Last year belonged to Nvidia and their Maxwell series of graphics cards. with the likes of the GTX 980 and 970 still maintaining their status as essential enthusiast cards nearly a year later. Since then, the team from the green side of the field have gone on two extremes – launching extremely powerful or budgets cards. Like the GTX 950, a surprising addition to make the Maxwell range that’s truly affordable to anyone.
And a card that’s coming pretty soon too. Although not officially confirmed by Nvidia, multiple sources have now latched onto a leaked launch date and specifications sheet that more often than not end up being incredibly accurate. Especially if we’re this close to launch, with the GTX 950 expected as early as next month, for the low, low price of $150.
And for a budget price like that, you’re getting predictably budget gaming. Where the GTX 960 was already being asked questions too complex for it with it’s constrained memory, the GTX 950 does little to improve. You’ll get the same 2GB of GDDR5 memory, although only over a 128-bit bus. That’s coupled with rather impressive core and boost clock speeds of 1150 MHz and 1350MHz respectively, along with a low TDP of only 90W.
It’s the memory that really holds things back here, with most modern games requiring around a gig or so more usually just for high-end 1080p fidelity. Notch a few settings down and you’ll likely be fine for the next few months, but the GTX 950 really isn’t a card that’s going to stand the test of time. Stacked memory with DirectX 12 might improve possible SLI performance, but I wouldn’t double down on that.
That said, having a $150 card that manages to play all your regular MMOs, MOBAs and online shooters for the next few years might be all you need. If the pricier 900 series cards have been far too rich for your gaming preferences, the GTX 950 might just be right up your alley.
Last Updated: July 24, 2015
Matthew Holliday
July 24, 2015 at 09:35
150$ ?
so going by our pricing, we’ll probably get it for like R16 000 or something.
Greylingad[CNFRMD]
July 24, 2015 at 09:48
Bargain!
MakeItLegal
July 24, 2015 at 11:37
zuma tax is plus a extra R246.47 mill
Uberutang
July 24, 2015 at 09:37
Perfect for a HTPC and some light gaming then. Can also serve as the end point for your steam in home stream.
Matthew Holliday
July 24, 2015 at 09:44
previously the x50 series have been really solid cards.
especially when it came to the ti versions, the 550ti was a monster for the price, for a R1500 card, getting 4 years of gaming out of it is mad.
although that was when we were R7 to the dollar.
but with the delay in releasing it, with no ti version in sight, the ridiculous specs required to run games lately and stupidly high exchange rate, you’re right, home theatre is probably the only use for this.
Uberutang
July 24, 2015 at 09:48
Gonna have to agree and disagree. We have a 560ti (1gig) card in my wifes rig. She is currently playing Witcher 3 at 720p/low/medium above 30fps.
There has to date not yet been a game she wanted to play that she could not and this all 2nd hand rig that cost very very little to setup. (R1500 for the pc (i7 2600, 16 gig ram etc, R1200 for the GPU).
So as long as your expectations are not 4k/ultra and you are willing to play at 720 or 900p for some games, you can stretch a gpu for a very very long time
Matthew Holliday
July 24, 2015 at 09:52
yeah, but when a new card is going to cost R2500+
you dont expect to be playing a game at 720p with medium-low settings.
my old R9 270 is still retailing for R2500 and i was dropping settings to medium-low to keep the framerate up, and that was a 256bit card and i had 2 crossfired.
and as in any debate that includes a 560ti, the 560ti is the exception to the rule. nvidia really got that midrange down in the 500 series.
Uberutang
July 24, 2015 at 09:53
Buy direct from Amazon 🙂 FAAAAR Cheaper. Esp when they have sales.
Matthew Holliday
July 24, 2015 at 10:01
are they shipping to SA again now?
or do we still have to go through shipping to friends/family oversees?
usually when it comes to buying from places like newegg etc, the shipping makes the prices comparable to local prices.
Uberutang
July 24, 2015 at 10:05
GPU’s ship here directly yes. We bought 3x 960’s for R2200 each (including vat and shipping) in November.
Spathi
July 24, 2015 at 10:24
Etter…
Draco Lusus
July 24, 2015 at 10:02
And what? Get it shipped to a friend and then they ship it to SA?
Ranting Raptor
July 24, 2015 at 09:46
Well 2GB of memory is actually fairly good in my opinion. There are 1GB cards that are still holding up even with games like the Witcher.
It may not be a insane card but at $150 to get a 2GB GDDR5 GFX Card with such high clock speeds is amazeballs. I’d love to see some benchmarks with this compared to the 660’s and 760’s that are the norm in machines these days.
Matthew Holliday
July 24, 2015 at 09:54
2gb is fine
but 128bit just doesnt cut it anymore.
and with our exchange rate and further price increases, this isnt a R1500 card.
as with any x50 series, the ti version is the only way to go.
Ranting Raptor
July 24, 2015 at 18:23
yeah you do have a point
Paul Anthony Soh
July 24, 2015 at 09:51
Can nVidia make this card available for SLI please? That’s gonna be perfect.
John Rin Taylor
August 8, 2015 at 05:20
…i would rather buy a $300+ gpu rather than stacking two 950’s
MakeItLegal
July 24, 2015 at 11:45
i have a gtx770 msi ( ithink ) 4 gig card works lovely , never struggle really
i bought it for R4700 2years ago , now since then i have seen the same value for money in a GPU’s.
with ps4 and bone being out , for me its only logical to get a 5gig gpu ,
, knowing that the ps4 has 5Gig ddr 5 ram or what eva , made it easy to pick a 4gig gpu 2 years ago , i basically got this generation down to a T…..oh also rocking an i5 4670k , i haven’t played with anything really
my point , ha ha , is that pc gaming is cheaper over the long run , i would suggest in preparing your rig for next gen systems (ps5 xbox box green two ) that u match your gpu as close as possible to the “leading” console(mid range cpu , twice the os requried ram ) , that way you have 5 years of AAA titles playable
HighlanderZA
July 24, 2015 at 11:59
Thanks for doing a bit of hardware review. Would love to see more. Good article and to the point