MSI GTX 960 Gaming 2G Video Card Review

In today’s review, we get a chance to look at another GTX 960 folks! This time its from our friends at MSI. They kindly sent us over their gaming version of the GTX 960 which is aptly named the MSI GTX 960 Gaming 2G. As we know from previous reviews from Lvcoyote, the GTX 960 is slated to be a mid-range level card that should be solid for moderate 1080p (or less) gaming. MSI made some changes to the reference design by strapping on their own cooler, the Twin Frozr V. The Frozr V cooler should help keep things cool and very quiet due to the Zero Frozr technology it uses, which keeps the fans off until temperatures reach 60 °C. Strap in and let’s check this card out!

Specifications and Features

Below is a list of specifications from the MSI website for the GTX 960 Gaming 2G. Taking a look at that table below, we see a couple of clock speeds. The default core clock speed is 1190 MHz base, with a minimum boost of 1253 MHz. If you use the MSI Gaming App, you have a couple of quick choices for a small boost in performance/overclock to 1216 MHz core with a boost of at least 1279 MHz, a 26 MHz jump. There is also a silent mode that actually down clocks the core to 1127 MHz with a boost clock of 1178 MHz. With its Zero Frozr feature, unless you really need those fans to not kick on, perhaps in a HTPC environment, this mode isn’t terribly useful. Even with watching a movie streaming on Netflix or WatchESPN, the fans never kicked on while at default clocks. The Zero Frozr feature is pretty cool (heh) for those that want silence for idle/light loads.

The rest of the pertinent specifications are as follows. The 128-bit memory bus runs at 7010 MHz effective (1753 MHz is what you will see in most applications) for a bandwidth of 112.16 GB/s and has 2GB total. That doesn’t seem like much these days, and it isn’t, but it should handle most games at 1080p or lower without problems. You can connect up to four monitors to this device via HDMI, DL DVI, or 3x DisplayPorts.

As usual, MSI made some of its own tweaks on the card to make it stand out from the rest. As mentioned above, they strapped on the Twin Frozr V cooler, which uses Torx fans and its combination of a traditional fan blade. This provides for downward airflow with its dispersion blade technology that is said to generate more airflow to maximize heat dissipation from the heatsink. The Twin Frozr V cooler also comes with an adjustable LED (it turns on/off) with the MSI Gaming Dragon on it, which gives the cooler a bit of ‘bling’. I mentioned earlier the Zero Frozr technology which keeps both fans off until needed, which I found to be 60 °C.

Speaking of the cooler, MSI uses three 8mm SuperSU pipes, which make contact with a nickel plated base to the core. The massive SuperSU heatpipes are flat around the core area to make more contact with the plate and to get more heat out of the core. The heatsink/fin array also has a unique design that helps get more air through it, which MSI calls Airflow Control Technology. This fancy name boils down to using deflectors in the fin array to get more air to the heat pipes. MSI says this cooler is 12% better on the GTX 770 and 17% better on the GTX 980 when compared to their previous Frozr IV cooler . A pretty solid improvement there. This card is only 120W TDP, so it should do a pretty good job. All this is supported by MSI’s 3 year warranty.

See the table below for more details.

MSI GTX 960 Gaming 2G Specifications
  • 1216MHz Core (Boost Clock:1279MHz) (OC Mode)
    1190MHz Core (Boost Clock:1253MHz) (Gaming Mode)
    1127MHz Core (Boost Clock:1178MHz) (Silent Mode)Base Clock: 1279 MHZ
  • Memory Clock: 7010 MHz Effective
  • CUDA Cores: 1024
  • Bus Type: PCI-E 3.0
  • Memory Detail: 2048MB GDDR5
  • Memory Bit Width: 128 Bit
  • Memory Speed: 0.28ns
  • Memory Bandwidth: 112.16 GB/s
  • Display Connections: DVI-I, HDMI, 3x DisplayPort
Key Features
  • NVIDIA Dynamic Super Resolution Technology
  • NVIDIA MFAA Technology
  • NVIDA GameWorks Technology
  • NVIDIA GameStream Technology
  • NVIDIA G-SYNC Ready
  • Microsoft DirectX 12
  • NVIDIA GPU Boost 2.0
  • NVIDIA Adaptive Vertical Sync
  • NVIDIA Surround Technology
  • NVIDIA SLI Ready
  • NVIDIA CUDA Technology
  • OpenGL 4.4 Support
  • OpenCL Support
  • HDMI 2.0, DisplayPort 1.2 and Dual-link DVI
  • PCI Express 3.0
  • MSI Twin Frozr Cooling
  • Torx Fan
  • SuperSU Pipe
  • Zero Frozr Technology
  • Illuminated LED “MSI Dragon”
  • 3-year warranty
Resolution & Refresh
  • Max Monitors Supported: 4
  • 240Hz Max Refresh Rate
  • Max Analog: 2048×1536
  • Max Digital: 4096×2160
Dimensions
  • Height: 5.427in – 139mm
  • Length: 10.511in – 267mm
  • Width: Dual Slot (36mm)
Requirements
  • 400 Watt or greater power supply
  • PCI Express, PCI Express 2.0 or PCI Express 3.0 compliant motherboard with one graphics slot
  • An available 8-pin PCI-E power connector
  • Windows 8 32/64bit, Windows 7 32/64bit, Windows Vista 32/64bit

