PNY GeForce GTX 950 XLR8 OC Gaming Graphics Card Review

Introduction

The overwhelming majority of media headlines have fixated on NVIDIA’s latest flagship graphics card, the GTX 1080. While this incredible creation is an innovative piece of hardware based on a new 16nm FinFet manufacturing process, it’s still extremely expensive especially if you reside in the United Kingdom. As a result, existing Maxwell solutions are tailored towards the mass market and remain an attractive proposition provided you’re willing to accept the older architecture. Thankfully, affordable options like the GTX 950 offer good performance numbers and act as a gateway to PC gaming if you’re unsure about making the switch from traditional consoles. Typically, custom variants from various AIB vendors appear relatively soon after the core’s initial launch. This makes the PNY’s GTX 950 XLR8 OC an oddity because it arrives at a time when partners are focusing on Pascal.

Nevertheless, it’s always welcome to analyse a custom graphics card which features a hefty factory overclock. More specifically, the PNY GTX 950 XLR8 OC features a core clock of 1152MHz and 1342MHz boost. This is a significant increase from the default 1026MHz and 1190MHz specification. On another note, this particular version has an effective memory speed of 7200MHz and consumes 90 watts. As you might expect, the product supports a number of NVIDIA inventions such as GPU Boost 2.0, Dynamic Super Resolution and much more. Priced at a mere £134.99, how much performance is actually possible on such a tight budget?

Specification:

Packing and Accessories

The graphics card comes in an attractive box sporting an eye-catching decal. Furthermore, the XLR8 branding is rather imposing and emphasises the unit’s overclocking credentials.

On the opposite side, there are details of the GPU’s comprehensive 3-year warranty, PNY’s company background and social media presence. This section is rather understated and contrasts with the front cover extremely well. Ideally, I’d prefer to see stronger adhesive because the tape holding the middle portion uncouples too easily. Saying that, this is a minor complaint in the grand scheme of things.

In terms of accessories, the product comes with a driver’s disk, installation guide and VGA to DVI adapter. This is useful for those who are currently using an older monitor and want to enjoy improved frame-rates via a modern graphics card.

A Closer Look

The PNY GTX 950 XLR8 OC Gaming features a stunning two-tone red and black colour scheme which should suit a wide range of system builds. Furthermore, the paintball style finish is quite unusual and emphasises the graphics card’s industrial look. Additionally, the unit’s plastic shroud feels sturdy and is more substantial than most GTX 950 custom cards. Of course, PNY hasn’t gone overboard and opted for a fin array which helps leverage extra performance from the GPU’s very modest TDP. This means it’s still fairly light at 2lbs and measures a respectable 9.65″ x 4.38″.

PNY decided to use a custom PCB consisting of 8-layers to uphold excellent reliability. From this image, we can also see two copper heat pipes which dispel heat in an effective manner. This is more than ample for the thermal loads created by the GTX 950 even when a manual overclock is applied. Ideally, I’d like to see a backplate because the exposed PCB doesn’t look very attractive. Nevertheless, you can’t grumble at the price point and target market the GTX 950 is aimed towards.

The graphics card includes two high-performance fans which automatically switch off during low-power states. This 0dB mode contributes to a superb desktop experience and limits the noise output when browsing the web or performing other basic tasks. The fans also have LED illumination around the motors which adds a more flamboyant appearance.

The PNY GTX 950 XLR8 OC Gaming really looks fantastic and is possibly my favourite version of the GTX 950 thus far.

As expected, the GPU requires a single 6-pin PCI-E connector and is incredibly efficient. Some alternative options on the market such as the Gigabyte XTREME GAMING GTX 950 employ an 8-pin connector to improve overclocking headroom. However, this isn’t the case here and I highly doubt it’s going to bottleneck the card’s overclocking abilities in a significant manner.

Connectivity-wise, the graphics card houses an HDMI 2.0 port, DisplayPort, 1.2, dual link DVI-D and DVI-I.

