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NVIDIA Launches $159 Mainstream Maxwell-Based GeForce GTX 950
MojoKid writes: NVIDIA is launching a new mainstream graphics card today, the GeForce GTX 950, based on the company's GM206 GPU. The GM206 debuted on the GeForce GTX 960, which launched a few months back. As the new card's name suggests though, the GM206 used on the GeForce GTX 950 isn't quite as powerful as the one used on the GTX 960. The company is targeting this card at MOBA (massive online battle arena) players, who don't necessarily need the most powerful GPUs on the market, but want smooth, consistent framerates at resolutions of 1080p or below. It's being positioned as a significant, yet affordable, upgrade over cards like the GeForce GTX 650 Ti, that are a couple of generations old. NVIDIA's reference specifications for the GeForce GTX 950 call for a base clock of 1024MHz and a Boost clock of 1188MHz. The GPU is packing 768 CUDA cores, 48 texture units, and 32 ROPs. The 2GB of video memory on GeForce GTX 950 cards is clocked at a 6.6GHz (effective GDDR5 data rate) and the memory links to the GPU via a 128-bit interface. At those clocks, the GeForce GTX 950 offers up a peak textured fillrate of 49.2 GTexels/s and 105.6 GB/s of memory bandwidth. At a $159 starting MSRP, in the benchmarks, the GeForce GTX 950 offers solid entry level or midrange performance at 1080p resolutions. It's a bit faster than AMD's Radeon R9 270X but comes in just behind a Radeon R9 285.
n/t
It would improve your life by saving you $150 over the more expensive card.
If you want to play next-gen PC games though, it's not going to do much. It seems like every AAA title now requires at least a 960, and many recommend (amazingly to me) a Titan in the system specs.
You are welcome on my lawn.
I'll wait five years to pick up this card for $50 and buy this year's video games for $5 each on Steam.
Guide to understanding Nvidia video card models:
First number is the series, basically the generation of the card
Second number is the tier, basically its performance in context with other cards in that series, the bigger that number the better
The letters are the "quality" and go
SE/LE - Very low
GS - Low
GSO - Below GT but above GS
GT - Standard/Normal
GTS - Good
GTO - Usually a binned GTX, High
GTX - Very high
Ultra - Usually an OC'd GTX
GX2 - 2 GPU's
Within a given manufacturer (nVidia / AMD), a higher number within the same generation is better.
The 970 is better than the 950. A lot better.
The 980 is better than the 970. The 980 Ti is better than the 980. The 123 Ti SC or SSC or FTW or whatever shit different vendors sell are all 123 Tis, but with varying stock clocks, PCB designs, and cooling designs. The key difference between these variants are overclocking ability, noise/power levels, aesthetics, and manufacturer warranties / free games / trade-in programs. Read reviews to compare these.
Both AMD and nVidia change up what their "flagship" moniker (x800, x900, x80, x90, x970, Titan, Fury, etc.) is and what the modifiers (GT, GTX, Ultra, X, Z, Pro, XT, etc.) are and how they rank.
Sometimes you get a case where a later card is released that is better than the flagship in the same generation, or a much better value. Consider nVidia's 8800 GT vs the 8800 GTX or 8800 Ultra. The GT came later and was really fucking cheap while giving comparable performance. Too bad they were all defective (bumpgate). The 980 Ti is basically the same as the new Titan but for a fraction of the cost. It often outperforms the full Titan, and the non-reference designs that vendors put out overclock like crazy and blow the Titan away.
If this is targeted at MOBA players, then it is probably overkill. I've got a 2011 Mac Pro with a Radeon 5870 (850Mhz GPU, 1GB VRAM). Playing League of Legends at 1920x1200, 60fps is no problem for this setup. These games are not graphically intensive, nor do they require much CPU horsepower. If you are going to drop money on hardware for MOBA gaming, spend it on a nice keyboard/mouse and the lowest latency ISP you can find. If your machine is less than 5 years old, whatever came stock is more than enough to play the game.
I think the number on my card is 970. This is 950. Are smaller numbers better than bigger numbers?
For your wallet, in general yes. Also for your power bill.
Or is this an older card that they've kept in a box for a year before revealing to the world?
It's basically the same technology as the 970, on a chip half the size.
How would this improve my life?
Judging by the inaneness of your post, the only way is up.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Both the 650 Ti and the 950 are built on a 28nm process. Sure, that's not the only parameter that matters but I don't think it's a reasonable upgrade path at all. If you need more performance you should probably go for something bigger, or better yet, wait until 14/16nm becomes a reality for GPUs.
