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Review: EVGA GeForce GTX 960 SSC in 2-way SLI

by Parm Mann on 29 January 2015, 17:00

Tags: EVGA, NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA)

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Conclusion

...GTX 960 SuperSC touts generous core frequencies and plenty of further headroom augmented by an eight-pin power connector and a dual BIOS implementation.

EVGA has brought its popular ACX 2.0+ cooler to the GTX 960 party with various trimmings. Aimed primarily at the overclocking crowd, the company's GTX 960 SuperSC touts generous core frequencies and plenty of further headroom augmented by an eight-pin power connector and a dual BIOS implementation.

The heightened power requirement does, we feel, limit some of GTX 960's mainstream appeal, but EVGA has managed to keep the GPU's other qualities intact - the SSC card is energy efficient, runs cool and makes very little noise during use.

What's really interesting is how two cards respond in an SLI configuration. Our benchmarks show that the GM206 architecture scales exceptionally well at FHD and QHD resolutions, but the GPU's memory limitations are clear to see in more demanding games, or at higher resolutions such as 4K UHD, where frame buffer and bandwidth play a crucial role.

So can a pair of 960s match a single GTX 980? In the right scenario, perhaps, but the cost saving is misleading: a single, high-end GPU is much better equipped at dealing with demanding workloads, and if you have aspirations of high-quality, high-res gaming, two GTX 960s ultimately aren't a safe bet.

GeForce GTX 960 is intentionally geared toward 1080p gamers, and though pricey at £180, EVGA's SuperSC is worthy of consideration as an upgrade for older PCs.

The Good
 
The Bad
Well-suited to 1080p gaming
Runs cool and quiet
Class-leading energy efficiency
Can be pushed further
Flexible display outputs
 
2GB frame buffer not future proof
Requires 8-pin power connection
Stock-clocked memory



EVGA GeForce GTX 960 SSC

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The EVGA GeForce GTX 960 SSC graphics card is available to purchase from Scan Computers.

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HEXUS Forums :: 6 Comments

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Curious results. The Bioshock Infinite result is clearly CPU limited (or at least not GPU limited) at lower resolutions, so the 960 SLI certainly can't be said to beat out the 980 in that test, it just reaches the same bottleneck that the weaker cards can't quite reach.
The same can't be said of the Rome: Total War benchmarks, were the cheaper cards in SLI do appear to have the beating of the 980 at lower resolutions until that pesky frame buffer screws things up at UHD.

Now if someone puts out a 3 or 4GB version of the 960 without it costing too much more, I guess we'd see if it's the frame buffer or the bandwidth that's really hamstringing the SLI setup… That could be a very potent SLI config then.

I should say I have the 980 super jetstream - although this doesn't have me ‘worried’ - I have a micro ATX case as I take my gaming rig with me when I'm away at another work site a lot, and I can't fit in another graphics card. The 980 Super Jetstream so far is absolutely phenomenal.
Plus, in my mind, the $150 price difference is pretty much justifiable to go for the 980, and definitely justifiable to go for a 970 since in a lot of games it's still better. That 128 bus and the 2GB frame buffer just slows things down too much. Sure, it beats the 970 in a few games, but games overall aren't going to start using less memory. Long story short: If you plan on playing older games, the 960x2 is great. But hey–who's going to be playing old games?
If a 4Gb version of this comes out count me in for 2 of these! Impressive performance for a little more than half the price of the 980. The 970 still holds best for price but 2 of these with 4Gb (“4GB means 4GB”) and you're rocking and rolling a nice rig.
One question - why there are no 290/290x entries in the tables? Seems pretty ****ty to omit those just for the purpose of your review, especially when the 970 is priced against the 290x.
I agree with Darkrage, where is the R9 290X? Price points of competitors are an important comparison.