It looks like GeForce GTX 980 and GTX 970 won't be the only Maxwell-based graphics cards NVIDIA plans to launch within the next 30 days. The company is readying a third SKU based on the chip, the GeForce GTX 960. The company's next sub-$300 graphics card, the GTX 960 will be launched some time in mid to late-October, 2014. The company's GTX 970 and GTX 980 will come out later this week (19th September), timed with the Game24 event. There's no word on the exact specs of the GTX 960.

AMD is apparently working with its add-in board manufacturers and retailers to bring down prices of its flagship single-GPU graphics card, the Radeon R9 290X. The card can now be had for as low as $449, non-reference design, factory-overclocked cards starting at a $50 premium. Prices could settle down somewhere between $450 and $500. This closely follows AMD's move to bring down price of its dual-GPU flagship Radeon R9 295X2 by a whopping 34 percent, down to $999, offering performance competitive to the $2999 GeForce GTX TITAN-Z. NVIDIA is preparing two new graphics cards competitive in performance to the Radeon R9 290 series, the GeForce GTX 970 and GTX 980. The two are based on the company's new 28 nm "GM204" silicon, implementing the "Maxwell" GPU architecture.

Here's the first picture of a ZOTAC-branded GeForce GTX 970 graphics card, the first one shot with its box, confirming the GTX 900 series nomenclature NVIDIA adopted. ZOTAC's card appears to be based on a non-reference PCB, and features a rather compact-looking aluminium fin-stack heatsink, which is ventilated by a pair of 80 mm spinners. The box doesn't flash any "OC" markings, so it's safe to assume that he card runs at its reference clock speeds of 1051 MHz core, 1178 MHz GPU Boost, and 7012 MHz (GDDR5-effective) memory. The card features 4 GB of memory across a 256-bit wide memory interface. Based on the 28 nm "GM204" silicon, the GeForce GTX 970 reportedly features 1,664 CUDA cores, 138 TMUs, and 32 ROPs.

MSI showed off the first moneyshot render of its GeForce GTX 970 Gaming graphics card. Trailing an earlier leaked render viewed from the top of the card. The new one reveals MSI giving the TwinFrozr V cooler a bold 2-tone cooler shroud, holding a pair of 100 mm fans that ventilate a chunky copper heat-pipe fed aluminium fin stack. MSI could give the GTX 970 a factory-overclock to take advantage of its meaty cooling solution. Based on the 28 nm GM204 silicon, the GeForce GTX 970 is said to feature 1,664 CUDA cores based on the "Maxwell" architecture, 138 TMUs, 32 ROPs, a 256-bit wide memory interface, and 4 GB of memory. It will launch a little later this month.

Here are some of the first pictures of an AIC partner branded NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 graphics card, the Galaxy GTX 970 GC. Spotted across Chinese PC enthusiast forums and social networks, the latest set of leaks cover not just pictures of what the GTX 970 looks like, but also what's under its hood. To begin with, Galaxy's card appears to be built for the high-end market segment. A meaty twin-fan aluminium fin-stack heatsink, coupled by a spacey backplate cover a signature Galaxy blue PCB, holding NVIDIA's new GTX 970 GPU, and 4 GB of GDDR5 memory. The card appears to feature a high-grade VRM that draws power from a combination of 8-pin and 6-pin PCIe power connectors.

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.