Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles:

A Beginners Guide To LN2 Benchmarking - Subzero Series
Asus GeForce GTX 950 Strix Direct CU II OC Review
ASUS GeForce GTX 950 STRIX Review
Asus GTX 950 Strix
ASUS GTX 950 STRIX OC 2 GB
Asus STRIX Gaming GTX 950 2GB DC2 OC Review
Asus, MSI, EVGA GTX 950 Review
BIOSTAR N3150NH ITX Motherboard Review
Cougar QBX Mini-ITX Gaming Chassis Review
DirectX 12 tested: An early win for AMD and disappointment for Nvidia
EVGA GeForce GTX 950 SSC 2 GB
GeForce GTX 950 Review
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 950 OC 2 GB
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 Ti Gaming G1 6GB Review
How to Use Your Free Windows 10 License After Changing Your PC’s Hardware
MSI GeForce GTX 950 Gaming + 2-way SLI review
MSI GTX 950 Gaming 2G Video Card Review
Netis PL7500 Kit AV500 Powerline Adapter Kit Review
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 2GB Video Card Review
Nvidia GeForce GTX 950 Review
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 Review: Affordable Maxwell For The Masses
Nvidia GeForce GTX 950 Review: Taking it to AMD in the budget realm
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 Roundup featuring ASUS and MSI
Nvidia GTX 950 Round-Up Review: Three Cards Go Head to Head
NVIDIA Introduces the GeForce GTX 950 for MOBA Gamers and Shares the GeForce Experience
Nvidia unveils the GeForce GTX 950
NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 950 Is A $150+ Bargain For Linux Gamers
Palit GeForce GTX 950 Storm Dual 2GB Review
Palit GTX 950 2GB StormX Dual Review
Sapphire Tri-X R9 390X 8GB CrossfireX Review
The Extreme Cases Where A Sub-$200 NVIDIA GPU Can Beat A $550+ AMD R9 Fury On Linux
The NVIDIA GTX 950 Review
Thermaltake Suppressor F51 Midi Tower Review
ZOTAC GeForce GTX 950 AMP! Edition 2 GB

A Beginners Guide To LN2 Benchmarking - Subzero Series

If you are reading this, then maybe you are ready to make the jump into subzero benchmarking or just interested in a simple how to. Subzero benchmarking is where you use LN2 (Liquid Nitrogen), DICE (Dry Ice), Phase change units or even, for those daring enough, LHE (Liquid Helium). The main focus of this guide is to show you what you need to start of on LN2 or DICE. We will look at what is needed and some terminology on CPU and Graphics subzero overclocking and benchmarking.

Read full article @ TechnologyX

Asus GeForce GTX 950 Strix Direct CU II OC Review

The new mainstream champ is here? You see, there's the $199 (£150) GTX 960 GPU that, Nvidia says, is the killer card for full-on eye candy at the ubiquitous 1080p resolution. Those without that kind of budget need to look a step further down the line and there you will find the GTX 750 Ti that's based on first-generation Maxwell architecture and costs $129 (£100) or so. The yawning gap is obvious and painful for Nvidia because it's an area that rival AMD has exploited with a succession of reimagined GPUs.

Nvidia needs another GeForce to tempt those gamers with a $150-$170 budget, but constructing such a fit-for-purpose GPU isn't easy. The erstwhile mainstream champ, GTX 750 Ti, packs in the full complement of cores and shaders into the GM107 die so there's no scope there. Redesigning the second-generation Maxwell die for a particular price point is irksome, so Nvidia opts for the lesser of two evils by castrating a GPU already available to the masses.

Read full article @ Hexus

ASUS GeForce GTX 950 STRIX Review

The GTX 950 is an entry-level to mainstream graphics card in the Maxwell range of GPUs from Nvidia that sits pretty nicely in the 1080P domain. ASUS offers it in a Strix edition and comes with some nice factory tweaks. Let's check it out, shall we?

