I'm curious to as if this card would be an upgrade from my current GTX 660 (non Ti). I only game at 1080. Feels like I've had this card forever and @ $200 this would be something the warden would consider letting me afford

LOL the warden Yes it would be an upgrade, but nothing to write home about. Slightly less than GTX 660 ->680. OTOH 99 percentile FPS gains over GTX 660 are decent

LOL the warden Yes it would be an upgrade, but nothing to write home about. Slightly less than GTX 660 ->680. OTOH 99 percentile FPS gains over GTX 660 are decent

Im not sure this 99th percentile / dollar is really relevant in any case looking at their games lineup.. I like all what have done TR in the case of frametimes report instead of fps.. but in this case, why open with FC4 ( who still need some good patch and fix ) ? Dota2 ? who cares about frametimes in Dota2 ? why not use league of legend at this time ? ... Then we follow with Borderlands ( physX games, and i dont say that for AMD gpu#s ), and finally Alien Isolation and the most funny , Talos principle.. no idea what this is. Its extremely hard to find the resolution they are using or the setting, need to watch their screenshoot for find, that their pass from 1080p ( only one test ), to 1440p in another game, with or without AA depending the game.. ultra vs High ( as if everyone know what is the max setting of the game they are using )... well.. really really strange.. Then you need to see that they dont test the GTX960, they test only the Asus Strix ( 1316mhz boost official, but who boost at 1420mhz in average as other review have shown ). In reality there's absolutely no one reviewers who have got a reference GTX960, Nvidia have dont send to anyone a reference gpu, just after some plaint from some sites, they have got a reference bios that they have flash on the gpu's they have got ( for the most, the first gpu who was the Asus one ).. I like TR reviews, but in this case, i really dont understand what they was thinking when doing this review.

Im not sure this 99th percentile / dollar is really relevant in any case looking at their games lineup.. I like all what have done TR in the case of frametimes report instead of fps.. but in this case, why open with FC4 ( who still need some good patch and fix ) ? Dota2 ? who cares about frametimes in Dota2 ? why not use league of legend at this time ? ... Then we follow with Borderlands ( physX games, and i dont say that for AMD gpu#s ), and finally Alien Isolation and the most funny , Talos principle.. no idea what this is. Its extremely hard to find the resolution they are using or the setting, need to watch their screenshoot for find, that their pass from 1080p ( only one test ), to 1440p in another game, with or without AA depending the game.. ultra vs High ( as if everyone know what is the max setting of the game they are using )... well.. really really strange..

Come now Lane. This is unfair. Do you know of any other reviewer that uses Mantle numbers instead of D3D? We are talking about Tech - The world's greatest virtual concrete slab - Report Complaining about no 1080p, srsly.... "with or without AA depending the game"??? They tested Asus Stryx, which they clearly mention, because they didn't receive reference one. And this is mostly irrelevant because reference is hard to get, and this choice is mirrored in $209 price, power thermals etc. Although I would prefer, same like you to see reference results 1st.

This is one more reason to dont understand what they do ? why test with Mantle and not add DX and Mantle in it ? I dont say their test was irrevelant for AMD gpu'ss, i say their test is irrelevant for all Nvidia GPU's .. ( Who care about AMD gpu's in this tests, they are at best 3 years old ( 280-280x = 7950-7970 ) and Tonga who is just a little chips between the 280 and 285 ) The reference GTX 960 gpu is not hard to get, nobody have recieve a reference gpu... No reviewers, no one have got a reference gpu's ... After complaint of some sites about this, Nvidia have send them a bios that they have flash on the custom gpu for get a GTX960 performance baseline.. Its not a problem for customers, as finally they will never seen a reference GTX960 in shop. I dont complain about 1080p or 1440p, i said, they are test one game in 1080p, then the second in 1440p, and just provide a test resolution / game..

Oh, and the Radeons were tested with the Mantle API instead of Direct3D. Only seemed fair, since the game supports it.

http://abload.de/img/civbe_1440p_ultra_8xas9uhf.png

NOBODY have got a reference GTX960.... its not a problem for customers, as finally they will never seen a reference GTX960 in shop.

I still prefer to see the reference first. But it seems Nvidia is sneaky 😀 - compare that to 290/X, where you couldnt find 3rd party if your life had depended on it.

http://abload.de/img/civbe_1440p_ultra_8xas9uhf.png I still prefer to see the reference first. But it seems Nvidia is sneaky 😀 - compare that to 290/X, where you couldnt find 3rd party if your life had depended on it.

