Gigabyte G1 Gaming GeForce GTX 960 2GB Review

Introduction and A Closer Look The GeForce GTX 960, NVIDIA's newest graphics card iteration, has caused quite a stir in recent weeks. The release of the cards were delayed, bringing the actual release of these models to over 4 months later than their big brothers, the GTX 970/980. Research surveys taken from Steam has revealed that around 66% of gamers still use the equivalent of a GTX 660 or lower; this card will offer a simple plug and play upgrade with performance increases of up to 60%. The GTX 960 utilises the same Maxwell process technology that the rest of the GTX 900 family uses. This series has brought more performance with lower power requirements and in the form of the GTX 960, it has dropped all the way down to 120w while only using a single 6-pin power connector. Along with a lower power consumption, the new Maxwell process brings MFAA (Multi-Frame Sampled Anti-Aliasing), an exclusive for the GTX 900 family, this feature can deliver a 30% performance boost while maintaining the high quality detail we demand while gaming, ideal for gaming at high resolutions. The version we have here is the Gigabyte G1 Gaming GeForce GTX 960. It features a revamped Windforce cooler, giving it a premium look and hopefully premium performance. Changing the plastic shroud to metal and an additional metal back plate to support the behemoth heatsink contained within; they have also changed the fan fin design to increase airflow by as much as 23% and reducing noise to under 20 decibels. Gigabyte have given this new addition the same overclocking treatment as the GTX 970/980, giving it a 10% base and boost overclock to 1241 MHz and 1304 MHz respectively and increasing the TDP to 160W compared to the 120W standard, but with a 6-phase power design to balance load and to reduce temperatures, while also increasing product life. This increase power and 6-phase power design allows for higher stable overclocks and no throttling in intensive benchmarking sessions. The packaging follows the same design as the other G1 Gaming series boxes with the key features along the bottom and the dominant Gigabyte 'Eye' logo giving additional colour alongside the NVIDIA green. Contents include a Quick start guide, driver disc and 2x molex to 6-pin GPU power adapter cables. This card has a very demanding presence, measuring in at 312mm in length, it may prove a tight squeeze into some of the smaller cases such as the Corsair 250D. The brushed metal shroud with black opaque fan fins gives the impression that this card is here to do the business with no fancy gimmicks. Along the bottom, we can get a first glimpse of the heatsink and see the size of the PCB, a fair size longer than its competitors. The shroud hugs the heatsink around the sides, with well-placed cut-outs to allow for increased airflow, while keeping the card rigid. At the end of the card, you can see the protruding ends of the 4x 6mm copper heatpipes. The backplate here bends up to almost meet the shroud, maximising the dissipation of the hot air from the fans. Looking down onto the top of the card, you get a better feel for the size of it. Matching the length of the rest of the G1 Gaming series, this will have no issue handling those intense factory overclocks. We see here the iconic 'Windforce' Logo which illuminates blue when powered on. This particular model has the ability to run passively under less intense gaming sessions and general use. On each side of the 'Windforce' Logo, there are 2 additional logos; 'Stop' and 'Silent' which also illuminate when the card is running passively. You can also see the additional 6-pin power connection that works towards the 6-phase power design. The back of the card follows suit to the other G1 Gaming styles. Mirrored cutouts aid rear ventilation and cooling of some of the rear mounted components. There is also a laser etched 'G1 Gaming' Logo and Gigabyte 'Eye' Logo, upside down, but that would appear the correct way up when mounted in a standard case. Here you can see the vast array of outputs. 