Gigabyte GTX 960 Mini-ITX Graphics Card, quick look / review.

Boomstick777 · 16 Mar 2015 at 15:54

Is this a good choice for Mini-ITX / HTPC?

PC setup:

Gigabyte Z97N Wifi Mini-ITX
Intel core i7 4770K
16GB 2400Mhz DDR3
Thermaltake Core V1 Extreme Mini ITX

It's tiny !

Ok it's installed, temps / noise?

IDLE 24C

LOAD 57C

'Load temp tested in Furmark'

IDLE:

LOAD:

Card clocks down as low as 135/202 and is inaudible during desktop use / movie playback.

Can't hear the card over the PSU fan etc during gaming (Even Overclocked).

This is a very quiet card.

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3DMARK 11

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Gaming Performance:

Dying Light: Balanced setting @ 1440P / 1080P

40fps average with some dips to low 30fps and highs up to 50fps. Dropping down to 1080P gives solid 60fps experience on 'Balanced preset'.

This game is surprisingly playable at 1440P with balanced setting, game looks really nice and although does not give solid 60fps even at 40FPS it feels fluid enough to be enjoyable. This game as come a long way with latest patch drivers from Nvidia.

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Far Cry 4: High setting @ 1080P

60fps average with some dips.

This game can cripple the card at 1440P so have to drop down to 1080P to make it enjoyable with high setting, game looks good and runs great.

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Grey Goo: High preset '3' @ 1440P

60fps solid on High preset '3'

Set to preset 3 for solid 60fps @ 1440P.

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Battlefield 4: Medium preset @ 1440P

60fps solid on medium preset @ 1440P. 1080P can enable mix of high / ultra settings for 60fps average.

60fps solid on medium preset, can add higher settings but will result in small fps drops here and there. For 1440P medium is the sweet spot imho, looks and runs great. At 1080P can enable mix of high / ultra settings.

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Early thoughts.. With the inclusion of Witcher 3 game code, and at around £150 for a GTX 960, these are now good value budget cards. It has performed beyond my expectation so far, temps are excellent and is whisper quiet.

VincentHanna · 16 Mar 2015 at 15:57

Any coil whine?

Boomstick777 · 16 Mar 2015 at 15:59

VincentHanna said:
Any coil whine?

It's a good one, no coil whine mate. Clocks to 1500mhz+.. Need to have more of a play with it. Need to sort PC first though..

VincentHanna · 16 Mar 2015 at 16:15

I've got a Palit Jetstream 980GTX in my mITX system and the coil whine is pretty bad

Boomstick777 · 16 Mar 2015 at 16:19

VincentHanna said:
I've got a Palit Jetstream 980GTX in my mITX system and the coil whine is pretty bad

I've been lucky with that recently, all the 980's I used didn't have it. You could always use hot glue. Or RMA if it's really bad.

wellibob · 20 Mar 2015 at 11:45

Grabbed one for my coolermaster htpc for lounge. What a superb little card. Absolutely stunned by its performance at 1080p. 150 notes well spent.

Boomstick777 · 20 Mar 2015 at 11:52

wellibob said:
Grabbed one for my coolermaster htpc for lounge. What a superb little card. Absolutely stunned by its performance at 1080p. 150 notes well spent.

Nice one, yeah I was surprised as well. I'm at 1440P and the only game to kill the cards performance so far is Far Cry 4, if I drop down to 1080P it's playable.

Def worth the money, overall I would say it trades blows with the HD 7970. not bad for a 120W GPU.

Hope you got the Witcher 3 code as well.

Kaapstad · 20 Mar 2015 at 11:54

@Boomstick777 if you post this in the 960 owners thread I can put you on the Roll of Honour (that will make two of us lol) and show your review in the OPs.

HeX · 20 Mar 2015 at 11:54

Shame they didn't put a blower cooler on it for a mITX card.

Boomstick777 · 20 Mar 2015 at 12:04

Kaapstad said:
@Boomstick777 if you post this in the 960 owners thread I can put you on the Roll of Honour (that will make two of us lol) and show your review in the OPs.

Haha two of us

Ok will do

Boomstick777 · 20 Mar 2015 at 12:06

HeX said:
Shame they didn't put a blower cooler on it for a mITX card.

I think that would difficult on Mini ITX? This card runs really cool / quiet even overclocked.

I know Palit do a 960 with Blower cooler but they extend the PCB with plastic so end up quite long card, I don't like the look of that tbh.

Wandering if we'll see a passive 960 at some point, they def run cool enough for it imho.

Boomstick777 · 22 Mar 2015 at 13:43

Some bios editing, stock boost is now 1450Mhz, max temp about 58c. Very nice lil card this. If I was gaming @ 1080P one of these would last me until pascal tbh.

You're talking GTX 580 (£400 @ launch) beating performance in a £150 GPU that comes with a game and uses half the power, these cards are underrated imho.

Tonester0011 · 22 Mar 2015 at 13:51

It's a damn sight quicker than a 580 Boom (on 3D11 at least - http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/7032096 )

RavenXXX2 · 22 Mar 2015 at 13:58

Nice results, comparable with an 680 with OC.

Davedree · 22 Mar 2015 at 13:59

What's the rough scaling in fps from stock boosts clocks to overclocked?
How would it compare to a Sapphire 285 itx stock/overclocked?

flame696 · 22 Mar 2015 at 14:27

hmmm looking for a GPU to put into my HTPC this looks very reasonable

Boomstick777 · 22 Mar 2015 at 14:36

Davedree said:
What's the rough scaling in fps from stock boosts clocks to overclocked?
How would it compare to a Sapphire 285 itx stock/overclocked?

Not sure about the scaling, overall performance is similar to 280 / 285, but at much lower power use / temps. While the 960 comes with a game as well I would def say this is the better card atm. These are ideal for budget gaming or HTPC imho. Card is silent.

flame696 said:
hmmm looking for a GPU to put into my HTPC this looks very reasonable

Yeah perfect for HTPC. Especially this ITX card. it's tiny and silent. I think ASUS do a Mini-ITX 960 as well but it's a lot more expensive than the Gigabyte.

Davedree · 22 Mar 2015 at 22:56

Boomstick777 said:
Not sure about the scaling, overall performance is similar to 280 / 285, but at much lower power use / temps. While the 960 comes with a game as well I would def say this is the better card atm. These are ideal for budget gaming or HTPC imho. Card is silent.

Yeah perfect for HTPC. Especially this ITX card. it's tiny and silent. I think ASUS do a Mini-ITX 960 as well but it's a lot more expensive than the Gigabyte.

ta, It's between these two for my itx in the front room.
I think i'm going to go for the 960,

Telecaster · 22 Mar 2015 at 23:36

Tempted with the EVGA SC ITX version TBH, as you say with the game it's good value and would probably keep me going at 1080/1200 until my next big upgrade.

Boomstick777 · 22 Mar 2015 at 23:56

Telecaster said:
Tempted with the EVGA SC ITX version TBH, as you say with the game it's good value and would probably keep me going at 1080/1200 until my next big upgrade.

It is awesome at 1080P, it happily gives 60fps on high settings on all the games I've tried. Dying Light on 'Balanced setting' 'Far Cry 4 set to 'High preset'. It even copes well at 1440P if you use medium / high mix. Really impressive considering power use etc.

Would definitely recommend this card for 1080P. Perfect until Pascal etc.

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**Gigabyte GTX 960 Mini-ITX Graphics Card, quick look / review.**

Gigabyte GTX 960 Mini-ITX Graphics Card, quick look / review.