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Asus GTX960 Strix OC Edition Review

Rating: 8.5.

It was almost a year ago when Nvidia released their first graphics card based on the Maxwell architecture. My reviews of the GTX750Ti were positive – Maxwell delivered excellent full HD performance while taking all the power it needed direct from the PCIe slot. I said back in February 2014 that future high end Nvidia GPU's would likely lead the way – and as the year came to a close I was proved correct. The GTX970 and GTX980 won multiple awards on KitGuru. Nvidia's Maxwell architecture also walked away with our Excellence in Technology Award for 2014. 2015 is a new year and with the GTX960 being released this week, can Nvidia possibly do it again?
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The Asus GTX960 Strix OC is a diminutive solution, a dual slot, dual fan card featuring several thick heat pipes running across the length of the PCB. Compared to the monster Gigabyte GTX960 G1 Gaming, which we also review today, it really is tiny (see picture directly below).
DSCF5404-650px

Nvidia say the GTX960 is one of the most power efficient high performance gaming cards, and with a quoted TDP of 120 watts it seems in line with what we would expect from the Maxwell architecture. The GTX960 will surely appeal to a wide audience – on paper it should be noticeably more powerful than the GTX750ti, while shipping below the £200 ‘sweet spot'.

How does the technology behind the GTX960 stack up?

GPU GeForce GTX 750ti (Maxwell) GeForce GTX 960 (Maxwell) Geforce GTX 970 (Maxwell) GeForce GTX 980 (Maxwell)
Streaming Multiprocessors 5 8 13 16
CUDA Cores 640 1024 1664 2048
Base Clock 1020 mhz 1126 mhz 1050 mhz 1126 mhz
GPU Boost Clock 1085 mhz 1178 mhz 1178 mhz 1216 mhz
Total Video memory 2GB 2GB 4GB 4GB
Texel fill-rate 40.8 Gigatexels/Sec 72.1 Gigatexels/Sec 109.2 Gigatexels/Sec 144.1 Gigatexels/Sec
Memory Clock 5400 mhz 7010 mhz 7000 mhz 7000 mhz
Memory Bandwidth 86.4 GB/sec 112.16 GB/sec 224 GB/s 224 GB/sec
Bus Width 128bit 128bit 256bit 256bit
ROPs 16 32 64 64
Manufacturing Process 28nm 28nm 28nm 28nm
TDP 60 watts 120 watts 145 watts 165 watts

Nvidia's GTX960 GM206 ships with 1,024 CUDA cores – significantly more than the 640 CUDA cores available on the GTX750ti, but half the amount featured on the flagship GTX980 (2,048).

A bone of contention within the enthusiast audience will be the somewhat limited 128bit memory interface – identical to the GTX750ti. Nvidia are keen to point out however that the Maxwell memory architecture is approximately 33% more efficient than Kepler. We do delve into this a little deeper on the architecture page later in the review.

The reference clock speeds are set at 1,126mhz (1,178mhz boost), with 32 ROPs and 64 texture units. ASUS have tweaked their STRIX OC Edition to 1,253mhz (1,317 mhz boost) with 2GB of GDDR5 memory running at 1800mhz (7.2Gbps effective).

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104 comments

  1. YESS !! awesome (y)

  2. great

  3. Damn.another sweet spot card. pretty sure they are aiming league of legends and dota community. great review 😀 Thanks.

  4. Peter Orwa Junior

    I love it!

  5. Dream come true!

  6. Badass Beast Card It is..

  7. super gpu!

  8. Looks great

  9. I think im going with 960 ^-^ i think its the best “price-power” card there 😛

  10. Absolutely love this graphics card would be an upgrade from my 4Gb gtx 760. This card in review had awesome specs and would be an upgrade for my twitch stream which is xwolfman87x

  11. superb……its gret benchmark…for rendering and gaming all in one its superb….for modelet or animator or gamers go for it

  12. I can play lol on full HD all graphics setted to maximum with an AMD R9 m 265x( dunno for Dota though ). Take a look at this : http://www.game-debate.com/gpu/index.php?gid=2436&gid2=2140&compare=geforce-gtx-960-2gb-vs-radeon-r9-m265x. The 960 gtx is overkill for lol.