1x DVI-I, 1x DVI-D, 3x DisplayPort 1.2 and 1x HDMI 2.0. The HDMI port is able to support 4k resolutions at 60Hz. Used in certain configurations, you can utilise Gigabytes own 'Flex Display Technology'. The technology allows the use of up to 4 monitors for multi-monitor displays. The easiest way of achieving this would be to use both DVI outputs, 1 x Display port and the HDMI port, but other configurations are available. Test Systems and Procedures Before we delve into any testing we would like to take this opportunity to overview our test system. Test System Motherboard - Gigabyte X99-Gaming G1 WiFi LGA 2011-3 Motherboard Processor - Intel Core i7 5820K at Stock 3.3GHz RAM - 8GB (2 X 4GB) Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR4 2400MHz CPU Cooler - Thermaltake Water 3.0 with Gelid GC-Extreme Power Supply - Be Quiet Power Zone 1000W Main Storage Drive - Crucial M550 512GB Chassis - Lian Li T80 Test Bench Displays - U2868PQU 4K Operating System - Windows 8.1 Pro 64 Bit Driver Details Hardware Used "Killawatt” style electricity usage meter wall plug Decibel meter Games Used Batman Arkham Origins Battlefield 4 Bioshock Infinite Hitman Absolution Metro Last Light Tomb Raider Benchmarks Used 3DMark Unigine Valley Other Software Used Unigine Heaven CPU-ID HWMonitor TechPowerUp GPU-Z Luxmark 3DMark "The new 3DMark includes everything you need to benchmark your hardware. With three all new tests you can bench everything from smartphones and tablets, to notebooks and home PCs, to the latest high-end, multi-GPU gaming desktops. And it's not just for Windows. With 3DMark you can compare your scores with Android and iOS devices too. It's the most powerful and flexible 3DMark we've ever created." From Futuremark.com Fire Strike is a demanding benchmark tool, but we can see reasonable scores are produced by the GTX 960 at 1080p and 4K, but at 1440p, it just knocks the GTX 770 out of second place; very respectable. Batman: Arkham Origins "Batman: Arkham Origins is a 2013 action-adventure video game developed by Warner Bros. Games Montréal and released by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment for Microsoft Windows and the PlayStation 3, Wii U and Xbox 360 video game consoles. Based on the DC Comics superhero Batman, it follows the 2011 video game Batman: Arkham City and is the third main installment in the Batman: Arkham series. The game, played from a third-person perspective, focuses on Batman's combat and stealth abilities, detective skills, and gadgets for combat and exploration. Arkham Origins is the first game in the series with multiplayer capability." From Wikipedia. The Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 960 can be seen battling it out with its predecessors, managing some very some playable results at both 1080p and 1440p. Battlefield 4 "Battlefield 4 is coming to PC, powered by the advanced technology of DICE’s proprietary Frostbite 3 engine. Blur the line between game and glory in Battlefield 4. With dynamic destructable environments, vehicular combat, and the chaos of all-out-war with 64 players, Battlefield 4 on PC will be an unmatched interactive experience. In addition to its hallmark multiplayer, Battlefield 4 features an intense, dramatic character-driven campaign that starts with the evacuation of American VIPs from Shanghai and follows your squad's struggle to find its way home. There is no comparison. Immerse yourself in the glorious chaos of all-out war, found only in Battlefield." From Battlefield.com The card produced some low results in Battlefield 4, however its 1080p results are still very good, a mere 10% behind the R9 280. Bioshock Infinite "BioShock Infinite is a first-person shooter like you’ve never seen. Just ask the judges from E3 2011, where the Irrational Games title won over 85 editorial awards, including the Game Critics Awards’ Best of Show. Set in 1912, players assume the role of former Pinkerton agent Booker DeWitt, sent to the flying city of Columbia on a rescue mission. His target? Elizabeth, imprisoned since childhood. During their daring escape, Booker and Elizabeth form a powerful bond -- one that lets Booker augment his own abilities with her world-altering control over the environment. Together, they fight from high-speed Sky-Lines, in the streets and houses of Columbia, on giant zeppelins, and in the clouds, all while learning to harness an expanding arsenal of weapons and abilities, and immersing players in a story that is not only steeped in profound thrills and surprises, but also invests its characters with what Game Informer called “An amazing experience from beginning to end." From Bioshockinfinite.com Some very low minimum FPS scores across the board here, possibly due to a glitch in the benchmark like some users saw in a previous revision of Unigine Heaven. However, things still look good at 1080p and at 1440p, just nipping at the heels of the R9 280. Hitman Absolution "Hitman: Absolution is the fifth title in the Hitman series by producer, IO Interactive, published