NVIDIA is expected to brand-name its next GeForce GTX desktop discrete GPU lineup under the GTX 900 series, and not the previously thought about GTX 800. In what is a similar brand-name pole-vault to the GTX 300 series ahead of "Fermi," NVIDIA's next high-end discrete GPUs will be named GeForce GTX 970 and GTX 980. The brand name could be devised to not just look better on paper, but give users of current-generation GTX 770 and GTX 780 an upgrade-itch, something which could have been difficult if NVIDIA named it under the GTX 800 series, unless its new parts were phenomenally faster.

The GeForce GTX 970 and GTX 980 will be based on NVIDIA's new "GM204" silicon, derived from its new "Maxwell" GPU architecture, which debuted with the mid-range GeForce GTX 750 Ti. NVIDIA is expected to outline the two cards on the 9th or 10th of September, 2014, at various media events held around the world. The company is expected to formally launch the two on 19th September. The GeForce GTX 800 series could continue to include OEM and mobile-GPU parts based on either "Maxwell" or "Kepler" GPUs.

A Coolaler.com community member claims to have scored a GeForce GTX 870 sample, ahead of its September 2014 launch. GPU-Z cannot correctly detect the GPU at this point. It is, however, programmed to pull out some details of unknown GPUs. It reads the card's name as "D17U-20" featuring a GPU name "13C2." The Device ID and BIOS fields are conveniently redacted, so we cannot say for sure if this is genuine.

The card's CUDA core count is 1,664. Given how streaming multiprocessors in "Maxwell" GPUs launched so far feature 128 cores, this particular chip features 13. Other features read out are 138 TMUs, 32 ROPs, and a 256-bit wide memory interface, holding 4 GB of GDDR5 memory. The sample features clock speeds of 1051 MHz core, 1178 MHz GPU Boost, and 1753 MHz (7012 MHz GDDR5 effective) memory, yielding 224 GB/s of memory bandwidth. The test-bed including a Core i7-4820K "Ivy Bridge-E" quad-core processor. The card was put through 3DMark 11, in its performance (P) and extreme (X) presets. It scored P11919 points in the performance preset, and X4625 in the extreme preset; which makes the card roughly as fast as a GeForce GTX 780. And these are pre-release drivers, and probably a pre-launch qualification sample altogether. Color us intrigued.

NVIDIA is planning to launch its next high performance single-GPU graphics cards, the GeForce GTX 880 and GTX 870, no later than Q4-2014, in the neighborhood of October and November, according to a SweClockers report. The two will be based on the brand new "GM204" silicon, which most reports suggest, is based on the existing 28 nm silicon fab process. Delays by NVIDIA's principal foundry partner TSMC to implement its next-generation 20 nm process has reportedly forced the company to design a new breed of "Maxwell" based GPUs on the existing 28 nm process. The architecture's good showing with efficiency on the GeForce GTX 750 series probably gave NVIDIA hope. When 20 nm is finally smooth, it wouldn't surprise us if NVIDIA optically shrinks these chips to the new process, like it did to the G92 (from 65 nm to 55 nm). The GM204 chip is rumored to feature 3,200 CUDA cores, 200 TMUs, 32 ROPs, and a 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface. It succeeds the company's current workhorse chip, the GK104.