The new GeForce GTX 950 is a cut-down version of the GM206 GPU that Nvidia uses in their GTX 960 series. This revised chip has a lower number of shader processors, a 128-bit wide memory bus and thus 2 GB of GDDR5 memory. The product has been castrated and stripped of everything that is sexy with the GTX 960/970/980. For the 'normal' models you have been able to see the memory cut down to 2 GB of memory on these puppies, that memory runs on a 128-bit wide bus, the shader processors have been cut-down to 768 Shader/Stream/Cuda cores.

So yes, this is the value segment we are now reviewing. The 128-bit wide bus sounds like a nag but the Maxwell GPU architecture makes efficient use of memory color compression. Maxwell, yes, named after the mathematical physicist. The Maxwell family of GPUs is actually the 10th generation of GPU architecture for Nvidia. With several design goals in mind (higher performance and lower power consumption) Nvidia was hoping to reach 20 nm by the time their high-end product would be released. It is now 2015 and it is abundantly clear that the 20 nm fab nodes are a huge yield mess, as no manufacturer dares to use it. Nvidia went with plan B and stuck with a 28 nm process, future products will jump to 16 and 14nm, of course. Nvidia has moved forward and today the 4th Maxwell based product (GTX 750 was actually the first trial run) is being released as a GM206 based GPU. Armed with voltage, power and load limiters, Nvidia these days can harvest massive performance out of chips when you think about it. Today is about the GeForce GTX 950 range of performance.

Read full article @ Guru3D

Asus GTX 950 Strix

So yesterday I had the chance to check out the R7 370, AMD’s current budget video card. Well today Nvidia is officially announcing and releasing the GTX 950. The GTX 950 falls in between the GTX 960 and the GTX 750 Ti. This fills in a gap in the Nvidia lineup and should compete directly with the R7 370. Like I mentioned yesterday, this isn’t a price point that enthusiasts who are building high end PCs would be looking at but it does fall right into the sweet spot for budget gaming builds around the $600 price point. So with that in mind today we are going to see what the GTX 950 is all about, find out how it fits in between the 960 and 750 Ti in both performance and specifications, then find out if it is the right option for people looking at building their new $600 gaming PCs.

Read full article @ LanOC Reviews

ASUS GTX 950 STRIX OC 2 GB

The ASUS GTX 950 STRIX comes overclocked out of the box and features an extremely quiet dual-fan cooling solution that makes the card quieter than whisper-quiet during heavy gaming. In idle or light gaming the fans will stop completely for a perfect noise-free experience.

Read full article @ techPowerUp

Asus STRIX Gaming GTX 950 2GB DC2 OC Review

Nvidia’s Maxwell GPU architecture has been well-received by enthusiasts and gamers. One of the most promising features for Nvidia has been the architecture’s ability to scale positively from low-end to high-end hardware, showing competitive performance and positive power consumption numbers along the way. But the gap between a £100 GTX 750 Ti and £150 GTX 960 is a sizeable one, and it’s an area where AMD currently roams freely with the R7 370. Nvidia’s counter-weapon: GTX 950.

Read full article @ KitGuru

Asus, MSI, EVGA GTX 950 Review

Today, NVIDIA and its partners are delivering the next installment in the Maxwell plan for world domination, the GTX 950. Having seen Maxwell grow up from the earliest example, the GTX 750 and 750 Ti, to and through GTX Titan X, we now go back to the beginning to take all the innovation and work on the hardware back to the entry level price points. Starting at an opening price of $159, NVIDIA is not only beefing up the hardware, but thoroughly developing its ecosystem based around three key principles: to provide the best hardware, the best experience, and to give the gamer more platforms to enjoy the gaming experience.

