The first enthusiast Maxwell GPU enters the fray. Nvidia is today launching two high-end desktop graphics cards known as the GeForce GTX 980 and GeForce GTX 970. The duo are not the first to be based on the latest Maxwell architecture - that honour goes to the GTX 750 Ti and select mobile GPUs - but they do, for now, represent the best that the energy-efficient architecture has to offer.

It makes sense to give you some relevant background information at the outset, helping frame the new Maxwell GPUs in context. Nvidia's codenames provide more than just reference for GeForce cards. The designation is telling insofar as it describes how the company views retail cards based upon it. For example, the x10 GPUs are the absolute best implementation of that particular architecture, while the x04 are released first, to test out the waters, and are tuned for a smaller, less expensive die size and lower energy consumption.

Remember back to the GK104-based GeForce GTX 680? This first performance Kepler GPU was designed to fend off the AMD Radeon threat without having to extend the architecture. Undeniably competent for its time, the real enthusiast Kepler card, GTX 780 (Ti) (GK110), rolled into town 18 months later. Swinging twice the silicon as the GK104 GPU and cranking all the dials to 10, it remains, arguably, the best sub-£500 consumer graphics card today.