14 DAY TRIAL // The GeForce GTX 960 graphics card from NVIDIA was released last week, which means that most OEMs have revealed their respective custom versions. One of those partner companies is Colorful Technology.
Colorful chose not to flood the market with too many models of the same product. Instead, it decided that three would be enough.
One of them, called iGame GTX960 Ymir-U, is made for general users and gamers, according to the press release, and doesn't modify the performance.
The other board, Colorful GTX960 i-Cafe, is partially factory-overclocked. Which is to say, it still runs at stock clocks, but can be switched to a performance mode.
The last one and best is dubbed GTX960 Ymir, so we will take a look at it last.
The Colorful iGame GTX960 Ymir-U
This card, like NVIDIA's original, operates at 1,127 MHz most of the time, but can jump to 1,178 MHz when the need arises, which shouldn't be too often.
Meanwhile, the memory, 2 GB of GDDR5 VRAM, works at 7,010 MHz, or 7 GHz more or less. All the while, a dual-fan cooler keeps heat off, though it should not turn on unless temperatures go over 60 degrees or so.
NVIDIA designed the GTX 960 to not activate the cooler unless heat gets high enough, which means that normal web browsing, doc viewing and even MOBA games will run without any noise from the case.
For connections to a monitor or TV, the Colorful iGame GTX960 Ymir-U possesses two DVI ports, one HDMI connector, and one mini DisplayPort.
The Colorful GTX960 i-Cafe
This board can work at the same level as the one above, but can activate a performance efficiency mode in which the GPU's clock becomes 1,203 MHz. The memory, meanwhile, sticks to the normal 7 GHz.
The video port loadout is the same as before as well, but the cooler is not, even if it, too, only uses two fans.
Interestingly, even this card is not the high-end model in Colorful's collection, which leads us to the GTX960 Ymir.
The Colorful GTX960 Ymir
Cooled by a triple-fan array, this longer than usual graphics card also has a steel back panel and has the same performance mode as the i-Cafe, only it jumps to 1,405 MHz, not just 1,203 MHz. This may just be the highest GTX 960 clock so far.
Availability
None of these three video boards, except perhaps the fourth which is just the stock card with a new sticker, will hold to the $199 / €199 price of the standard GTX 960. Still, they should not end up too expensive regardless, except for the Ymir perhaps. Alas, shipments will only start in Asia for now. EU and America will come later, but it's not clear when.