NVIDIA has had the hardware for a while, but have really ratcheted up the ecosystem side of the equation over the past couple years through its GameWorks initiatives. It does this by getting in on the ground floor and offering up a whole platform of technology, like VisualFX (HBAO+, FaceWorks, HairWorks, WaveWorks, GI Works, etc.), PhysX, FleX,OptiX, a core SDK with sample code, debuggers, and profilers. It enables those game developers to input realistic shadows, smoke, fur, clothing, destruction, various fluid effects, and global illumination. Add in the latest DX12 feature sets and you end up with a much improved gaming experience.

Today, I will be taking a look at a trio of these entry level gaming solutions based on NVIDIA's 28nm GM 206 core. I have the ASUS GTX 950 Strix, the EVGA GTX 950 SSC, and the MSI GTX 950 Gaming 2G, all of which start with the same core and 2GB of GDDR5 memory, but take different paths to get to the finished product. It should prove interesting to see how this trio performs against not only the GTX 750, but how well it fares against the competition from AMD.

Read full article @ OCC

BIOSTAR N3150NH ITX Motherboard Review

By including the Celeron N3150 Braswell SoC from Intel, the BIOSTAR N3150NH board takes part of the low-end segment and we can clearly see that from the benchmarks we have ran, since the performance per core is quite low, the Celeron 3205U we have found with the Shuttle DS57U surpassing it with flying colors. The power consumption though is like one third of the mentioned Celeron and the temperatures are much lower too, the included passive heatsink remaining cool during even most stressful conditions.

Read full article @ Madshrimps

Cougar QBX Mini-ITX Gaming Chassis Review

Cougar has been launching some pretty incredible products recently, from their stunning range of gaming peripherals, which includes great keyboards and mice, as well as their chassis products. Today we’ve got their latest mini-ITX chassis, the QBX and it promises to be a competitive gaming chassis for the small form factor market.

There’s a lot of demand for small chassis these days, especially with the rise in popularity of LAN gaming events. Then you’ve got people like myself who have a smaller system in the extra room to work on quietly, space is limited there, so a compact desktop system comes in handy. Let’s not forget the “smart TV” HTPC style systems that are growing in popularity, especially for those who want to take PC gaming to the big screen, so there’s certainly a lot of scope for a compact chassis that can still hold some great hardware.

Read full article @ eTeknix

DirectX 12 tested: An early win for AMD and disappointment for Nvidia

First DX12 gaming benchmark shows R9 290X going toe-to-toe with a GTX 980 Ti. Windows 10 brings a slew of features to the table—the return of the Start menu, Cortana, the Xbox App—but the most interesting for gamers is obvious: DirectX 12 (DX12). The promise of a graphics API that allows console-like low-level access to the GPU and CPU, as well as improved performance for existing graphics cards, is tremendously exciting. Yet for all the Windows 10 information to trickle out in the three weeks since the OS launched, DX12 has remained the platform's most mysterious aspect. There's literally been no way to test these touted features and see just what kind of performance uplift (if any) there is. Until now, that is.

Enter Oxide Games' real-time strategy game Ashes of the Singularity, the very first publicly available game that natively uses DirectX 12. Even better, Ashes has a DX11 mode too. For the first time, we can make a direct comparison between the real-world (i.e. actual game) performance of the two APIs across different hardware. While earlier benchmarks like 3DMark's API Overhead feature test were interesting, they were entirely synthetic. Such tests only focused on the maximum number of draw calls per second (which allows a game engine to draw more objects, textures, and effects) achieved by each API.

Read full article @ ArsTechnica

EVGA GeForce GTX 950 SSC 2 GB

EVGA's GTX 950 SSC features the company's signature ACX 2.0 cooler which provides very low noise levels during gaming and the fans will stop in idle and light gaming to remove noise completely. The SSC is also overclocked out of the box, which provides an 8% performance boost.

Read full article @ techPowerUp

GeForce GTX 950 Review

Today NVIDIA are launching their latest mainstream GPU which looks to take on the Radeon 370 and offer excellent 1080p gaming. NVIDIA have also given some of the features a real eSports/MOBA focus… so if you are a DOTA, LoL or Heroes of the Storm player then you’ll want to read our GeForce GTX 950 Review.