Below is a list of other features the MSI GTX 960 Gaming 2G has to offer. MSI’s Military Class 4 components, such as the HI-C Caps, Super Ferrite Chokes (SFC) and Solid Cap, make the card more efficient and cooler running. The subsequent entries go into a bit more detail on the Twin Frozr V cooler, dispersion fan blade, zero fan, and LED. Even more details can be found on the card’s webpage.

icomilcls4

One of the deciding factors in performance is the quality of the components used. That is why MSI only uses MIL-STD-810G certified components for its Gaming cards because only these components have proven to be able to withstand the torturous circumstances of extreme gaming and overclocking.

HI-C CAP
MSI’s Hi-c CAPs are tiny, and super-efficient capacitors. Their small footprint allows the installation of heat sinks and their high efficiency (93%) actually reduces the total thermal footprint of the card.

SUPER FERRITE CHOKES
Super Ferrite Chokes use a Ferrite core that is Super-Permeable. This allows the Super Ferrite Chokes to run at a 35 degree Celsius lower temperature, have a 30% higher current capacity, a 20% improvement in power efficiency and better overclocking power stability.

SOLID CAP
With their aluminum core design, Solid CAP’s have been a staple in high-end design mainboard designs and provides lower Equivalent Series Resistance (ESR) as well as its over-10-year lifespan.

icotenfrozrV

TWIN FROZR V – COOLER, QUIETER, BETTER GAMING

With every new generation of GPUs comes more performance. With every new generation of MSI Twin Frozr we give you less noise and heat!. We’ve listened to all your requests and the new Twin Frozr V is smaller, features stronger fans, generates less noise, keeps your graphics card and its components cooler and matches perfectly with your MSI GAMING motherboard including some funky LED lightning. We’ve spent 18 months on the development of the Twin Frozr V, including field testing in gaming cafés to ensure the cards have the quality and stability to give you the FPS you need

icotorxfan

Dispersion Fan Blade

Generates more airflow to maximize air dissipation to heat sink.

icozerofrozr

ZERO FROZR

Smart cooling, stay quiet.

MSI’s Twin Frozr V Thermal Designs are equipped with Zero Frozr technology which was first introduced by MSI back in 2008. Zero Frozr technology eliminates fan noise in low-load situations by stopping the fans when they are not needed. Compared to other graphics cards, there is no continuous hum of airflow to tell you there’s a powerful graphics card in your gaming rig. This means you can focus on gaming without the distraction of other sounds coming from your PC.

icoledragnCATCHING THE VIBE WITH COOL LED EFFECTS
Featuring a premium LED illuminated MSI GAMING Dragon to lighten the mood. This brand new function allows you to choose from 5 unique modes to set the right ambience for your gaming moments with just one click.

GPU-Z

As always, I take a screenshot of GPU-Z just to confirm specifications. We see the expected 32 ROPs, 64 TMUs, and 1024 Shaders. Again, it has a total of 2GB memory on top of a 128-bit bus. And yes folks, these specifications are accurate!!

GPUz v8.1
GPUz v8.1

Photo Op – Meet the MSI GTX 960 Gaming 2G

Retail Packaging

First up, we will a look at the retail packaging. The namesake of the card tells you its coming from MSI’s gaming line, so I expect to see a generally black box with red trim and the MSI Gaming Dragon. I was not disappointed as it’s all there! We also see the model name and some high level specifications. Flipping the packaging over, we see more details about what the card has to offer, including the Torx fan, SuperSU pipes, Zero Frozr technology, and the Gaming app among other details. Per usual, there isn’t much to see on the sides outside of the model, and detailed serial number type information. On the top is their signature phrase for the gaming line, “Just Game”.

MSI GTX 960 Gaming 2G Retail Packaging - Front
MSI GTX 960 Gaming 2G Retail Packaging – Front

Back
Back

First Side
First Side

Second Side
Second Side

Top
Top

When one opens up the packaging, you are greeted with another box that holds the included accessories. Below that is where the card rests in its anti-static bag and form fitting foam that keeps the card safe and sound during transport.

