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Our newest GPU test system has been built with the intention of benchmarking low to mid-range graphics cards, we have a separate test system which benchmarks higher-end graphics cards such as the RX 480, GTX 1070 and GTX 1080. To reflect the performance of GPUs being tested the scope of testing has been reduced to 1080p and 1440p, since 4K is largely irrelevant for GPUs of this price point.
General Test System Notes
- All AMD Graphics cards were benchmarked with the AMD Crimson Display Driver 16.6.1 and all Nvidia Graphics cards with the Nvidia Forceware 368.39 driver.
- To tune the test system appropriately for acoustic measurements the case was outfitted with ultra quiet Noctua 800RPM fans and the Corsair H100i set to a fixed fan speed of 700RPM to further reduce the base noise level.
- The CPU was left to default Intel Turbo behaviour, disabling motherboard manufacturer enhancements such as all-core Turbo to minimise heat output inside the case and non-GPU related power consumption.
- Each benchmark or game is run 3 times at each resolution with an average result of the three runs taken as the final result for the graphs.
Test System Components
- Case: Corsair 400Q (two stock case fans replaced with Noctua 800 RPM 120mm rear exhaust and 140mm front intake fans)
- Processor: Intel Core i7-6700K (Stock Intel Turbo behaviour).
- Memory: 32GB (4 x 8GB) G.Skill Trident Z DDR4 running at JEDEC 2800MHz.
- Graphics Card: Variable.
- System Drive: Mushkin Chronos 120GB.
- Games Drive: Samsung 850 EVO 512GB SSD
- CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i w/ Noctua NTH1 (fan speed limited to 700 RPM on Corsair H100i).
- Power Supply: Seasonic Platinum 760W.
- Operating System: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit.
Comparison Graphics Cards List
- EVGA GTX 750 Ti Superclocked (1176MHz core, 1255MHz boost, 5400MHz memory )
- MSI R7 370 2GB Gaming (980MHz core, 1030MHz boost, 5600MHz memory)
- MSI R9 380 4GB Gaming (980MHz core, 5700MHz memory)
- MSI R9 390 8GB Gaming (1040MHz core, 6000MHz memory)
- PNY GTX 950 2GB XLR8 OC Gaming (1152MHz core, 1342MHz boost, 7200MHz memory)
- PNY GTX 960 4GB XLR8 OC Gaming (1203MHz core, 1266MHz boost, 7200MHz memory)
- Sapphire R9 380X 4GB Nitro OC (1040MHz core, 6000MHz memory)
- XFX R7 360 2GB Core Edition (1050MHz core, 6000MHz memory)
- Zotac GTX 970 4GB (1076MHz core, 1216MHz boost, 7010MHz memory)
- ASUS GTX 950-2G (1026MHz core, 1190MHz boost, 6612MHz memory)
Software and Games List
- 3DMark
- Ashes of the Singularity
- Dirt Rally
- Furmark
- GPU-Z
- Grand Theft Auto V
- Metro Last Light Redux
- Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
- MSI Afterburner
- Steam
- Unigine Valley
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/