14 DAY TRIAL // Late last week, it was believed that NVIDIA was preparing to release a second graphics card based on the Maxwell architecture, but it turns out that this is not the case. Or if it is, it's not the GeForce GT 740 getting the next-generation treatment.
You see, a couple of days ago, some folks spotted a pair of graphics cards, cards that had never been seen before, not in the wild and not in stores either.
Indeed, they haven't been listed on NVIDIA's official website either, which means that they haven't been launched as of yet.
Although using the plural isn't altogether accurate, since the two video cards are actually different versions of the same video board.
Specifically, the photos above and in the gallery below are of the GeForce GT 740 graphics card with Gainward and Galaxy styling.
Sadly, this is not a case of a next-generation graphics processing unit technology being introduced by the Santa Clara company.
While that happened with the GeForce GTX 750 and GTX 750 Ti, the GeForce GT 740 is just a rebranded GT 640, more or less. It is powered by the GK107 Kepler graphics processing unit.
The board has 1 GB of GDDR5 VRAM, as well as an interface of 128 bits, but there will be 2 GB variants too.
There is one peculiarity though: the GT 740 seems to have a PCI Express 6-pin power connector, despite the fact that the GTX 750, which is faster, doesn't have one.
Maybe the GT 740 actually can run on just the power provided by a PCI Express slot, but Gainward/Galaxy has decided to add one just to be on the safe side.
Maybe they thought that some people would like the chance to overclock their adapter, but don't have the cash for any of the real monsters out there.
Or maybe the cards in the photo are the 2 GB models, and the memory was the last straw that necessitated the extra energy. Whatever the case, we won't know until the products start selling in June 2014 (next month as it were). It could be that the reference board lacks PCI Express power ports, but some custom models have it for whatever cause.
Anyway, the Galaxy GT 740 video card has a pair of DVI ports, HDMI and DisplayPort connectivity, while the Gainward card only uses VGA and dual-HDMI. As for prices, since the GT 640 ships for around $90 / €90, we imagine that the GT 740 will go for the same.
