Nvidia's new GeForce GTX 980, 970 are VR-focused beasts

Nvidia's showed off its new high-end GPUs, with the firm reckoning they're currently the world's most advanced graphics chips. The new GeForce GTX 980 and 970 cards are based on the Maxwell chip architecture, Nvidia's 10th GPU design and the sequel to Kepler.

There's plenty of new graphical goodies coming courtesy of the new chips, namely multi-frame sampled anti-alisasing, dynamic super resolution, better energy efficiency, and VR direct - targeting improved performance for VR headsets. Nvidia says the new chips will offer better performance, lower latency, and more compatibility for virtual reality platforms.

 

 

Tim Sweeney, CEO at Epic Games, says the Maxwell chips are the best yet, and says they're helping the firm's devs push 'the graphical high end'. "We built Unreal Engine 4 using Nvidia's Kepler architecture but the GTX 980 and 970 GPUs, based on the new Maxwell architecture, are the most powerful, efficient GPUs for creating scenes of unprecedent detail across PC and VR experiences right now," explains Sweeney.

The Dynamic Super Resolution tech that appears on the chipset will boost quality on 1080p screens by rendering games in 4K and then scaling them down to produce a better image. DSR will come as part of Nvidia's GeForce Experience software, the dedicated GPU application that lets users optimise their PCs for the best possible quality of gaming.

The new chips are available to buy right now, with the GTX 980 retiling at $549, and the slightly weaker GTX 970 marking up at $329. Nvidia says the 970 & 980 will be sold in 'fully configured' systems from firms including Maingear, Geekbox, V3 Gaming, and Cyberpower.

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