If you're after that extra competitive edge playing top MOBAs such as Dota 2, League of Legends and Heroes of the Storm, but you're short on funding for your hardware, NVIDIA's new GeForce GTX 950 could be the answer to your prayers.
The latest addition to the 900 range is perfect for gamers who need top performance without breaking the bank. Clocking in at three times faster than NVIDIA's previous generation budget GPU, the GTX 650, it has the features and capabilities of the world’s fastest GPU, the GeForce GTX 980 Ti, at an affordable price. Using NVIDIA's latest Maxwell architecture, it offers full DirectX 12 support as well as support for NVIDIA's GameWorks special effects (opens in new tab), and technologies such as DSR, G-SYNC and MFAA.
With 2GB of video memory it'll happily run the latest AAA titles at 1920x1080 with high texture detail, but if you're a MOBA player you'll know that having all the settings cranked up to the maximum is no guarantee of a win: what you need is high performance and minimal latency. In a fast-paced battle arena setting, the slightest delay in registering mouse clicks can make the difference between victory and defeat, and the GTX 950 combined with the latest GeForce Experience can help you ramp up performance and bring latency down to the absolute minimum.
Not only does the GTX 950 deliver higher frame rates out of the box, but it also helps you pump up performance with a new MOBA Optimal Playable Settings feature that enables you to sacrifice unnecessary visual detail in favor of speed and responsiveness, alongside optimized VSync settings and refresh rates, and even the option to limit the maximum pre-rendered frames in order to improve input responsiveness.
What this all boils down to is a response time roughly half that of the GTX 650, as this video demonstrates:
With all that improved performance helping you along, you'll want to show off the results in battle, and the GTX 950 has you covered in that respect, too. Combined with new features coming soon to GeForce Experience in a Beta, it enables you to easily record videos and upload them to YouTube, or to broadcast straight to Twitch and YouTube, while GameStream Co-op takes the streaming experience even further, letting you stream your game to a friend online so that you can play together cooperatively.
In all it's the perfect card for players who are serious about their esports and want the sort of performance previously reserved for pro gamers when playing the following MOBA heavy-hitters.
Originating from a fan-made Warcraft 3 mod, Valve's Dota 2 pits two teams of five players against each other in a battle to control a fantasy landscape. Choosing from a pool of over 100 heroes, you'll need cunning, stealth and full-on combat skills to succeed, and special seasonal events add to the variety.
Mixing strategy, reflexes and coordinated teamplay, League of Legends by Riot Games is a high-speed online battle that combines real-time strategy with RPG elements. Two teams of five champions battle head-to-head across assorted battlefields and play modes, with endless replayability for all players.
The latest addition to the MOBA roster, Blizzard's Heroes of the Storm is a team brawler of epic proportions. Set across a number of varied battlegrounds that'll affect your strategy, it stars fully customizable characters taken from the existing Blizzard universe in a series of action-packed matches.
If you've been missing out on the biggest and most competitive scene in gaming, it's a perfect opportunity to not only become part of it, but also to ensure you have the right kit for success. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 is now available to purchase from a variety of retailers and e-tailers starting at $159.
Sponsored by NVIDIA