Nvidia Geforce Gtx 1650 Pc Portable

The battle for PC gaming'due south "sweet spot" has a new challenger. With the GeForce GTX 980 and 970 firmly in control of the premium graphics menu market, Nvidia's setting its sights on the crucial 1080p enthusiast segment with the GTX 960, the first truly mainstream iteration of its powerful, yet stunningly ability-efficient "Maxwell" processor compages.

The GTX 960 delivers outstanding 1080p gaming capabilities, rocking a silky-smooth sixty frames per seconds in even demanding titles with well-nigh of the bells and whistles turned on. And priced at only $200, the GTX 960 is poised to make some waves.

Come across mainstream Maxwell

Let's have a quick, high-level look at the GTX 960'south key points earlier diving into existent-world benchmarks.

gtx 960 specs — The GTX 960'due south full spec canvas. (Clicking on any image in this article will overstate it.)

The GTX 960 uses a new "GM206" GPU built using the 28nm process, rather than the GM204 found in the GTX 970 and 980, but for many of the specs that matter it'south essentially a GTX 980 cutting in half. The GTX 960 packs 1024 CUDA cores, 16 streaming multiprocessors, 32 ROP units, and 64 texture units, while cartoon power from a single half-dozen-pivot power connector—all exactly half of what GTX 980 claims. Nvidia'due south insanely efficient Maxwell architecture is put to adept apply over again: The GTX 960 has a scant 120 watt TDP, and it runs cool and quiet even under heavy loads, opening the door for nifty sound-saving tricks and beastly overclocks… which we'll go into subsequently.

In reference form, the GTX 960 measures 9.5 inches long, taking upward dual slots in your case and packing a dual-link DVI port, an HDMI 2.0 port, and a trio of DisplayPort connections.

One other matter jumps out staring at the spec sail: The GTX 960 features but 2GB of GDDR5 retentiveness with a 128-bit autobus, which seems… paltry, to say the least. But Nvidia says that caching improvements in Maxwell, combined with the visitor's third-generation delta color compression engine, help the GM206 GPU apply its retentivity bandwidth far more effectively than its predecessor, the GM106 "Kepler" CUDA core. As such, the "lack" of retention bandwidth wasn't an issue in our testing, and the express RAM isn't probable to be an event when you're gaming at 1080p, a.m.a. the target utilize for this carte.

And really, what practise yous wait for $200, anyway? Even so, information technology would've been dainty to see 3GB or 4GB of memory, or at to the lowest degree a wider memory bus to more effectively future-proof the bill of fare.

Beyond the hardware, the GTX 960 boasts the same software tricks as its bigger 900-series brothers: the Voxel Global Illumination lighting technique, VR Straight, Dynamic Super Resolution, Multi-Frame Anti-aliasing, it's all there. Dynamic Super Resolution—which renders games at college resolution than your monitor, and so downsamples them to fit your monitor to improve visual fidelity—isn't quite as useful on the GTX 960 as it was on the GTX 980, because the operation penalty hurts far more on a midrange bill of fare. Only information technology can provide a visual boost without dragging frame rates into the pits for more modest titles, like Earth of Warcraft or League of Legends.

asus strix gtx960 dc2oc 2gd5 pcb — The Asus GTX 960 Strix, sans shroud, revealing the PCB in all its celebrity.

Nvidia's Multi-Frame Anti-aliasing applied science is getting a large shot in the arm with the release of the GTX 960, however. Anti-aliasing smooths out visual jaggies in games, admitting with a operation cost. MFAA delivers visuals on par with multi-sample anti-aliasing, just with far less of an affect on frame rates. Testing has shown that compared to 4x MSAA, 4x MFAA delivers roughly the same level of visual fidelity at around 8- to 15-percent higher frame rates, depending on the title. That's none likewise shabby!

While our benchmarks don't leverage MFAA, as the technology isn't uniform with AMD cards, Nvidia's enabling the technology past default if you use the GeForce Experience app to automatically optimize your games. MFAA's rolling out in forcefulness to coincide with that: While the technology worked with only 20 or so games initially, it's now supported by every DirectX 10 and DirectX eleven game that supports MSAA, with the exception of Dead Rise 3, Dragon Age 2, and Max Payne 3.

gtx 960 software features — This Nvidia slide highlights the GTX 960's primal software features.

The GTX 960 and its GM206 chip besides feature support for H.265 encoding and decoding. The GTX 970 and 980 back up just H.265 encoding. The GTX 960 also supports HDCP ii.2 "content protection" over HDMI. In other words, the GTX 960 should be able to stream 4K Netflix streams similar a gnaw—if 4K displays ever really get a large thing, that is.

Nvidia's new graphics bill of fare also includes support for DirectX 12, the side by side-generation, performance-enhancing gaming API coming with Windows 10.