Read full article @ HardwareHeaven

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 950 OC 2 GB

The Gigabyte GTX 950 is an affordable custom-design variant of the GTX 950. It comes with an overclock out of the box and the board is relatively compact. Thanks to NVIDIA's Maxwell architecture, its power draw is refreshingly low with less than 100W during typical gaming.

Read full article @ techPowerUp

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 Ti Gaming G1 6GB Review

As expected Gigabyte is also amongst NVIDIA's launch partners for their new GTX 980 Ti based graphics cards. In this review we're having a close look at the GTX 980 Ti Gaming G1, which is Gigabyte's flagship model. It features a custom PCB as well as a new version of Gigabyte's semi-passive Windforce 3X cooler. This should be a rather punchy combination, since the card has also received a massive factory overclock.

Read full article @ ocaholic

How to Use Your Free Windows 10 License After Changing Your PC’s Hardware

The free Windows 10 license you receive is tied to your PCs hardware. Youre still allowed to use Windows 10 on that same PC even after changing its hardware, but that may not be clear. Microsoft wont give you a product key.

Read full article @ Howtogeek

MSI GeForce GTX 950 Gaming + 2-way SLI review

In this article we put the MSI GeForce GTX 950 Gaming edition to the test. A mainstream graphics card is armed with a GM206 Maxwell generation graphics processor from Nvidia. The product performs quite well in the 1080P area. Also the MSI card offers a nice factory tweaks and combined with AfterBurner we took the GPU towards 1575 MHz !

The new GeForce GTX 950 is a cut-down version of the GM206 GPU that Nvidia uses in their GTX 960 series. This revised chip has a lower number of shader processors, a 128-bit wide memory bus and thus 2 GB of GDDR5 memory. The product has been castrated and stripped of everything that is sexy with the GTX 960/970/980. For the 'normal' models you have been able to see the memory cut down to 2 GB of memory on these puppies, that memory runs on a 128-bit wide bus, the shader processors have been cut-down to 768 Shader/Stream/Cuda cores.

So yes, this is the value segment we are now reviewing. The 128-bit wide bus sounds like a nag but the Maxwell GPU architecture makes efficient use of memory color compression. Maxwell, yes, named after the mathematical physicist. The Maxwell family of GPUs is actually the 10th generation of GPU architecture for Nvidia. With several design goals in mind (higher performance and lower power consumption) Nvidia was hoping to reach 20 nm by the time their high-end product would be released. It is now 2015 and it is abundantly clear that the 20 nm fab nodes are a huge yield mess, as no manufacturer dares to use it. Nvidia went with plan B and stuck with a 28 nm process, future products will jump to 16 and 14nm, of course. Nvidia has moved forward and today the 4th Maxwell based product (GTX 750 was actually the first trial run) is being released as a GM206 based GPU. Armed with voltage, power and load limiters, Nvidia these days can harvest massive performance out of chips when you think about it. Today is about the GeForce GTX 950 range of performance.

Read full article @ Guru3D

MSI GTX 950 Gaming 2G Video Card Review

The sub-$200 market is for emerging or budget gaming. This market is for those that do not want to dump a ton of money into their PCs but still want to have good gaming performance without cranking the graphics options to their lowest settings. There seems to be a negative stigma around the word "budget" when it comes to PC … Read more.

Read full article @ Modders-Inc

Netis PL7500 Kit AV500 Powerline Adapter Kit Review

Powerline Network adapter are an amazing invention that can help you bring network to corners of your compound that otherwise wouldn’t be possible and today I’m taking a closer look at Netis’ PL7500 Kit containing two PL7500 AV500 Powerline adapters.

You might be living in a rented place where you aren’t allowed to drill holes through all the walls to lay down wired network cables and wireless signals might not be able to penetrate everywhere. That is where Powerline adapters come into play as they extend your local network by using the wiring in your electrical installation.

