Last year, NVIDIA launched their GeForce GTX 9oo series cards, skipping any 8xx variations altogether. While the GTX 970 and GTX 980 serve the high end gamer well, most of us were looking for what NVIDIA would be doing for the mainstream gamers. Thankfully, just last week, NVIDIA launched the GTX 960.
Many of NVIDIA’s partners are producing super quiet video cards that run with lower power, running on the new Maxwell GPU. One of those cards is the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 960 AMP! Edition which offers all the base features but also has a factory overclocked GPU. Naturally, we’re wondering how well it can do 1080p gaming while staying cool and quiet, so we put the card through some hard work in the lab to find out.
Features and Specifications
For a quick run down comparison, here is a table of the most interesting features and specifications shared by the closest Maxwell GPUs around.
ZOTAC is all about frequencies! As you can see, the base frequencies and bandwidth of the ZOTAC GTX 960 are higher than the reference GPU. However, the ZOTAC GTX 960 AMP! sports even higher specs, staying true to the AMP! signature. They also have a lower end model in case you want to save a few dollars.
You’ll be happy to know that all of the latest NVIDIA technologies are supported on the GTX 960. This includes G-Sync, which replaces V-Sync, smoothing out graphics better than ever before, as long as you have a compatible monitor. DirectX 12 support also finds its way in, in anticipation of Windows 10, as does Dynamic Super Resolution that takes your 1080p display and adds a hint of 4K simulated details, and of course MFAA which produces better detailed edges and details but without the performance penalties of previous generation sample settings.
Pricing between a reference card and ZOTAC models is pretty close. The ZOTAC GTX 960 AMP! costs a measly $210 USD while the slightly overclocked GTX 960 will cost you $200 USD. This makes the AMP! Edition the optimal choice in our opinion. You can read up on them both right here in our recent post on them.
A Closer Look at the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 960 AMP! Edition
The ZOTAC GTX 960 AMP! Edition sports the company’s new ExoArmor cooler which uses two 90mm fans and their IceStorm cooling system (heatpipes/fins). There is also new technology onboard called FREEZE technology, which stops the fans at idle. As we noted in our initial post about ZOTAC’s new cards “the fans will stay off until temps reach 59C or when power consumption reaches 13 Watts. Whichever comes first”. They are virtually both silent in this mode and very quiet when gaming. In fact, the card was undetectable in the lab with a 16dB(A) ambient noise level.
Finally, the GTX 960 AMP! has a cool looking vented thin aluminum back plate. Small spacers keep the PCB and plate separated, and this plate adds rigidity and durability to the GPU. It would take a considerable amount of pressure to alter its shape. It’s a nice attractive touch. Too bad there aren’t controllable LEDs under there because that would be sweet.
Let’s connect the card and test it!
Test System and Installation Notes
For 2015, we’ve made a few tweaks in our GPU testing setup. Of particular note, we’ve jumped to Windows 8.1, since Windows 7 is now officially retired by Microsoft. At least on the mainstream support side.
- Processor: Intel Core i7-4790K Devil’s Canyon (LGA 1150)
- Motherboards: ASUS Z97 Deluxe, MSI Z97 Gaming 7, GIGABYTE GA-Z97X Gaming GT, Biostar Hi-Fi Z97, and ECS Z87 GANK Machine
- Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury 16GB 1866MHz DDR3
- Graphics 1: ZOTAC GTX 960 AMP!
- Graphics 2: NVIDIA GTX 970
- Graphics 3: NVIDIA GTX 780
- Graphics 4: GIGABYTE GTX 770 2GB OC
- Storage: Kingston HyperX Fury 240GB SSD
- Power: be quiet! Dark Power Pro 10 850W 80Plus Gold
- Cooling: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3
- OS: Windows 8.1 (Patched)
Of course, all latest BIOS, firmware, and driver updates (at time of publishing) were applied to our platform.
The ZOTAC GTX 960 AMP! Edition was plugged in on several Intel Z97 based boards simply to eliminate any odd variables like firmware incompatibility, EMF, or EMI. The card performed admirably in each case. It’s also a quiet card if you’re wondering, thanks to the new Freeze Technology. More on that after looking at ZOTAC’s new overclocking utility, FireStorm, next!
FireStorm – GPU Overclocking
Firestorm debuted with the arrival of the ZOTAC GTX 980 AMP! and AMP! Extreme video cards. It had a bit of a rocky start, not working exactly as expected, out of the box. We had similar results not being able to get the Gamer mode to activate. Quick Boost and Advanced modes were fine which is enough to set an overclock.
