EVGA teased its upcoming flagship graphics card, the GeForce GTX 980 Classified K|ngp|n Edition. Designed by the famed overclocker associated with the company, this card combines the best overclocking GTX 980 chips, with the fastest GDDR5 memory, and the strongest VRM in the industry, letting you chase overclocking and performance benchmark records. It retains the translucent cooler shroud theme from its predecessor based on the GTX 780 Ti, although the cooler appears to be a beefier ACX 2.0.

The card draws power from a combination of two 8-pin, and one 6-pin PCIe power connectors, giving you an idea of just how much juice the card can take in, to keep your overclock stable. The card is prepped for liquid cooling, and has electricals to negate cold-bugs, and an active electrical trace that keeps the PCB heated, to prevent frosting. EVGA also gave us a glimpse of the card's abilities with a jaw-dropping 3DMark FireStrike score of 20,816 pts. There's no idea on when the company plans to launch this card, or if it even will, especially given that NVIDIA's next-generation GTX TITAN is just around the corner. Maybe EVGA is betting on NVIDIA keeping that card vanilla (preventing AICs from coming up with custom-design cards).

ASUS announced its flagship single-GPU graphics card based on the GeForce GTX 980 chip, the Republic of Gamers (ROG) MATRIX Platinum. This is the company's third factory-overclocked and custom-designed GTX 980 offering, after the GTX 980 Poseidon, and the GTX 980 Strix OC. The card features a signature ROG-themed air cooling solution, with a high-density fin-stack heatsink, to which heat drawn from the GPU are fed by 10 mm-thick heat pipes, and cooled by two fans, one of which is an ASUS-designed CoolTech hybrid fan, which pushes air both laterally, and axially.

The PCB of the GTX 980 ROG Matrix, features a strong 14-phase VRM, which powers not just the GPU and memory, but also an ASUS-exclusive "defroster" circuit, which is essentially a resistive trace running through key areas of the card, which heats up, preventing frost formation, when the card is under LN2 cooling. As expected, this card comes factory-overclocked, and while ASUS didn't reveal the core clock, its GPU Boost frequency is a staggering 1342 MHz. The memory is untouched, at 7.00 GHz. Other features include a color-coded load indicator, ROG-themed GPU Tweak utility, and a back-plate. ASUS didn't reveal pricing details.

NVIDIA's "Maxwell" architecture may have got a rather low-key debut with the GeForce GTX 750 Ti, but nobody saw its performance-segment derivative, the GM204 silicon, driving the GeForce GTX 980 and the GTX 970. The new architecture makes its predecessor, the "Kepler" look inefficient in comparison. It looks like NVIDIA still thinks Kepler is competitive to competition from AMD (GCN) and Intel (Knights Corner), in the high-performance computing era.

The problems here are NVIDIA already launched a GK110 based Tesla HPC card, and its big "Maxwell" chip is nowhere in sight. The GM204 has limited memory bandwidth, and its texture-compression mojo can't bail out bandwidth-hogging HPC applications. The solution? Develop a new big silicon based on "Kepler." Enter, the GK210. That's right, the G-K-210. Launched today with the Tesla K80 dual-chip HPC accelerator, this chip could feature design improvements over the GK110, while offering memory bandwidth and sizes not possible on the GM204.

ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) today announced Poseidon GTX 980 with DirectCU H2O, a new graphics card with an exclusive hybrid thermal solution that enables extremely efficient cooling by either air or water.

The new card is powered by the latest NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 graphics-processing unit (GPU). With DirectCU H2O on board offering users the unique ability to cool either by air or water, ROG Poseidon GTX 980 achieves running temperatures that are up to 27°C lower than reference designs - that's up to 2X cooler for gaming performance that's up to 10% faster in Watch Dogs and 7% faster in Battlefield 4.

EVGA and K|NGP|N once again dominate the 3DMark leaderboards with no less than six brand new 3DMark World Records, including the recently released Fire Strike "Ultra" preset. Armed with the latest hardware including EVGA X99 motherboards, EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Classifieds and EVGA SuperNOVA Power Supplies, Vince "K|NGP|N" Lucido was able to break new records.

"The EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Classified is an overclockers dream," said Vince "K|NGP|N" Lucido. "The improved VRM and memory design really let NVIDIA's GTX 980 GPU stretch its wings. This card has achieved clockspeeds of 2200MHz core and 8500MHz memory single card and nearly 2100MHz core in 4-Way SLI, it's really amazing."