Box in a Box
Box In A Box (accessories inside)

The Card Rests Below The Accessories Box
The Card Rests Below The Accessories Box

Accessories

Below is a list and picture of the included accessories. Not a lot of things in it, but not much is needed anyway!

  • 1x 8-pin Power Cable
  • Driver Disk
  • Quick Users Guide

Accessories
Accessories

The Card

Finally, some may be thinking, I get to see the card! And they would be right. The first shot below includes the warning sticker for the Zero Frozr fans. I have to image MSI gets enough calls on this, or at least wants to prevent calls/email on this issue to warrant placing the sticker on it. We’ve seen the question asked a couple of times in the forums too, so it seems like a good idea.

Anyway, we can see the black and red theme because it is from their gaming line. The shroud has one fan surrounded in red, while the other is in black with red trim. This matches perfectly with any black and red themed system. There are not any harsh lines or love/hate type of design queues to me, so the heatsink/shroud should appeal to a large crowd for those that plan to show off what’s under the hood. Flipping the card around to show its backside exposes the PCB. You see hints of the power requirement, and that is it SLI compatible (2), You can also see the SuperSU pipes protruding up over the PCB and shroud. The top view shows the MSI Gaming Dragon LED that lights up.

MSI GTX 960 Gaming 2G - Front
MSI GTX 960 Gaming 2G – Front (Zero Frozr Fan Warning)

Warning Removed
Warning Removed

Back
Back

Top Showing the MSI Gaming Dragon LED
Top Showing the MSI Gaming Dragon LED

Bottom
Bottom

Alternate Angle
Alternate Angle

A Closer Look

Getting a little more intimate with the card, we move to the outputs and we can see plenty there. 1x DL DVI, 3x DisplayPorts, and a HDMI port. This card does support up to four monitors at once. Sliding around to the top and rear of the card gives us a more clear shot of the required 8-pin PCI-E power connector. Combined with what the PCI-E slot can deliver (75W), this card can use up to 200W, so there is plenty of room for overclocking if NVIDIA let’s us with their ‘oppressive for the enthusiast’ power limits.

Outputs - 3x Displayports, 1x HDMI, 1x DVI
Outputs – 3x Displayports, 1x HDMI, 1x DL-DVI

8 Pin PCIe Required
8 Pin PCIe Required

I took apart the card on a sunny but cold day day, to expose what is hidden underneath. The first thing I notice is the thermal paste application, and it was in the Goldilocks zone…juuuust riiight. Not too much, and not too little. It was still pretty viscous (for thermal paste) and not hardened as I have seen on some other brands before. The 3+1 reference power configuration is also apparent with some of the power bits hidden under a small heatsink. This GTX 960 has a full sized PCB measuring around 10.5″ in length.

The next picture shows the nickel plated base of the heatsink with its three 8mm SuperSU pipes that meander their way through the fin array. The next shot shows the deflectors, (the angled slats between the heatpipes and below the shroud on the heatsink) that help focus the air to the heatpipes and down onto the PCB for improved cooler efficiency.

The last shot shows the card without any heatsinks at all. Again, we see a 3+1 power setup which is enough for this 120W TDP card and should allow some solid overclocking without turning belly up. I would have like to have seen another phase or so added on, but that is the extreme overclocker in me speaking and not remotely required for successful and long lasting overclocks.

Heatsink Removed
Heatsink Removed

Heatsink View From Below
Heatsink View From Below

Air Channels
Air Channels

PCB Without Heatsinks
PCB Without Heatsinks

The last picture I have is of the Samsung Memory IC. This card uses K4641325FC-HC28. That translates to 28ns memory (7000 Mbps) at 1.5 V. Typically this stuff is pretty overclockable even without voltage control. We will check in on that later.

Samsung vRAM IC - K4641325FC-HC28
Samsung vRAM IC – K4641325FC-HC28

Monitoring/Overclocking Software – MSI Afterburner, MSI Gaming App

We all should know what MSI Afterburner looks like at this point in the game. I know it’s my preferred weapon of choice for video card overclocking in most cases. Pictured below is the latest version, 4.1.0. The power limit on this card is 108% with a maximum voltage increase of 100mv. Not a very high power limit, but it should allow for some solid overclocks regardless. More on that later!

