Considering a GTX 960, but want it to have a little more memory? Looks like you’re in luck. The first 4GB models, rumored for several weeks, are now appearing at online retailers.
Newegg, for example, is offering an EVGA model and two versions from Gigabyte. The former is priced at $240 while the latter pair are $240 and $265, with the latter being an overclocked edition with a maximum boost clock of 1,307MHz (stock is 1,178MHz). EVGA’s edition is overclocked even higher, though, at 1,342MHz, so it seems a better deal.
Then again, “deal” may not be a word that can be associated with any of these cards. A stock 2GB model usually goes for $200, with overclocked editions selling for $10 to $20 extra. Pegging another $40 on top of the base MSRP for another two gigabytes of RAM is a dubious value given that the GTX 960 isn’t quick enough to outpace its base memory bandwidth in the vast majority of games.
More importantly, the bump in price puts the 4GB GTX 960 in league with the AMD Radeon 280X, which comes standard with three gigabytes of memory and outperforms the GTX 960 by a fair margin in most games. While Nvidia’s card runs cooler and quieter, it’s otherwise at a disadvantage at the $240 price point.
What do you think? Is two gigabytes of memory worth $40, or would you be better off with the Radeon?