ASUS is giving final touches to its flagship GeForce GTX 980 graphics card, the GTX 980 Poseidon (model: POSEIDON-GTX980-P-4GD5). This factory-overclocked card keeps up with the design goals of its predecessor, the GTX 780 Poseidon, in offering an air-cooled graphics card that you can also liquid-cool, by simply plumbing it to your liquid cooling loop, without changing the cooler.

The cooler features a hybrid block base that dissipates heat to both the heat pipes that push it on to the heatsink, and the coolant channel. As a purely air-cooled card, the GTX 980 Poseidon features a meaty aluminium fin-stack heatsink that looks as competent as the GTX 980 Strix. Liquid cooling fittings stick out from its top. The card is factory-overclocked, offering clock speeds of 1178 MHz core, 1279 MHz GPU Boost, and 7.00 GHz memory. The card draws power from a pair of 6-pin PCIe power connectors, display outputs include three DisplayPort 1.2, and one each of HDMI 2.0 and dual-link DVI. The card is expected to launch some time in December.

Inno3D is preparing to launch two new graphics cards, based on the GeForce GTX 970 and GTX 980, which will feature Arctic Cooling's latest Accelero Hybrid S cooling solution. A fusion between a factory-fitted closed-loop liquid cooler for the GPU, and fan-heatsink for the memory and VRM, the Accelero Hybrid cooler from Arctic has been licensed by Inno3D for its iChill Black Edition series. The two cards are expected to feature factory-overclocked speeds befitting the liquid cooling solution. Inno3D claims that the cooling performance of the Accelero Hybrid S is twice that of NVIDIA's NVTTM (NVIDIA Time-to-market) reference cooling solutions. Inno3D plans to launch the two some time in December, 2014.

Gigabyte announced the GeForce GTX 980 WaterForce Tri-SLI (model: GV-N980X3WA-4GD), arguably the highest pixel-crunching power that ever came out of a single box. This contraption is a trio of GeForce GTX 980 graphics cards, with a factory-fitted liquid cooling loop, which sits outside your case. Each of the three cards features a factory-overclocked GTX 980 chip featuring 1228 MHz core, 1329 MHz GPU Boost, and 7.00 GHz memory; with a liquid-cooling pump-block over the GPU, and a base-plate that conveys heat from the memory and VRM to that block, using heat-pipes.

Coolant tubes from the three cards meet at the external unit, that has an independent 120 x 120 mm radiator for each of the three cards. Fan-speeds and coolant pressure of each of the three loops can be controlled at the unit's front-panel, which features an LCD display with coolant temperature and fan-speed readouts. Also part of the kit, are a custom 3-way SLI bridge, a reinforcement beam that counteracts PCB bending, a 5.25-inch front-panel bezel, from which the coolant tubes make their way out of the case, and to the external unit, and some tubing managment grommets. Gigabyte didn't announce pricing or availability.

NVIDIA announced the "Pick Your Path" game bundle for new customers of select high-end GeForce GTX graphics cards, in partnership with Ubisoft. Applicable to new buyers of GeForce GTX 980, GTX 970, GTX 780 Ti, and GTX 780, the bundle lets you pick one of three latest Ubisoft titles, including FarCry 4, Assassin's Creed: Unity, and The Crew. Several NVIDIA AIC partners are participating in the giveaway, which works much like AMD's "Never Settle." The retailer gives you a code in the invoice of your new graphics card purchase, which you exchange for a UPlay key of the game of your choice, online.

Alienware, a leader in high-performance gaming systems, is announcing details and availability for the legendary return of the Alienware Area-51 gaming desktop and the portable powerhouse Alienware 13 gaming laptop. Alienware also revealed the innovative Alienware Graphics Amplifier, giving gamers desktop graphics performance at home and high-performance mobile gaming with the Alienware 13. A truly no compromises approach to gaming.

When combining the new Alienware 13 and Graphics Amplifier, gamers no longer need to choose between a portable performer for fragging on the go or the fantastic FPS of a gaming desktop. The Alienware Graphics Amplifier boosts the already potent gaming performance of the Alienware 13, providing desktop graphics quality gaming at home while continuing to offer the same high-performing experience that road warriors demand.

