[Techtaffy Newsdesk]

NVIDIA has launched the first GPUs based on its next-generation Kepler graphics architecture, the result of some 1.8 million man-hours of work over five years, says the company. The GeForce GTX 680 GPUs feature NVIDIA’s SMX streaming multiprocessors and technologies like TXAA, FXAA, Adaptive VSync and GPU Boost. Kepler is based on 28-nanometer (nm) process technology and succeeds the 40-nm NVIDIA Fermi architecture, which was first introduced into the market in March 2010.

Brian Kelleher (Senior vice president, GPU Engineering, NVIDIA): The Kepler architecture stands as NVIDIA’s greatest technical achievement to date.

Compared with the closest competitive product, the GeForce GTX 680 GPU is more than 300 percent faster in DirectX 11 tessellation performance and up to 43 percent faster in cutting-edge games such as Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, yet consumes 28 percent less power, says NVIDIA. It also provides twice the performance per watt of the GeForce GTX 580, the flagship Fermi-based processor that it replaces.

You can find more information on the GeForce GTX 680 here.

GeForce GTX 680 is available from e-tailers and system builders starting at $499.

[Image Courtesy: NVIDIA]