Read full article @ eTeknix

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 2GB Video Card Review

NVIDIA today launched their latest mainstream graphics card, the GeForce GTX 950, which features a suggested retail price of $159 and uses the GM206 Maxwell GPU. That GPU might sound familiar to those that keep up with the graphics card market as it is the same exact GPU that NVIDIA is using on the GeForce GTX 960 ($199). NVIDIA disabled some things to help differentiate this card from the GeForce GTX 960 and was able to bring it to market at a lower price point...

Read full article @ Legit Reviews

Nvidia GeForce GTX 950 Review

Nvidia turned up the heat of AMD’s Radeon product range late last year when it released its latest GPUs based on the Maxwell microarchitecture. The GeForce GTX 980 delivered previously unseen performance from a single GPU and even at $550 it was a sort after product.

The GTX 980 wasn’t our first look at the Maxwell architecture as the GTX 750 Ti gave us a glimpse of what was to come 8 months prior. Priced at $150 the GTX 750 Ti was designed to go head-to-head with AMD’s R7 265.

The Radeon R7 265 wasn’t a particularly impressive GPU for the simple fact that the R7 270 and R7 270X didn’t cost much more at the time but delivered noticeably better performance.

Read full article @ Legion Hardware

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 Review: Affordable Maxwell For The Masses

NVIDIA is launching a new mainstream graphics card today, the GeForce GTX 950, based on the company’s GM206 GPU. The GM206 debuted on the GeForce GTX 960, which launched a few months back. As the new card’s name suggests though, the GM206 used on the GeForce GTX 950 isn’t quite as powerful as the one used on the GTX 960.

The company is targeting this card at MOBA (massive online battle arena) players, who don’t necessarily need the most powerful GPUs on the market, but want smooth, consistent framerates at resolutions of 1080p or below.

Read full article @ HotHardware

Nvidia GeForce GTX 950 Review: Taking it to AMD in the budget realm

Nvidia turned up the heat on AMD's Radeon product range late last year when it released its latest GPUs based on the Maxwell microarchitecture. Although the first Maxwell based card, the GTX 750 Ti was rather disappointing, the GTX 980 Ti, 980, 970 and the 960 are all great cards. But most of them cost well over $300. Replacing the GTX 750 Ti, the GTX 950 steps in as the new $150 GPU in Nvidia's current generation line up, promisising to deliver highly playable 1080p performance.

Read full article @ TechSpot

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 Roundup featuring ASUS and MSI

Almost two years ago NVIDIA introduced the new Maxwell architecture to the masses in the form of the low-TDP and very efficient GeForce GTX 750 Ti video card. The initial release naturally was just a taste of the tremendous performance to be witnessed from the following Maxwell GM2XX based products, especially the NVIDIA GTX 980 Ti that I looked at not so long ago. However, until today, gamers looking for a Maxwell-based GPU upgrade on a sub-$200 budget seemed to be stuck with a two-year-old card from the NVIDIA product stack that didn't offer most of the features brought to the table by the new architecture. The alternatives are either the newly released AMD R7 370 for the same cost, or just spend the extra cash and pick something from the next GPU price bracket.

Today NVIDIA is launching its latest video card, conveniently codenamed the GeForce GTX 950. This new addition to the Maxwell-based GPU lineup will be filling a specific gap in the mainstream segment as a fresh offering for the budget-minded gamers looking at getting into 1080p gaming. The GTX 950 is positioned as the direct competitor for the AMD R7 370, and NVIDIA's gift to the growing legion of MOBA players looking for an affordable upgrade. The pricing was confirmed just a few hours ago; the new GeForce GTX 950 will start at $159. The pricing may increase slightly by the time the GTX 950 hits the usual retail channels since it will only be available in the form of AIB partner custom cards, mostly OC versions at that. However, NVIDIA confirmed that some of these factory overclocked cards should be offered at the $159 price point.