ELSA launched its first custom-design GeForce GTX 980 graphics card, bearing its SAC (silent air-cooling) badge. The card retains its signature Inno3D-sourced look, featuring a cooling solution that lets you easily clean it, to keep its cooling performance up to the mark. The cooling solution consists of an aluminium fin-stack heatsink, to which heat drawn from the GPU, is fed by a number of copper heat pipes, and ventillated by a pair of fans. The shroud on which the two are suspended, can be detached, by pulling out thumb-screws. The PCB under this cooler appears to stick to NVIDIA reference design.

The GTX 980 SAC from ELSA is factory-overclock, although the overclock is nothing to write home about. The core is clocked at 1152 MHz, with 1253 MHz GPU Boost, and 7.00 GHz memory, compared to NVIDIA reference clocks of 1126 MHz core, and 1216 MHz GPU Boost. Based on the 28 nm GM204 silicon, the GeForce GTX 980 features 2,048 CUDA cores, 128 TMUs, 64 ROPs, and a 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, holding 4 GB of memory. The card draws power from a pair of 6-pin PCIe power connectors. Display outputs include three DisplayPorts, and one each of HDMI 2.0 and dual-link DVI.

Under pressure from its own recently launched GeForce GTX 980 cannibalizing its $3,000 flagship GeForce GTX TITAN-Z (you can buy GTX 980 Quad-SLI at $2,200), NVIDIA could finally review its pricing, in the retail channel. The company recently reduced its price for the OEM channel, letting pre-built gaming PC manufacturers source the card at a lower price, whether those price-savings were transferred to the end-users, is a different question. To what measure NVIDIA could lower prices of the GTX TITAN-Z, is not known at this point. Retailers like OCUK were seen offering their GTX TITAN-Z cards at a slightly reduced price, last week. Across the big pond, American retailer Newegg sold-out an ASUS-branded GTX TITAN-Z for as low as US $1,500.

In the wake of GTX 980, AMD cut prices of its dual-GPU flagship product, the Radeon R9 295X2, down to $999. It's hard to imagine that competition from this card, and the GTX 980, are the only factors driving down prices of the GTX TITAN-Z in such a big way. Could NVIDIA be working on its next dual-GPU flagship graphics card already? Perhaps one based on a pair of GM204 chips, with thermal and power requirements as low as those of the GTX 690? Watch this space for more.

Colorful launched its flagship GeForce GTX 980 based graphics card, the GTX 980 iGame. It should come as no surprise to anyone following the over-the-top engineering from this company, that the GTX 980 iGame comes with one of the meatiest cooling solutions, and one of the most muscular VRM solutions, a GTX 980 ever shipped with. The GTX 980 iGame ships with a non-reference design PCB by Colorful, which features pure silver traces, a gargantuan 14-phase VRM that draws power from two 8-pin PCIe power inputs, server-grade tantalum capacitors, high-grade DPAK MOSFETs, and high-current solid-chokes (which don't 'whine' under load).

Colorful GTX 980 iGame ships with dual-BIOS, the first one runs the card at 1127 MHz core, 1216 MHz GPU Boost, and 7.00 GHz memory. The second BIOS drives clocks up to 1178 MHz core, 1279 MHz GPU Boost, and 7.01 GHz memory. The two BIOSes can be toggled with a push-type switch. As always the factory-overclock isn't intended to make the most of the VRM and cooling, because that's what Colorful expects enthusiasts to have fun with. Moving on to the cooling solution, and you get a massive triple-slot compound aluminium fin-stack heatsink, which features three 100 mm fans. Display outputs include three DisplayPort 1.2, one HDMI 2.0, and one dual-link DVI. A solid metal back-plate with a dotted-mesh pattern dons the back. Colorful began shipping the card to select markets in APAC and EMEA regions. The company plans to launch an even more over-the-top card based on this PCB, called the GTX 980 iGame Kudan, later this month; and the GTX 970 iGame, which is essentially this card with a GTX 970 chip.

Koolance launched its signature full-coverage water block for NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 graphics card, the VID-NX980. Designed for reference-design GTX 980 PCBs, the block features nickel-plated copper as its primary material, with a 0.5 mm micro-fin lattice over the GPU, for maximum heat dissipation to the coolant; topped off with an opaque matte-black, acetal top, with chrome accents. It features a common G 1/4 BSPP fitting. Available now from the Koolance website, the VID-NX980 is priced at $129.99.

