MSI GTX 960 Gaming 2G

MSI GTX 960 Gaming 2G – Introduction Recently we had the opportunity to use the MSI 960 Gaming 2 to help test the MSI 970 Krait edition motherboard, and walked away very interested in what MSI had done to the GTX 960 platform. While there is no denying that 960 Gaming 2 is no MSI 980Ti Gaming 6 video card it did prove to be very potent and worthy of its own separate review. Some of our keen interest in seeing what it can do is because MSI has not only factory overclocked the GM-206 core, but they have also used a very powerful version of the Twin Frozr V heatsink. As the 980Ti Gaming 6 is proof, such a combination is extremely powerful and yet extremely mild mannered. Some is because the MSI 960 Gaming 2 only costs $215, and can fit within nearly anyone's budget; but mostly it is just because it was just so good on a rather low powered system that we had to see how it stacked up against the likes of the PNY 960 Elite OC on our usual testbed. As we stated in that review, a stock NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 is a rather mediocre card, however with a healthy dose of overclocking magic really does happen. Of course, one question we could not answer in the 960 Elite OC review is how much overclocking is needed to really get good performance out of the GM-206 core. Thanks to MSI and their 960 Gaming 2 we can answer precisely that as we also answer the main question on what consists a good value . We will be able to do both because technically the MSI 960 Gaming 2 is clocked lower than the PNY Elite OC 2G. Instead of a factory overclock of 1304/1367, it is 'only' clocked to 1216/1279 - or nearly %7 lower. Of course compared to stock GTX 960 settings of 1127/1178 a 8.6% factory overclock is still rather impressive. It will however show us what levels of factory overclocking are needed to turn a 960 into real competition for AMD. Mix in a lower asking price of $215 vs the PNY 960 Elite OC's $230- or only six dollars more than a reference 960's $209, and you can see how the MSI Gaming 2 has the most potential for being the best value we have ever seen. So without further ado lets see how this bad boy can live up to its potential. MSI GTX 960 Gaming 2G – Specifications and Features MSI GTX 960 Gaming 2G – GeForce GTX 960 Explained For consumers who have never heard of the GeForce GTX 960 and the GPU that powers it, the GM206 can be considered a further cut down version of Maxwell core that powers the GeForce GTX 980 series. To envision this, imagine the GeForce GTX 980's 'GM204-200' core with its 4 Graphic Process Clusters (GPC), with each of these GPCs being made up of four streaming multiprocessor(SMM) 'blocks', one 64-bit memory controller and one Rasterizer engine. Each SMM block consists of 32 CUDA cores, 8 Raster Operation Pipelines (ROPs), and 8 Texture Units - plus other low level goodies. Now imagine slicing off one SMM in three of the four GPC's and you have the GeForce 970's version of the GM204 core - the 'GM204-400'. Now imagine taking that selfsame 980 Maxwell core (GM204-200) and the factory cuts off two full Graphic Processing Clusters instead of just pairing off a few SMMs. That in a nutshell is what the GM206 is, two Maxwell Graphic Processing Clusters with 8 SMMs and two memory controllers instead of 4 GPCs, 16 SMMs and 4 memory controllers. In other words on paper, the GM206 has approximately half the horsepower of the 'original' Maxwell GM204-200, with only two memory controller and only 'needing' 2GB of memory instead of 4GB. In fact it is pretty much safe to say what NVIDIA designers did when designing the GM206 - AKA GeForce GTX 960 series, they took the GM204-200 Maxwell core and cut it in half. However this is being a touch over simplistic as while yes it does indeed have exactly half the ROPS/Texture Units/Cuda Cores of a GeForce 980's GM204, and while yes its memory bus has also been halved from 256-bit to 128-bit, the GM206 is not simply a GM204 with half of the GPC's disabled. Instead NVIDIA did the cutting on the drafting table, and created a new smaller core than the GM204. The end result is not only a new Maxwell core, but one that is more efficient than if they simply used 'defective' GM204s with half the cores disabled. In fact the new GM206 weighs in at 56.54% of the GM204-200,with a respectable 2.94 Billion transistors instead of 2.6Billion if it was just a halved GM204-200. In order to boost performance compared to previous x60 series (which has more CUDA cores and a larger memory bus) NVIDIA has significantly boosted the base and boost clock speeds over what is found on the GM204 counterparts. This is because they had the luxury of having a TDP that is not 50% of the 980 but is closer to 73%. To be precise a reference GM204-200 'GeForce 980' comes with a base clock of 1,126MHz