Read full article @ Neoseeker

Nvidia GTX 950 Round-Up Review: Three Cards Go Head to Head

With all of the hype surrounding the GTX 900 series recently, it has been hard to imagine what the lower end of the graphics card market would hold for the refined Maxwell architecture. We originally saw Maxwell in the mighty GTX 750Ti, but it was only when the GTX 900 series was released that we received the Maxwell that we know today. Our reviews and news have focused heavily on the GTX 980Ti and Titan X graphics cards, so information on the GTX 950 has been scarce to say the least; that is about to change. In today’s review, there is not one, not two but three GTX 950’s in for punishment; the ASUS STRIX GTX 950 2GB, Inno3D iChill AIRBOSS ULTRA GTX 950 2GB and the MSI GAMING GTX 950 2GB.

The GTX 950 is hot off the manufacturing line and features some lack-luster, but pokey specifications; knowing NVIDIA, less is more and we should see a stormer of a graphics card here regardless. Most of the options will feature 2GB of VRAM due to the product placement, but we will see some 4GB models which should make for a very capable SLI configuration for not a great deal of money. So with a price tag of around £120 depending on the manufacturer, performance isn’t going to be outstanding compared to the bigger options. However, the estimated performance and price tag makes this an extremely attractive option for 1080p and online gamers. Personally, I feel that this GTX 950 will be the final piece in the puzzle for NVIDIA; it will then have a great graphics option at almost every price point.

Now just because the GTX 950 is aimed at the lower price market, do not assume that you are not getting the full NVIDIA treatment.

Read full article @ eTeknix

NVIDIA Introduces the GeForce GTX 950 for MOBA Gamers and Shares the GeForce Experience

NVIDIA has unveiled a new entry-level graphics card, the GeForce GTX 950, and at a mere $159 USD, anyone looking to upgrade their machines may want to take notice. We'll have to wait and see how it compares to other 900 series and 700 series cards when Frank gets his hands on it, but for now, NVIDIA is comparing it to the three-year-old GTX 650. Why that card? Based on the July 2015 Steam Hardware Survey, it's ranked #8 among all video cards, including integrated graphics, so a lot of users could use the upgrade.

Read full article @ OCC

Nvidia unveils the GeForce GTX 950

For most of this summer, much of the excitement in the GPU market has been focused on pricey, high-end products like the Radeon Fury and the GeForce GTX 980 Ti. Today, Nvidia is turning the spotlight back on more affordable graphics cards with the introduction of the GeForce GTX 950, a $159.99 offering that promises to handle the latest games reasonably well at the everyman's resolution of 1080p.

Read full article @ The Tech Report

NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 950 Is A $150+ Bargain For Linux Gamers

NVIDIA this morning is announcing the GeForce GTX 950, which they are advertising as the successor to the GeForce GTX 650 that's still one of the most commonly used graphics cards by gamers. The GeForce GTX 950 is going to retail for less than $200 while claiming to deliver three times the performance of the GTX 650 and twice the performance efficiency of this former mid-range Kepler graphics card. The past few days I've been testing out the EVGA GeForce GTX 950 to great success under Linux.

The GeForce GTX 950 was described by NVIDIA in their briefing as "the perfect gateway to GeForce gaming" and being a great match for current games as well as next-generation games. This Maxwell-based graphics card uses the GM206 GPU and is a step ahead of last year's GeForce GTX 750 that rolled out the original Maxwell architecture.

Read full article @ Phoronix

Palit GeForce GTX 950 Storm Dual 2GB Review

In this review we check out the 2GB version of the Palit GeForce GTX 950. The GTX 950 is the entry-level to mainstream graphics card in the Maxwell range of GPUs from Nvidia. Palit offers it in a Storm-Dual version which we hope lines up with the dual-slot-dual-fan cooler. Let's check it out, shall we?

