NVIDIA GTX 950: DOTA, MOBAs, and the next performance baseline?

A single chip rarely resides in just one desktop GPU model. Normally AMD and NVIDIA release multiple GPUs per chip which target different price points. So when the GM206 was released in one card, the GTX 960, I knew that it would show up in another card sooner or later. With the GTX 950, the GM206 has moved down and filled the performance gap between the GTX 960 and the GTX 750 Ti.

Multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) games have three properties that a graphics card such as the GTX 950 can target well.

1. Games like DOTA 2 are very popular and accessible to many people.
2. These games do not require powerful hardware.
3. Response time is more important than frames per second.

The GTX 950 is priced at $159, filling a hole between the $119 750 Ti and the $179 960, and also placing it right in competition with the $149 R7 370. Overclocked variants of the 950 are $10-$20 more, which isn't surprising.

NVIDIA has specifically targeted a number of optimizations and settings in the control panel and driver to reduce latency in DOTA 2. For example, VSync is not enabled in the game itself where latency is slightly increased, but in the control panel which doesn't have this issue. Certain settings even decrease the average FPS in order to also decrease the response time.

According to NVIDIA, the optimizations reduce the response time in DOTA 2 by over 40% from the GTX 650 to the GTX 950. This improvement comes from both the higher general performance of the 950 and the optimizations.



Yes, you can get these settings on other NVIDIA GPUs, but applying them on the the GTX 950 appears to take just one click in the control panel. The plan is for these kinds of optimizations to spread to additional NVIDIA GPUs in the future. (What do you think of this strategy?)

The performance of the 950 at stock clocks slots right in between the 750 Ti and the 960, slightly closer to the 960 on average. This particular OC model is $175 and comes close to the 960.



Unlike the 750 and 750 Ti, the 950 has a power connector, 6-pin to be exact, due to the 90 W TDP. That level of power is appropriate for its hardware specifications compared to nearby NVIDIA GPUs. And it may be around for a while—14/16 nm is supposed to be quite expensive so I don't expect cheaper desktop GPUs from either AMD or NVIDIA to use the smaller process nodes initially. Looking towards the future, I wonder what will happen to the GM107. An "50" card is normally close to the low-end of the retail desktop GPU lineup for that generation. Perhaps next year the 950 and similarly performing cards will essentially become the baseline among those who don't need sub-75 W TDPs.

Sources: AnandTech, PC Perspective, TechPowerUp, Tom's Hardware.

 

Someone at Nvidia thought the 960 wasn't slow enough? My next card will be on 14nm and fast enough for 4K.

 

This is an important price point, probably the most important price point.

The 950 caused AMD to release the 370X.

 

Good old 7870 getting yet another rebrand? How old is that card now, three years?

 

Pitcairn's about 3.5 years old at this point.

Given the GTX 950's positioning, it might be the only cut-down desktop GM206 unless the 750 Ti gets discontinued. NVIDIA needs to sell the salvage chips anyway.

 

No more new threads about graphics cards until its a 14nm chip.

 

That latency thing in Dota is relatively interesting. Hopefully all their next generation of cards have this included.

 

What about 16 nm?

 

This probably will be my next card(When my pc fails. But this thing is immortal anyway so in the end it will be a complete new PC.) because canada.

 

NVIDIA fails at async DX12 stuff. Next card will be a Matrox.