that can be boosted to 1,216Mhz and stay within its 165 watt TDP limit. Compare and contrast to a reference GM206 core which has a base clock of 1,127MHz that can go to 1,178 and has to stay within a 120watt TDP specification. Mix in a much more efficient architecture and on paper this new GM206 is up to 1.4 times more potent in 'apples to apples' comparison to previous x60s. In previous generations the idea of a 128-bit memory bus on a mid-tier card would be a non-starter as the underlying design would not be optimized properly to make use of it. The GM206 on the other hand has been optimized to take full advantage of the smaller pipe-line and at lower resolutions this anemic memory bandwidth of 112.16GB/s should not be an issue. At higher resolutions it may start to cause problems but inexpensive video cards performance levels always suffer at higher resolutions. This at least was the theory NIVIDA was going on when they designed the GM206 core. Sadly, reality always has the right of way and just like the proverbial Mac truck barreling down a one way street it ran over NIVIDA's elegant theory. The reality of the matter is the combination of small 128-bit bus and rather small CUDA/TOP/etc count made the 960 rather easy meat for the AMD R9 280X - and 3-series. Since both cards compete in the same $200 price range, the only area a reference GeForce GTX 960 was a clear and concise winner was in the power and noise department. Everywhere else the Tahiti XTL at $200 price point proved to be the better overall value for most consumers. This is where 3rd party manufactures like MSI come into the equation as they have taken that little Maxwell core and drastically improved performance by the simple expedient of overclocking the heck out of the core! MSI GTX 960 Gaming 2G – Closer Look Featuring Lucky The first time we took the 980 Gaming 2 from its shipping container we honestly said "Oh crap, they must have sent a 970". While that would have been a nice 'bonus' it would have thrown a monkey wrench into our 970 Krait review which needed a second 960 for the review! Luckily, once we turned it over and took a look at the model number we instantly understood what MSI has done. Firstly it is indeed a 960, but the GM-206 core and its IO ports are about the only things that it has in common with the typical GeForce GTX 960. Even compared to factory overclocked models like the PNY Elite OC, the MSI 960 Gaming 2 stands apart. Yes it is extremely eye catching - in an aggressive sort of way - but it stands apart not because of its aesthetics but because MSI was not afraid to think big . Usually 960s are all about putting as much power into as small a package as possible, but MSI has thought outside the box. Instead of reference length of about 9.5 inches and a width of 4.375, this beast from the east is 10.5-inches long and nearly 5.5-inches wide. To put this in perspective a MSI 970 Gaming 4G is about the same length and width. Now that is what we called a super-sized GeForce GTX960! More importantly MSI has not wasted this room, and while the top plastic fascia does overhang the Twin Frozr V a smidge, it really is because MSI has given the rather cool running GM-206 core a rather massive custom heatsink and dual fan combination. Of couse this version of the Twin Frozr V is smaller than the one which accompanies their 980Ti Gaming 6, but you can see the 960 Gaming 2's apple did not fall far from the tree so to speak. Put another way the MSI Gaming 2's pedigree is rather impressive and obviously built with the overclocking enthusiast firmly in mind. Now with that being said there are key differences to the Gaming 2, but in the grand scheme of things this card is just as over -built as the 980Ti Gaming 6. This version of the Twin FROZR V uses five 8mm heatpipes - what MSI calls 'SuperSU' pipes - a massive aluminum fin array, two large fans and one smaller sub-heatsink for the other components. This is one less heatpipe than the TF V design used in the 980Ti Gaming 6, but just as with that card MSI has expanded the width of the heatsink so that when installed in a case it stands about 29mm taller than a reference video card. As with the 980Ti this not only allows the Gaming 2's heatsink to be larger than its dimensions would lead you to believe - yes it is even bigger than you think - it allows MSI to use two of their massive Torx fans. Of course this in conjunction with the super-sized dimensions means a 960 Gaming 2 will simply not fit in smaller cases that a typical GeForce 960 can fit, but this issue is more than made up for in other areas. Also like the Gaming 6 980Ti those two large Torx fans are independently controlled to minimize the noise the card makes, and when the card is idle they actually stop. On the surface this may not sound as impressive as 980Ti Gaming 