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ASUS uses the same packaging with the GTX 950-2G as its GTX950-OC-2GD5 graphics card, the theme of which is World of Warships.
ASUS explains this product uses Auto Extreme technology, a fully machine-automated graphics card assembly process. Auto Extreme should remove human error resulting in increased reliability … in theory.
The accessory bundle is limited to a quick setup guide, driver CD and codes for World of Warships.
The ASUS GTX 950-2G is slightly longer than equivalent GTX 750 Tis, but still keeps to a dual-slot width. In part the extra length is due to the dual-fan cooler, rather than a single fan cooler that is typically used with the GTX 750 Ti.
Along the top of the card it can be observed that cooling is handled by an aluminium heatsink, there's no heat pipes to be seen presumably due to the low TDP. A lack of a backplate isn't surprising either – this GPU doesn't get hot enough to justify one, neither is it expensive enough to warrant one.
Surprisingly there is a reinforcing plate along the top of the card to prevent PCB flex, which should aid the longevity of the card.
ASUS is reusing the same PCB as its GTX950-OC-2GD5 that has a 6pin, the only difference here is that the connector hasn't been soldered on leaving a gap in the corner of the PCB.
One SLI finger provides 2-Way SLI support and there are three display outputs – Display Port 1.2, DVI-I and HDMI 2.0.
A balanced enough selection given the price point, though the lack of a DVI-VGA adapter in the box does mean VGA monitor users will need to acquire their own adapters.
Curious timing for this review with the low power RX cards due soon. It would be good to see a follow up review comparing this to those.
Unfortunately people buying this card will be building on a budget and won’t be running watercooled intel i7’s on an SSD with 32gb of high speed DDR4 ram, meaning the results will be VERY different for them.
I know it has been reviewed this way to show the cards true potential without any bottlenecking, but if anybody sees these results, then buys the gpu to pair with their £60 stock cooled amd processor and 4gb of RAM, running on a 7200rpm HDD disk then they are going to be devastated when they get massively worse results.
Personally, i’d rather see GPU’s tested in the average setup they will be expected to be bought for.
Thanks for the feedback, it is a tricky situation – keeping a test bench consistent between a wide range of products (as low as R7 360 but as high as R9 390) but also needing to make sure it matches the target audience for a given product, such as in this case. Having test benches that reflect different price points (low-mid range, mid to high-end) is something I’ll (re)consider going forward as I have done this before in my reviewing career.
Definitely, we’ll try and take a look at as many new products as possible including anything new from AMD in the same power/performance segment.
Definitely something i’d look forward to seeing. I would also find it very interesting to see how much of a bottleneck a budget setup vs a test rig like this would be, but that also doubles the amount of work required for a review.
Either way, it is a very good review, and I like seeing the lower end products getting highlighted.
Thanks for the response Ryan.
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I’m running an Elsa GTX 950 2GB (Great Japanese brand, no power connector) on a 10 year old Asus P5 Mobo Win 10 X64 Pro with a Q9650 and 8gb cheapo ram (Nanya PC2-6400 DDR2-SDRAM) and it runs Doom 2016 Vulkan on medium at ~45fps. No Mans Sky, XCOM 2 also perform really well on medium settings. Bear in mind it’s running in a PCI Express 1.1 slot too.
I had an Asus GTX 750Ti in there but it started going crazy with the fan going on and off, and I found this Elsa 950 in Akihabara going really cheap. Knocks the 750Ti out of the park.
I think it’s this one: http://www.elsa-jp.co.jp/products/products-top/graphicsboard/geforce/midrange/geforce_gtx950_2gb/