GPU Comparisons, GTA V, BF4, Bioshock
Testing Configuration
I covered this pretty well on the first page, but our review of the new GeForce GTX 950 graphics card will pit it against a host of existing cards already available on the market. From NVIDIA that includes the GTX 750 Ti and the GTX 960 to allow us to see how well the newcomer fits in the product stack based on its price. And from AMD we use the Radeon R7 370, the closest price competitor from AMD’s refreshed R9 300-series product line.
| Test System Setup | |
| CPU | Intel Core i7-3960X Sandy Bridge-E |
| Motherboard | ASUS P9X79 Deluxe |
| Memory | Corsair Dominator DDR3-1600 16GB |
| Hard Drive | OCZ Agility 4 256GB SSD |
| Sound Card | On-board |
| Graphics Card | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 2GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 2GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB AMD Radeon R7 370 4GB |
| Graphics Drivers | AMD: 15.7.1 NVIDIA: 355.65 |
| Power Supply | Corsair AX1200i |
| Operating System | Windows 8.1 Pro x64 |
What you should be watching for
- GTX 950 vs GTX 960 – How much performance do you sacrifice dropping from the full GM206 GPU to the slightly cut down version used in the GTX 950? And would bumping up to the GTX 960 be worth the money?
- GTX 950 vs GTX 750 Ti – One of our favorite budget cards of all time, the GTX 750 Ti presents a formidable hurdle for the GTX 950 in theory. But if the GTX 950 runs past it on performance does it still have a life nearly 18 months after release?
- GTX 950 vs R7 370 – AMD continues to be aggressive with performance per dollar though that seems to slip somewhat with the newer R9/R7 300 cards launch this June. The R7 370 is based on the same Pitcairn GPU as the R9 280 and the HD 7800 so it lacks a significant amount of capability and features. Can it keep NVIDIA on its toes for the sub-$200 price point?
As we dive into the performance section of our review, please excuse the brevity. Time constraints and a lack of controversial data have led me to lessen the number of graphs to be tossed at the reader. Rather than showing you frame time graphs, two different FPS graphs, frame variance results for 7 different games, let me instead assure you that all of the GPUs in question performed well within expectations from a frame latency point of view. Instead I will simply show you our Observed FPS and FPS by Percentile results that offer up estimated average FPS (the 50th percentile). This is nothing we are looking to do full time going forward but instead are using this as shortcut for this review.
Grand Theft Auto V
Our first title, GTA V, running at 1080p with Very High quality presets starts the GTX 950 down the path we thought it would be on: resting between the performance of the GTX 960 and the GTX 750 Ti with a heavy weight towards its GM206 cousin. Pulling in just under 40 FPS in our testing, the ASUS GTX 950 Strix is 15% slower than the GTX 950, 34% faster than the GX 750 Ti and 14% faster than the AMD R7 370.
Battlfield 4
In another seemingly perfect distribution of performance, the GTX 950 is nestled between the R7 370 and the GTX 960 and leaves the GTX 750 Ti well behind. At 1080p under the Ultra quality preset the new card is able to run at 43 average FPS in our scenario, putting it 13% behind the GTX 960 but 22% ahead of the R7 370.
Bioshock Infinite
Somewhat surprisingly here the GTX 750 Ti and the R7 370 are much closer to each other in performance than they are either of the GM206 GPU-based cards. We can see that with an average frame rate of 90 FPS the GTX 950 is 16% slower than the GTX 960 but is a whopping 34% faster than the Radeon R7 370 with twice the frame buffer!
Wonder how my 2012 era GTX
Wonder how my 2012 era GTX 660Ti compares in performance to these new cards……
Yo! eh Yo yo! Know what i’m
Yo! eh Yo yo! Know what i’m sayin! I got one for free from a Nvidia BOSS I party with yo yo! Yeah! So I did not have to pay 4 shiz! And you do! But check it yo! I does it big with my 980 Ti I gots 4 free at the same party yo! Yeah! YO! YO YO YO YO YO YO YO YO!
The generosity must have been
The generosity must have been prompted by your contribution to the english language.
Small correction.
“The GTX
Small correction.
“The GTX 950 drops the GM206 from 1024 CUDA cores to 768, a decrease of 33%”
768 is 3/4 of 1024. So going from 4 to 3 is a decrease of 25%. From 3 to 4 (768 to 1024) would be an increase of 33%.
Why was the 4GB version of
Why was the 4GB version of the 370 tested as opposed to the 2GB version? The price point that you are showing for the 4GB version is probably where the 370X with 2 GB will be sitting and it will probably perform at a level above the 950 to make it worthy of that price point. Just saying.
http://cdn.wccftech.com/wp-co
http://cdn.wccftech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Discrete-GPU-Market.png
Another nail in the coffin for AMD it seems. They’re finished.
Ah, no. Not once DX12 picks
Ah, no. Not once DX12 picks up some steam. AMD CPUs and GPUs are dramatically boosted by that API. People are in for a rude awakening once they see how much faster Radeons are in DX12. They’re probably gonna be pretty annoyed that they forked out for nVidia cards just in time to see them performing equally or even slower than AMD cards that were supposedly inferior.
Where are the DX12
Where are the DX12 benchmarks? Anyone buying a new graphics card at this point deserves to know how much faster Radeon cards are in DX12 compared to nVidia. Buying on the basis of DX11 alone is extremely misleading, and will lead to tremendous resentment.
I agree, DX11 is on its way
I agree, DX11 is on its way out. Anyone who buys a card now will probably keep it for the next 1-3 years. DX12 benchmarks are very relevant with this in mind.
There are only benchmarks
There are only benchmarks available though. That’s not going to give you any sort of idea of what that’s going to translate to in FPS for any given game.
Planing for future growth isn’t a bad idea, but I’d imagine anyone buying one of these plans to use it today, and showcasing what it can do with today’s software makes a heck of a lot more sense. DX12 seems to show minor improvements all around. At most you can expect games to perform marginally better down the road.
I agree, DX11 is on its way
I agree, DX11 is on its way out. Anyone who buys a card now will probably keep it for the next 1-3 years. DX12 benchmarks are very relevant with this in mind.
“A slightly cut down GM206
“A slightly cut down GM206 allows NVIDIA to take better advantage of its supply pipeline”
My translation-Allows Nvidia to utilize broken 960 dies.
AMD has me really confused at the moment-We had
270X full die-270 cut down/broken die
280X full die-280 cut down/broken die
Where are the 370X and 380X-Are we only getting
broken/cut down dies?????????????????????
Jeez…for +$20 I’ll get the
Jeez…for +$20 I’ll get the 960