The new GeForce GTX 950 is a cut-down version of the GM206 GPU that Nvidia uses in their GTX 960 series. This revised chip has a lower number of shader processors, a 128-bit wide memory bus and thus 2 GB of GDDR5 memory. The product has been castrated and stripped of everything that is sexy with the GTX 960/970/980. For the 'normal' models you have been able to see the memory cut down to 2 GB of memory on these puppies, that memory runs on a 128-bit wide bus, the shader processors have been cut-down to 768 Shader/Stream/Cuda cores.

So yes, this is the value segment we are now reviewing. The 128-bit wide bus sounds like a nag but the Maxwell GPU architecture makes efficient use of memory color compression. Maxwell, yes, named after the mathematical physicist. The Maxwell family of GPUs is actually the 10th generation of GPU architecture for Nvidia. With several design goals in mind (higher performance and lower power consumption) Nvidia was hoping to reach 20 nm by the time their high-end product would be released. It is now 2015 and it is abundantly clear that the 20 nm fab nodes are a huge yield mess, as no manufacturer dares to use it. Nvidia went with plan B and stuck with a 28 nm process, future products will jump to 16 and 14nm, of course. Nvidia has moved forward and today the 4th Maxwell based product (GTX 750 was actually the first trial run) is being released as a GM206 based GPU. Armed with voltage, power and load limiters, Nvidia these days can harvest massive performance out of chips when you think about it. Today is about the GeForce GTX 950 range of performance.

Read full article @ Guru3D

Palit GTX 950 2GB StormX Dual Review

Nvidia has launched the GTX 950 to combat AMD’s R7 370 at the £129 price point. We take a look at Palit’s factory-overclocked, dual-fan GTX 950 2GB StormX Dual graphics card to see what sort of performance the solution can offer.

Read full article @ KitGuru

Sapphire Tri-X R9 390X 8GB CrossfireX Review

Here at eTeknix, we strive to give the consumer the best possible advice in every aspect of technology. Today is no different and we are excited to bring you the CrossfireX review of the Sapphire Tri-X R9 390X graphics cards.

Based on the slightly aging Hawaii architecture, performance was expected to be fairly low, however, as we found in our standalone review that really wasn’t the case. Alone, this card has the power to directly take on the GTX 980 and is poised to be at the low-end of the brand new AMD R9 Fury range. At a price of £350, it is perfectly priced to fill in the gap between the R9 390 and R9 Fury.

When we test in CrossfireX, we aim to use two identical graphics card to ensure that everything is as similar as possible. When using the same cards, you can almost guarantee the same cooling capabilities, power draw, core clock, boost clock and so on. This then gives us the best possible outcome for maximum performance as the computer does not need to compensate for any differences.

Read full article @ eTeknix

The Extreme Cases Where A Sub-$200 NVIDIA GPU Can Beat A $550+ AMD R9 Fury On Linux

Given the current state of the AMD Catalyst Linux driver, there exists games on Linux that will run with this closed-source Radeon driver but where the performance of a EVGA GeForce GTX 950 FTW that retails for $180 USD can exceed the performance of a AMD Radeon R9 Fury that sells for more than $550 USD. Here's some of those cases where -- given the current state of Catalyst on Linux -- the OpenGL performance is so far down the gutter.

With this morning's Linux review of the GeForce GTX 950 the performance of this Maxwell GPU and its siblings were compared on the AMD side to the Radeon R7 370 and R9 285 given that they're close in price and performance (at least under Windows) and also a R9 290 given the current Linux driver situation. Once I had more time to run tests after powering through this morning's article, I decided to run a Radeon R9 Fury test to see how the performance would compare since I recently spent nearly $600 on this air-cooled graphics card for Linux testing.

Read full article @ Phoronix

The NVIDIA GTX 950 Review

At the GTX 950’s heart beats what may be a surprising core design to some. Instead of using a new xx7-series core like the Kepler-based cards did, this one uses a cut down version of the 2.94 billion transistor GM206 found in NVIDIA’s GTX 960. To create a “new” core design all that’s been done is the elimination of two Streaming Multiprocessors and voila, a lower priced version is born.