6 being able to do the same thing, but this card is not a stock 960 and has been factory overclocked. That means that it pumps out more heat than usual - even when idling. In fact even PNY's Elite OC custom heatsink design can't passively cool an overclocked GM-206 and yet MSI has been able to do precisely that. To us that makes the extra area it requires a more than fair trade-off. Interestingly enough MSI has not overclocked the MSI 960 Gaming 2 as much as PNY has done. Do not get the wrong idea, as taking - and guaranteeing a - GM-206 to 1216 / 1279 is still a 8.6 percent overclock from the reference levels and that is still darn impressive. It just is that PNY has gone even further. This is not because MSI feels their card is 'inferior', rather this is simply a difference in philosophies. The Elite OC from PNY is meant for consumers who want a plug and play overclocked 960… and are willing to pay a premium for it. The MSI Gaming 2 is meant for enthusiasts who actively enjoy pushing the envelope…and also like getting a deal. After all, by 'merely' factory overclocking by 8.6% instead of 16 percent, MSI has been able to reduce the price by basically 7%; and that allows this factory overclocked 960 to come within a hairs breadth of what reference / stock models sell for. Sadly, MSI did not take the opportunity to overclock the memory and instead the Gaming 2's 2GB of GDDR5 memory is set to a stock level of an effective 7010MHz - or the same as what PNY does. We say 'sadly' as this is a missed opportunity for MSI and even a 50Mhz(effective) would have made the Gaming 2 even more alluring to consumers. Of course, MSI expects you to quickly rectify this situation, but if you are the type to leave things well enough alone this is one area you will find the Gaming 2 a touch less than optimal. By removing that impressively large heatinsk and dual fan combination we can see that MSI has not overlooked the rest of the key components. To be MSI has included a single heatsink underneath the main heatsink. This will help ensure that the key voltage regulator components are also able to stay cool when there is little airflow. Once again this is overkill, but certainly nice to see nevertheless! On the power delivery end of things MSI has opted to upgrade to a 'military grade' power delivery system that uses 4 phases. Just as with the custom Twin FROZR V heatsink, this robust subsystem will help ensure you are able to overclock your Gaming 2 even further. To do just that MSI has opted to forgoe the single 6-pin connector and instead has gone for a single 8-pin. This too is overkill, but really does make for one heck of a first impression! Unfortunately, the backplate found on the higher end models is missing from the Gaming 2 card. This is not a deal-breaker and given the price of this card it is an acceptable compromise…even if it does give an odd overall look to the card. As mentioned previously, the input selection of the MSI 960 Gaming 2 GTX is reference through and through. On the bottom row you get to three full size DisplayPorts, and a single full size HDMI port; while the top row is split nearly evenly between exhaust slits and a single DVI port. Overall it is a very nice selection that should satisfy most consumer's needs nicely. MSI GTX 960 Gaming 2G – Testing Methodology To fully test the abilities of a given video card, we have used a blend of in-game benchmarks and custom recorded real world game benchmarking. For custom game play we have used FRAPS to record the minimum and average frame rates and to do so for a set period of time. All tests were run a minimum of four times and the scores are the average of all four runs. All games were patched to their latest version. The OS was a fresh clean install of Windows 7 with all latest hotfixes, patches and updates applied. All games were tested at the two of the most popular resolutions of 1080P (1920x1080) and then again at 1440P (2560x1440). This means each game’s tested was run a minimum of 8 times: 4 @ 1080P and 4 @1440P. Before testing Unigine’s Valley benchmark was run for 15 minutes to ‘warm up’ the video card. This was done to ensure that long term performance and not short term performance is being illustrated. The games used for testing were: Sleeping Dogs Metro: Last Light BioShock Infinite Crysis 3 Batman: Arkham Origins Tomb Raider Battliefield 4 Assassins Creed: Black Flag Call of Duty: Ghosts Witcher 3 For stress testing we used Unigine’s Valley benchmark. For overclocking we used either the manufactures included software overclocking program or if necessary EVGA’s Precision X program. Drivers: GeForce 353.30 AMD Catalyst: 15.7 Main Test System Processor: Intel i7 5930K Memory: 32GB (4x8GB) Crucial Ballistic Elite Motherboard: Asus Sabertooth X99 Cooling: Noctua U12S SSD: 1x Intel 750 1.2TB