Currently, NVIDIA's Maxwell graphics processing unit architecture is only found in the GeForce GTX 980 and GTX 970, not counting the GTX 750/750 Ti. Soon, though, a new board will appear, called GeForce GTX 960.
GTX 960 will be the “performance” Maxwell graphics card. A board weaker and cheaper than the high-end ones, but not quite affordable enough to be labeled “mainstream.”
We will probably have to wait for a GTX 950 before we can truly say that Maxwell has gone mid-range. That won't come until at some point in the first or second quarter of 2015.
Fortunately, the GeForce GTX 960 isn't going to leave the world hanging for quite as long. While it won't make it out in time for Christmas, it will be available in early January.
For the most part, they are still unknown, but based on the SweClockers report and other unofficial sources, we can make an educated guess. Especially if we take into account the performance levels of other Maxwell video cards.
Thus, it is possible that the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 will possess 10 Maxwell Streaming Multiprocessors (SMM). That would amount to 1,280 CUDA cores in total.
The clocks are unknown of course, and the same goes for the GDDR5, which will probably be of 2 GB in capacity. The frame memory interface will be of 128 bits. Unless NVIDIA goes for a 3 GB and 192-bit interface combination, like on the GeForce GTX 970M laptop discrete GPU.
It would have been easier to speculate if there had been more reports and leaks about the GM206 Maxwell graphics processing unit, but that is not the case. We only have information from the validation of a board called PG301, but it's not even a guarantee that it really is a codename for the Maxwell GM206-based graphics card.
The Consumer Electronics Show is an international trade show that takes place every year in Las Vegas, Nevada, in January. The 2015 edition (CES 2015) will take place between January 6 and January 9.
The price of the Maxwell GM206-based NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 will be of $250 to $300 / ?202 to ?242. Some do call this the “gap in the mid-range segment,” but the GTX 950 will be the true “affordable” graphics card still qualifying for that post, whenever it decides to show up and replace the GTX 750 / 750 Ti.
