Nvidia Unleashes First 'Maxwell'-Class GPUs

Nvidia on Tuesday introduced a pair of new mid-range graphics processors, the GeForce GTX 750 Ti and GeForce GTX 750, the first in the graphic chip maker's stable to use elements of its next-generation "Maxwell" architecture.

The real onslaught of Maxwell-class products will arrive later this year, but for now, these two new GPUs for desktop PCs offer a teaser into the performance-per-watt gains Nvidia is getting with the architecture that succeeds its "Kepler" generation of GPUs.

For example, Nvidia claimed that the GTX 750 Ti more than doubles the performance of the older GeForce GTX 550 Ti, while using just over half the power to get there. The upshot is that it's now possible to build a mini-ITX gaming PC using the GTX 750 Ti, which gives gamers 51 frames-per-second on just a 60-watt power draw, according to Nvidia.

Both of the new Maxwell GPUs are 28-nanometer chips. The GTX 750 Ti sports 640 Cuda cores with a base clock of 1.02GHz, which can be throttled up to almost 1.1GHz. Nvidia is offering the GPU in 1GB or 2GB memory configurations—memory speed is 5.4 Gbps for the 128-bit GDDR5 memory. The GTX 750 Ti supports DirectX 11.2 and OpenGL 4.4, and 16 lanes of PCI Express 3.0.

The new GeForce GTX 750 delivers 58 fps performance while drawing just 55 watts. It has 512 Cuda cores with a base clock of 1.02GHz, which is boostable to nearly 1.1GHz. With 1GB of 128-bit GDDR5 memory, the GTX 750 has half the memory of the 750i in its full configuration, offering memory speed of 5.4 Gbps. It also supports DirectX 11.2 and OpenGL 4.4, and 16 lanes of PCI Express 3.0.

Nvidia is releasing the new GTX 750 Ti and GTX 750 just as rival Advanced Micro Devices introduces its own new mid-priced Radeon GPUs using its Graphics Core Next architecture. AMD's new Radeon R7 250X and Radeon R7 265 look to be a bit cheaper than Nvidia's next-gen GPUs, but they also draw considerably more power than their GeForce counterparts.

The GeForce GTX 750 Ti is priced at $149 and the GeForce GTX 750 is priced at $119.

:story: PC Magazine