Nvidia Reveals New RTX GPUs, Revolutionary New "Turing" Architecture

Today during a Gamescom keynote, Nvidia Co-Founder and CEO Jen-Hsun Huang revealed the future of Nvidia, and the future is "Turing." Nvidia's new Turing architecture is the biggest leap in tech and power that Nvidia has seen since its CUDA technology.

Two things are about to change computer graphics forever: real-time ray tracing, and artificial intelligence. Real-time ray tracing is going to going to empower developers and producers to produce scenes with lifelike lighting and reflections. The techniques and power required for this kind of photo-realistic illumination, refraction, and reflection is unreal, but thanks to this incredibly streamlined RTX platform, and thanks to some advanced AI algorithms (driven by the new Tensor processors), these revolutionary new lighting techniques are within reach of the average consumer.

I'm a layman -- hardly educated enough to piece my gaming PC together like a LEGO project -- but Nvidia has the official spin here:

"The revolutionary NVIDIA Turing architecture, combined with our all new GeForce RTX platform, fuses together real-time ray tracing, artificial intelligence, and programmable shading to give you a whole new way to experience games."

Real-Time Ray Tracing in Games

Ray tracing is the definitive solution for lifelike lighting, reflections, and shadows, offering a level of realism far beyond what's possible using traditional rendering techniques. Turing is the first GPU capable of real-time ray tracing.

Powerful AI-Enhanced Graphics

Artificial intelligence is driving the greatest technology advancement in history, and Turing is bringing it to computer graphics. Armed with Tensor Cores that deliver AI computing horsepower, Turing GPUs can run powerful AI algorithms in real time to create crisp, clear, lifelike images and special effects that were never before possible.

New Advanced Shading Technologies

Programmable shaders defined modern graphics. Turing GPUs feature new advanced shading technologies that are more powerful, flexible, and efficient than ever before. Combined with GDDR6—the world's fastest memory—this performance lets you tear through games with maxed-out settings and incredibly high frame rates.

If you're looking for specs, let's consider the RTX 2070 Founders Edition as a base. We're looking at a boosted clock speed of 1710 MHz, and 8GB of GDDR6 memory running at 14 Gbps. Compare that to the most powerful consumer GPU on the market right now, the GTX 1080 Ti, which boasts a boosted clock speed of 1582 MHz, and 11GB of GDDR5 memory at 11 Gbps. These cards are going to be absolute monsters.

Nvidia's new line of RTX GPUs are now theoretically available to pre-order. We say theoretically because only two out of the three -- the RTX 2080 Ti and the RTX 2080 -- are available, and they're going to sell out fast. Those Founders Editions are priced at $999 and $699 accordingly. The RTX 2070 Founders Edition will cost $499, but that one isn't available to pre-order just yet. You can find all of the links, including a chance to sign up for a pre-order notification for the 2070, right here.