  13. Better nerf Ir.. Nidalee

    I am hoping I win this 🙂 and if I dont I guess I just buy it as reward for me doing all exams 😀

  14. Legendary indeed!

  15. FluffBucket Sea Byrd

    Would be a tremendous upgrade from my GT 730.

  16. My computer would love this upgrade, so would I.

  17. Winning this would make me learn how to hula hoop.

  18. Rickey 'Jamie' Barker

    with 5 kids I could never afford this kind of upgrade. If I win it will be an awsome up grade from my gtx 280

  19. I would give it away to my son in law.

  20. Christian Wyn Dorado

    I really like this card. It would be perfect for my 1080p gaming build.

  21. I like the compact size. But will it cool sufficiently?

  22. Don’t leave me hanging on a onboard graphics guys after my gtx780 crashed… few buddys are missing me out there on a Battlefield 🙁

  23. Would be a huge upgrade for me.

  24. Hi, I’m stuck with a 7 yr old card, AMD 4650. I could greatly benefit in my photoshop painting for commission work as well as games!

  25. This would be a huge upgrade that is so needed, I’m still running an old Radeon 9800 Pro.

  26. Chester Paul R. Baltazar

    love to have one

  27. I hope I win this card 😀

  28. HTPC!!!

  29. Would be awesome if I won, a tremendous upgrade from a low spec card…
    🙂

  30. I was going to make a joke about sodium, but Na.

  31. just paid college and my pc is laking a video card.. running a 4-year old 550ti it works but my cpu is a i7 right now xD

  32. all i wish is to win that Asus GTX960 strix OC
    by kitguru

  33. I would like to replace my aging 560Ti 😀

  34. good replacement for my gtx 460

  35. Love it!

  36. LAPTOP BROKEDOWN / SAVING UP FOR DESKTOP SETUP THIS WILL HELP ME OUT A LOT!..I WISH I COULD WIN THIS!

  37. Kevin Klein L. Guzman

    Getting a gpu for once will really put a smile on me after gaming for months with only an Intel HD 4600 iGPU. It would be great if you can give me one of these GPUs KitGuru 🙂

  38. Filep Daniel-Alexandru

    I wish to win for my brother because he needs for his projects in modeling.

  39. From gtx650ti to gtx960 very sweet upgrade!

  40. i would love the upgrade it would improve my gaming

  41. This will help with the build I plan to give to my brother by summer this year. He has used a crappy Vaio notebook for all of his needs and it has been slowly dying on him, so I planned to surprise him with a build after we graduate from college by March. 😀

  42. how to enter the giveaway

  43. me

  44. Would be great having one of these. Cool, quiet, power efficient and better than GTX 760.

  45. i don’t know why you’d need a GTX 960 for those games. even an integrated graphics could run those games well

  46. I feel so sad owning a broken GT640…..

  47. BSjunkie Dotacssource

    Thanks for choosing me as winner.you guys are great.

  48. this card will be a beautiful upgrade for me, my actual Asus gtx 660 direct cu 2 oc for physics and the Asus GTX960 Strix OC Edition like my main Card kicking game asses…please i need that Video Card :3

  49. nvidia forever

  50. Nathaniel Apostol Gamboa

    I want this so bad! Can I be the one to have this please ?

  51. If could have this it would replace my geforce 9500 gt haha

  52. would be definitely nice to have one of these, id love to try them out on all the games out there o.o

  53. Very nice card Asus GTX960 Strix OC!

  54. Mariz Geraldine Azura Jose

    I got my eye on this 960 since my Asus GTX 650 1GB can’t do most of the job nowadays, with low setting on Far Cry 4, and medium on NBA 2k15 on a 1440x900p reso.
    Nvidia and Asus, FTW!

  55. Michael Angelo Neri Lapz

    I hope i win so i can create more 3D models….

  56. hmmmm looks nice hope can wint this kind of stuff hope can build a gaming PC soon

  57. Mark Lester Navarro

    If i win this i’ll be able to complete my small enthusiast build

  58. If I win this card, for once in my life I can actually play a game that was released in the same year.

  59. Id love to review one of these and give it a right run for its money – plus I can finally gift my gtx285 to a fellow clan member on the other side of the world 🙂 – his has just kicked the bucket!!!

