Garmin 935 vs 945 GPS Testing

Hi Philipshambrook, I agree making sure the CPE File is up to date and putting the watch 5 minutes outside is the best solution to really acquire a good GPS lock. 

If I put my watch outside for 5 minutes it'll get stolen in 2. Also if I stand away from my house on the road more sky is in view so I stand for a minute or 2. 

Exactly same experience/feeling as I have on a Fenix 6s. 

After New Years troubles Sony chipset is slow to connect and shows bad routes. 

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/6560140185

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/6559868704

935 was messed up today, the green start should be next to the red finish, totally off. This caused me to lose 100 meters distance on the 935. It said instance pace 5:50/km whilst the 945 5:10 which was correct. 

Saying that it correct itself once I got onto the trail and the tracks were tighter than the 945. Happy with the 945 instant pace today though it's just a straight line of trail for 20km so not very hard test. Maybe once more leaves are on the trees.


Now that was todays run, here is yesterdays.



I soaked the watches for 2 or so minutes ontop of a hill so they got a great view of the sky away from the houses. Here the 945 did excellent surpassing the 935. Very very tight tracks all the way for the entire 16km run, very impressive. 

It was like this the whole way, sometimes the 945 tracks are directly ontop of each other for this out and back run.

Diversion into the woods which are filling out nicely with spring and the 945 smoked the 935. 


Both watches were 5:13/14 km average GPS + GLONASS. I will test again on that hill with a long GPS soak (it's freezing atm to do longer than 2 minutes). I think soaking the 945 is necessary and you need to soak it in a good location with sky view 360. 

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/6555124559

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/6560140402

Still undecided which to keep. Need a city run and some 1km intervals, that's where I really need the instant pace.

Got some great news for 945 owners today. Check this out.


Both watches off to a great start, GPS + Glonass and a 90 second soak. The 945 got me exactly where I started. So a good inital lock means good tracks to come.



Look at those 945 tracks! Out and back tracks both over the cycle lane whilst the 935 is either edge of the grass. Will the 945 keep up or go haywire?




First underpass and the 935 carries on business as usual. The 945 gets a hiccup on the red interval coming back but not bad, straight back to work on those tight lines. Notice how the 935 is orange and not red. The 945 tracks are all red where I ran intervals of 300, 300, 300 + 1KM x 3. The 935 is orange and sometimes blurs into red but you can clearly see the intervals on the 945, very nice.



This is usually a struggle and the tracks veer off into the wood but both watches did well, 945 did better.


2nd underpass, both watches did well but tracks tighter on the 945 and at the end of these tracks you can see where we did 4 strides before the workout. Look at the 945! So impressive on that and I was pausing the watches between strides. 


Off the cycle track, sharp 90 degrees right and heading south the 935 takes a win. The 945 red interval track is correct but the cooldown is off slightly but it's okay, the 935 was just very impressive. Is it time for the 935 to shine now?


No, the 945 digs in! The 935 goes haywire and the 945 is TIGHT.


Continuing on the 945 is consistently excellent whilst the 935 struggle continues.


The 945 spanks the 935.

So as you can see the 945 did amazing today, damn now I'm leaning towards the 945. I'd be happy to keep it with these results. During the workout both watches clicked off each interval within 1 second of each other for all 300s and 1000s. We aimed for 3:20/km for the reps and both watches would start each rep at 3:00-3:10/km and after about 30 meters the 945 found 3:20 faster and held onto it more reliably than the 935. Once I started the interval and I was checking the pace to see how fast I was going the 935 would say 3:45/km whilst the 945 3:20/km, then the 935 would say 3:20 too but the 945 got their first, sometimes the 935 did well too but overall I was trusting the 945. I didn't use instant pace as I kind of forgot, I've got used to doing lap pace now and I think it may be better as you don't see the pace bounce up or down when the GPS struggles so you feel you need to speed up. Also you want to hold the same pace for each rep. You sort of get an idea of the pace quite fast into the interval around 50-100 meters and the lap pace is quite accurate by then so you just hold it or speed up / slow down if you need to. Also instead of checking instant pace you get a feel for the pace yourself, by the last set I was not looking at my watch and I hit all the correct paces by feel within 2 seconds. 

So the 945 I am happy with it now but I still want to do a couple more tests in the city and also how consistent is it, was this just a really good day for the 945? How will it fare in the park compared to the 935 as this route is quite easy for GPS. I guess I can live with the instant pace going haywire I can tell when it does it by looking at the lap pace it should be close to the lap pace. Both watches reported the exact same distance and pace overall for the entire run so the only real issue is the 945 instant pace struggles a bit more than others around tall buildings. Note the 945 elevation gave 13m VS 935 106m and the course was flat as a pancake. 

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/6566159530

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/6565874439

From your pictures above, it seems like both have equal number of hits and misses.

There is no consistent winner.

You're right there some days the 935 is better some days the 945 pretty equally. Feel better wearing my 945 though now.

Great tool for comparing gpx files, export från garmin connect and drag multiple files into this website to compare http://www.mygpsfiles.com/app/

Thanks for your efforts with the testing but I think you're over thinking this a bit. It's GPS, results will always be different. I've got the 945 and sure sometimes it shows I've run through a house or building but the overall distance and pace at the end seem to be consistent 99% of the time.