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Nvidia's Kepler announced as GeForce GTX 680

Nvidia has announced the GeForce GTX 680, formerly known by the codeaname Kepler, which the firm is calling the "fastest GPU [and] world's most power efficient." It's the same graphics card Unreal Engine's Samaritan tech demo was running on at GDC.

Two changes, which according to the firm improve the GPU's energy efficiency, are the new streaming multiprocessor and the "GPU Boost" which will fluctuate clock speed.

According to Shack, before Epic used the card at GDC, the Samaritan demo was running on three GTX 580 cards and needed a draw a total of 732 watts to run. However, the demo at GDC was shown using only the GTX 680 which draws only 195 watts of power.

Base clocking hits at 1006 MHz and a boosted it will clock at 1058 MHz. Nvidia promised the "GPU Boost doesn't take away from overclocking," and it provides users with more than "one way to overclock your GPU."

"You can still increase the base clock just like before and the boost clock will increase correspondingly," said Nvidia. "Alternatively, you can increase the power target. This is most useful for games that are consuming near 100% of this power target."

The card will be available to purchase starting today and will run you around the $500 depending on the retailer.

Here's a list of reviews for the card, with a big thanks to Talkar for compiling it for us:

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