ASUS Announces The Strix GTX 950

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ASUS today announced the Strix GTX 950, a cool new graphics card for gamers that demand performance beyond the capabilities of reference designs. This new graphics card is packed with ASUS exclusive hardware and software technologies to get the most from NVIDIA’s latest GeForce® GTX™ 950 GPU. Cooler, quieter and more reliable than reference, the Strix GTX 950 features boost clocks of 1329 MHz in gaming mode, and 1355 MHz in OC mode - delivering 11.5% faster gaming performance than reference cards in The Witcher® 3.

The Strix GTX 950 is equipped with ASUS DirectCU II cooling technology, which features direct-GPU contact heat pipes that outperform reference designs and achieve up to 20% cooler gaming performance. A patented wing-blade fan design delivers maximum airflow and improved static pressure over the heatsink for efficient cooling. The Strix GTX 950 also features 0dB fan technology, which stops fan rotation completely during lighter gaming sessions — eliminating noise for undisturbed gameplay. In situations where active cooling is required, the Strix 950’s cooler is 3X quieter than reference designs.
 
I am confused by this product, You can buy a nice 960 4gb card for $200, is there really a huge market for low end sub $150 cards?

I have always gone with low end is $200 ish, good price for performance is around $300 - 350 and above that is the top end stuff that can run up to 800 +

Down around $150 is where you expect the old cards that they just happen to still have in stock.

very odd to me
 
So, you haven't seen any of those threads that are along the lines of "Help me build a good gaming PC for under $XXX"? This is EXACTLY what these are for. I see, "Best $500 gaming machine" type articles all the time, or comparisons to the current gen of consoles, etc. These are perfect in those cases. I bet one could put together a half-decent 1080 machine using one of these and a Pentium G3258 based setup.

Maybe not your, or my target, but for someone on a budget, and not looking for used parts, not a bad option I don't think. I personally don't buy used because I don't know how badly abused the hardware has been. I don't know if it had half of its life sucked out by poor overclocking/cooling conditions, etc. I'd pop one of these in a system for one of my kids too if I didn't trickle down my own hardware often enough to keep them covered.
 
Since the 950 effectively slots in between the 750 Ti and 960 2GB in terms of both price and performance, does this mean that NVIDIA will continue to sell the 750 Ti at the over-inflated price of $150 or can we expect the inventory of 750 Tis to start being cleared out so that the 950 can drop down to the $150 or below price point? I'm asking because I want to throw an inexpensive GPU in a secondary PC, but I haven't been able to pull the trigger recently on a 750 Ti because I paid $100 after-rebate for my EVGA Superclocked version a while back and I have a hard time justifying paying in the neighborhood of $20 - $30 more for the same thing almost a year later...
 
J3RK said:
So, you haven't seen any of those threads that are along the lines of "Help me build a good gaming PC for under $XXX"? This is EXACTLY what these are for. I see, "Best $500 gaming machine" type articles all the time, or comparisons to the current gen of consoles, etc. These are perfect in those cases. I bet one could put together a half-decent 1080 machine using one of these and a Pentium G3258 based setup.

Maybe not your, or my target, but for someone on a budget, and not looking for used parts, not a bad option I don't think. I personally don't buy used because I don't know how badly abused the hardware has been. I don't know if it had half of its life sucked out by poor overclocking/cooling conditions, etc. I'd pop one of these in a system for one of my kids too if I didn't trickle down my own hardware often enough to keep them covered.
Click to expand...

Here is the issue (using Newegg.com prices) -

Asus GTX 950 - $170
Asus GTX 960 - $207 - $20 = $187AR. Phantom Pain (Ebay shows these going for $30+. We have a user offering $35 right here in the forums - http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1872985&highlight=phantom+pain)

Using TPU's performance summary at 1080p. the Asus 960 is 18% faster than the Asus 950 at 1080p.

Essentially the GTX 960 would be cheaper and faster.
 
J3RK said:
So, you haven't seen any of those threads that are along the lines of "Help me build a good gaming PC for under $XXX"? This is EXACTLY what these are for. I see, "Best $500 gaming machine" type articles all the time, or comparisons to the current gen of consoles, etc. These are perfect in those cases. I bet one could put together a half-decent 1080 machine using one of these and a Pentium G3258 based setup.