MSI Afterburner v 4.1.0
MSI Afterburner v 4.1.0

MSI Gaming App

Next is the MSI Gaming app. This is essentially a ‘one button to overclock’ piece of software. There is gaming mode (default and default clocks), performance mode which raises the clocks and fan speeds, and then silent mode which actually under clocks the card for power savings and quiet operation. Since the MSI GTX 960 Gaming 2G has a LED you are able to control, that can be done through this app as well.

MSI Gaming App (includes LED control and Eye Rest Tab)
MSI Gaming App (includes LED control and Eye Rest Tab)

Performance and Benchmarks

Test System

  • Intel i7 4770K @ 4 GHz, 1.1 V
  • ASRock Z97 OC Formula
  • Kingston Hyper X Predator 2 x 4 GB 2666 MHz CL11 @ 1866 MHz 9-9-9-24
  • 240 GB OCZ Vertex 3 SSD
  • Seasonic 1000 W PSU
  • MSI GTX 960 Gaming 2G 1190 MHz core (1324 MHz actual boost) / 1753 MHz Memory,
  • and Overclocked @ 1304 MHz (1468 MHz actual boost) / 1905 MHz Memory
  • Windows 7 64 bit Operating System
  • NVIDIA 347.25 WHQL

Other cards used for comparison are as follows (links are to their reviews).

Benchmarking Method/Settings

Note all testing below uses 1920×1080 screen resolution (settings also carry over to Surround/Eyefinity testing if applicable).

  • All Synthetic benchmarks were at their default settings
  • Unigine Heaven (HWbot) – Extreme setting
  • Crysis 3 – Very High settings with 8xMSAA/16xAF (2nd level when you procure and use the Crossbow to get across the level and kill the Helicopter)
  • Metro:LL – DX11, Very High, 16xAF, Motion Blur – Normal, SSAA Enabled, DX11 Tessellation – Very High, Advanced PhysX – Disabled, Scene D6
  • Battlefield 4 – Default Ultra setting (Tashgar level – ‘on rails’ car scene)
  • Bioshock: Infinite – Ultra DX11, DDOF (through Steam – option # 2, then option #1 assuming your are at 1080p)
  • Batman: Arkham Origin – 8xMSAA, Geometry Details/Dynamic Shadows/DOF/Ambient Occlusion: DX11 Advanced, Hardware PhysX: OFF, the rest On or High
  • Grid 2 – 8xMSAA, Ultra defaults + Soft Ambient Occlusion: ON
  • Final Fantasy XIV:ARR – Default Maximum setting
  • More detail is in our article: Overclockers.com GPU Testing Procedures

Synthetic Benchmarks

Next we get to look at what you all came here for, the benchmarks! For the synthetic side of the house, the theme throughout is going to be this: The MSI GTX 960 Gaming 2G is on par with the similarly clocked ASUS model, and just slightly behind the higher clocked EVGA while losing out quite handily to the much more expensive and higher power GTX 970. I have a funny feeling there will be a GTX 960 Ti coming down the pike to fill that huge performance gap between the GTX 960 and GTX 970.

I compared this GTX 960 to Lvcoyote’s 960’s from ASUS and EVGA and to its main competition from AMD, the R9 280. Compared to its brothers, it was around the same for the similarly clocked ASUS, and around 2% behind the higher clocked EVGA. It did lose out to the 280x (not pictured in the graphs) but made up ground after overclocking. Against the R9 280 however, its more direct competition, the GTX 960’s had no trouble beating that AMD offering outside of 3DMark 11. Not too bad for a card that uses half the power, ehh?

3DMark Vantage and 3DMark 11
3DMark Vantage and 3DMark 11

 

3DMark (Fire Strike) and Unigine Heaven (Hwbot - Extreme)
3DMark (Fire Strike) and Unigine Heaven (Hwbot – Extreme)

Gaming Benchmarks

Getting into the gaming benchmarks, you see much of the same story throughout here as well. The GTX 960’s we used to compare are all within a FPS or two in these results with the GTX 970 easily running away with the show. With the GTX 970 being much more expensive, that result is expected and these cards clearly do not compete with each other.

Crysis 3, Metro: Last Light, Battlefield 4
Crysis 3, Metro: Last Light, Battlefield 4

 

Bioshock: Infinite, Batman: Arkham Origins, Grid 2
Bioshock: Infinite, Batman: Arkham Origins, Grid 2

 

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn
Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn

Pushing the Limits

As always, I like to crank the clocks up on the card and the CPU to show what it can do in a more aggressive benchmarking situation. I ended up settling on a core clock of 1361 MHz base, boost of 1424 MHz, with an actual boost of 1550 MHz. I achieved this by raising the power limit up to 108% and raising the voltage to +75mv for an actual voltage of 1.25 V according to MSI AB. The memory was able to get up to 2006 MHz (8024 MHz effective), which is over 250 MHz higher than stock and without any voltage modifications (none available). Below you can see the results achieved at those settings. Also note, the CPU was overclocked to 4.8 GHz and the memory ramped up to its XMP profile of 2666 Mhz CL 11.

