NVIDIA GTX950 graphics card is competing with GTX980Ti, trying to compete with the gods?

NVIDIA GTX900 series graphics card family has been launched since September last year. In the past year, the family has been growing and now has 5 members. The heavyweight of the family is GTX980Ti, and the recently launched GTX950 graphics card is the lightweight brother of the family. As members of the GTX900 series, what is the difference between the lightweight and heavyweight? I believe this is also a question that most players want to know.

The GTX980Ti and GTX 950 graphics cards used in this test are both from the ASUS STRIX series, and are also ASUS products for gamers.

In terms of appearance, the length of ASUS STRIX GTX950 is only two-thirds of that of ASUS STRIX GTX980Ti. The three-fan ASUS STRIX GTX980Ti is indeed much more domineering than the dual-fan GTX950.

The unique breathing light LOGO of ASUS STRIX GTX980Ti is cooler, while the LOGO of ASUS STRIX GTX950 is laser engraved.

In terms of heat dissipation, it also uses DirectCU heat pipe direct contact cooling technology, which can provide maximum airflow and increase static pressure by 105%. The silent effect can be up to 3 times that of the public version design. ASUS STRIX GTX950, like its big brother, uses an intelligent fan design. The fan will only start to run when the GPU temperature reaches above 65 degrees. When the temperature is below 65 degrees, the fan will automatically stop turning.

ASUS STRIX GTX950 uses dual DIV interfaces, one HDMI interface and one DisplayPort interface. The dual DIV interfaces are compatible with both analog and digital signals. ASUS STRIX GTX980Ti uses one DIV interface, one HDMI interface and three DisplayPort interfaces, which better meets the needs of players for multi-screen display.

As a mid-range graphics card, ASUS STRIX GTX950 does not have a more stylish back panel like ASUS STRIX GTX980Ti.

From the parameter specifications, we can see that GTX950 has a big gap with GTX980Ti in stream processor, video memory capacity, video memory bus width, core frequency and video memory frequency. This is just data on paper. So how big the gap will be in actual operation requires further testing by running games.

The test platform this time is ASUS Z97 motherboard, I7 4790K CPU, 2 ADATA 8GB DDR3 2133 memory sticks, and Windows 7 64-bit Ultimate system.

Through 3Dmark11 running points, the final result of ASUS STRIX GTX950 is X2697, which is more than three times the X8610 score of ASUS STRIX GTX980Ti.

But can the actual results really verify this gap?

"GTA V" and "The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt", the two most popular games, were previously used as "tools" to test ASUS STRIX GTX980Ti, and this time they were also used to test the gaming performance of GTX950.

"GTA V" was developed using an enhanced version of the Rage engine, and "The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt" was developed using the RED Engine 3 engine. Both engines have excellent performance in image materials, dynamic rendering, stream buffering technology, complex manual management, weather effects, terrain effects, etc.

During the game, we used ASUS GPU Tweak II software to monitor the graphics card in real time. ASUS GPU Tweak II is a graphics card overclocking and optimization tool launched by ASUS. This tool monitors graphics card parameters and optimizes the graphics card. It can monitor graphics card information in real time and accurately.

Game test at 1080P resolution

When ASUS STRIX GTX980Ti runs "GAT V" with full effects turned on, the average frame rate is 70FPS, and after overclocking, the average frame rate can reach 89FPS.

Due to the video memory (VRAM) limitation of GAT V, high texture quality requires more than 2191M VRAM to be achieved. The 2045M VRAM of ASUS STRIX GTX950 cannot meet the high texture quality requirement, but GAT V can remove the limitation through options. At very high quality 1080P resolution, it still runs smoothly with an average frame rate of 65.5FPS. The average frame rate is 67.9FPS when overclocked with ASUS GPU Tweak II intelligent graphics software, which is slightly rougher than the ASUS STRIX GTX980Ti.

When ASUS STRIX GTX980Ti runs "The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt" with full effects turned on, the average frame rate is 62.4FPS, and after overclocking, the average frame rate is over 70FPS.

ASUS STRIX GTX950 runs "The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt" with an average frame rate of 25FPS at ultra-high quality. There will be some lag in the game. At high quality, it runs smoothly with an average FPS of 34.5FPS. ASUS GPU Tweak II intelligent graphics software overclocks with high quality and an average FPS of 36.3FPS.

Game test at 4K resolution
The 980Ti ran 4K, so the 950 naturally cannot be missed.

ASUS STRIX GTX980Ti runs "GAT V" at an average frame rate of 58.4FPS at 4K resolution and with all effects turned on. After overclocking, it can reach an average frame rate of 73.8FPS, running easily without any pressure.

ASUS STRIX GTX950 runs "GAT V" with an average frame rate of 24.8FPS in ultra-high image quality. There will be freezes and screen tearing in the game.

For these two games, from the overclocking performance point of view, ASUS STRIX GTX950 has average efficiency, with only an improvement of about 2 frames. Compared with the rapid progress of GTX980Ti after overclocking, it is indeed a bit insignificant. 4K picture quality has also become a difficult project. Fortunately, at 1080P resolution, most games can be perfectly handled. Compared with the fever positioning of GTX 980Ti, this is more in line with the identity of GTX 950 for a wider range of users and markets.

However, it is worth noting that although in terms of parameters and performance, almost all data of ASUS STRIX GTX950 are not as luxurious as ASUS STRIX GTX980Ti, energy saving and power saving are highlights worth mentioning.

The maximum power in the baking state is about 170W, the maximum GPU temperature is about 70 degrees, and the graphics card fan noise is less than 60 decibels. Compared with ASUS STRIX GTX980Ti, the power consumption is only half of that.

So, although GTX950 is a lightweight little brother in the NVIDIA 900 series family, it has taken over the baton from its predecessor GTX 750 with its sufficient performance and price positioning under 1,500 yuan. Especially after adding the ASUS STRIX gene, low energy consumption and ultra-quietness will become the selling points of GTX950, which will undoubtedly help it occupy a place in the mid-range market.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.