Asus is launching a new midrange gaming graphics card clad in arctic camouflage. The Echelon GTX 950 Limited Edition is a Maxwell-based card that will come factory overclocked and paired with Asus features normally reserved for their higher end cards.

This dual slot, dual fan graphics card features “auto-extreme technology” which is Asus marketing speak for high end capacitors, chokes, and other components. Further, the card uses a DirectCU II cooler that Asus claims offers 20% better cooling performance while being 3-times quieter than the NVIDIA reference cooler. Asus tweaked the shroud on this card to resemble a white and gray arctic camouflage design. There is also a reinforced backplate that continues the stealthy camo theme.

I/O on the Echelon GTX 950 Limited Edition includes:

  • 1 x DVI-D
  • 1 x DVI-I
  • 1 x HDMI 2.0
  • 1 x DisplayPort

The card supports NVIDIA’s G-Sync technology and the inclusion of an HDMI 2.0 port allows it to be used in a HTPC/gaming PC build for the living room though case selection would be limited since it’s a larger dual slot card.

Beneath the stealthy exterior, Asus conceals a GM206-derived GTX 950 GPU with 768 CUDA cores, 48 Texture Units, and 32 ROPs as well as 2GB of GDDR5 memory. Out of the box, users have two factory overclocks to choose from that Asus calls Gaming and Overclock modes. In gaming mode, the Echelon GTX 950 GPU is clocked at 1,140 MHz base and 1,329 MHz boost. Turing the card to OC Mode, clockspeeds are further increased to 1,165 MHz base and 1,355 MHz boost.

For reference, the, well, reference GTX 950 clockspeeds are 1,024 MHz base and 1,186 MHz boost.

Asus also ever-so-slightly overclocked the GDDR5 memory to 6,610 MHz which is unfortunately a mere 10MHz over reference. The memory sits on a 128-bit bus and while a factory overclock is nice to see, transfer speeds increases will be minimal at best.

In our review of the GTX 950 which focused on the Asus Strix variant, Ryan found it be a good option for 1080p gamers wanting a bit more graphical prowess than the 750Ti for their games.

Maximum PC reports that camo-clad Echelon GTX 950 will be available at the end of the month. Pricing has not been released by Asus, but I would expect this card to come with an MSRP of around $180 USD.

Check out our review of the NVIDIA GTX 950: Maxwell for MOBAs