That said, this sample card reached 90 Mhz more with 90% extra voltage applied. With max voltage, the card can just reach over 100 MHz extra GPU Clock. The ExoArmor cooler also seems to have a lot of headroom as well.
Stock operating temps (shown above) reached 74C running Unigine Heaven repeated with ambient temps at 22C.
Noise and Power Consumption
Fan noise and any electromagnetic frequency noise were both monitored during testing. At stock full load, the card was just audible in our open case, but undetectable when closed. As expected, during overclocking tests, the fans are much more noticeable (35dB) as they should be given the extra GPU voltage and heat. Note that this is without extra case fans blowing directly on the GPU.
The card produced a very slight detectable noise during stock full load tests. It created a bit more when overclocked. The noise isn’t detectable when inside a decent computer case. Still, we’d like to see the engineers eliminate any EMF in future cards.
Consumption was as almost right on the money at 120 Watts during the beatings, which is what ZOTAC has listed the specifications for on this card. That’s not too shabby at all. The question is, how does it perform? Let’s kick the answer off with two of our favourite synthetic benchmarks: 3DMark and Unigine 4.0.
3DMark
ZOTAC’s GTX 960 AMP! does quite well given its extra high overclocked frequencies. Keep in mind that the basic edition (Firestrike) is a freebie, so you can download and compare, with your own equipment. If your card is scoring much lower, it would explain why you’re graphics may be lagging in the latest games.
Note that, reference clocked GTX 960 cards will score about 300 points less as the ZOTAC GTX 960 AMP! edition has a higher clock speed out of the box.
Unigine 4.0 (Heaven)
Unigine 4.0 (Heaven) benchmark is the closest thing to a high end realistic graphics stress test. The ZOTAC GTX 960 AMP! scores closely with the overclocked GIGABYTE GTX 770 OC card which is impressive. Especially since that card is still in a higher price point.
Now that we have an idea of how things will play out, synthetically, let’s take it to real world games.
Metro: Last Light
Metro Last Light sucks the living memory bandwidth out of any video card. Given the benchmark’s tough details, the ZOTAC GTX 960 AMP! performed admirably, again, coming close to matching the GIGABYTE GTX 770 OC.
Crysis 3
Here, we see that the ZOTAC GTX 960 AMP! performs relatively well given its lesser memory bandwidth. Keep in mind it’s a 128-bit card versus the slower frequency GTX 770 which has a 256-bit interface. Sometimes, that helps especially with larger, and more detailed, titles. It also helps in applications that can use the memory bandwidth like professional video editing software.
Far Cry 4
The ZOTAC GTX 960 AMP! does a bit better this round. Far Cry 4 isn’t quite as hungry as other games but it is taxing in some respects. Again, you can see how close the GIGABYTE GTX 770 OC is in this capacity.
Battlefield 4
Picking up a title from EA’s stable, we see that the ZOTAC GTX 960 AMP! isn’t so well optimized for this title, now coming in a hair above the older GTX 680, but with a further margin from the GTX 770 OC. Based on EA’s inherent lack of updates and bugginess throughout the life of this title, we’ll take the results with a grain of salt. However, it’s worth noting we do get playable frame rates from the GTX 960 at the highest settings.
Final Thoughts
The ZOTAC GTX 960 AMP! edition is both an affordable and fast card in most respects. Factory overclocked settings do make a difference in producing slightly higher frame rates. The card was stable throughout, barely pulling the specified 120 Watt consumption. But in that is the card’s hidden worth. It performs very closely with some of the more expensive cards of the past, which had more memory and bandwidth. We would like to see a 4GB version come in soon as many games are starting to push into 4K territory.
A minor sore spot was some EMF card noise, mostly noticeable when overclocked and under full load. Otherwise, it was minimal during regular gaming. It wouldn’t take much for ZOTAC engineers to remedy this. Plus, it would properly compliment their FREEZE technology feature, which boasts silence. Perhaps a firmware update can help it out.
The ZOTAC GTX 960 AMP! Edition video card is an affordable $209.99 USD. Besides the announced (but not shipping till March 1st, 2015) ASUS Strix GTX 960, it’s the highest overclocked “shipping” card we’ve found. With a $10 difference separating it and its less expensive (and slightly lower clocked sibling), the AMP! Edition is the one to have. Definitely recommended!
Pros
- High factory overclocked frequencies
- Excellent overclocking performance gains
- No fan noise at idle and little at full load
- Attractive card and GPU cooler
- Most affordable factory overclocked card shipping today
- 1080p friendly gaming
Cons
- Some EMF noise under maximum load
Overall Rating: 9.0 / 10.0
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