Testing Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 960 2GB Graphics Cards In SLI

Rikki Wright / 10 years ago

Final Thoughts

Multi-GPU systems seemed to have gained a negative reputation in the past for bugs, glitches and a lack of performance scaling. I myself have never experienced any similar issues unless one of the cards was faulty. Today the tests have proven immense scaling at 1080p and 1440p, with at least 85% performance increase, and I didn’t notice any glitches or bugs throughout.

I really liked the SLI performance of the GTX 960 range, as shown with these 2 cards which have been pretty amazing overall. Near 100% scaling in most of the tests and some very playable FPS scores at 1080p and 1440p throughout.

Here I’m torn, the price point of these cards is around $199, which is very good for those on a tighter budget. They’re very capable at lower resolutions, but I feel that the 2GB of VRAM is holding these cards back at 4K, the performance drop at 4K compared to 1440p is massive. I believe an extra 1GB would really liven up these cards and prove a fantastic budget gaming solution for 4K resolutions.

The results speak for themselves, compared to a single GTX 960 graphics card, the performance gain would be silly to ignore, but choosing SLI relies on more factors than that. Generally only those on a tighter budget would choose to SLI two mid range cards. It’s typical to buy the first card brand new and purchase the second card once it’s available on the second-hand market. Looking at the figures, two GTX 960’s would cost $398 current MSRP, where a single GTX 970 would cost $329 MSRP, that’s 21% more expensive and only 13% performance gain. When these do start cropping up on the second-hand market, the second card would need to be priced around $150 to be worth considering this configuration.

I would recommend this SLI setup solely on the fact that these can run passively at idle and during general usage, perfect for those with a HTPC with 2 accessible PCI-e slots, silent for movies and packing more than enough grunt for gaming. How long before we see some higher-powered, premium graphics cards come on the scene with the same claim to fame? only time will tell.

Pros

Amazingly quiet and cool for an SLI setup
Outstanding performance and scaling
Energy efficient

Cons

Lacking at 4k resolution
Poor SLI performance/ cost ratio compared to a single GTX 970 option

“Perfect for the average gamer with a typical 1080p or 1440p monitor setup. The ability to give exceptional performance at these resolutions while staying cool and quiet is a great deal in my books.”