ASUS STRIX GTX 960 DirectCU II OC Video Card Review @ [H]

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

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ASUS STRIX GTX 960 DirectCU II OC Video Card Review - For our GPU review today we have the ASUS STRIX GTX 960 DirectCU II OC, one of the highest factory overclocked GeForce GTX 960 that money can buy. We will compare it to the fastest overclocked Radeon R9 285 that we have at the Underground Bunker to see which reigns supreme at the $200 price point.
 
I'm not sure if I completely agree with the conclusion the 960 "outperformed the Overclocked XFX Radeon R9 285 Black Edition". In the apples to apples comparisons especially so.

The 285 out performs the OC 960 in far cry 4 (by a lot) and tomb raider and ties in crysis 3 with the OC 960 (less than 1fps difference). It loses in BF4 and in watch dogs. The 960 does use much less power however.

If you can get either for about $200, i'd say its a toss up. But that free witcher 3 definitly put the 960 over the top.
 
ThatGuy_CS said:
I'm not sure if I completely agree with the conclusion the 960 "outperformed the Overclocked XFX Radeon R9 285 Black Edition". In the apples to apples comparisons especially so.

The 285 out performs the OC 960 in far cry 4 (by a lot) and tomb raider and ties in crysis 3 with the OC 960 (less than 1fps difference). It loses in BF4 and in watch dogs. The 960 does use much less power however.

If you can get either for about $200, i'd say its a toss up. But that free witcher 3 definitly put the 960 over the top.
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The outperformed comment is more related to best playable settings rather than apples to apples. In most cases in the evaluation, neither card was playable at the apples to apples comparison settings level, yet the 285 "beat" the 960 at being unplayable. However, looking at the best playable settings, I typically had to turn down the settings a notch to get the 285 where it needed to be.
 
David_Schroth said:
The outperformed comment is more related to best playable settings rather than apples to apples. In most cases in the evaluation, neither card was playable at the apples to apples comparison settings level, yet the 285 "beat" the 960 at being unplayable. However, looking at the best playable settings, I typically had to turn down the settings a notch to get the 285 where it needed to be.
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You guys have some of the most inconsistent reviews. A GPU suddenly becomes unplayable at settings at which it previously was perfectly playable according to one of your earlier reviews.

So in WatchDogs how did the MSI R9 285 OC perform very well at the same high texture settings and Ultra quality settings with HBAO+ which you now say is unplayable on XFX R9 285 OC. These kind of glaring mistakes have been pointed out before too.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2014...85_gaming_oc_video_card_review/6#.VRBSJY4XaZc

btw Crysis 3 was perfectly playable on the MSI R9 285 OC on Very High texture settings and Very High system spec.but now you feel the XFX R9 285 OC can not play at the same very high system spec.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2014...85_gaming_oc_video_card_review/7#.VRBT9Y4XaZc

Both these cards are close competitors. To make it seem that one is better than the other is just trying to misrepresent the competitive situation. :rolleyes:

http://www.sweclockers.com/recension/19925-geforce-gtx-960-fran-asus-gigabyte-och-msi/17#pagehead

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/GTX_960_Gaming/29.html

The funny part is 6 months back you recommended the R9 280 over the R9 285 due to its larger 3 GB framebuffer. But now you did not even consider to mention that R9 280 3GB is a better alternative at the USD 180 - 200 price point compared to the GTX 960 and R9 285 both of which are limited to 2GB. btw the R9 280 cards are still in stock at newegg and amazon and pricing is very good. This is another glaring inconsistency in this review.
 
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Given that you can get a 280x for the same price the only reason anyone would consider this is if they needed the reduced power consumption surely?

If power consumption is not an issue, and for most gamers it isn't, then why bother?
 
The major difference is the ability to run 4k @ 60hz via the HDMI 2.0 on the 960 that the 280x doesn't have. Obviously this card will not have the horse power to push those frames on higher end AAA titles, but for someone like me who mainly plays games like DOTA 2 and CS:GO its a pretty good fit.

Also this is a much shorter card for those with space constraints.
 
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