With the slew of new cards that hit the market recently, one can’t help but wonder where would the low-powered GTX 950 stand. The ASUS GeForce GTX 950 is one such model, one that doesn’t require PCI-E power connector.
The ASUS GTX 950 here looks no different from it’s usual form, it’s just that this time it doesn’t require PCI-E power connection.
Here’s the GPU-Z of the GTX 950.
Test Setup
| Processor | Intel Core i7-5960X @ 4.5Ghz |
| RAM | Apacer Blade Fire 2x 8GB DDR4 3000Mhz |
| Motherboard | ASRock X99 OC Formula |
| Power Supply | Cooler Master V850 |
| Operating System | Windows 10 64bit |
Benchmarks
Unigine Heaven 4.0
*NOTE : Details are set to maximum.
| Card | 1080p (avg) |
| ASUS GTX 950 Low-Powered | 28 |
| Gigabyte GTX 950 Xtreme Gaming | 31 |
| ZOTAC GTX 1060 AMP | 62 |
Metro Last Light
| Card | 1080p (avg) |
| ASUS GTX 950 Low-Powered | 44 |
| Gigabyte GTX 950 Xtreme Gaming | 50 |
| ZOTAC GTX 1060 AMP | 85 |
Shadow of Mordor
Settings : Set to ULTRA, V-sync off.
| Card | 1080p (avg) |
| ASUS GTX 950 Low-Powered | 36 |
| Gigabyte GTX 950 Xtreme Gaming | 43 |
| ZOTAC GTX 1060 AMP | 89 |
Bioshock Infinite
Settings are at
2 – UltraDX11_DDOF | 2 – Custom | 1 – 16:9 | 4 – FullHD / 4K
| Card | 1080p (avg) |
| ASUS GTX 950 Low-Powered | 63 |
| Gigabyte GTX 950 Xtreme Gaming | 71 |
| ZOTAC GTX 1060 AMP | 114 |
Grand Theft Auto V
Settings : Every option to the MAX setting available.
| Card | 1080p (avg) |
| ASUS GTX 950 Low-Powered | 16 |
| Gigabyte GTX 950 Xtreme Gaming | 19 |
| ZOTAC GTX 1060 AMP | 45 |
Temperature
Furmark Burn-in Test was used to stress the card. Fan settings are at Auto. Room set to ~25c.
| Card | Idle(°C) | Load (°C) |
| ASUS GTX 950 Low-Powered | 27 | 59 |
| ASUS GTX 950 Low-Powered (Full RPM) | 26 | 50 |
On AUTO the fan tops out at around 35% which is very silent.
Power Consumption
The stress was done with Furmark Burn-in Test. Power consumption reading was taken from the watt-meter, actual power draw by the entire system from the wall point. I’m using an Cooler Master V850 with around 90% efficiency and the estimated system power draw (CPU, not including GPU) during Furmark test is 107w.
| Card | ASUS GTX 950 Low-Power |
| Furmark Burn-in | 187 |
| Estimated Actual System Draw | 168 |
| Estimated Card Power Draw | 62 |
The Verdict
The ASUS GeForce GTX 950 (No PCI-E Power) Graphics Card is said to retail at slightly above RM 800 but here’s the thing, as far as I’ve observed the market the card is no where to be found.
To make things worse, Nvidia introduced the 10 series cards not long after the non-powered GTX 950 came into the market. In terms of power consumption cards like GTX 1060 doesn’t draw that much more but offers A LOT more performance. As if that’s not bad enough, some models of GTX 1060 can be acquired for a little over RM 1,000 (with discount coupon) so the GTX 950 doesn’t look all that attractive already.
Based on my experience with Nvidia GTX 1060, it peaked at around 76W power draw which is not far from what the GTX 950 here is able to do. So even if the price of the GTX 950 is lowered to RM 600 range, it still makes better sense to buy a GTX 1060 and downclock it to run at lower power draw. Then again, unless you run a very low powered PSU (like sub-200W) then there’s really nothing to be concerned about when it comes to cards with already such low power draw. Note also that the GTX 1060 is very close when it comes to power draw but offers double (or more) when it comes to performance.
Overall, the GTX 950 non-powered unit (regardless of brand) comes in a little too late. It’s no surprise that Nvidia already considers the 900 series legacy products as the 10 series made them ancient in comparison.