by Rob Williams on August 24, 2015 in Graphics & Displays
NVIDIA rounds out the entry-level part of its Maxwell-based lineup with the GeForce GTX 950. As a successor to the GTX 750 Ti, the GTX 950 boosts performance significantly while draining just a wee bit more power. And as we’ll see, the ASUS STRIX model offers its own set of perks, including possible 0dB operation.
Tom Clancy is responsible for a countless number of video games, but his Splinter Cell series has become something special, with each game released having been considered “great” overall. The latest in the series, Blacklist, is no exception, and thankfully for us, its graphics are fantastic, and not to mention intensive. For those who love a stealth element in their games, this is one that shouldn’t be skipped.
RIP, Tom Clancy.
Manual Run-through: From the start of the ‘Safehouse’ level in Benghazi, Libya, we progress through until we reach an apartment building that must be entered – this is where we end the FPS recording.
Blacklist is yet another game that looks fantastic but still runs great on the lowly GTX 950. We’re talking total hoverage around the 60 FPS mark at max detail (which includes AA).
Total War: SHOGUN 2
Strategy games are well-known for pushing the limits of any system, and few others do this as well as Total War: SHOGUN 2. It fully supports DX11, has huge battlefields to oversee with hundreds or thousands of units, and a ton of graphics options to adjust. It’s quite simply a beast of a game.
Manual Run-through: SHOGUN 2 is one of the few games in our suite where the built-in benchmark is opted for. Strategy games in particular are very difficult to benchmark, so this is where I become thankful to have the option of using a built-in benchmark.
Rounding out our apples-to-apples benchmarks, SHOGUN 2 puts the GTX 950 where it’s been most of this review – well ahead of the GTX 750 Ti and behind the R9 285.