YOu speak about customers or reviewers ?

YOu speak about customers or reviewers ?

Both! There were no custom Hawaii cards at launch at all.

After months of waiting and some pretty high expectations, custom versions of AMD’s ridiculously popular R9 290-series cards have finally been trickling into the retail channel. 

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/65172-sapphire-r9-290-4gb-tri-x-oc-review.html

Both! There were no custom Hawaii cards at launch at all.

After months of waiting and some pretty high expectations, custom versions of AMD’s ridiculously popular R9 290-series cards have finally been trickling into the retail channel. 

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/65172-sapphire-r9-290-4gb-tri-x-oc-review.html

Well we all know that AMD want to control with reference boards first that they respect their minimal quality before let the AIB do what they want, its not a news, with older generations than Hawaii, MSI was not allowed to provide a PCB modified 1 year after the reference PCB.. When you are an overclocker with AMD gpu's, you know something, you want the reference PCB, you want the reference powerphase, not the revision 2.0 from Asus in blue PCB... because like with Nvidia you know thoses revision are not there for reduce cost. But this is for a single reason, if on high end gpu's, you get AIB who want to bring more on the table ... in middle end, like this GTX 960 or the 460 by the past, you can had bad suprise from AIB.. Remember the GTX460 ? Pallit ? or other AIB? , reviewers get perfect gpu's, but when in the shop, no more copper square cooling on memory, 4 Phase power instead of 6.. no cooler on power phase ?.. after the review of thoses 460 i was happy to install them on friend and brother pc#s .. 1 month after that not anymore... fans was of bad quality, memory was not cooled properly, they was no cooling on power phase... Thanks, but the non reference, no warranty costless midddle class of gpu like thoses GTX x60,,, no wayy, not anymore, everything is good for increase margin, and im sorry, but thoses GTX 960 fill all the warranty to get the worst AIB customized cards / PCB than ever .. Something that im sure, is the Ti version will be in another class on is own.. for the best.

TBH it's allways been like that big GPUs: reference at launch, and 3d party later on little ones: 3rd coolers are available at launch But with 290/X they took their sweet time. Apparently 250+W is not that easy to tame. And even when 3rd party had become available - availability was low due to mining demand. PS I have full confidence in both NV/AMD reference design. More so in general than in 3rd party solutions.

Yeah i know, but as you can see im still using my reference 7970 .... Offcourse, on High end gpu's, the customized are allways there to bring more on the table, they try to differentiate them from other brands .. in performance, in power phase for overclocking, in cooling... But on thoses little middle high end... its a shame, they just want get some more margins, the model send to the reviewers are rarely the one you will find in the retail shop. For 10$ more than the reference design who seems dont ever exist in the case of the GTX 960 ( or have been tested anyway ) and is based at 199$... what you will bring as quality ? a custom cooler ( who will be silent or efficent 6months at max before dust kill his capability ? )... cheap phase system ? .. let alone the Asic and offest quality for the turbo boost ( 1416mhz on the Asus Strix tested, even with by luck you have the same Asic quality, what will happend on 8 months with thermal problem, you get only 1300mhz ? Asus, Ichill have allready send a mail to the reviewers that they will correct some problems reported with their coolers .. ( need to trust them now .) Im affraid, really that thoses GX960 are taking the same road of the GTX460.. ( this said for Nvidia it is a good news, they have sold like hot cakes ).. But on the quality sides, most of thoses customs cards was just good to be put in a trash.. ( i have "advice" install 8 GTX 460 in friend and family pc, I have only got problems with thoses gpu's ) Again, i dont speak, compare with AMD, i just speak about Nvidia vs Nvidia, or even AIB ( MSI, Asus ) I compare the minimum quality of the high end and thoses low end gpu's ... sadly the quality is really bad on thoses low end gpu's ... They can look good on paper, but the build quality is so bad, really....

Agreed with everything. Dust is a $#@, and many of 3rd party fans are not made with continuous operation in mind. But GM206 is neither TDP nor temperature limited, so it should be less of an issue, EXCEPT when talking about very high overclocks.

LOL the warden Yes it would be an upgrade, but nothing to write home about. Slightly less than GTX 660 ->680. OTOH 99 percentile FPS gains over GTX 660 are decent

Thank you for the response!