by Square Enix and co-published by Eidos. The game was released for thePlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows on November 20, 2012. Hitman: Absolution runs on IO Interactive's proprietary Glacier 2 game engine, combining classic Hitman game mechanics with new mechanics." From hitman.wikia.com Hitman Absolution is heavily optimised for AMD, so we expected some poor scores overall; the only really playable benchmark was at 1080p. Metro Last Light "Metro: Last Light (formerly Metro 2034) is a first-person shooter and horror video game developed by Ukrainian studio 4A Games and published by Deep Silver for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It was released in May 2013. The game is set in a post-apocalyptic world and features a mixture of action-oriented and stealth gameplay. The game exists in the universe of the novel, Metro 2033, and its sequels, written by Russian author, Dmitry Glukhovsky, but does not follow any direct storylines from the books. Metro:Last Light takes place one year after the events of Metro 2033, proceeding from the canonical ending from the novel, ending where Artyom chose to call down the missile strike on the Dark Ones.Metro: Last Light features technology which boasts of lighting effects and improved physics claimed to set a new graphical benchmark on the PC and consoles." From Wikipedia.org Metro Last Light still proves that no single GPU is powerful enough to beat it, even if the GTX 970 gives it a good go. The GTX 960 however, falls short at 4k, but offers a respectable 40FPS at 1440p and even smoother gameplay at 1080p, good show. Tomb Raider "On 5 March 2013, Square Enix released Tomb Raider, billed as a reboot of the franchise. In Tomb Raider, the player is confronted with a much younger Lara Croft who is shipwrecked and finds herself stranded on a mysterious island rife with danger, both natural and human. In contrast to the earlier games Croft is portrayed as vulnerable, acting out of necessity, desperation and sheer survival rather than for a greater cause or personal gain." From Wikipedia.org The trend in Tomb Raider is similar to all of the others: very much a dogfight in the mid-range and some respectable scores at both 1080p and 1440p. Unigine Valley "Valley Benchmark is a new GPU stress-testing tool from the developers of the very popular and highly acclaimed Heaven Benchmark. The forest-covered valley surrounded by vast mountains amazes with its scale from a bird’s-eye view and is extremely detailed down to every leaf and flower petal. This non-synthetic benchmark powered by the state-of-the art UNIGINE Engine showcases a comprehensive set of cutting-edge graphics technologies with a dynamic environment and fully interactive modes available to the end user." From Unigine.com. Unigine Valley provokes a lackluster performance, where even its older model; the GTX 760 Windforce x2 makes it look very weak in comparison. Hopefully, this is down to day one drivers and performance will increase in time. Compute Performance Luxmark (OpenCL Compute) LuxMark is a OpenCL benchmark tool. The idea for the program was conceived in 2009 by Jean-Francois ‘Jromang’ Romang. The idea was quite simple, wrap SLG inside an easy to use graphical user interface and use it as a benchmark for OpenCL. From LuxRender.net. Maxwell showing its older versions who is boss, nearly doubling the score of the GTX 760 and a knock for knock with the R9 280. Overclocking and Overclocked Performance As the GTX 960 has only just been released, we have only had chance to test 2 models, the Gigabyte G1 Gaming GeForce GTX 960 and the Asus STRIX GeForce GTX 960 (review here). The STRIX model produced a nice overclock, averaging 9%, whereas the Gigabyte G1 Gaming model produces a similar average, with a lower memory clock, but a much higher boost clock. Let see if that makes any difference. 