The board supports six displays instead of just five

Jan 14, 2015 14:34 GMT  ·  By

For the longest time, multi-display technology with six display support was exclusive to AMD via the Eyefinity 6 implementation, but Gigabyte may have created an NVIDIA card capable of pulling off the same feat.

We still may not see the same, one image feed spread across six different screens, but multitasking should be possible on that number of displays.

Gigabyte's product, or rather upcoming product, is called GeForce GTX 960 G1 Gaming and has six display outputs: three DisplayPorts, one HDMI and two DVI connectors.

Those make up just one small part of the specifications of course, so here are the highlights, insofar as they can be determined this early.

The Gigabyte GeForce GTX 960 G1 Gaming

The video card relies on the Maxwell GM206 graphics processing unit, as opposed to the Gm204 at the heart of the GeForce GTX 980 and GTX 960.

That means it either possesses 1,024 or 1,280 CUDA, depending on whether there are 8 or 10 SMM (streaming Maxwell multiprocessors). Probably the latter, but don't quote us on that.

The GPU clocks are unknown, but they are probably higher than the 1,178 / 1,228 MHz Base/Boost reported for the others.

Even if it does turn out that 1,178 / 1,228 MHz are already factory overclocked values, Gigabyte could go beyond them just as an extra layer of insurance that its products are seen as better.

To be fair, the G1 Gaming series of video boards from Gigabyte has been doing well in that regard already, claiming high-ranking spots. Only liquid-cooled video controllers have managed consistently better speeds and scores in benchmarks, and it's not like you can't just install a water block on them yourself if you want to.

That aside, the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 960 G1 Gaming has one SLI connector, so even if it can't individually support six displays at once it will do it in multi-card mode.

As for the cooler, it is a triple-fan model with a black shroud and thick copper heatpipes. The number is unclear there.

Availability and pricing

The Gigabyte GeForce GTX 960 G1 Gaming video card based on the Maxwell micro-architecture should be up for sale on January 22 for $415 / €350 to $500 / €420. If you see it earlier and it costs more, you might be better off waiting until the allotted time when the tag will descend to what it should be. When a retailer jumps the gun, it's always to score a quick buck from “early bird” and “exclusive” sales.