NVMe SSD Power Supply: Corsair AX860i Monitor: Dell U2714H OS: Windows 7 Ultimate x64 SP1 Synthetic Game Benchmarks (SGB) In the Synthetic Gaming Benchmarks section we will show a number of benchmark comparisons of the test card and other comparable GPUs, using various benchmarks which come included with five popular modern PC games. This will illustrate how much performance this card has to offer. To ensure that long term performance is and not short term performance is illustrated 15 minutes of Unigine’s Valley benchmark was run to ‘warm up’ the video card. Only then were any tests run on the now warm video card. Real World In-Game Benchmarks (RWB) In the Real Gaming Benchmarks section we will show a number of timed real world game play results using FRAPS and five popular modern PC games. This will illustrate how much performance the card being tested has to offer, and do so in a way which cannot be unduly skewed by driver ‘optimizations’ which have been included for the sole purpose of improving benchmark results. While not as common as it once was such optimizing is still not unheard of by either AMD or NVIDIA. Once again Unigine’s Valley benchmark was run for 15 minutes to ‘warm up’ the video card prior to testing. MSI GTX 960 Gaming 2G – Sleeping Dogs (SGB) Sleeping Dogs is an open world action-adventure video game developed by United Front Games in conjunction with Square Enix London Studios and published by Square Enix, released on August 2012. Sleeping Dogs has a benchmark component to it that mimics game play and an average of four runs was taken. The settings used in the testing below are the Extreme display settings and a resolution of 2560x1440 and 1920x1080. World density is set to extreme, Vsync disabled, high-res textures are enabled, and shadow resolution, shadow filtering, screen space ambient occlusion, and quality motion blur are all set to high. While this card costs only about three percent more than a reference 960 it offers 5 - 6 percent better performance. This doesn’t even take into account the better noise profile or the other benefits this model offers! MSI GTX 960 Gaming 2G – Metro: Last Light (SGB) Metro: Last Light is a DX11 first-person shooter video game developed by Ukrainian studio 4A Games and published by Deep Silver released in May 2013. The game is set in a post-apocalyptic world and features action-oriented gameplay. The game has a benchmark component to it that mimics game play. Scene D6 was used and an average of four runs was taken. The settings used in the testing below are Very High for quality and a resolution of 2560x1440 and 1920x1080. DirectX 11 is used, texture filtering is set to AF 16X, motion blur is normal, SSA turned on and tessellation is set to high. Using a single GTX 960 to play Metro is a sub-optimal solution to say the least, but if we had to do your extra $6 investment would get you double digit performance improvement at 1440P. Now that is a darn good investment. MSI GTX 960 Gaming 2G – BioShock Infinite (SGB) BioShock Infinite is a first-person shooter video game developed by Irrational Games, and published by 2K Games released in March 2013. The game has a benchmark component to it that mimics game play and an average of four runs was taken. The settings used in the testing below are UltraDX11 (option 3) for quality and a resolution of 2560x1440 and 1920x1800. Once again 3% increase in your budget would net an extra 6-8 percent performance. Not too shabby to say the least. MSI GTX 960 Gaming 2G – Tomb Raider (SGB) Tomb Raider is an action-adventure video game published by Square Enix and released in March 2013. The game has a benchmark component to it that mimics game play and an average of four runs was taken. The settings used in the testing below are Ultimate default settings for quality (sans 'hair' shading), VSync disabled and a resolution of 2560x1440 and 1920x1080. Tomb Raider posted the largest variance in our test suite and your resolution will noticeably impact the performance boost. However, either way a mere six dollars results in 5-9 percent performance increase. MSI GTX 960 Gaming 2G – Batman Arkham Origins (SGB) Batman: AO is an action-adventure video game published by Warner Bros and released in October 2013. The game has a benchmark component to it that mimics game play and an average of four runs was taken. The settings used in the testing below are highest settings for quality, VSync disabled and a resolution of 2560x1440 and 1920x1080. Anti-Aliasing is set to TXAA (high). Motion blur, Distortion, Lens Flare, Light Shafts, and Reflections set to On. Geometry, Dynamic Shadows, Depth of Field, and Ambient Occlusion all set to DX11 Enhanced. Batman AO posted the second lowest performance boost in our test suite. That is to say the 3% increase in cost 'only' nets you about 4 