See the Asus GTX 960 Strix and EVGA GTX 960 SSC

Now permit's become into the fun stuff. We reviewed 2 GTX 960 samples: The Asus Strix with DirectCU II cooling and EVGA's GTX 960 SuperSC (SSC) edition with ACX 2.0+ cooling.

asus strix gtx960 dc2oc 2gd5 io ports — The port selection on the Asus Strix is bog-standard for a GTX 960.

Recall I mentioned how coolly and efficiently the Maxwell compages lets these new Nvidia cards run? Third-party graphics carte du jour makers are already putting that efficiency to tremendous utilize. Asus and EVGA's cards don't even activate their fans until temperatures hit 55 C and 60 C, respectively. And when you combine Maxwell's efficiency with the custom aftermarket cooling solutions found in these cards, you won't striking those temps frequently in more casual or minor games, like League of Legends,The Walking Dead, and many indie or 4x strategy games.

The Asus Strix topped out at 58 C in our tests, and that was only subsequently applying a hefty overclock and running the Furmark criterion, which Nvidia'south printing materials call a "power virus." The EVGA SSC hit max temperatures of effectually 75 C under farthermost duress, merely ran far cooler in normal scenarios. Both cards ran extremely quietly even when the fans were whirring, almost to the point of eeriness.

Both cards likewise feature impressively hefty overclocks out of the box. While Nvidia's GTX 960 reference clocks stand at 1126MHz stock and 1178MHz boost, the Asus Strix speeds along at 1253MHz/1317MHz out of the box; the EVGA SSC powers along at 1279MHz/1342MHz. I'd have liked to underclock one of them to stock speeds for reference, but I couldn't: The overclocking software that ships with these cards only let you lot reduce speeds by upwards to 90MHz. Asus and EVGA'due south cards were overclocked by 127MHz and 153Mhz out of the box, respectively. (Foreshadowing: We pushed it even farther.)

evga ssc 02g p4 2966 kr — The EVGA GTX 960 Super SC.

The $210 EVGA GTX 960 SSC with ACX 2.0+ cooling measures slightly longer than a reference GTX 960, at 10.25 inches. The carte du jour packs a thick oestrus sink underneath its dual fans, along with a cooling plate to continue your card's memory and MOSFET chilled, as well as straight—not curved—heat pipes, which EVGA says reduces GPU temperatures by an actress 5 C. The EVGA SSC requires an 8-pin power connector, rather than the reference bill of fare'south half dozen-pivot. In the box you'll find an 8-pivot power cablevision, a DVI to VGA adapter, EVGA stickers, a poster, and a utility installation disc that includes EVGA's PrecisionX overclocking utility.

The EVGA GTX 960 SSC packs dual BIOSes, which you can toggle with the picture show of a physical switch on the carte du jour. By default, the card uses the "dBi BIOS," which keeps the fans off until temps hit threescore C. Alternatively, you lot tin can utilise the "SSC Performance BIOS" for more than oomph. Our test results below use the default dBI BIOS setting. Switching to the SSC Performance BIOS typically improved frame rates past 1 to 3 fps in our games suite, with one notable exception: The EVGA SSC striking 60.18 fps in Bioshock Infinite in dBi, but that leaped to a whopping 76.01 fps with the Performance BIOS.

asus strix gtx960 dc2oc 2gd5 2d — The Asus Strix looks an awful lot like Bubo, that mechanical owl inClash of the Titans.

The dandy-looking $215 Asus Strix resembles an owl, with thick, snaking heat pipes almost taking the place of eyebrows. It measures a bit shorter than a stock GTX 960 at 8.5 inches and information technology includes thoughtful touches like labeled output connections and a full metal backplate. You'll find a DVI to VGA converter within its box, too, along with a disc containing Asus' own GPU Tweak overclocking tool.

Benchmarking the GTX 960

We tested the cards inside PCWorld'south new benchmarking rig, which features a liquid-cooled Intel Core i7 5960X, 16GB of Corsair'southward high-end Vengeance LPX DDR4 memory, a 480GB Intel 730 series SSD, and more. Y'all can read all the test rig details in PCWorld's build guide.

Next folio: Benchmarks and more.

Nosotros're comparing the GTX 960 cards against a slew of similarly priced offerings: The EVGA GTX 970 FTW with ACX 2.0, a Zotac GTX 760 AMP! Edition, a Visiontek Radeon R9 270X, and an Asus R9 280X DirectCU Two TOP. Nvidia's reviewer's guide compares the GTX 960 against the Radeon R9 285, just alas, I don't have one on manus.

Got it? Good. Allow'south dig into frame rates. Yous can click on whatever graph to overstate it.

Showtime up: Bioshock Infinite. About all modern graphics cards handle Columbia's floating islands with aplomb, but information technology'due south a sterling representative of the Unreal 3 engine. Ane matter that raw frame rates don't show is how deeply GeForce cards can occasionally stutter running this game. Every Nvidia carte du jour we've tested recently dips into single-digit minimum frame rates during Bioshock Infinite'southward benchmark. It's rare for the frame rate to plunge so low, but information technology causes notable stuttering when it does happen.