The end result of this cutting is actually a very appealing product for the budget-minded market. The GTX 950 boasts 768 CUDA cores and 48 Texture Units which should be more than adequate for most of today’s games, not to mention upcoming DX12 titles. Meanwhile, the back-end setup hasn’t been touched so it boasts 32 ROPs and two 64-bit memory controllers feeding into 2GB of GDDR5. Those two aspects are arguably the biggest selling points here when compared against the relatively anemic 16 ROP / 1GB setup of previous generations. Add to that Maxwell’s new compression color compression algorithms that significantly optimize memory bus usage and there’s potential for some serious improvements.

Read full article @ Hardware Canucks

Thermaltake Suppressor F51 Midi Tower Review

We've mentioned numerous times in the past that the market is overflowing with PC cases of all shapes, sizes, features and price tags but there really aren't that many models designed with people who cherish silence above everything else in mind. Certainly there are some manufacturers who have taken the lead such as Fractal Design, Antec and Nanoxia (be quiet! as well but just one) all of which have introduced quite a few such models in the past but if you take into account the sheer number of PC case manufacturers currently in the market those models equal to just a very small percentage. Thermaltake has also introduced some models in the past with such people in mind (if only just partially) but it wasn't until just recently that they decided to take things a step further by introducing an midi tower equivalent to the best models in that category called the Suppressor F51.

The beginning of every myth and legend is about dreams and desire: the challenging, creative and combative features of Thermaltake Group create an exciting and fascinating user experience to share with everyone, while allowing users to enter a selfless state in terms of function and potential. Thermaltake Group's 3 main brands: Thermaltake, Tt eSPORTS and LUXA2 have been merchandising throughout the world, and have successfully established 6 business footholds in areas such as Europe, America, Oceania, Japan and China, with 95 regional distributors and over 4000 premium retailers. All product planning is orientated by observation of global PC peripheral market and understanding of consumer demands. Thermaltake creates direct contact opportunities with resellers and consumers by participating major global ICT exhibitions and trade shows every year, and develop innovative marketing strategies for the promotions of new products. Meanwhile, Thermaltake incorporates the composite marketing system by making branch offices and regional distributors both the distribution channel and technical support or service center to provide instant support; by maintaining close contact with end users, we manage to strengthen corporate competitiveness and create the momentum for the growth of accomplishments. With its outstanding wisdom and strength Thermaltake Group is recruiting creative talents to build a cultural brand for the enjoyment of entertainment, e-Sports, technology and lifestyle!

The Suppressor F51 is unlike most if not all previously released midi tower cases by Thermaltake mainly because this time over their engineers focused a lot in reducing noise levels by outfitting it with several pieces of sound-dampening material (much like the Deep Silence line by Nanoxia). This of course is what we call a double edged sword feature since on one hand you will certainly enjoy the almost complete lack of noise emanating from the interior of the case but on the other this automatically means increased temperatures for all your components (always compared to what you can expect with the top/side sound-dampening panels removed and/or replaced by fans). Aside its noise-dampening capabilities however the Suppressor F51 packs quite a few interesting features including a completely tool-free design, removable drive cages, dust-filters, 4-port fan speed controller, space for up to 10 fans and/or 4 radiators and enough room for up to 185mm tall CPU coolers and 310mm long graphics cards (465mm with the drive cage removed).

Read full article @ NikKTech

ZOTAC GeForce GTX 950 AMP! Edition 2 GB

ZOTAC's GTX 950 AMP! Edition is the only GTX 950 with a backplate. It is cooled by a full-metal thermal solution that gives the product a high-quality look and feel. The card is also the fastest in our tests thanks to a large overclock on both the GPU and memory.

Read full article @ techPowerUp