Testing & Methodology

Here is the test system we used for all graphics card reviews and game performance analysis:

Hardware

• Motherboard – Gigabyte X99-Gaming G1 WiFi LGA 2011-3 Motherboard
• Processor – Intel Core i7 5820K at Stock 3.3GHz
• RAM – 16GB (4 X 4GB) Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR4 2400MHz
• CPU Cooler – Thermaltake Water 3.0 with Gelid GC-Extreme
• Power Supply – BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 11 1200W
• Main Storage Drive – Crucial M550 512GB
• Chassis – Lian Li T80 Test Bench
• Displays – AOC U2868PQU 4K
• Operating System – Windows 10 Pro 64-Bit

Additional Hardware

• “Killawatt” style electricity usage meter wall plug
• Precision Gold N05CC Decibel meter

Drivers

The latest drivers are always used at the time of testing, but please note reviews undergo a scheduling process. This means a new driver could be released on the day of publication. However, this is unavoidable and disclosing the driver versions used is the most transparent way of informing the reader about current performance levels.

Games 

Throughout the testing procedure, we always use demanding presets to stress graphics cards to their absolute limits. However, in the interest of fairness, any technology which favours either AMD or NVIDIA is disabled. More specifically, this refers to MSAA, PhysX, Hairworks and more. Additionally, we also disable all forms of AA to gauge performance levels which aren’t impacted by complex AA. Theoretically, we could have employed FXAA because it only has a minor impact on the frame-rate, but many users strongly dislike the hazy image this causes. Apart from the details mentioned above, all settings remain at the maximum values. On another note, we previously used Grand Theft Auto V in the testing process and it’s a popular title. However, there’s been some strange anomalies in the minimum frame-rate which mean I’m not confident in the benchmark’s accuracy.

Since I’ve taken the helm as graphics card reviewer, I wanted to put fairness at the heart of each article and ensure there’s a good balance between DirectX 11 and DirectX 12 games. This allows us to properly analyse each graphics card as focussing on sponsored titles from a particular vendor will always result in an inaccurate picture. As always, we will be updating which games are tested as more demanding works are created. Unfortunately, popular monitoring software like FRAPS cannot display the frame-rate in real-time and poses a problem when observing performance numbers. Thankfully, it’s still possible to use FRAPS’s Min/Avg/Max function which we’ve found offers the most reliable monitoring compared to other methods. If you have any suggestions to aid the benchmarking process, please let us know so we can constantly improve the procedure.

Software

• Ashes of the Singularity (DirectX 12)
• Far Cry Primal
• Hitman (DirectX 12)
• Thief
• 3DMark
• Unigine Valley
• Unigine Heaven
• CPU-ID HWMonitor
• TechPowerUp GPU-Z
• Luxmark

Synthetic Benchmarks

During our testing, we use a range of readily available synthetic benchmarking tools which are free to download from the respective websites. We do this so the readers can download and compared to our results. Download links are contained within the “Software” subheading.

Noise

Everyone has their own reasonable noise level when it comes to comes to components in a computer. Some can handle all fans at 100% load to keep temperatures down, some want a completely silent computer. To properly gauge the noise output of a graphics card, we position a Precision Gold N05CC Decibel meter from two metres away and take an average reading.

Power Consumption

With electricity becoming increasingly expensive across most parts of the world the need for computer components to become power efficient has never been more relevant. Graphics cards are often the most power-hungry components of a desktop system so having an efficient graphics card is very important to keeping power bills under control. Power is often correlated to heat and so lower power consumption means a graphics card is likely to run slightly cooler and put out less heat into your system meaning your other components will run cooler with improved longevity. AMD and NVIDIA have both made power consumption an integral part of the way graphics cards dynamically overclock so the need for graphics card vendors to use efficient VRM and PCB designs is becoming important to maximise performance. We take power readings after 5 minutes of two different load scenarios: desktop idle and Unigine Heaven load.

Temperatures

The cooling solution which graphics card vendors choose to implement is one of the main differences that consumers have to contend with when choosing a graphics cards. Apart from their acoustic properties, the thermal properties of graphics card coolers are extremely important. Lower temperatures are always better and with AMD and NVIDIA opting to use dynamic overclocking algorithms that take temperature into account it is important that graphics card vendors use high-performance cooling solutions in order to maximise performance. The era of graphics cards reaching dangerous temperatures are now in the past but the importance of lower temperatures still remains. Lower temperatures mean better stability, longer component longevity and lower fan speeds .We take temperature readings after 5 minutes of two different load scenarios: desktop idle and Unigine Heaven load. We always record actual temperatures and make any adjustments for changes in the thermal testing environment.

