if the core temperature is low enough.

MSI uses its Military Class 4 components in the 4+1 phase power system, with the MOSFETs also cooled by their own small heatsink. The memory chips, however, aren’t directly cooled.

By and large, you’ll have the same experience on a GTX 970 as a GTX 760 – MSI’s card is only 5 per cent faster than a 760 on average, even with its overclock. The GTX 960 has less of an advantage at 2,560 x 1,440 too, where the GTX 760 actually beats it in Crysis 3, suggesting that the narrow memory interface and 2GB frame buffer could be limiting it in situations with very high-resolution textures. There isn’t much between the two GPUs in Battlefield 4, although the GTX 960 is slightly quicker in BioShock: Infinite.

Next to the GTX 660, however, the new GPU has a lot more horsepower, with MSI’s here being 35 per cent quicker on average. In Battlefield 4 and Crysis 3, it jumps from around 30 to 40 at 1080p. Meanwhile, in BioShock Infinite, it’s comfortably above 60 at 1080p and 30 at 2,560 x 1,440 – both targets that the GTX 660 fails to meet.

Against AMD hardware, it isn’t so good. Again, we’re talking small differences, but the R9 280 beats it in Battlefield 4. The MSI GTX 960 has no particular advantage over the R9 280 or R9 285 in BioShock Infinite either, and although it manages the top spot in Crysis 3 at 1080p, it loses to both AMD GPUs at 2,560 x 1,440. To be fair, though, none of these GPUs achieved a playable frame rate in Crysis 3 at this resolution anyway.

One factor that’s undeniable, though, is the GTX 960’s efficiency – this overclocked card consumes just 10W more than a GTX 660 and significantly less than the GTX 760, R9 280 and R9 285.

This efficiency translates into low temperatures and, thanks to the Twin Frozr V cooler, extremely low noise – it’s one of the quietest cards we’ve ever heard, with the fans reaching just 35 per cent speed (well under 1,000rpm) under load.

Overclocking also proved fruitful. We took the core to 1,345MHz (1,417MHz boost) and it boosted happily to over 1,520MHz. This 14 per cent overclock was paired with an 11 per cent overclock on the memory, which reached 7.8GHz (effective). Improvements in tests ranged from 10 to 14 per cent as a result, with only 12W more power consumed and no extra noise.

If you’re seeking a new graphics card purely to get the best raw gaming performance possible for your sub-£200 budget, then AMD’s mid-range Radeon hardware is a better bet at the moment, with all of its closest competing cards having more memory bandwidth too. However, if you want a mid-range card for a small form factor build, the GTX 960’s efficiency makes it well suited.

In terms of MSI’s card, it could easily be smaller, but the cooler is undeniably excellent. If you’re looking for a power-efficient, quiet mid-range graphics card, the MSI GeForce GTX 960 Gaming 2G is great, but you’ll get more performance for your money with AMD’s current mid-range GPU hardware. MATTHEW LAMBERT

SPECIFICATIONS
Graphics processor Nvidia GeForce GTX 960, 1,216MHz (boost 1,279MHz)
Pipeline 1,024 stream processors, 64 texture units, 32 ROPs
Memory 2GB GDDR5, 7GHz effective
Bandwidth 112GB/sec
Compatibility DirectX 12, OpenGL 4.5
Outputs/inputs 3 x DisplayPort, dual-link DVI-I, HDMI
Power connections 1 x 8-pin, top-mounted
Size 270mm long, dual-slot