Anymore, everything seems to be just a GTX {generation}{tier}0, with or without a "Ti" (process-improved mid-generation-performance-bump variant with lower power consumption and/or higher clock speed). Word got around about the grading codes, and nobody would shell out more than $50 for anything below GTX. That happened back in generation "2" (which was at least the second generation-2 that I know of, the first being the original GeForce 2 series, making this one more like generation 11 or 12). They've kept a few binned parts available at the sub-$50 level as GT{whatever}'s, but they're universally clearance parts from a previous generation.
Can you run it fanlessly like the 750 ti?
SURELY NOT!!!!!
a significant, yet affordable, upgrade over cards like the GeForce GTX 650 Ti,
I guess Nvidia's marketing drones think we're all a bunch of rich morons. That's exactly the card I have now, and there's no way in hell I'm stupid enough to pay $150 for a few extra FPS. Just look at those benchmarks, like Metro's 27 vs 36 avg FPS. If I need a few extra FPS, I'll lower the quality a bit and wait until a TRUE mid-range upgrade is available.
The real question here is WTH is going on with Moore's law? I paid about $150 for my 650 back in 2012, and here we are 3 years later, and my $150 buys essentially the same performance and features.
i'm still waiting for nvidia to produce a card that's worth upgrading to from a gtx-560 Ti for around $250 or so.
that's what i paid for some gtx-560 and 560 Ti cards a few years ago and is about the limit of what i'm willing to pay for a video card. paying $600 or $700 or $1200 for a GPU is something only a moron would do.
every card since then that costs around $250 is actually worse than the 560 in terms of performance - generally much better power consumption, but worse performance...ranging from slightly worse to ridiculously bad, and usually deliberately crippled by being cut from a 256-bit memory interface to 64-bit.
at best, it would be roughly the same as what i already have - why pay that much for no actual benefit?
when i bought the 560s, i was upgrading from gt-240s - definitely a worthwhile upgrade, from ~ 1.5 to ~ 5 times the performance depending on what attribute you're measuring (GTX-560Ti vs GT240). when i upgrade again i want a similar increase in performance for about the same price.
so, nvidia, give me a reason to upgrade.
It may not make a difference, depends where the bottleneck is on your machine. My ~2yo 750 on an i7 has no trouble with games, I also have a 550 on an i5 with an SSD. User experience for games on both is good, no problems with frame rates. Before installing the SSD on the i5 it had no hope of keeping up with the i7, now it is hard to tell the difference without checking the frame rate numbers.
My current beef is with the laws of physics and human ingenuity, neither will allow the ping time from Oz to US/EU game server to drop below ~200ms.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
I have found the current Nvidia 750 Ti to be quite effective, quiet, not much power drawn and does the job, quite a surprise value card.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
Yup, these are just faulty GTX 960 cores.
The GTX 970 is just a faulty GTX 980 core.
The GTX 980 Ti is just a faulty Titan X core.
Man is the animal that laughs.
And occasionally whores for Karma.
I feel the same about my R9 280 which according to TFA is better than this card, has a GB more RAM and cost $30 less so I really have to wonder what the market for this thing is.
I mean sure there are always gonna be guys loyal to the brand that will buy it no matter what but most mainstream gamers I've dealt with? Just looking for the most bang for the buck and if they keep that price point the R9 280 is just a better buy, they really need to drop the price by $30-$40 so that it comes in below the 280 to make it a better deal.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
I think you are reading too much into it. There really is no face on Mars.
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go slit your fucking wrists fucktard
-TechyImmigrant (175943)
You seem angry. Perhaps you should seek anger management classes.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
The problem is more managerial. Internode and others offered Blizzard dirt cheap hosting in Australia but the policy was that an extra site added more complications and that ~200ms did not appear to be costing customers.
Currently the 750ti is at that price point (or slightly lower).
And will the new card be as quiet as the 750ti (inaudible so suitable for living room use.)
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
I have found the current Nvidia 750 Ti to be quite effective, quiet, not much power drawn and does the job, quite a surprise value card.
That's how I feel about it. I can play most games that I play at decent frame rates with everything maxed out at 1920x1200. Sometimes I have to turn down some shadow detail or disable antialiasing to get good results, but at this resolution the AA is no great loss. I'll likely pick up a 950 when I can get one for $120 with 2GB of RAM or more, which is what I paid for my 750 with 1GB.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
You don't need a next gen card to get great framerates in a MOBA. You can run at the highest quality setting and cap at 60fps on any card priced in the same range in the past two years in LOL or DotA.
Ahh well. Marketing.
"I will trust Google to 'do no evil' until the founders no longer run it." Hello Alphabet.
If you like playing old games your pretty much stuck. ATI doesn't do a good job on backwards compatibility. Try digging up a game like No One Lives Forever or even Psyconauts and you'll have nothing but troubles...
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