3D Mark

In terms of synthetic performance, the GPU scores rather well when running the Fire Strike benchmark and is closer to the GTX 960 than lower clocked products.

Once the resolution is increased to 2560×1440, the gap to the GTX 960 remains relatively small. This emphasises the impact of the card’s factory overclocked core.

During 4K testing, the PNY GTX 950 XLR8 OC Gaming fared pretty well and almost managed to reach a score of 1000.

Unigine Valley

Here we can see the graphics card’s factory overclock brings it extremely close to the ASUS STRIX GTX 960 in both minimum and average figures.

When the resolution increases to 1440P, a similar picture occurs and the difference remains within a margin of error. Of course, the GTX 950 struggles with such a demanding application but it’s interesting to see the numbers nonetheless.

Rather unsurprisingly, the GPU barely manages to render frames when pushing such a large number of pixels at extreme details.

Compute Performance

The GPU’s OpenCL compute performance is good when you consider its budget focus.

Ashes of the Singularity

Ashes of the Singularity poses a significant problem for modern graphics cards, especially on lower tier products. The huge amount of units and intense action proved too taxing and the GPU recorded an average figure well under 30 frames-per-second. Saying that, it still managed to defeat the GTX 960 and should be able to obtain 60 frames-per-second with a less demanding preset.

Once the resolution is set to 2560×1440, the GPU struggles and lacks the raw processing power compared to more expensive options.

Clearly, the graphics card isn’t suited towards 4K gaming and this is reflected in the data below.

Far Cry Primal

Despite opting for such a visually intense preset, the PNY GTX 950 XLR8 OC Gaming maintained a solid frame-rate and averaged above 30. Reducing these settings slightly should allow for a higher minimum figure and produce a less jarring experience.

Increasing the resolution didn’t really impact on the minimum frame-rate but the average number fell considerably. As a result, the game was unplayable and unable to deal with the demands from a high-resolution monitor.

As expected, the GPU encountered major performance problems during 4K testing in a similar manner to the GTX 960. Honestly, I highly doubt anyone considering a budget GPU will be using anything above a 1920×1080 display.

Hitman

Hitman is an intriguing title due to the DirectX 12 render and encompasses a huge array of complex effects. Here we can see the graphics card does relatively well and remains within touching distance of the GTX 960.

Adjusting the resolution to 1440P results in a noticeable frame-rate drop although it’s less than I initially envisioned.

Despite my best efforts, the graphics card couldn’t cope with the benchmark and crashed on every single occasion. This isn’t surprising though because we’re imposing extremely high demands across various tiers of graphics cards. Therefore, lower end options are out of their comfort zone.

Thief

While Thief might not be the latest game on the market, the PC version was handled by Nixxes Software. This company excels in scaling across various hardware configurations and released a wide range of excellent PC games. The PNY GTX 950 XLR8 OC Gaming maintains a very solid frame-rate and low range between minimum and maximum figures. This consistency results in a smooth experience even when opting for demanding settings.

Once the resolution is set to 1440P, there’s a huge drop in the minimum frame-rate. On a more positive note, it competes rather well with the GTX 960 and you should be able to achieve 30 frames-per-second using more sensible settings.

Throughout 4K testing, the GPU struggled to complete the benchmark and never reached a figure above 6 frames-per-second. Evidently, this is expected but it’s interesting to see how the lower end products fare in extreme usage scenarios.

Overclocking and Overclocked Performance

Overclocking any Maxwell graphics card is a simple process and involves setting the power target to the maximum value, and gradually increasing both the core clock and memory. Temperatures rarely come into play as the stability tends to veer off before reaching anywhere near the GPU’s thermal limitations. In this case, I managed to increase the core clock by 135MHz and the memory remained solid with a 235MHz increase. This was achieved with a power target of 112% and 32mV.

3DMark Fire Strike

The revised overclocking procedure means we now list the review card and compare the additional performance against stock results from other products. This provides a clear indication of the benefits from overclocking and how it affects the GPU’s competitiveness. Here we can see the PNY GTX 950 XLR8 OC Gaming is tantalisingly close to the stock GTX 960 during 1080P synthetic benchmarks.

On a similar note, it’s evenly matched between this particular card once an overclock has been applied and a highly regarded version of the GTX 960 at stock values.