Maybe not your, or my target, but for someone on a budget, and not looking for used parts, not a bad option I don't think. I personally don't buy used because I don't know how badly abused the hardware has been. I don't know if it had half of its life sucked out by poor overclocking/cooling conditions, etc. I'd pop one of these in a system for one of my kids too if I didn't trickle down my own hardware often enough to keep them covered.
Click to expand...

The GTX950 replaces the GTX750 - hence THIS Strix model replaces the GTX750 DirectCU Silent (a fanless baby-flamethrower of a card that was on my own shortlist BECAUSE it was fanless) and thus an ideal match with a G3258 (budget flamethrower). Instead of thinking high-end gaming, think Legacy of the Void. BF4 (or even BF: Hardline). The forthcoming Need for Speed. Older titles such as Crysis 3. Replacing a GTX6xx (such as GTX650 or even GTX660 in a Sandy Bridge or Ivy Bridge build) - since it supports SLI, if you have such a setup you can upgrade both - (or three if you're doing Tri-SLI) without breaking the bank - even three would barely be $500 @ the Egg.
 
Like I mentioned above you could get a GTX 960 for effectively cheaper.

Also I cannot agree that even considering tri-sli of something in this class a good idea.
 
Even the picture on the right looks like it is 8bit. I just do not see the need to develop this card. Another months worth of beer cans and you get a 960.
 
limitedaccess said:
Like I mentioned above you could get a GTX 960 for effectively cheaper.

Also I cannot agree that even considering tri-sli of something in this class a good idea.
Click to expand...

IMO multi GPU is a bad idea with anything less than high-end. Efficiency, scaling issues, power/heat and even price make it a poor solution vs just selling your current card and buying a single more powerful GPU. For example why buy a second 970 when you can sell your current one for a very good price (as of today 970s still sell very well) and get a 980 ti instead? Much better experience and superior efficiency and it will end up costing you the same or just slightly more/less.

Back on topic what's the TDP on the 950 like? The 750 ti still has amazing efficiency as far as I know, even versus the 960.
 
Official TDP is 90w.

Something interesting about GM107 is that its L2 Cache is actually larger than GM206's and the same size as GM204s. This combined with it's much lower memory clock is likely where the efficiency comes from.
 
Have seen 960 on sale for $165 on SlickDeals ... $170-180 for a 950?? Try $140 maybe.
 
What happened to the rumoured $129(stock) –$149(custom) prices? :(
All the rumours were spot on, all but the price.

This card is a big fail at the current prices. Especially seeing as you can get a R9 285 for less, and 960s can be had for about the same as the custom 950s. TDP is also all over the place, seeing as some OC version are up to 140W. Not really a true replacement for the 750 cards if you consider TDP.
Also I don’t see a 950Ti coming out, since the 960 is essentially that.
 
The 650 was $109 at launch ... the 650Ti was $149. So the 950 non-Ti is up +45% in price.
 
xorbe said:
The 650 was $109 at launch ... the 650Ti was $149. So the 950 non-Ti is up +45% in price.
Click to expand...

I'm seeing $159.99 (either Newegg.com OR MicroCenter) for the EVGA GTX950 SC (half-length) - Amazon.com is $20 more. EVGA GTX960 is $50 more (+25%); however, how much better (if any) does it perform over GTX950?
 
limitedaccess said:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487093&cm_re=gtx_960-_-14-487-093-_-Product
$195->$180AR - Metal Gear ($30-$35) = $145-$150

GTX 960 is cheaper and faster again.
Click to expand...

Only if:
A) The MIR is actually sent and processed
B) You actually want to sell that game

That's not to say that the GTX 950 is a good choice for the money. I would still go for the GTX 960 even at its higher $195 price considering the performance increase you mentioned earlier and the included game.
 
If you don't want to the sell game than presumably it means you were going to buy it which would still make it worth at least the resale value or even more (depending on what price you were going to pay for a retail order).

MIR debate is just going to be that. No point in debating it.

Either one of those however would mean better than linear performance/price gain for the GTX 960. Whereas normally you associate moving up in price with diminishing returns.

One issue is that GTX 950's MSRP is placed against GTX 960's MSRP ($200). However GTX 960s MSRP is no longer reflected in its actual street price.

It's one thing to pay the new product premium for high end cards (as there isn't really any alternatives) but if their are nearby alternatives? It's the same issue (although not as extreme) as AMDs 3xx series release.
 
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