The German-based liquid cooling specialist Aqua Computer has added the full cover water block kryographics for GTX 980 cards to its portfolio. The block is CNC-milled from a 10mm thick high-purity electrolytic copper block while the GPU is covered by a micro structure with a 0.5mm grid. The kryographics for GTX 980 covers the GPU, RAM and other than some of the competitors also all relevant parts of the voltage control.

The contact surface of the base is high gloss polished. To gain the last bit of cooling performance the kryographics for GTX 980 also allows using thermal grease instead of thermal pads for the RAM chips. For an easy installation the block comes with preassembled distance pieces so the screws can be tightened as far as they will go to achieve an optimal contact pressure. The block can be used with regular G1/4" fittings and the connection terminal offers threads into both directions. In a SLI setup the regular connection terminal can be also exchanged with an optional kryoconnect adapter which connects two or more blocks directly.

NVIDIA recently unleashed an onslaught on the gaming world, an onslaught named Maxwell. We launched the new graphics architecture during GAME24, an unprecedented 24-hour celebration of gaming. And it blew away gamers across the globe. We held onto one big secret, which we're revealing today: the introduction of the GeForce GTX 970M and GeForce GTX 980M notebook GPUs.

Maxwell, the company's 10th-generation GPU architecture, is undeniably the world's most advanced. It solves some of the most complex lighting and graphics challenges in visual computing. And it does so with twice the energy efficiency of the previous generation. It's a combination that will pay huge dividends in notebooks. Let's start with some history. NVIDIA's 8th-generation GPU architecture, Fermi, delivered about 40% of the desktop equivalent in 2010. Kepler, our 9th generation GPU, launched in 2010, closed the gap to 60%, giving gamers 1080p resolution and "ultra" settings for the first time in a notebook.

Palit rolled out its GeForce GTX 980 Super-JetStream graphics card, its fastest GTX 980 card, which is a notch above the GTX 980 JetStream, the company kicked off its GTX 980 family with. The card ships with factory-overclocked speeds of 1203 MHz core, 1304 MHz GPU Boost, and 7.20 GHz (GDDR5-effective) memory; compared to the 1127/1216/7000 MHz clocks the GTX 980 JetStream ships with. The card otherwise features the same PCB and cooler design. Expect a small premium on this one. Based on the 28 nm GM204 silicon, the GTX 980 features 2,048 CUDA cores, 128 TMUs, 64 ROPs, and a 256-bit wide memory interface, holding 4 GB of memory.

NVIDIA's G-SYNC technology is rivaled by AMD's project Freesync, which is based on a technology standardized by the video electronics standards association (VESA), under Adaptive Sync. The technology lets GPUs and monitors keep display refresh rates in sync with GPU frame-rates, so the resulting output appears fluid. VESA's technology does not require special hardware inside standards-compliant monitors, and is royalty-free, unlike NVIDIA G-SYNC, which is based on specialized hardware, which display makers have to source from NVIDIA, which makes it a sort of a royalty.

When asked by Chinese publication Expreview on whether NVIDIA GPUs will support VESA adaptive-sync, the company mentioned that NVIDIA wants to focus on G-SYNC. A case in point is the display connector loadout of the recently launched GeForce GTX 980 and GTX 970. According to specifications listed on NVIDIA's website, the two feature DisplayPort 1.2 connectors, and not DisplayPort 1.2a, a requirement of VESA's new technology. AMD's year-old Radeon R9 and R7 GPUs, on the other hand, support DisplayPort 1.2a, casting a suspicion on NVIDIA's choice of connectors. Interestingly, the GTX 980 and GTX 970 feature HDMI 2.0, so it's not like NVIDIA is slow at catching up with new standards. Did NVIDIA leave out DisplayPort 1.2a in a deliberate attempt to check Adaptive Sync?

MSI is reportedly holding off on launching an overclocking-grade GeForce GTX 980 graphics card that you can ride into record-setting competitions, based on its coveted OC Series Lightning brand. The company probably wants to avoid a repeat of last year, when launch of its GeForce GTX 780 Lightning graphics card was closely trailed by NVIDIA's launch of the inherently faster GeForce GTX 780 Ti, and resulting price-cuts for the GTX 780, throwing MSI's inventories in jeopardy. The year before that, MSI launched the Radeon HD 7970 Lightning just weeks before AMD launched the faster HD 7970 GHz Edition.

