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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)

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qacogs

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Test Methodology

EVGA GeForce GTX 960 SSC Specification


GPU Comparisons

Graphics Card GPU Cores Base Clock
(MHz)
Boost Clock
(MHz)
Memory
(MB)
Memory Clock
(MHz)
Memory Bus
(bits)
Driver HEXUS Review
Palit GeForce GTX 980 Super JetStream 2,048 1,203 1,304 4,096 7,200 256 347.25 November 2014
Palit GeForce GTX 970 JetStream 1,664 1,152 1,304 4,096 7,012 256 347.25 October 2014
2x EVGA GeForce GTX 960 SSC in SLI 2,048 1,279 1,342 2 x 2,048 7,012 2 x 128 347.25 January 2015
EVGA GeForce GTX 960 SSC 1,024 1,279 1,342 2,048 7,012 128 347.25 January 2015
Palit GeForce GTX 960 Super JetStream 1,024 1,279 1,342 2,048 7,200 128 347.25 January 2015
Asus GeForce GTX 960 DirectCU II 1,024 1,253 1,317 2,048 7,200 128 347.25 January 2015
KFA2 GeForce GTX 960 EXOC 1,024 1,203 1,266 2,048 7,012 128 347.25 January 2015
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 760 WindForce 1,152 1,085 1,150 2,048 6,008 256 347.25 June 2013
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660 WindForce 960 1,033 1,098 2,048 6,008 192 347.25 September 2012
Sapphire Radeon R9 285 Dual-X 1,792 - 965 2,048 5,600 256 14.12 September 2014
Asus Radeon R9 280X DirectCU II 2,048 - 1,000 3,072 6,000 384 14.12 October 2013
XFX Radeon R9 280 Double Dissipation 1,792 - 933 3,072 5,000 384 14.12 -

Graphics Test Bench

Hardware Components HEXUS Review Product Page
Processor Intel Core i7-4770K (quad-core, overclocked up to 4.40GHz) June 2013 Intel.com
CPU Cooler Noctua NH-D15 April 2014 Noctua.at
Motherboard Asus Z97-A May 2014 Asus.com
Memory 16GB Corsair Vengeance Pro (2x8GB) DDR3 @ 1,866MHz - Corsair.com
Power Supply Corsair AX760i - Corsair.com
Storage Device Crucial M500 240GB SSD July 2013 Crucial.com
Chassis Corsair Graphite Series 600T October 2010 Corsair.com
Monitor Philips Brilliance 4K Ultra HD LED (288P6LJEB/00) - Philips.co.uk
Operating system Windows 8.1 (64-bit) October 2012 Microsoft.com

Benchmark Suite

Synthetic Benchmarks
3DMark Fire Strike, Fire Strike Extreme and Fire Strike Ultra
Gaming Benchmarks
Title Settings at 1,920x1,080
(FHD)
Settings at 2,560x1,440
(QHD)
Settings at 3,840x2,160
(4K UHD)
Alien: Isolation SMAA-T2x, Maximum Quality SMAA-T2x, Maximum Quality FXAA, Maximum Quality
BioShock Infinite AA Enabled, Ultra Preset inc. Depth of Field AA Enabled, Ultra Preset inc. Depth of Field AA Enabled, Ultra Preset inc. Depth of Field
Grid Autosport 8xMSAA, Maximum Quality Settings (Soft Ambient Occlusion On, Advanced Lighting On, Global Illumination On) 4xMSAA, Maximum Quality Settings (Soft Ambient Occlusion On, Advanced Lighting On, Global Illumination On) 4xMSAA, Maximum Quality Settings (Soft Ambient Occlusion On, Advanced Lighting On, Global Illumination On)
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor Ultra Quality Preset Ultra Quality Preset Very High Quality Preset
Tomb Raider FXAA, Ultra Quality Preset, TressFX Disabled FXAA, Ultra Quality Preset, TressFX Disabled FXAA, Ultra Quality Preset, TressFX Disabled
Total War: Rome II Ultra Preset Ultra Preset Ultra Preset
General Benchmarks
Power Consumption To emulate real-world usage scenarios, we record system-wide mains power draw both when idle and while playing Grid Autosport.
Temperature To emulate real-world usage scenarios, we record GPU core temperature both when idle and while playing Grid Autosport.
Noise A PCE-318 meter is used to record noise levels when idle and while playing Grid Autosport.
Overclocking Maintaining out-the-box voltage, we increase the card's power target and aim for an optimal balance of core and memory overclock. With the heightened frequencies in place, the 3DMark and Total War: Rome II tests are re-run.

Notes

To minimise the impact of any CPU bottlenecks, our test platform is configured with a quad-core Intel Core i7-4770K overclocked at up to 4.4GHz. 16GB of Corsair Vengeance Pro DDR3 is set to run at 1,866MHz using the built-in XMP profile.

For our high-end benchmark suite, we have an array of games tested at FHD (1,920x1,080), QHD (2,560x1,440) and 4K UHD (3,840x2,160) resolutions. In an effort to maintain playable framerates in the latter modes, the level of image quality may be reduced and any such changes are highlighted using bold in the table above. Readers should note that, despite running with lowered settings, games often look superior at QHD and 4K UHD as a result of the increase in on-screen pixels.

Where applicable, any vendor-specific enhancements such as PhysX and TressFX are disabled to help even the playing field. In-game benchmark results are recorded as minimum and average frames per second.

We've included single-card and two-way-SLI benchmark results for EVGA's GTX 960 SSC, and we've also added a high-end Palit GTX 980 Super JetStream to proceedings. The question, once again, is can a pair of 960s match a single GTX 980?