Nvidia Corp has unveiled the next generation of its popular GTX series video graphics cards, the GTX 1080 and the GTX 1070, both of which offer a sizeable boost in performance without a huge bump in price over their predecessors.

The GPUs are based on Nvidia’s new Pascal architecture, which the company claims can achieve twice the performance in virtual reality programs as the extremely pricey Nvidia Titan X.

“The PC is the world’s favorite gaming platform, and our new Pascal GPU architecture will take it to new heights,” Jeff Fisher, senior vice president of Nvidia’s PC business, said in a statement. “Our first Pascal gaming GPU, the GeForce GTX 1080, enables incredible realism in gaming and deeply immersive VR experiences, with dramatically improved performance and efficiency. It’s the most powerful gaming GPU ever built, and some of our finest work.”

It seems clear that the new cards are aimed at gamers interested in hopping onto the virtual reality bandwagon, and with their relatively affordable prices, many gamers will likely find the upgrades a bit more palatable than dropping somewhere in the neighborhood of $1200-$1400 for a Titan X, especially considering the fact that the new cards supposedly offer better performance.

In theory, even the more modest GTX 1070 is capable of beating out the Titan X, which may cause more than a little buyer’s remorse more many recent Titan X owners given the nearly $1000 price difference.

Nvidia said that the new cards will retail at around $599 for the high-end GTX 1080 and around $379 for the upper mid-range GTX 1070. These prices put them only slightly above the current cost of the older GTX 980 and GTX 970 while offering an enormous boost in power over both. Nvidia will also offer a founder’s edition of the GTX 1080 for $699, which will launch May 27, as well as for the GTX 1070 at $449, which will arrive June 10.

As for whether or not the new cards can live up to Nvidia’s hype, we will have to wait for some more unbiased benchmarks, but looking at the GPU specs on paper, this summer may be a good time for gamers to upgrade.

Image courtesy of Nvidia Corp