Palit GeForce GTX 960 Super JetStream review

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Conclusion

Conclusion

The GTX 960 has been received by consumers as an average product. However, we feel it performs better than expected, it's just that it is priced too high. With that in mind, if we focus in at all the board partner GTX 960 cards, a few stand out... and this Palit Super Jetstream certainly belongs in that category as well. This card in its default configuration has no noise levels that you can perceive with your ears, it is silent. Next to that it has a truly excellent factory overclock, nice looks and that performance (if you are at a monitor resolution of 1080P). As such, Palit brings a very nice product to the table. Where the reference cards operate at 70 to 80 degrees C, you'll notice that this puppy shaves off another (up-to) 15 degrees C on average under full load gaming conditions, roughly 67 degrees C is what we measured whilst the card remains whisper silent.

The product comes factory tweaked at a boost frequency which is impressive all by itself really. The card also has a raised power limiter, and as such we noticed it boosting on the dynamic clock frequency over 1400 MHz (!). And that is the savior of the GTX 960 really, a 128-bit memory bus and 2 GB of memory with a GPU shader count half that of the GTX 980. Despite all that, these cards do 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. I can't wait for 4 GB models, though such a release is not confirmed.

Maxwell GM206 GPU Overll Experience

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 2 GB 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 3 GB 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 more 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. Palit makes use of the Jetstream cooler offering roughly 225 Watts of cooling performance, it is one of the best dual-slot dual fan coolers to date. Expect the temperature to hover around the 67 Degrees C threshold with games that are harder on the GPU. Remember, that is factory overclocked cooling performance for you in the highest category. 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 over 1400 MHz.

Cooling VS. Noise Levels

Cooling wise we can’t complain, noise wise it is a downright excellent product. You can hear only a tiny bit of airflow, that's it. So expect sound pressure values in the 35~36 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 GTX 960 series overall is okay if you stick to 1080P. The biggest danger lies in the fact that 2 GB 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 2 GB, 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 1450~1500 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 1584 MHz 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.
 

 

Final Words

Palit has a tremendous well designed GTX 960 with the Super Jetstream edition. Price wise this board often hovers among the more budget friendly SKUs as well, hence we think you should really place this product on your shortlist if you are in the market for a GTX 960 graphics card. I simply do not have anything negative to state about the product. All boxes are ticked and that makes this an extremely competitive product. The Super Jetstream is one of the faster factory models available. It leads in performance due to the fact that it has the best noise levels (or lack of it) as well, that combined with a tweaked power limiter brings the best performance to this product out of all the cards we tested to date. 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.

I know that some of you have commented on handing out a Top Pick award to the GTX 960, but we look at the product category; out of all the GTX 960 cards available you'll see value builds, silent builds, OC builds with a lot of noise and sometimes a product like this one, within its category it deserves a Top Pick award as it really is an excellent product that ticks all the right boxes. But sure, the pricing level of the GTX 960 is too high and probably many of you have been wanting a 4GB model. Now, we are sure that in the March time-frame we'll see some 4 GB models, if you look at this card's backside, you can already see GDDR5 DRAM SMT traces where the extra DRAM ICs can be mounted. So this is why we hand out our Top Pick award, it is a super quality product done right within its range. GTX 960 obviously I would have liked to see with a bit more memory in this price class anno 2015, but perhaps that is wishful thinking. 

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