  60. I can make my GT 430 to GTX 960, I’ll put another GT530.

  61. Tomáš Novohradský

    7 years old pc,have mercy and give me that and i will complete to the full rig!

  62. would be an awesome upgrade from my 3 yr old r7 250

  63. I’d love to take this and upgrade my 8400GS in my Q6600 machine so I can play some BF4 with it and have a worthy gaming pc and also do some folding@home.

  64. I must have, Shut up and take my money (that i dont have)

  65. Asus GTX980 Strix OC, I want to try it. Thanks!

  66. i badly neeed this… pls pick me!

  67. i badly neeed this… pls pick me!

  68. Open worldwide? I’m from Philippines and I have all the reasons why I want this card. Hope they will picked me as winner.

  69. just let me have it. LOL i need it ^_^

  70. John Froilan Bihasa

    nice one Kitguru

  71. I want to have one of this little green monsters. Please kitguru have a heart.

  72. Need this, my r9 290 very noisy 🙁

  73. Ken Ryu Xell Avenido

    i’ve been a fan of nvidia and i have a gt220, this could be a wonderful gift for the gt220 so it can rest in peace haha

  74. This would be awesome to have,nvidia rocks

  75. be an
    upgrade for me

  76. nice nice i wan’t this

  77. i want that… i was using built in vc huhuhu

  78. I want it =)

  79. I need new plastic in my rig

  80. christian mer legaspi

    i’ve only tried a high end video card once and it was august 30 this year. it was an asus 760 from a friend and it was a great experience. ever since im always stock with my galaxy 250s who sometime fail on me. this GPU will be a life sever for my rig, although i have upgraded some of my computer parts, but i never had a change to have a new card. i would be forever thankful if i’m given with such a best.

  81. John Daele C. Bandilla

    I’d love to take this as a gift.. i really need it thanks

    To God Be the Glory

  82. Interest

  83. christianjamesliwag

    Im trying my luck on this.. But i would be so happy to get something in a decent way that i can’t even buy -crosses fingers- I just have my good ol’ GeForce 9500 since my uncle passed it away from me like.. 4 years ago .__. I wonder what GTX960 tastes like..

  84. I really need this one since I’m using high-end games and 3D renders in my presentations. I just hope you’d picked me 🙂

  85. i’m still using the GTS8800 and planning to upgrade…but i’m low on funds..i hope lady luck will smile on me..:)

  86. I’ve been waiting for this card since the release of the 970 and the 980 last Sept’14 because both of the cards are rather overkill for my gaming need and this card hits the price to performance sweet spot.

  87. i’m a fan of nvidia, i’m still using my GTS250 green i think its been 6 years now and still working great…i’d like like to win this ASUS GTX960 as a gift =) for Asus Z87a mother board =)……ASUS AWESOME !!!!

  88. Darren Aguirre Julagting

    I may not be a hard gamer since I only play league of legends, but this card may also help my little brother since he’s gonna take up Multimedia arts.

  89. this will be a very happy birthday if i get this hehehehe

  90. Sweet. .:)

  91. You have my interest

  92. maan I need this my 650ti cant handle the newer games. 😀

  93. Asus Gtx960 strix oc is one of a kind graphics card..

  94. And also it has 30% cooler And silent Gaming dont know much about these coz i only watching these GPU from youtube to learn how great is the GPU is.

  95. please let me have one of this I might be young but my dream Is to work at I.T please,did i tell you guys that i have the worlds crappiest computer I still have windows XP I just want to play video games because its the only thing that makes me happy ,when my parents are always fighting , instead of my crying all the time I just play videogame. please please please.

  96. I wish I could have one like that~

  97. nice

  98. ……………….now reading! 🙂

  99. this card will rock my 900p monitor…………………..

  100. Devi Virgia Perwita

    reading now ^_^ .. thankyou…

  101. Amazing. ??

  102. I was thinking if buying 970, but a free upgrade is always nicer. 🙂 thanks for picking me.

  103. im using gt 240 ddr2 😀 hope i win this 1

  104. LOl… not