MSI could stick to selling its Gaming Series GTX 980, equipped with the new Twin Frozr V cooling solution, even offering factory-overclocked variants of the card. This also leads one to wonder if NVIDIA has a third, high-end graphics card based on the GM204 silicon, on the 'cards,' one with higher clock speeds, or a higher temperature-based clock speed throttle, which is currently at a hair-trigger 80°C on the GTX 980.

Shortly after rolling out the GeForce 344.11 WHQL drivers following the launch of its GeForce GTX 900 series GPUs, NVIDIA slipped out GeForce 344.16 Beta drivers. The driver only supports GeForce GTX 980 and GTX 970 GPUs, and doesn't come with a working release notes link, and so we're left to guess that NVIDIA found a bug specific to the GTX 980 and GTX 970 that needed immediate fixing, and rushed out the 344.11 Beta. Grab it from the link below.DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 344.16 Beta

The most amazing advancement in gaming graphics has arrived. iBUYPOWER is proud to announce that it now carries a full range of gaming systems powered by NVIDIA's new GeForce GTX 980.

Ever thirsty for more performance and better graphics, our team of engineers is thrilled to feature NVIDIA's new GPU in our systems, and we think end users will be even more excited. The GeForce GTX 980 represents a major jump above the previous generation of GPUs, and there's no shortage of hit PC game titles coming out this holiday season to take advantage of the new "Maxwell" architecture.

Velocity Micro, the premier builder of award winning enthusiast desktops, laptops, and peripherals announces the availability of gaming PCs powered by NVIDIA's new GeForce GTX 980 and GTX 970 graphics. Fully customized systems powered by these freshly announced GPUs and built with premium, retail grade parts, assembled by hand in Richmond, Virginia, start at around $2099.

"This new Maxwell architecture is exactly what our enthusiast audience is looking for. Powerful, advanced, and efficient, these cards are truly something special," said Randy Copeland, President and CEO of Velocity Micro. "We're excited to be able to offer these new products as a part of our ongoing pursuit to create an ultra-performance, cutting-edge product."

ORIGIN PC announced today the new NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 and 970 graphics cards on their award-winning line of CHRONOS, MILLENNIUM and GENESIS desktops for gamers, artists, enthusiasts and professionals. The new GeForce GTX 980 and 970 are powered by the next-generation NVIDIA Maxwell architecture, giving you incredible performance, unmatched power efficiency, and cutting-edge features in your next ORIGIN PC desktop.

Maxwell is the most advanced GPU architecture ever made, designed to be the engine for next-generation gaming. Inspired by light, it was designed to solve some of the most complex lighting and graphics challenges in visual computing. For the first time, gaming GPUs can dynamically render indirect light using the new VXGI (Voxel Global Illumination) technology. Scenes are significantly more lifelike as light interacts more realistically with the gaming environment.

GIGABYTE, the world's leading premium gaming hardware manufacturer, today announced the release of GV-N980G1 GAMING-4GD and GV-N970G1 GAMING-4GD, two new graphics cards from the next generation G1 Gaming Series. Both cards are respectively powered by the highly-anticipated GeForce GTX 980 and GTX 970 Maxwell GPUs and combined with GIGABYTE technologies and innovations to outperform the reference.

GIGABYTE G1 Gaming graphics cards are crafted for perfection in pursuit of the ultimate graphics experience for gaming enthusiasts. Through GPU Gauntlet Sorting, the graphics cards are forged with only the top-notch GPU cores to deliver the maximum processing power for going Super Overclock. Further armed with the acclaimed WINDFORCE cooling system and innovative Flex Display technology(patent-pending), the G1 Gaming graphics cards ensure incredibly fast, cool and quiet performance, whilst providing gamers with greater flexibility in output connectivity options for multi-display gaming.

EVGA, K|NGP|N and TiN have once again broken new records with the new EVGA GeForce GTX 980. Armed with liquid nitrogen, the latest EVGA hardware including an EVGA X99 FTW motherboard, 1600W power supplies and an EVGA GeForce GTX 980 running at over 2050MHz, K|NGP|N was able to set new records on 3DMark Fire Strike and Fire Strike Extreme, breaking 19,000 and 9,000 barrier in each benchmark.

"The Maxwell GPU in the EVGA GeForce GTX 980 is an overclocking monster," said Vince "K|NGP|N" Lucido. "There is a ton of headroom on the GPU and Memory clocks, and performance scaling is some of the highest I have ever seen. Internally we have hit the highest clocks ever achieved on a GPU."