Gigabyte GeForce GTX 960 WindForce 2X OC review

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Conclusion

Conclusion

You know, I was seriously impressed with the G1 gaming edition of the GTX 960, but honestly, this is the cheaper product and once you tweak it a bit, it performs just as well. Sure the WindForce 2X cooler is a notch more audible once you overclock but it is so relative that you won't even mind that. Cooling wise the performance is great, noise wise ... there hardly is anything to hear. The WindForce 2X model has no backplate though, but other than that all lights are green. Six monitor connectors, proper cooling and even a small factory tweak to get a little more performance. Both to Gigabyte cards we tested end up roughly at the very same overclock clock frequencies, and from all brands we tested, the G1 Gaming and WindForce 2X edition overclock the best. These cards perform nicely for the 1080P gamers, the high clock frequency makes all the difference. So yes, if you are gaming at a monitor resolution up-to 1920x1080 then this product will be pleasant in terms of price versus performance versus a nice quiet product.

Maxwell GM206 GPU experience overall

The GeForce GTX 960 is a pretty complicated piece of technology in terms of what Nvidia offers to its partners and what they made out of it. I am afraid though that Nvidia took it a step too far trying to make the product as cheap as possible. Many of you will not get by the fact that the 128-bit memory bus combined with 2GB of graphics memory will cripple anything after 1080P. I think people could have lived with the 128-bit bus if the product would have had 3GB of graphics memory or the other way around. When you place all facts into perspective then we do feel the product is rather capable, but everybody certainly expected somewhat higher specs in this 200 EURO mainstream space. As such my bet is that we'll see a 960 Ti with maybe 256-bit / 1280 shader processors as well. But performance wise the product will sit in-between a GeForce GTX 760 and a Radeon R9 280 / 7970. Like the specs or not, this is still a respectable number.  Pricing wise, expect values in the 199 USD/EURO range with the luxurious boards being a tenner or two more expensive.

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Thermals

The reference products are set at an offset threshold of 80 degrees C, with a product of this cooling caliber, the numbers will be much lower. Gigabyte makes use of the WindForce 2X cooler offering 250 Watt cooling performance, it is one of the better dual-slot dual fan coolers to date. Expect the temperature to hover around the 55~60 Degrees C threshold with the games that are harder on the GPU. Remember, that is factory overclocked cooling performance for you. Thanks to the fairly low temps, the boost limiters do not kick in as fast and yeah, as stated, do not be surprised to see this card rendering your games at a boost frequency of 1400 MHz.

Cooling versus noise levels

Cooling wise we can’t complain, noise wise it is a good product. You can hear only a tiny bit of airflow, that's it. So expect sound pressure values in the 38 dBA range at best under load and warm circumstances. That's measured 75 CM away from the PC, thus a normal distance in-between you and your PC. That level is to be considered silent.

Performance

The performance of the GeForce 960 series overall is okay if you stick to 1080P. The biggest danger lies in the fact that 2GB of graphics memory these days isn't going to cut it with the modern game titles versus good image quality settings. Obviously you can forget about 2560x1440 WHQD resolution gaming, but considering the price, in all fairness we need to say, this is really a 1080P card. Again, the most tricky thing will be 2GB, once the card runs out of memory frames will start swapping back and forth in the frame-buffer, resulting in a performance loss. The only way to solve that is to lower AA settings or image quality overall. Overall it will be a fun and sweet Full HD gaming product and yeah, though the specs are a little less exciting, really we are not disappointed by the performance if 1920x1080 is your gaming domain.

Tweaking

Without extra voltage tweaking you can expect a 1468 MHz range for the boost clock frequency. Depending on how much your board will take and allow, with voltage tweaking you’ll reach the 1550 MHz range on the dynamic boost frequency quite easily. We reached a totally stable 1,56 GHz as maximum. Variables like your PC stability, power supply and so on are important to any overclock, keep that in mind. The memory is clocked standard at 7.0 GHz, you'll fairly easily achieve 7.5 GHz up towards 8 GHz, you should probably settle at 7.8 GHz for the best stability. Since this card is so limited with its 128-bit memory bus, tweaking that memory will help as it increases memory bandwidth and thus performance as it gives the GPU a little more space to breathe in.
 

 


Final Words

If you like a little more bang for buck then at 229 EURO/USD the WindForce 2X edition will work wonders. It is the cheaper GTX 960 available on the market, performs good and overclocks great. There are no real negatives build quality wise, sure the cooler has a tiny bit less performance and it has no backplate. But neither of the two are relevant enough to make it a negative comment. The cooler works really well, along with the G1 gaming it offers the best temperatures in the sub 60 Degrees C domain. From top to bottom, in terms of factory overclocked cards versus the several brands, the difference in FPS can be up-to 4 frames on average with a modern game and decent image quality settings. So what I am saying is that the ultra fast clocked version won't be heaps faster, do remember that when you open up your wallet. Purchasing this product to game at WQHD / 2560x1440 is not advised though, 1080P is the space and domain of the GeForce GTX 960. But at 1080P you can use pretty decent image quality settings. Obviously I would have liked to see a bit more memory in this price class anno 2015, but perhaps that is wishful thinking. Other than that, we really can recommend the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 960 WindForce 2X. Decent performance, totally silent and it runs really cool. Combined with the dark looks, we thing this is a terrific alternative to pursue or at the very least put on your short-list if you are in the market for a GeForce GTX 960.

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