2012 Technology Year in Review: NVIDIA Launches GTX 680 (March)

NVIDIA decided to launch its counterpart to the AMD HD 7970 GPU, which they launched in January. With the GTX 600 family, NVIDIA introduced their new architecture, known as Kepler. They also introduced several new technologies including NVIDIA GPU Boost, FXAA/TXAA, and adaptive V-sync. NVIDIA GPU Boost is similar to Intel Turbo Boost and AMD Turbo Core, which allows the GPU to boost the core clock to a certain amount, dependant on load, temperature, and power. V-sync typically limits the frame-rate to your monitor's refresh rate, to avoid tearing. With adaptive v-sync, it also reduces stuttering in situations with low frame rates. FXAA and TXAA were introduced for smoother lines, at higher performance as well. Finally, NVIDIA caught up with AMD, introducing multi-monitor (up to 4) support on their Kepler GPUs.