Last year, NVIDIA delivered GeForce GTX 980M and 970M GPUs, which offered mobile gamers a no-compromise solution in a mid- to large-size notebook form-factor. Now, NVIDIA is extending its GTX 900M series with the introduction of the GTX 960M and 950M. NVIDIA is hoping to prove that the race to deliver thin (less than one-inches thick) and light notebooks doesn’t have to mean that graphics performance has to suffer.

Both the GTX 960M and 950M support DirectX 12, feature Maxwell architecture, include 640 CUDA cores, and are built on a 28nm process. However, that’s where the similarities end. The GTX 950M has a core clock of 914MHz and supports DDR3 memory (1000 MHz) or GDDR5 memory (2500 MHz). The GTX 960M steps performance up a bit with a core clock of 1096 MHz and only supports GDDR5 (2500 MHz). And these new GPUs of course support NVIDIA technologies like BatteryBoost, ShadowPlay, and Optimus.





HP Omen

“Today’s launch is with immediate availability too, so gamers today have more thin and light gaming notebooks to choose from than ever before,” said NVIDIA. “So, if you’ve been itching to take your gaming on the go with a portable notebook design, now’s your chance to play with the big boys!”

NVIDIA has lined up a number of OEMs for the GTX 960M and 950M, and some of the new products that are shipping this quarter include the Alienware 13, Asus G501, HP Omen, Lenovo Y50, Razer Blade Pro, and Acer Nitro V. As for the latter model, Acer says that its Aspire V Nitro V 15 VN7-591G-729V features the GeForce GTX 960M mobile GPU, Intel Core i7-4710HQ processor, 15.6-inch 4K Ultra High Definition display (3840 x 2160), up to 16GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. Acer’s V Nitro Black Edition has a base MSRP of $1,099.





Aspire V Nitro V 15 VN7-591G-729V



Razor has also released some details on its 17-inch Razer Blade Pro gaming notebook, which has been upgraded with GeForce GTX 960M power. The notebook retains its Intel Core i7-4720HQ quad-core processor but now has storage options that top out with a 512GB SSD and 1TB HDD. The Razer Blade Pro starts at a whopping $2,299.99.