3DMark The Gigabyte G1 Gaming GeForce GTX 960 produces some amazing results at 1080p and 1440p, nabbing the second position both times from the GTX 770. At 4K resolution, the lack of VRAM starts to show and the R9 280 just edges in. Noise, Power Consumption and Temperatures Noise Noise can be the deciding factor for some users. Some may want the graphics card to be icy cold (figuratively); so won't mind the fans being cranked up, others would want dead silence, where only low end passive cards, or extremely quiet fans can keep the card cool enough to be silent. Gigabyte have revamped their Windforce x3 cooler for the G1 Gaming Edition. The main feature changes being adapted fans and a metal shroud. However, The GTX 960 range brings an Ace to the table, let's find out shall we? That's right, passive mode at idle and general use, zero decibels. Even when the graphics card is being strained during a benchmark program, it only produces a mere 45 decibels, simply amazing. Power Consumption With electricity becoming increasingly expensive across most parts of the world the need for computer components to become power efficient has never been more relevant. Graphics cards are often the most power hungry components inside a desktop system so having an efficient graphics card is very important to keeping power bills under control. Power is often correlated to heat and so lower power consumption means a graphics card is likely to run slightly cooler and put out less heat into your system meaning your other components will run cooler with improved longevity. AMD and Nvidia have both made power consumption an integral part of the way graphics cards dynamically overclock so the need for graphics card vendors to use efficient VRM and PCB designs is becoming important to maximise performance. We take power readings after 5 minutes of two different load scenarios: desktop idle and Unigine Heaven load. Power consumption is one of our lowest scores! Very impressive considering Gigabyte has given this card a 160w boost to help keep those overclocks stable; that's Gigabyte 6-phase power supply coming into its own. Temperatures Along with noise, temperatures are what some users go by. Some won't mind higher temperatures during a review due to the intent to overclock, but some would be very particular. They may have a computer stashed in a cupboard somewhere with poor air flow and require a decent cooling solution to take the extra strain. The Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 960 holds very well at idle and performance is amazing at full load during Heaven benchmark. If the ambient temperature was reduced to 23°c, then this graphics card would be joint best for the coolest card we've tested so far. Final Thoughts Pricing (accurate at the time of writing) The Gigabyte G1 Gaming GeForce GTX 960 2GB is to be priced around $230, a $30 increase over the reference MSRP. A small increase for that premium look, feel and overall build quality. Don't forget that in the UK, Gigabyte holds the fastest turn around time for faulty cards and one of the longest RTB periods of 3-5 years depending on model. In the UK, the G1 Gaming demands a price of £194.99 from Overclockers UK which is great value considering the extreme cooling solution and great after service. Summary The performance is a little lackluster in gaming, but its compute scores tie in well with the new Maxwell Architecture. However, with every new process, you expect more performance, something that this graphics card didn't provide. I hope this is pinned down to using older graphical drivers and in the coming days NVIDIA will release a new driver to help perk up this card. Its temperatures were amazing and its passive mode really brought this card into its own. Many months, or even years ago, suggesting a graphics card with a 160W TDP could run passively without water cooling and you would have been laughed at; this card does it with ease. Power consumption is very impressive, some of the best I've seen. Maxwell has been a big success for Nvidia in this respect and the GTX 960 doesn't let them down one bit. For a card on this budget level, it's very impressive and while it may not have a huge amount of gaming grunt compared to its bigger brothers, it's certainly balanced out in terms of cost and features. Gigabyte has produced a very high end card for a very wallet happy price. The lashings of metal shrouding, the premium back plate and engravings will suit any computer build perfectly. However, with the turning times, ITX has become much more popular and the days of the long length cards seems to be diminishing. Pros Silent operation, passive feature Very premium feel with the lashings of metal shrouding and the engraved metal back plate Very good overclocker Strong 1080p and 1440p performer, but lacks the power to give inspiring 4k results Excellent cooling Cons Very large, a very tight squeeze for some smaller cases such as the Corsair 250D "If you love premium metal shrouds, feature packed technology, complete silence and budget friendly graphics cards, then the Gigabyte G1 Gaming GeForce GTX 960 is exactly what you need." Thank you to Gigabyte for providing this review sample.