Same GM204 GPU with 1664 CUDA cores
In addition to the new GM204 Maxwell based flagship Geforce GTX 980 graphics card, Nvidia has also unveiled the new Geforce GTX 970 graphics card. Featuring the same GM204 GPU as the Geforce GTX 980, with all the features coming with that GPU, the Geforce GTX 970 packs 1664 CUDA cores and should, according to Nvidia, be able to run many games at 4K with enjoyaable frame rates and decent details settings.
As noted, the Geforce GTX 970 features the same GM204 Maxwell GPU. Based on a 28nm manufacturing process and featuring a staggering 5.2 billion transistors on a 398 mm² die size. Just as it was the case with Fermi and Kepler GPU, the GM204 is also composed of an array of Graphics Processing Clusters (GPCs), or four in this case. Each GPC features a dedicated raster engine and four Streaming Maxwell Multiprocessors (SMMs). In case of the Geforce GTX 970, this number was reduced to add up to to 13 SMMs, each with 128 CUDA cores, a PolyMorph Engine and eight texture units, adding up to 1664 CUDA cores and 104 Texture Units (TMUs). Each GPC also features a memory controller, or in this case four 64-bit memory controllers for 256-bit wide memory interface. Each memory controller is connected to 16 ROP units and 512KB of L2 cache, which adds up to a total of 2048KB of L2 cache and 64 ROPs, which is quite an improvement compared to the the Kepler GK104 GPU which features 512KB of L2 cache and 32 ROPs, as well as had half the amount of SMMs.
The memory subsystem on the GM204 has also been reworked in order to reduce DRAM bandwidth demands as it now use lossless compression techniques as data is written out to memory. With multiple layers of compression algorithms as well as certain caching improvements, Nvidia claims that the GPU is able to significantly reduce the number of bytes that have to be fetched from memory per frame, up to 25 percent less bytes compared to the Kepler GPU.
The Geforce GTX 970 will pack all the new features introduced with the GM204 Maxwell GPU, including the Voxel Global Illumination (VXGI) lighting, Dynamic Super Resolution, Multi-Frame sampled Anti-Aliasing (MFAA) and a new Nvidia VR Direct Technology.
The reference Geforce GTX 970 will work at 1050MHz base GPU clock, 1178MHz GPU Boost clock while 4GB of GDDR5 memory, clocked at 7000MHz, paired up to a 256-bit memory interface, adds up to 224GB/s of memory bandwidth.
Since it is based on the same GM204 Maxwell GPU, the Geforce GTX 970 is also power efficient so it will also need two 6-pin PCI-Express power connectors with a TDP of 145W.
While you probably will never see it, since most of the Geforce GTX 970 on the market will be based on custom designs, the reference Geforce GTX 970 uses the same dual-slot cooler as the Geforce GTX 980 but comes without the fancy backplate.
As it is the case with the Geforce GTX 980, the Geforce GTX 970 will be immediately available after the announcement with a price in Europe set at €270 ex. tax.
Source: Nvidia.com.
As noted, the Geforce GTX 970 features the same GM204 Maxwell GPU. Based on a 28nm manufacturing process and featuring a staggering 5.2 billion transistors on a 398 mm² die size. Just as it was the case with Fermi and Kepler GPU, the GM204 is also composed of an array of Graphics Processing Clusters (GPCs), or four in this case. Each GPC features a dedicated raster engine and four Streaming Maxwell Multiprocessors (SMMs). In case of the Geforce GTX 970, this number was reduced to add up to to 13 SMMs, each with 128 CUDA cores, a PolyMorph Engine and eight texture units, adding up to 1664 CUDA cores and 104 Texture Units (TMUs). Each GPC also features a memory controller, or in this case four 64-bit memory controllers for 256-bit wide memory interface. Each memory controller is connected to 16 ROP units and 512KB of L2 cache, which adds up to a total of 2048KB of L2 cache and 64 ROPs, which is quite an improvement compared to the the Kepler GK104 GPU which features 512KB of L2 cache and 32 ROPs, as well as had half the amount of SMMs.
The memory subsystem on the GM204 has also been reworked in order to reduce DRAM bandwidth demands as it now use lossless compression techniques as data is written out to memory. With multiple layers of compression algorithms as well as certain caching improvements, Nvidia claims that the GPU is able to significantly reduce the number of bytes that have to be fetched from memory per frame, up to 25 percent less bytes compared to the Kepler GPU.
The Geforce GTX 970 will pack all the new features introduced with the GM204 Maxwell GPU, including the Voxel Global Illumination (VXGI) lighting, Dynamic Super Resolution, Multi-Frame sampled Anti-Aliasing (MFAA) and a new Nvidia VR Direct Technology.
The reference Geforce GTX 970 will work at 1050MHz base GPU clock, 1178MHz GPU Boost clock while 4GB of GDDR5 memory, clocked at 7000MHz, paired up to a 256-bit memory interface, adds up to 224GB/s of memory bandwidth.
Since it is based on the same GM204 Maxwell GPU, the Geforce GTX 970 is also power efficient so it will also need two 6-pin PCI-Express power connectors with a TDP of 145W.
While you probably will never see it, since most of the Geforce GTX 970 on the market will be based on custom designs, the reference Geforce GTX 970 uses the same dual-slot cooler as the Geforce GTX 980 but comes without the fancy backplate.
As it is the case with the Geforce GTX 980, the Geforce GTX 970 will be immediately available after the announcement with a price in Europe set at €270 ex. tax.
Source: Nvidia.com.
News by Luca Rocchi and Marc Büchel - German Translation by Paul Görnhardt - Italian Translation by Francesco Daghini
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