percent more performance. Still not too bad considering the better noise profile and other goodies this card comes with. MSI GTX 960 Gaming 2G – Battlefield 4 (RWB) Battlefield 4 is first person shooter video game, published by EA Digital Illusions CE and released in October 2013. Unlike most, this games does not include an in-game benchmark. This makes it perfect for more real world gaming tests. To obtain repeatable results we have used FRAPs and recorded the first 90 seconds of the single player Tashgar level. An average of four runs was taken. The settings used in the testing below are Ultra pre-set for quality, with VSync disabled and a resolution of 2560x1440 and 1920x1080. By factory overclocking the GM-206 MSI was able to create a 960 that is over 8 percent better than a reference 960. That is impressive, but what is more is they did that with only a six dollar increase in asking price! MSI GTX 960 Gaming 2G – Assassins Creed: Black Flag (RWB) Assassins Creed: BF is an historical action-adventure video game, published by published by Ubisoft and released in October 2013. Like Battlefield 4 this games does not include an in-game benchmark. This makes it perfect for more real world gaming testing. To obtain repeatable results we have used FRAPs and recorded a custom run through Havana’s marketplace. An average of four runs was taken. The settings used in the testing below are highest settings for quality, VSync disabled and a resolution of 2560x1440 and 1920x1080. Environment quality was set to very high, Anti-Aliasing was set to TXAA 4X, Ambient Occlusion set to HBAO+ (high), Shadow Quality set to ‘soft shadow’, Motion Blur and Volumetric Blur both set to On. Texture Quality, Reflection Quality, and God Rays all set to High. The more we test this video card the more we really liked what we saw. Killer noise, great performance, and amazing value….really what is not to like?! MSI GTX 960 Gaming 2G – Call of Duty: Ghosts (RWB) Call of Duty: Ghosts is a first person shooter video game, published by Activision and released in October 2013. Since it does not include an in-game benchmark, it perfect for more real world gaming testing. To obtain repeatable results we have used FRAPs and recorded 90 seconds of the single player ‘Ghost Stories' level, starting as soon as we resume control of Logan back on Earth. An average of four runs was taken. The settings used in the testing below are highest settings for quality, VSync disabled and a resolution of 2560x1440 and 1920x1080. Image Quality, Textures Resolution, Normal Map Resolution, and Specular Map Resolution set to Extra. Screen Space Ambient Occlusion and Antistrophic Filtering set to High, Terrain Detail set to ON, and Anti-Aliasing was set to TXAA 4X. With Shadows, Distortion, Motion Blue and Depth of Field set to Yes. For six extra dollars consumers will basically get a ten percent boost in performance. That is impressive when you think about it. MSI GTX 960 Gaming 2G – Crysis 3 (RWB) Crysis 3 is a first person shooter video game, published by Electronic Arts and released in February 2013. While older than some of the others it is one of the most visually stunning games released to date and puts a lot of demands on the GPU. This makes it perfect for more real world gaming testing. To obtain repeatable results we have used FRAPs and recorded 90 seconds of the single player ‘Post Human' level, starting as soon as soon as prophet is handed a Hammer II pistol by Psycho. An average of four runs was taken. The settings used in the testing below are highest settings for quality, VSync disabled and a resolution of 2560x1440 and 1920x1080. Texture Quality, Game Effects, Objects, Particles, Post Processing, Shadows, Shading, Water, and System Specs all set to Very High. Motion Blur was set to High and Lens Flare was set to On. Anti-Aliasing was set to MSAA 8X and Antistrophic Filtering was set to 16x. As is becoming almost boring in its consistency, the MSI 960 Gaming 2 is a bloody marvelous 960. We still would not want to only use one of them for Crysis, but the frame rates would be better with this bad boy. MSI GTX 960 Gaming 2G – Witcher 3 (RWB) Witcher 3 is an action role-playing video game set in an open world environment, developed by Polish video game developer CD Projekt RED and released on May 2015. Our test uses a real world timed benchmark that consists of three minutes of game play during the 'Beast of the White Orchard' quest. This section of the game incorporates everything from grass, to water, to hair, to numerous NPCs. An average of four runs was taken. The settings used in the testing below are Ultra display settings, but with HairWorks off and Vsync disabled, at a resolution of 2560x1440 and 1920x1080. Witcher 3 is a bloody tough to run and it came as no surprise that this is where the MSI