Adjacent, nosotros tested the cards with Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition's congenital-in benchmarking feature.

Nosotros exam Metro: Terminal Light Redux with SSAA disabled, considering it slashes frame rates in half and the game looks gorgeous enough without information technology. We likewise disable Advanced PhysX.

Alien: Isolation is a gorgeous, terrifying game with a built-in benchmark. Information technology seems CPU-leap to some degree and scales well across all hardware configurations.

Finally, we also tested the GTX 960 cards using the Unigine Valley and 3DMark 11 Fire Strike tools, which were specifically designed for benchmarking graphics capabilities.

When you await at wattage use nether full load, Maxwell's energy efficiency shines. The GTX 960 positively sips power.

Which brings me to my adjacent point…

Overclocking the GTX 960

Nvidia's press materials stress the GTX 960 is an overclocker'south dream, and you lot know what? That's entirely accurate. I wasn't sure I'd be able to squeeze much extra out of the cards given the beefy overclocks Asus and EVGA apply out of the box, simply boy, was I wrong.

Using the overclocking software included with each graphics carte du jour, but without touching temperature profiles or voltage, I was able to achieve significant additional overclocks on each menu.

EVGA SSC clock speeds

Base: 1279MHz core, 1342MHz heave, 1753MHz memory
Overclocked: 1366MHz cadre, 1429MHz boost, 1940MHz memory

Asus Strix clock speeds

Base: 1253MHz core, 1317MHz boost, 1800MHz memory
Overclocked: 1400MHz core (!!!), 1464MHz boost, 1933MHz memory

Nvidia's printing materials say it's been able to hit 1450MHz overclocks with the reference cooling design, all without tweaking card voltage or fan speeds. We didn't quite hit those lofty speeds, but a 1400MHz clock speed is however insane. Remember: The GTX 960's default reference speed is 1126MHz.

The Asus Strix and EVGA SSC could be pushed even further if yous wanted to scroll up your sleeves and showtime tweaking voltages and fan speeds—possibly a whole lot farther. Both cards were still humming away happily at their stock load temperatures when they began demonstrating overclock instability. In other words, each should take a lot more than heat if you wanted to utilise more juice and crank the clock speeds even college.

And then what practise those actress speeds get you in term of frame rate? I'thou glad you asked. The frame rate leaps aren't mind-blowing, but again, call up that these cards had hefty overclocks out of the box. The gains would be much more dramatic on a GTX 760 that started at reference clock speeds—bold it overclocked every bit well as these models.

Nvidia GeForce GTX 960: Finding the sweet spot

The GTX 960 is everything y'all could ask for in a graphics card for the mainstream enthusiast. The models nosotros tested delivered a firm lx fps in every title tested with "loftier" graphics presets—and that should be boosted fifty-fifty college when using MFAA. The GTX 960 runs cool. The GTX 960 runs amazingly tranquillity. And best of all, the GTX 960 is inexpensive.

Nvidia'due south positioning the GTX 960 as a killer upgrade for people currently rocking an older GTX 560 or 660, and compared to those the GTX 960 is clearly a vast step up in performance and power efficiency. (It's a less compelling upgrade if you already own a GTX 760, or fifty-fifty a GTX 670.) But really, the GTX 960 puts immense pressure on the next generation of AMD'due south Radeon graphics cards before the next generation of Radeon graphics cards has fifty-fifty been announced.

The technical superiority of the GTX 980 and specially the $330 GTX 970 have already forced AMD to dramatically slash prices on its highest-end graphics cards. The toll-cutting will very likely carry over to the mainstream pricing segment now that the GTX 960 is here. By pricing the GTX 960 at $200, rather than the $250 that enthusiast 1080p cards similar the GTX 760 and Radeon R9 285 take typically cost at in the past, Nvidia's signaling that it'due south taking the battle for your wallet very seriously indeed.

AMD's GTX 960 counterpart, the Radeon R9 285, will accept to driblet to at least $200 to remain relevant—and likely lower, given the Nvidia card's overwhelming power efficiency authorization. (You can already find many, but not all, models at that price later on rebates.) AMD'due south Never Settle game bundles don't appear in consequence whatsoever more, either—at to the lowest degree on Amazon and Newegg—eliminating that differentiating Radeon do good.

Would I have liked to see a bigger spring in performance from the GTX 760 to the GTX 960? Sure. And a larger memory frame buffer wouldn't hurt in an era of rapidly expanding games. But Nvidia'due south GTX 960 does what it'south designed to do—play current games at playable rates and 1080p resolution with about graphical features enabled—very, very well indeed. You'd be very happy with either the Asus Strix or the EVGA SSC.