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The GeForce GTX 960 is a mid-range graphics card by NVIDIA based on the Maxwell architecture and is available in both 2GB and 4GB versions. The card has a single DVI-port, an HDMI-port and three DisplayPort connectors. An overview of the best GTX 960 cards can be found here.
SpecsUpdate
Pros
Pro Low power consumption
The GeForce GTX 960 requires a single 6-pin PCIe power connector and is decently energy efficient. In non-gaming situations, maximum consumption for an entire system is measured at about 9 watts while the maximum power usage during full load is 140 watts. For comparison, the GTX 760 consumes 167 watts during full load - 21% more.
Pro Excellent overclocking potential
Overclocking allows you to increase the clock speeds of your GPU for increased performance. The GTX 960 chip overclocks very well and overclock results of over 15% aren't uncommon. In this case, both the GPU base clock and memory have been overlocked 18%, which also results in a 18.3% better performance in Battlefield 3 (73.9 FPS vs 87.4 FPS).
Pro Ideal for 1080p gaming
The GTX 960 holds up well in gaming benchmarks with a 1080p resolution and all games are perfectly playable. Some of the more recent titles may require you to to use medium settings, but overall 1080p performance is great. For example, Metro Last Light runs at an average of 56.1 frames per second with maximum details. Average FPS in Alien Isolation is 89.5 FPS in 1080p, and it also performs well in 1440p with an average 56.7 frames per second. Similar results can be seen in Bioshock Infinite with 90 average FPS in 1080p and 54.1 FPS in 1440p. In Battlefield 4, a result of 48.8 FPS is reached in 1080p with 4x AA enabled.
Cons
Con Previous generation chip
The GTX 960 chip has been around for a while, and both NVIDIA and AMD are introducing new mid-range graphics cards in the remainder of 2016. It's only a matter of time before a new graphics card debuts with increased performance and the same price tag, such as the RX 480 by AMD.
Con Is outperformed by the RX 470
Although NVIDIA has announced the succesor of the GTX 960 in the form of the more powerful GTX 1060, the price point of the older 960 remains over a hundred dollars lower. This puts the GTX 960 in direct competition with AMD's new RX 470 graphics card which is available for a slightly higher price but offers consistently better performance.
Recommendations
Comments
Flagged Pros + Cons
Con Memory hasn't been overclocked
Despite the excellent GPU clock boost provided by the FTW GAMING Edition, EVGA has decided not to overclock the memory of the graphics card as well. This is a missed opportunity to further increase performance.
Pro Very silent operation
The fans of the EVGA ACX 2.0 cooler won't spin until a temperature of 63 degrees Celsius is reached, which results in an inaudible graphics card in idle situations. During load, the fan speed will reach a maximum of 31% which is experienced as silent.
Pro Excellent factory overclock
The standard base clock for a GTX 960 is 1127 MHz, but XFX has factory overclocked the GTX 960 to 1304 MHz, which is a major 16% increase.