Nvidia's relatively recent release of the GTX 980 Ti was well timed, as it helped it maintain its performance crown even after AMD released its Fury X video card. With that in mind, there's some credibility to the rumors that it's now working on a GTX 950 Ti in the hopes that it can capture more of the mid-range market, taking the fight to cards like the Radeon R7 370.
The new card is said to similar architecturally to the GTX 960, featuring a cut down version of the GM206-300 GPU core, known as the GM206-250. TechSpot speculates that this will leave it with less than the 960's 1024 CUDA cores and a price tag around the $150 mark.
If that is indeed what a 950 Ti would cost, it would make it dollar for dollar competitive with the R9 370 and would also see the GTX 750 Ti finally replaced, as it currently retails for just shy of that amount.
Although AMD has traditionally held firm in the sub-$200 range, Nvidia can afford to target its opponent's homeland these days, as it's far ahead in the overall performance game. While the latest batch of AMD's Fury GPUs might provide some top end competition in specific scenarios, for the most part it feels like some iteration of the new HBM sporting cards will be required before their potential is fully unlocked.
Indeed, if Nvidia is looking to refresh its budget and mid-range offerings to make them more attractive to prospective buyers, all it would need to do is announce that its cards are new and not a rebranded GPU from up to four years past.
That's quite a selling point these days.
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