[ VC ] Exclusive: NVIDIA Maxwell GM206 pictured

[KaRLiToS]

SOURCE

First of all, the data below confirms 2GB GDDR5 and 128-bit memory configuration. ASUS is making two GTX 960 cards ready for the launch, one with DirectCU 2 cooler and the other under STRIX series. Galax is also making two cards, but one of them will be equipped with NVTTM cooler (possibly the same we know from TITAN or GTX 980), and yes these cards would also have the same display configuration as newest 900 series cards (3x DisplayPort, HDMI and DVI).

The exact variant is GM206-300, which could be the full chip. Right below you can see a comparison of GM206 and GM204 (both real photographs).

GM206 VS GM 204

Now here’s something interesting. You can already find GTX 960 listed in few stores, but some pages are more detailed that others.

• ASUS GTX960-DC2OC-2GD5-PRO
• Asus STRIX-GTX960-DC2OC-2GD5 / GTX960 / OC version
• GALAX GF GTX 960-2GD5. PCI-E3.0. 2GB 128-bit GDDR5. 1178/7010 MHz. DVI. HDMI. 3 x DP. Nvttm Fan TBC
• GALAX GF GTX 960-2GD5 OC. PCI-E3.0. 2GB 128-bit GDDR5. 1228/7010 MHz. DVI. HDMI. 3 x DP. Fan TBA

 

[KaRLiToS]

http://videocardz.com/54214/exclusi...g-2g-and-gtx-960-100-million-edition-pictured

 

[wanderer27]

Price can't be right :

 

[RussianSensation]

2GB of VRAM is a fail for a 2015 mid-range card. Good thing the 4GB SKUs will be an option. Looking forward to the 960Ti though, if it exists, as those rumoured 960 non-TI performance scores were very underwhelming too. Can't wait for 90% of reviewers to pit after-market 960 against reference throttling 290.

 

[n0x1ous]

Can't wait for 90% of reviewers to pit after-market 960 against reference throttling 290

And as bad as that is, its on AMD to not give them the chance to do that next round by fixing that POS cooler. Just like in life, first impressions are important.

 

[skipsneeky2]

And as bad as that is, its on AMD to not give them the chance to do that next round by fixing that POS cooler. Just like in life, first impressions are important.

I had some good laughs looking at 290x/290 reference card videos on youtube today.Who and how can anyone even deal with that noise?

The thought crossed my mind and left quickly of the reference 290x refurbished on Newegg currently for $260 as a cheap alternative to the $330+970.Pain in the ass to hook up via vga without a hdmi to vga converter which cost additional money and i thought perhaps the noise was blown out of proportion perhaps by fan boys but i tell you seeing is believing.

Thing is rated louder then the gtx480 in Uber mode,how the hell can people even make 480 references o noise still when this thing pretty much makes more noise lol.

I guess it would take one hell of a brave reviewer to get as bold as to compare the leaf blower to the custom 960 cards....

 

[StinkyPinky]

2GB vram is just bad.

 

[n0x1ous]

I had some good laughs looking at 290x/290 reference card videos on youtube today.Who and how can anyone even deal with that noise?

The thought crossed my mind and left quickly of the reference 290x refurbished on Newegg currently for $260 as a cheap alternative to the $330+970.Pain in the ass to hook up via vga without a hdmi to vga converter which cost additional money and i thought perhaps the noise was blown out of proportion perhaps by fan boys but i tell you seeing is believing.

Thing is rated louder then the gtx480 in Uber mode,how the hell can people even make 480 references o noise still when this thing pretty much makes more noise lol.

I guess it would take one hell of a brave reviewer to get as bold as to compare the leaf blower to the custom 960 cards....

I have two 290 reference purchased will full intent of putting them under water. I ran them stock for a few weeks and the reference blowers are as reported. Loudest POS I have ever heard. You can't even focus on your game even if you have headphones on they are so deafening. I did "the mod" on them and that took care of the issue.