One thing of note with this card, and I would imagine similar with any 128-bit bus, is I saw higher than normal gains from raising the memory clocks. While core speed still rules, there was much to gain with the memory as well.

Unigine Heaven - 2,165.667
Unigine Heaven – 2,165.667

3DMark Fire Strike - 7,728
3DMark Fire Strike – 7,728

Cooling and Power Consumption

Next we look at the temperatures. At idle and no fan speed, this idled at 36 °C when normalized to 25 °C ambient. When things got going, the highest temperature I saw was 68 °C in Heaven when overclocked. Even at that temperature, I could barely hear the fan a few feet away from my head in an open benching station. Pretty good for being nearly inaudible and not having a ‘head start’ on temperatures due to the fans not kicking on until 60 °C. So it appears the Twin Frozr V does its job well, and quietly throughout normal gaming situations. When I cranked the fans to 100%, they were certainly audible, but not loud at all. Great job on this cooler MSI!

Temperatures
Temperatures

The last graph is power consumption. My system idled at a max of 86W, while using a maximum of 249W while overclocked in Unigine Heaven. This is what I would expect for a 120W TDP card. A quality 400W power supply, as recommended, would be plenty for my setup including overclocking both the card and CPU using ambient cooling methods.

Power Consumption
Power Consumption

Conclusion

Well, I think I have rambled on enough to get a good idea of the product and how it fits in the market, so I can share an educated opinion with you, our readers. Being a mid-range card, MSI, didn’t go to great lengths to improve upon the reference model as far as hardware goes, but let’s be honest, there isn’t a need to. They stuck with the reference power setup and put their better Military Class 4 parts on. Though the card is a mere 120W TDP, they put a version of their TwinFrozr V cooler on it with the Zero Frozr technology. At idle and low loads, the fan does not even turn on ensuring absolute silence in those situations. They did take the liberty to overclock out of the factory from the reference 1126 MHz to 1190 MHz, so you have a small bump in performance on that front.

As far as negatives, about the only one I can think of is the 2GB of vRAM for a card made for 1080p gaming. This shouldn’t be an issue in many titles, but if you are keen on turning up the AA as is sometimes done, this can become issue. That said, in my testing of the card, I ran Battlefield 4 happily with default ultra settings without any major hitching, so that was a good sign as BF4 can use a lot of vRAM at that setting. I would have loved to see NVIDIA come out with a card at this level that was 192-bit with 3GB of vRAM. Perhaps the ‘gap filling’ card, what I will call a GTX 960 Ti will fill out that large void between the GTX 960 and GTX 970.

Regarding pricing, the newegg.com range for GTX 960’s is from $199 to $219. This specific MSI card is priced at $209.99 which puts it right in the middle of the pack and priced exactly as the EVGA and ASUS offerings. Those do offer more power phases and slightly higher overclocks out of the box. However, the MSI card uses higher quality power bits than the reference models so I feel its fair for that ever so slight premium over reference.

Overall there is no reason to shy away from this card. A good price, overclocked out of the box, and a nice quiet cooler to keep temperatures in order. That makes this card Overclockers.com Approved!!

Overclockers_clear_approved
Click to read about our rating system..

– Joe Shields (Earthdog)

About Joe Shields 326 Articles
Joe started writing around 2010 for Overclockers.com covering the latest news and reviews that include video cards, motherboards, storage and processors. In 2018, he went ‘pro’ writing for Anandtech.com covering news and motherboards. Eventually, he landed at Tom’s Hardware where he wrote news, covered graphic card reviews, and currently writes motherboard reviews. If you can’t find him benchmarking and gathering data, Joe can be found working on his website (Overclockers.com), supporting his two kids in athletics, hanging out with his wife catching up on Game of Thrones, watching sports (Go Browns/Guardians/Cavs/Buckeyes!), or playing PUBG on PC.

Loading new replies...

Avatar of Janus67
Janus67

Benching Team Leader

17,213 messages 530 likes

Nice review, as always Joe!

Are we sure this isn't a 1.5GB card? :sn:

Reply Like

Avatar of EarthDog
EarthDog

Gulper Nozzle Co-Owner

76,458 messages 3,193 likes

hahaha... only time will tell! :p

Naa, it shouldn't be as the math seems to work out this time with the ROPS and memory bits/bandwidth etc. :p

Reply Like