GEFORCE GTX 960: Maxwell Hits the Sweet Spot
I have just got off the line with Jen Hsun, and I have some fresh news.
I can confirm that the new mid-range GeForce graphics card is planned for next week, the rumors about earlier release were inaccurate. The NDA ends on January 22nd (6:00 AM PST), so it’s still more than a week away!
While I technically have almost everything to make this post happen, the data Jen Hsun gave us unfortunately does provide any information about ROP and TMU count. In fact I’m not even sure if GPU-z reports this value correctly, so be aware this is the only uncertain thing in this post.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 is essentially a double GTX 750, or half GTX 980 if you wish. The GTX 960 is equipped with GM206 processor, which has 1024 CUDA cores. Card is featuring 2GB GDDR5 memory and 128-bit interface. Jen-Hsun told me the efficient memory clock is 9.3 GHz (yes, I’m serious). NVIDIA is now advertising memory clock speed after increasing it by 33% (the bandwidth is higher due to 3rd Gen. colour compression (delta compression) algorithm. Soon, the only real thing in NVIDIA materials will be the name of the card.
The base clock speed is 1127 MHz (2.3 TFLOPS), while the boost speed is 1178 MHz. The memory bandwidth is 112 GB/s.
This new graphics card will consume 120W through single 6-pin power connector. According to NVIDIA, GTX 960 will be a perfect card for MOBA (Multiplayer online battle arena) gaming, consuming very low power and generating inaudible noise.
Overclocker’s Dream
The last thing to say about GTX 960 is its overclocking potential. NVIDIA claims this card is capable of running close to 1.5 GHz, which is even better of what GM204 has to offer. Maxwell series are exceptionally good overclockers.
The GTX 960 Slides TM
While I’m still waiting for the fax from Jen-Hsun, I had to came up with a placeholders for this post, Thus, I made my own slides, which are identical to what you’re going to see in just 7 days.
| http://static.videocardz.com/img/vctablelogo_white.png) no-repeat #111111 !important;">NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 Specifications | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| GeForce GTX 960 | GeForce GTX 970 | GeForce GTX 980 | |
| GPU | 28nm GM206 | 28nm GM204 | 28nm GM204 |
| CUDA Cores | 1024 | 1664 | 2048 |
| TMUs | 64 TBC | 104 | 128 |
| ROPs | 32 TBC | 64 | 64 |
| Core clock | 1127 MHz | 1050 MHz | 1127 MHz |
| Boost Clock | 1178 MHz | 1178 MHz | 1216 MHz |
| Memory Clock | 1753 MHz | 1753 MHz | 1753 MHz |
| Memory Bus | 128-bit | 256-bit | 256-bit |
| Memory Size | 2GB | 4GB | 4GB |
| Bandwidth | 112 GB/s | 224 GB/s | 224 GB/s |
| DirectX | 11.3/12 | 11.3/12 | 11.3/12 |
| TDP | 120W | 148W | 165W |
| Power Connectors | 1x 6-pin | 2x 6-pin | 2x 6pin |
| Display Outputs | 2x DL-DVI,HDMI 2.0, DP | 1x DVI-I, 1x HDMI 2.0, 3x DP | 1x DVI-I, 1x HDMI 2.0, 3x DP |
| MSRP | TBC | 329 USD | 549 USD |
The buzz words
Something I found in the bin as well:
- BUILT FOR DX12
- Rasterizer Ordered Views
- Typed UAV Load
- Volume Tiled Resources
- Conservative Raster
- AN UNPRECEDENTED SUCCESS
- 1.3 MILLION Gamers Tuned in to Game24
- 1 MILLION~ GTX 980 / 970’s Sold
- 100 MILLION Hours played on Maxwell
I predict that the Wii U will sell a total of 18 million units in its lifetime.
The NX will be a 900p machine