 

[raghu78]

Unlike the GTX 980/970 (GM204) which were huge upgrades to the GTX 770/GTX 680 (GK104) and beat the GTX 780 Ti/GTX 780 (GK110), this card is not an upgrade at all over a GTX 760 and will trail the GTX 770 significantly. Nvidia could have easily made this a 192 bit, 48 ROP card making it a healthy improvement over GTX 760 and could have easily beat the GTX 770. Very unbalanced card when you look at how much shader performance is being wasted by the lack of ROPs and memory bandwidth. This card will have lesser memory bandwidth with a 128 bit bus (112 GB/s) than GTX 760 (192 GB/s) and the ROP count will be 32-40 against 32 for GTX 760/GTX 770. GTX 980 / GTX 970 was a well balanced card. Unfortunately this card is not at all. Even at USD 149 this card brings nothing in terms of perf to R9 280 / R9 285/ R9 270X and GTX 760 owners other than power efficiency. So SFF systems are the place were its benefits can be felt. the 2GB VRAM is a definite no go in 2015 even at 1080p.

AMD needs to bring some serious perf improvement with R9/R7 3xx and put pressure otherwise this won't change. Its very disappointing to say the least.

 

[KaRLiToS]

I agree with all of you guys about the reference 290x cooler being a piece of crap but the thread is about GTX 960.

Sorry, I just don't want this to get derailed. :thumbsup:

 

[n0x1ous]

I agree with all of you guys about the reference 290x cooler being a piece of crap but the thread is about GTX 960.

Sorry, I just don't want this to get derailed. :thumbsup:

My apologies, Back on topic I see their is a mention of a Galax version with the Titan reference blower. My first thought was I was surprised they would put that on a lower end card, but on the other hand the card will have such a low TDP that the reference blower will barely have to spin making little noise negating one of the main benefits of aftermarket cards.....could be interesting....

 

[Morgoth780]

What do you guys think of the rumored $200 price tag?

To me, it just seems too high for what the card is. I'd just pick up an aftermarket 290 for $50-70 more. To be honest, I'd be surprised if this card beats my OC'd 7950 by any significant margin, especially above 1080p. Have to wait for benchmarks though, of course.

 

[SteveGrabowski]

This piece of crap should have been named 950Ti at best. What a failure of a card. Can we point and laugh at people who buy this card here?

No.
-- stahlhart

 

[skipsneeky2]

This piece of crap should have been named 950Ti at best. What a failure of a card. Can we point and laugh at people who buy this card here?

Oh i bet it could come close to at least touching the 770 if not be a hair quicker at most,but the 2gb is a fail all around.I wouldn't call this card crap unless it simply has piss poor performance for the buck accompanied by only 2gb.

I guess there will be 4gb cards but i wouldn't put it pass me that the premium may make cards like the 290 the better option.We shall see soon enough.

 

[RussianSensation]

What do you guys think of the rumored $200 price tag?

To me, it just seems too high for what the card is. I'd just pick up an aftermarket 290 for $50-70 more. To be honest, I'd be surprised if this card beats my OC'd 7950 by any significant margin, especially above 1080p. Have to wait for benchmarks though, of course.

I guess statistically speaking there are a lot of gamers who are gaming below 1080p, and those who don't care for high resolution textures. Remember the past where each new generation basically brought 50-100% more VRAM? We had 2GB on 7850/7870 by Spring 2012, nearly 3 years ago. Looking at TPU review, 680/770 bomb in the latest games vs. 7970Ghz due to a 2GB VRAM bottleneck:
http://www.techpowerup.com/mobile/reviews/MSI/GTX_970_Gaming/20.html

This is going to be a very unfortunate situation if 960 is faster than a 280X but ultimately all that extra performance is hampered by 2GB of VRAM. This card will still sell like hot cakes due to Perf/watt and being an NV card. I am not surprised as NV hasn't had an amazing mid-range card in years, all the way back to 460. 560/560Ti/660/660Ti were all worse than 6870/6950/7870/7950.

If there isn't a 192-bit/256-bit 3/4GB 960Ti variant, I really don't understand why NV held back the 960 for so long. There should be some salvaged GM204 parts below 970 though considering there is a 970M. I think the card to look forward to is that 960Ti.

 

[escrow4]

I don't do midrange anymore but isn't a $200 GPU a fat compromise? Its just gimped all over. You won't be hitting 1080/60p with some (not all) settings turned up. And people still game below 1080p?