Gaming 2 posted its lowest performance boost. Basically you can consider this game a worst case scenario…and in such a scenario for under 3% more money you will still get about 4% better performance. MSI GTX 960 Gaming 2G – Temperature, Noise, and Power Video Card Temperature Results For all temperature testing the cards were used in an open test bed environment. Ambient temperature was kept at a constant 20°C (+/- 0.5°C) and if the ambient room temperatures rose above 21°C or dropped below 19°C at any time, all benchmarking was stopped until proper temperatures could normalized. For Idle tests, we let the system idle at the Windows 7 desktop for 25 minutes and recorded the peak temperature. For Load tests, we ran Unigine’s Valley benchmark for 20 minutes. That massive heatsink really does get the job done - and then some! We honestly doubt anyone will complain about these heat levels Sound Level Test Results While everyone "hears" noise differently there is one easy way to remove all subjectivness and easily compare different fans: use a sound level meter. This way you can easily compare the various fans noise envelopes without us coloring the results and see what fans fit within your personal comfort level. Of course, we will endeavor to try and explain the various results - which are taken at a 15 inch distance from the GPU’s fan(s) - to help you gain an even better understanding of how loud a cooler's stock fan is, but even if you discount our personal opinions, the fact remains numbers don't lie. For Idle tests, we let the system idle at the Windows 7 desktop for 25 minutes and recorded the peak dB. For Load tests, we ran Unigine’s Valley benchmark for 20 minutes and recorded the peak dB. As with the 980Ti before it, the MSI GTX 960 Gaming 2 posts best in class noise levels…and absolute perfect idle levels. System Power Consumption To obtain accurate results we have connected the system to a Power Angle power meter that has in turn been attached to a 1500watt UPS. This ensures only 120volt power is supplied to the PSU and removes an variances that could potential crop up because of brownouts and power spikes. In order to stress the video card we have once again used Unigine’s Valley benchmark and ran it for 20 minutes to determine peak system power consumption. For idle results we have let the system idle at the Windows 7 desktop for 25 minutes and recorded the peak idle power consumption. Even though this is a heavily overclocked video card, the MSI Gaming 2 is a power miser. That really a testament to the GM-206…and the engineering MSI put into their supercharged version. MSI GTX 960 Gaming 2G – Overclocking To discover our sample’s overclocking abilities we used EVGA’s Precision X software and began raising power and thermal thresholds to the maximum allowed and then increased the voltage also to the maximum permitted. Then using Unigine’s Valley benchmark we began stability testing. Based on our previous history with overclocking the GM-206 core we knew that MSI had left lots of potential for consumers to discover. Sadly we also knew that a lot of this potential would never be realized because of NVIDIA's hardset on voltage. To be blunt this insanely good heatsink really is overkill for what you will be able to do with this card, and you will run out of voltage before you run into thermal walls. On the positive side even when heavily overclocked this card was still damn quiet and rather cool running! In fact, it allowed this card to not only hit our new higher boost setting but basically stay there without being thermally limited. Really, truly pheonimnal cooling is what the Gaming 2's Twin Frozr V offers. Also on the positive side, the GM-206 inside our sample Gaming 2 had more untapped potential than the PNY Elite OC sample. This in turn allowed us to hit 1492 on the core. Put another pay we found an additional 213Mhz for the core, for a grand total of 314Mhz overclock. Now that is a sweet overclock. Better still is our RAM was also able to be pushed to 7920Mhz effective rate. This too was a bit better than what our PNY Elite OC was able to do, but this combination of faster RAM and insanely fast core allowed for noticeably better frames per second. In fact, the higher overclock translated to better real world performance gains than the Elite OC. This is why we have included its 'overclocked' results in the charts as well. Its just a shame that consumers have to manually do this to get class leading performance. Then again doing that is not exactly what we would call a hardship and considering this card is only $6 more than what reference card costs is just icing on the cake. MSI GTX 960 Gaming 2G – Performance Summary and TL;DR In an effort to make sorting through all the results as easy as possible we have combined the results all of all