The deficit increases somewhat during the Fire Strike Ultra benchmark but it’s still another good showing for a GPU in this price bracket.

Noise, Power Consumption and Temperatures

Noise

In terms of noise output, the GPU is silent throughout idle usage scenarios due to the 0dB fan mode. Once stressed, the graphics card remains extremely quiet and doesn’t suffer from any coil whine or sudden fan RPM spikes.

Power Consumption

Given the GPU’s 90 watt TDP, it’s not surprising to see it consume very little power under load which makes for a highly efficient system. Saying that, I was a little bemused by the card’s higher load than the GTX 960 which has wattage rating of 120 watts. Perhaps, this is down to a strange anomaly, or a result of the GPU’s overclocked core.

Temperatures

The graphics card’s cooling solution does a phenomenal job of keeping the core well within the maximum thermal threshold. Of course, this is expected given the low power demands. Nevertheless, it shouldn’t detract from PNY’s excellent cooling apparatus.

Final Thoughts

Price

At the time of writing, the PNY GTX 950 XLR8 OC Gaming is available from Novatech for £134.99 including shipping. US customers can purchase the graphics card directly from PNY’s website for a very respectable $149.99. This is an excellent value proposition when you consider the kind of gaming experience possible on a tight budget. However, the UK price is extremely close to the MSI GTX 960 GAMING 2G which has been heavily discounted to £149.99.

Overview

Aesthetically speaking, the PNY GTX 950 XLR8 OC is brilliant and I’m really fond of the unusual finish. More specifically, the striking merger of the black and red colours is reminiscent of an industrial production line. Furthermore, the colours combine in a fairly rough manner as there are black specks surrounding the red section. This is a great concept and adds to the product’s appeal. On another note, the fan blade motors feature subtle red LED lighting which compliments hardware sporting the same colour scheme.

The graphics card’s cooling solution features two copper heatpipes, a decent sized heatsink and two high angled fans. This is more than enough to cope with the GPU’s thermal loads because the GTX 950 core doesn’t output a lot of heat. PNY has opted for sensible hardware which enables you to maintain low temperatures without impacting on the compact form factor. The graphics card’s 0dB silent mode is a wonderful addition and creates a joyous user experience when performing basic tasks like web browsing and casual gaming.

In terms of performance, the GPU’s factory overclocked core and memory narrows the gap to the GTX 960 in a number of demanding titles. Throughout the benchmarking process, the GPU didn’t fall behind the GTX 960 by a significant margin and remained within a few frames of its nearest rival. Of course, this gap is widened during synthetic testing but I doubt it’s a major concern for someone opting for a budget graphics card. Clearly, the GTX 950 is designed to be paired with a 1080P monitor and you can achieve excellent frame-rates once some settings have been scaled back. If you’re willing to accept a 30 frames-per-second experience, then it’s even possible to opt for relatively high image quality presets. Most importantly, the graphics card has enough grunt to please consumers on a budget and it’s not going to frustrate them providing they have realistic expectations. On the other hand, this particular version of the GTX 950 is priced extremely close to the GTX 960 and many users might feel it’s a better option to spend slightly more.

By default, the PNY GTX 950 XLR8 OC incorporates a large overclock but this doesn’t mean it’s already on the absolute limit of performance. On the sample I received, it wasn’t difficult to increase the core by 135MHz and memory to an effective speed of 7672MHz. After the overclock was applied, the GPU almost matched the GTX 960 in synthetic testing. Even though overclocking headroom is determined by the silicon lottery, it looks likely that PNY is performing chip binning for the XLR8 series. Therefore, you should be able to achieve some pretty decent overclocks.

Pros

• 0dB passive silent mode
• Beautiful aesthetic design
• Competes with the GTX 960 extraordinarily well
• Extremely efficient
• Great entry card for 1080P gaming
• Impressive factory overclock
• Three-year warranty

Cons

• Price is perilously close to various GTX 960 cards

“The PNY GTX 950 XLR8 OC Gaming features an attractive design and acts as a wonderful entry into the world of PC gaming. Not only that, it’s ridiculously quiet and consumes very little power.

PNY GeForce GTX 950 XLR8 OC Gaming Graphics Card Review

Thank you PNY for providing us with this review sample