 

[SteveGrabowski]

I don't do midrange anymore but isn't a $200 GPU a fat compromise? Its just gimped all over. You won't be hitting 1080/60p with some (not all) settings turned up. And people still game below 1080p?

The R9 280 was a really nice $200 GPU until the 970/290 price war made buying one ridiculous.

 

[Ranulf]

I
If there isn't a 192-bit/256-bit 3/4GB 960Ti variant, I really don't understand why NV held back the 960 for so long. There should be some salvaged GM204 parts below 970 though considering there is a 970M. I think the card to look forward to is that 960Ti.

My guess would be they held back to push more 970 sales. If these 960 rumors are true, I'm glad I bit on a R9 290 for $250 deal. I'm still tempted to pick up a 970 for my intel system but... a new 144hz monitor would probably be a better use of my money.

 

[TahoeDust]

This is just reaffirming how good of a deal the 970 is, price vs. performance wise.

 

[skipsneeky2]

This is just reaffirming how good of a deal the 970 is, price vs. performance wise.

The thought crossed my mind that the 970 may end up being the cheapest and most logical card to come with 4gb.A GG by nvidia cause no one is going to be going sli on anything that isn't 4gb these days.Especially for higher resolutions.It will end up like anyone on 670 sli these days sooner or later.Plenty of power but just not enough memory.

960 ti/960 may up being great for single gpu users on lower then 1440p resolutions but i think that is where the excitement ends lol.

 

[RussianSensation]

^ 2GB of VRAM is slowly becoming a bottleneck for 1080p, not below 1440p. It's simply not wise to buy a 2GB GPU anymore unless we are talking budget $100-120 R9 270X/660Ti. What makes it even harder to swallow is that R9 290 goes for on sale for $250 very often. Maybe the 960 is priced at $159-169, far away from 280X and 290? When people pay $80-100 more for a 970 vs. a 290, why wouldn't they pay $50-70 more vs. a $199 960 and just get a $250-270 after-market 290 with 99% of the performance of an after-market 970? I guess I am giving too much credit to the average PC gamer/NV-preferred 70% of the market users.

Short version: So how does one make an objective assessment of a 960 when an after-market 290 4GB already provides 99% of 970's performance at $250-270? I don't know...

Have we entered a totally new era of PC gaming where brand name and power usage override actual gaming performance? Very alarming times in the VGA sector if true.

 

[Keysplayr]

Probably should wait for reviews to see where this gpu is positioned from a price/performance perspective.

 

[skipsneeky2]

Short version: So how does one make an objective assessment of a 960 when an after-market 290 4GB already provides 99% of 970's performance at $250-270? I don't know...

I actually forgot to mention the cheapest Nvidia cards that will offer 4gb,the 290s look very good actually for their price.So good i have opened my upgrade options to include it.I even posted in the BF4 thread asking about 290/290x and Mantle in comparison to 970...one of the big games i am upgrading my gpu for.

Don't worry,the 290 i bet will be the most logical choice under $300 till the 300 series comes i am sure.Isn't crossfire working better off at higher resolutions then Nvidia sli anyways making 290/290x default?

 

[sm625]

This article from last summer is the most comprehensive comparison I could find. Unless and until someone can produce similar data that actually shows that extra VRAM above and beyond 2GB more cost effectively increases performance (compared to simply increasing compute core count) I maintain my position that they are full of it.

 

[skipsneeky2]

This article from last summer is the most comprehensive comparison I could find. Unless and until someone can produce similar data that actually shows that extra VRAM above and beyond 2GB more cost effectively increases performance (compared to simply increasing compute core count) I maintain my position that they are full of it.

I had that argument quite a bit after i got my 770 in 2013,i think it was a worthy one till your 2014 games came out.Only game i bought last year that went against my own argument was Titanfall and i tried COD:AW on free weekend on Steam but only for my lower resolution of 768p on my t.v.Very high and Insane Textures in Titanfall and Advanced Shadows in COD both caused major stutter and remember this is 768p...2gb simply isn't enough period.:awe:

BF4 was the only game i played where maxed out 768p pretty much still tanked under 50 at given times like explosions and sat under 2gb but my case is so rare i could go as far as say its not valid.:awe: