ASUS Turbo GeForce GTX 960 2GB Graphic Card Review

It’s not uncommon that you’ve seen one card and you’ve seen them all, for example ASUS’s DirectCU II cooling design carries a common trait across their ROG and STRIX series graphics card but the TURBO range did create a “speed bump” in an otherwise routine release. What’s attractive about the Turbo is that it’s cooling system with a white shroud encasing the entire graphic card and the shape is almost as reference coolers, a very attractive one.

ASUS Turbo GeForce GTX 960 2GB Graphic Card Review

Here’s how it looks like from the top, notice that the PCI-E power connector is located away from the front, well that’s because the PCB is short.

ASUS Turbo GeForce GTX 960 2GB Graphic Card Review

At the front, the shroud is closed entirely. The design is such that the blower pushes air all the way to the I/O area.

ASUS Turbo GeForce GTX 960 2GB Graphic Card Review

Here’s the back of the graphic card. The plastic shroud is secured by 3 screws and a clip.

ASUS Turbo GeForce GTX 960 2GB Graphic Card Review

The blower fan is an additional piece that’s attached to the main piece of the shroud by 4 screws.

ASUS Turbo GeForce GTX 960 2GB Graphic Card Review

Here’s the graphic card itself without the shroud.

ASUS Turbo GeForce GTX 960 2GB Graphic Card Review

What I thought interesting was that there’s an angled plate between the blower and the heatsink. It not only directs the moving air to the fins but it also blocks air movement towards the GPU chip under the heatsink, this means no dust accumulation under the heatsink.

ASUS Turbo GeForce GTX 960 2GB Graphic Card Review

And lastly we have the I/O ports.

ASUS Turbo GeForce GTX 960 2GB Graphic Card Review

Here’s the GPU-Z reading of the card.

ASUS Turbo GeForce GTX 960 2GB Graphic Card Review

And for those interested, here’s the ASIC reading.

ASUS Turbo GeForce GTX 960 2GB Graphic Card Review

More details at the official product page.

Test Setup

Processor Intel Core i5-4670K
RAM AVEXIR Blitz 2x 4GB 1600Mhz DDR3
Motherboard ASRock Z87 Extreme4
Cooler NZXT Kraken X31
Monitor Dell UP3214Q
Power Supply FSP AURUM S 700W
Casing NZXT S340
Operating System Windows 10 64bit

Overclocking

The GTX 960 Turbo was quite impressive when it comes to overclocking headroom.

I managed to add 75Mhz to the Core speed and 500Mhz to memory speed, the 1190 / 1753 card ran flawlessly at 1265 / 2253 even without any change on voltage.

Benchmarks

Unigine Heaven 4.0

Heaven 4.0
*NOTE : Details are set to maximum.
*NOTE : AA disabled in 4K test.

Card 1080p (avg)
ASUS GTX 960 Turbo 33.2
ASUS GTX 960 Turbo Overclocked 36.3
PowerColor R9 380 4GB 35.7
Sapphire R9 380 2GB 36.5
AMD R9 270X 27.9

Metro Last Light

Heaven 4.0

Card 1080p (avg)
ASUS GTX 960 Turbo 55.0
ASUS GTX 960 Turbo Overclocked 59.8
PowerColor R9 380 4GB 56.5

Bioshock Infinite

Bioshock Infinite
Settings are at
2 – UltraDX11_DDOF | 2 – Custom | 1 – 16:9 | 4 – FullHD / 4K

Card 1080p (avg)
ASUS GTX 960 Turbo 75.04
ASUS GTX 960 Turbo Overclocked 82.07
PowerColor R9 380 4GB 80.67

Shadow of Mordor

Heaven 4.0
Settings : Set to ULTRA, V-sync off.

Card 1080p (avg)
ASUS GTX 960 Turbo 46.62
ASUS GTX 960 Turbo Overclocked 45.72
PowerColor R9 380 4GB 51.49

Grand Theft Auto V

Grand Theft Auto V
Settings : Every option to the MAX setting available.

Card 1080p (avg)
ASUS GTX 960 Turbo 23.4
ASUS GTX 960 Turbo Overclocked 27.31
PowerColor R9 380 4GB 27.35

The overclocking made no difference on games like Shadow of Mordor, I suspect this is due to the VRAM limitation but as for the other games there’s a general increase in performance with the boost in core speed.

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 960 Turbo 36 77
ASUS GTX 960 Turbo Full RPM 27 56

The fan hovers at around 41% on AUTO settings where the audio level is acceptable, once it hits higher RPM the noise is like a hairdryer as expected from one with such design. Being of a plastic shroud that’s larger than the PCB and only mounted on 3 points, the shroud may rattle if improperly secured.

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 FSP Aurum S 700W with 90% efficiency and the estimated system power draw (CPU, not including GPU) during Furmark test is 60w.

Card ASUS GTX 960 Turbo
Furmark Burn-in 222
Estimated Actual System Draw 199
Estimated Card Power Draw 139

The power draw seems a little higher than expected but I don’t think it’s a cause of concern.

The Verdict

The ASUS Turbo GeForce GTX 960 2GB retails at RM 888, this special edition cooler looks attractive and being easy to dismantle means it’s great for case-modding and maintenance, the only downside being that it might rattle at certain RPM.

You’ll get even more performance out of the card if you are willing to put some effort into overclocking. I only wish that the card comes with 4GB VRAM setup, that’ll definitely up the ante when it comes to performance.

goldfries recommended