Review GeForce GTX 960 Super JetStream (rapid test)

GeForce GTX 960 – a good graphics card category average. Performance GTX 960 up to its predecessor – GTX 760, but much more economical energy consumption. Like other GPU architecture Maxwell, and before that – Kepler, GPU GM206, underlying the GeForce GTX 960, perfectly amenable to overclocking. Not surprisingly, the video produced by partners NVIDIA, often operate at much higher frequencies than provide referensnye specification.

Specifications, package, price

GeForce GTX 960 Super JetStream – the fastest among several options GTX 960, which produces Palit. Basic GPU frequency it increased by 153 MHz from the standard (1279 versus 1126 MHz respectively). In addition, the manufacturer has increased the frequency of RAM with 7010 MHz to 7200 – a rare case when it is overclocked from the factory. The attentive reader will notice that the table TDP graphics card does not differ from the reference values, but this is clearly a mistake on the part of Palit. Factory overclocking could not affect the power consumption.

GeForce GTX 960 Super JetStream is sold in standard for Palit huge box. Paper attached to the device manual, CD with drivers, DVI-VGA adapter and power adapter to connect the six-pin connector with two PCIe “molex”.

At the time of publication, according to “to Yandex.Market», Palit GeForce GTX 960 Super JetStream an average cost of 16 thousand. Rubles. For comparison, a simple version of GTX 960 reference frequencies can take less than 14 thousand.

Design

Palit reproduced the cooling system, which in the past was not just used for video on the GK204 chip junior modifications (GTX 670 and GTX 760): massive cooler open design acts abroad compact PCB, and the free “tail” of the radiator on the back side is covered with a metal cap.

Cooling system of Palit GeForce GTX 960 Super JetStream totally immodest size for such an economical in-class GPU, as GM206. The casing of video card installed in a standard PC case, stands for the size reserved for two expansion slots, both in depth and height.However, you would in any case have lost three slots, since the video card cooler with open design should not be placed right next to each other. Fans with a very quiet – because slow: even under severe stress built-in tachometer shows no more 650 rev / min. No hackneyed LEDs that other manufacturers like to build in a casing with.

Radiator cooler that without the hood does not look so big, is quite easy and simple. The ribs are penetrated by three thin heat pipes, and the base, unfortunately, can not boast at least some polishing milled surface.

To cool the transistors and chips-drivers in the power circuit card uses a separate simple radiator.

Despite the similar size, the board GeForce GTX 960 Super JetStream is different from the one used for the Palit GTX 760 . The layout is much simpler, because GM206 uses 128-bit memory bus. To supply enough of one six-pin connector. Voltage regulator comprises a total of four phases (3 + 1 on GPU chips DRAM), and for power management and monitoring using a simple controller ON NCP81174.

Chip GDDR5 Samsung K4G41325FC-HC28 designed to work on the effective frequency 7 GHz.

Power measurement system used stand with power supply Corsair AX1200i. Energy-saving technologies CPU in all tests are disabled. PCI-Express bus operates in 3.0. To activate the PCI-E 3.0 graphics cards on GeForce Series 600 and 700 in the system chipset X79 applied patch from NVIDIA.

In the setting of the NVIDIA driver is always in a processor to calculate PhysX selected CPU.

Clock speed, power consumption, temperature, acceleration

Despite the impressive factory overclocking, Palit GeForce GTX 960 Super JetStream saves a lot of space for controlling the GPU – it rises up to 164 MHz above baseline (1443 MHz in absolute value). Rated voltage on the GPU under load is 1206 mV.

VGA BIOS allows you to increase the power limit to 107% and unlock extra VID, the corresponding voltage 1250 mV. Thanks to this we managed to overclock GPU another 60 MHz base clock, and in the dynamics of the frequency reaches 1528 MHz.

RAM as characteristic lines of the adapters Kepler and Maxwell, without problems gained about gigahertz frequency overclocked to 8100 MHz.

Power measurements under load Crysis 3 revealed no big difference between the reference frequencies and factory overclocked Palit. An additional increase in frequency leads to increase in the average power consumption of 19 watts.

Different picture shows FurMark. Here, on the contrary, with the additional card Palit acceleration or without GTX 960 equally traverses average power 29-30 watts.

The cooling system in the normal mode does not spin excess of 650 / min, a little noise and maintains the temperature within GPU 70 ° C. However, the fan can operate and 2400 rev / min, which reduces the heating of the processor 13-18 ° C even in the additional overclocking.

Performance

Synthetic tests, as usual, are sensitive to higher frequencies, and the additional acceleration from the position specified Palit, is more effective than the efforts of the manufacturer.

Increased frequency in the factory Palit card in most cases do not give a visible advantage in frame rates, but the cumulative effect upon further acceleration justifies the effort.

Conclusions

Itself GeForce GTX 960 – it is nothing more than replacing the GTX 760 with lower power consumption and cost. Close in performance graphics card AMD – Radeon R9 280 and R9 285. The first representative of the “red” camp by an average of a thousand or two cheaper, second is worth about as much as the 960 and GTX.

GTX 960 is designed primarily for the resolution of 1920 × 1080. At this resolution, even in the most demanding games it provides at least minimally acceptable frame rate (30 FPS), and if not – to get the missing help overclocking. However, resource-intensive modes with antialiasing (MSAA, SSAA) is still too heavy for the GTX 960. It is better to disable these excesses, leaving the details to the maximum.Resolution 2560 × 1440 GTX 960 is given with difficulty: the toughest games have to sacrifice detail, not to mention the full-scene antialiasing.

The most prokachannom version GeForce GTX 960 from Palit turned out to be fairly simple and robust video card. In design there is nothing superfluous, but what is, is enough to maintain the high frequencies, the default, with a minimum noise level. And the potential additional overclocking did not disappoint us. Last but not least, Palit take place at prices lower among peers, and GeForce GTX 960 Super JetStream is also much cheaper than a clever competitors with comparable frequencies.