Nvidia has unveiled its new Maxwell GPU architecture, promising high-performance and Full HD gaming at a reasonable cost and with low power consumption.
Two discrete designs based on the GPU are due for launch today: GeForce GTX 750 and 750 Ti cards will be produced by numerous partners, with US prices expected to come in at around $119 and $149 respectively. UK pricing is yet to be confirmed.
The cards are aimed particularly at small-form-factor gaming and media PCs. Nvidia rates the 750 Ti’s TDP at 60W, which means it doesn’t need a dedicated six-pin power connector, nor a hefty cooler. To help the cards fit into compact cases, Nvidia has squeezed its reference board (pictured above) down to only 14cm long.
Nvidia is keen to emphasise that performance hasn’t been compromised. With 640 shaders clocked at 1,020MHz, and up to 2GB of GDDR5 RAM, the 750 Ti claims more than twice the gaming performance of the popular GTX 550 Ti in modern 3D games, and around five times the performance of an Intel Core i5 with HD 4600 integrated graphics. We’ll shortly be testing this for ourselves in a full review.
Extra capabilities
The cards support several proprietary Nvidia technologies, starting with the ShadowPlay system introduced last year. This automatically buffers 20 minutes of gameplay (or more if set to manual mode) and allows gamers to save a record of their achievements to disk in H.264 format at the press of a hotkey.
The G-Sync system is implemented too: this lets the card dynamically control the refresh rate of a compatible monitor connected via DisplayPort so as to display complete frames as quickly as the card can render them. In this way, tearing and stuttering effects are eliminated. For an in-depth explanation, see our sister site bit-tech.net.
Lastly, the new cards also support Nvidia’s GameStream protocol, so that games running on a Maxwell-equipped PC can be viewed and controlled from Nvidia’s handheld SHIELD console, or conveyed from there to a front-room television.
Disclaimer: Some pages on this site may include an affiliate link. This does not effect our editorial in any way.