the game results into an easy to digest summary format. By comparing it to similar products in all the games you will be able to easily find the game(s) you are interested in, see the improvement and decide if it is the worth the investment. While MSI has not fully unleashed their Gaming 2 GTX 960 video card, it still is a fantastic performer. Better still its lower price makes it a fantastic value oriented performer! Score Card and Summary Packaging & Accessories: 8 out of 10 The packaging for the Gaming 2 is classic MSI "Gaming" series. That is to say its blend of good looks, good protection, and good information is a winning one. Unfortunately MSI really does not include much in the way of accessories, but for the price it still is darn decent. Functionality & Aesthetics: 17 out of 20 The aesthetics are a touch on the aggressive side for our personal tastes, but there is no denying it is still an attention getting card. Mix in that excellent custom heatsink design and the end result is a lot of happy customers. The only consumer who will not be happy is smaller case owners who may have issues with the oversized dimensions. Build Quality & Warranty: 18 out of 20 If there is any area that could be improved upon it is in the warranty department. Much like the Gaming 6 980Ti, the Gaming 2's three warranty is the only thing 'average' about this video card. On the positive side, overclocking is covered by the warranty so you can push it for three worry free years. Performance: 25 out of 30 For a 960 this card does have excellent performance, but we know there is a lot more that MSI has not unleashed - and that is a shame. Value: 19 out of 20 This card is stuffed to the gills with value. For only six dollars you get one heck of a card compared to a reference GTX 960! Final Score: 87 out of 100 MSI's combination of excellent cooling potential and excellent value makes for one potent combination. If you are looking for a 960 with tons of potential the MSI Gaming 2 should be on your short list. MSI GTX 960 Gaming 2G – Closing Statement The MSI 960 Gaming 2 is a very good example of what can be done with the rather mediocre stock GTX 960; and quite frankly is a very good card in its own right. Sadly, it is also a bit of a missed opportunity for MSI to truly show off their Twin Frozr V heatsink and dual fan combination. As we saw in the overclocking section MSI binning, combined with one excellent heatsink and fan design made for the highest overclock on the GM-206 core we have seen - and it easily allowed the 960 Gaming 2 to leap past the PNY 960 Elite OC. Sadly, at factory vs factory settings the MSI is a touch slower than PNY's version. When choosing 1279Mhz as the maximum factory boost MSI did complicate things as PNY has set their model to 1367. Mix in a shorter warranty and the end result is the MSI 960 Gaming 2 is simply not going to be right for everyone. So let's break it down on who should be interested in this card - and who will not find it a perfect fit. Aesthetics and what you consider 'beautiful' is a personal decision so we cannot comment on A vs B. Pick which ever you think is prettier and be satisfied with a real arse kicker of a GTX 960. Now with that out of the way, first and foremost is if you really cannot get past an industry standard length 3 year warranty the MSI may not be a great fit for your needs. Yes this card is extremely robust and built with Military grade components; and yes this means it should last for a long time. Sadly if you are always worrying about it after the warranty has expired you may not consider this an optimal solution. If you plan on using your GeForce GTX 960 is a smaller case the rather large foot-print of the MSI Gaming 2 may also be a deal breaker. For most it should not matter, but for some it will. If you are the type who does not want to overclock your video card, the lower GPU settings will mean you will not get as many frames per second as what other manufactures can offer. Of course, keeping this card at factory settings is a cardinal sin, as this card was made for pushing the envelope, but there are people who do precisely that. On the other hand if you want a GTX 960 card that is literally silent at idle speeds and downright quiet under load then the Gaming 2 is for you. The same is for consumers interested in overclocking as that Twin Frozr V heatsink with Torx fans is a beast. This card is a real joy to play with and it does reward your efforts with noticeably better frames per second. Last but not least since the MSI 960 Gaming 2 also costs about $15 less than the PNY 960 Elite OC. This is not much of a difference but for consumers who enjoy a good deal as much as they do playing with their GPU the MSI 960 Gaming 2 is tailor made for your needs.

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