Gigabyte GeForce GTX 950 XTREME GAMING Graphics Card Review

Gigabyte recently introduced their EXTREME range of Graphics card and this product range is available starting from the GTX 950 model.

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 950 XTREME GAMING Graphics Card Review

The box cover does not mention any WINDFORCE but the card is essentially an improved WINDFORCE design, the top of the cooler shroud has this WINDFORCE text that is with LED backlight.

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 950 XTREME GAMING Graphics Card Review

The backlight is controlled by the OC Guru II software, however it must be made clear that this is not an RGB backlight, you have 7 colors to choose and the 8th option cycles all colors. Lighting behavior is limited to breathing, blink and double-blink – all of them allow you to adjust the speed of the lighting motion but none of them allows brightness adjustment, brightness adjustment is only available when it is on solid lighting.

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 950 XTREME GAMING Graphics Card Review

The card is powered with an 8-pin PCI-E connector, this means it’s possible to draw up to 225W from the supposedly sub-100W GTX 950 GPU. On the back the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 950 XTREME GAMING has a sleek looking backplate that matches the cut of the heatsink shroud.

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 950 XTREME GAMING Graphics Card Review

Here’s the I/O ports for the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 950 XTREME

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 950 XTREME GAMING Graphics Card Review

Here’s the GPU-Z of the said graphic card, more details available at the official product page.

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 950 XTREME GAMING Graphics Card Review

Test Setup

Processor Intel Core i5-4670K
RAM AVEXIR Blitz 2x 4GB 1600Mhz DDR3
Motherboard ASRock Z87 Extreme4
Cooler NZXT Kraken X31
Monitor Dell U2414H
Power Supply FSP AURUM S 700W
Casing NZXT S340
Operating System Windows 10 64bit

Overclocking

The Gigabyte GeForce GTX 950 XTREME GAMING is overclocked to the hilt, I couldn’t even get it to pass 100Mhz increase in core speed. 50Mhz seems to work fine but in my opinion anything that’s under-100Mhz could just be left as it is because the gains will not be significant.

Benchmarks

Unigine Heaven 4.0

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

Card 1080p (avg)
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 950 XTREME GAMING 31
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 950 30
Nvidia GTX 960 2GB (Reference) 32

Metro Last Light

Heaven 4.0

Card 1080p (avg)
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 950 XTREME GAMING 50
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 950 46
Nvidia GTX 960 2GB (Reference) 53

Bioshock Infinite

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

Card 1080p (avg)
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 950 XTREME GAMING 71
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 950 67
Nvidia GTX 960 2GB (Reference) 78

Shadow of Mordor

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

Card 1080p (avg)
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 950 XTREME GAMING 43
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 950 37
Nvidia GTX 960 2GB (Reference) 42

Grand Theft Auto V

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

Card 1080p (avg)
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 950 XTREME GAMING 19
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 950 19
Nvidia GTX 960 2GB (Reference) 23

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)
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 950 XTREME 41 62
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 950 XTREME Full RPM 26 49

The fan hovers at around 38% on AUTO settings where the noise level is 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 FSP Aurum S 700W with 90% efficiency and the estimated system power draw (CPU, not including GPU) during Furmark test is 60w.

Card Gigabyte GeForce GTX 950 XTREME
Furmark Burn-in 204
Estimated Actual System Draw 184
Estimated Card Power Draw 124

At 124W the card draws a lot more power than the supposed 90W rated power draw for the reference design.

The Verdict

The Gigabyte GeForce GTX 950 XTREME GAMING is priced at around RM 900, not exactly cheap if you consider some GeForce GTX 960 graphics cards can be acquired at the same price.

What I think is really neat about this card is that it is almost the performance of a reference GeForce GTX 960 2GB graphics card, and on top of that it has this beautiful cooling system and an attractive back plate. Let’s face it, if the performance is quite similar then the next factor for decision making would be the appearance and that’s where the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 950 EXTREME GAMING shines.

goldfries recommended