Nvidia has unveiled the GeForce GTX 970 and 980, which are the latest addition to the company's line of GPUs, or graphics processing units.
The company made the announcement during the live streaming Game 24 event, which was hosted by game streaming website Twitch and was tagged as a 24-hour celebration of video gaming in the PC.
The GeForce GTX 970 and 980 use the company's second-generation Maxwell microarchitecture, which is the successor to the Keplar. The GPUs are also primarily focused on powering up high-end PCs for video gaming purposes and unparalleled efficiency in energy consumption.
Machines that use the GeForce GTX 970 and 980 allow PCs to render environments within video games that boast higher resolution, better lighting textures and more sustainable higher frame rates.
The Maxwell microarchitecture also enables high energy efficiency, with the two GPUs allowing a power consumption of only half compared to the previous GeForce GTX 750 and GeForce GTX 750 Ti, which both use the first generation of Maxwell.
"Maxwell has been years in the making, inspired by our gamers, and created by the best minds in 3D graphics," said Nvidia CEO and co-founder Jen-Hsun Huang. "Its extraordinary performance, efficiency and technologies will empower developers to do their finest work and delight gamers worldwide."
Nvidia is looking to maintain its leading position as a supplier for high-end GPUs amid competition from its biggest rival, Advanced Micro Devices. AMD is the GPU supplier for Microsoft's Xbox, Nintendo's Wii and Sony's PlayStation, but only accounts for a third of the PC market with their Radeon GPUs.
The success of gaming consoles such as the Xbox One and the Playstation 4, which have been promoted as systems that are not focused only on video games, has actually aided the high-end PC video gaming market to grow as enthusiasts buy machines that are for the sole purpose of playing video games.
Nvidia has enjoyed a 15 percent growth with its GPU business for 2014, as e-sports, which streams competitive games live, is boosting the market for GPUs. E-sports primarily features PC multiplayer games such as DOTA 2 and League of Legends, drawing millions upon millions of viewers as prizes for competitions reach tens of millions of dollars.
The GTX 980 will have a retail price of $549 and the GTX 970 will have a retail price of $329. The GPUs are officially released into the market, with PC makers Digital Storm, CyberPower and Falcon Northwest already including the GPUs in the full PC systems that they are building.
