Asus GeForce GTX 970 DirectCU Mini

While the GTX 970 and GTX 980 undoubtedly deliver on performance, Maxwell is really all about efficiency. Efficient computing means less power consumption and heat output, while still maintaining decent performance. In turn, you can then manage this heat with less bulky and quieter coolers. With its GTX 970 DirectCU Mini, Asus has fully taken advantage of Maxwell’s efficiency, offering one of the world’s most powerful GPUs in a dual-slot card that’s just 170mm long – the same length as a mini-ITX motherboard.

Thankfully, diminished size doesn’t equal diminished build quality. The card comes complete with a lovely metal backplate; it doesn’t offer any direct cooling to components, but it looks better through a window than a bare PCB, and it will still dissipate some heat. The main cooler shroud is formed from plastic, but it’s neither loose nor flimsy.

MSI GeForce GTX 960 Gaming 2G

The GTX 960 sees Nvidia finally bringing its Maxwell architecture to the all-important mid-range market. It replaces GTX 760, but it’s designed more as an upgrade for GTX 660 and GTX 560 users, which still make up a large portion of the market. The GTX 960 starts at £160, and MSI’s card is one of the cheaper models at £170. It mainly competes with AMD’s R9 285 (£175) and R9 280 (£150).

The GTX 960 uses GM206, a new 28nm, 2.94 billion-transistor GPU with a 227mm2 die. It’s equipped with eight Maxwell streaming multiprocessors (SMMs) split evenly across two GPCs for a total of 1,024 stream processors and 64 texture units. By comparison, the GTX 660 has 960 stream processors and the GTX 760 actually has more (1,152), but the new, streamlined SMM design means each stream processor does approximately 1.4 times more work than those in an equivalent Kepler GPU. The GTX 960 has a reference base clock of 1,127MHz  (boost 1,178MHz), but MSI has overclocked it to 1,216MHz (boost 1,279MHz).

From idea to chart-topper

The truth behind app development

What differentiates an also-ran app from an all-time great? Stuart Andrews speaks to the professional app developers to find out

Is developing an app still a route to riches? Done right, and with luck, the answer remains a resounding yes. Annual app sales now account for roughly $20 billion of revenue across the Apple and Google app stores, and Gartner predicts cumulative revenue will hit $77 billion (£51 billion) by 2017.

Meanwhile, both Facebook and Google are hungry when it comes to acquisitions: in the past few months, we’ve seen Facebook buy WhatsApp for $19 billion (£13 billion), while Google has gobbled up travel-app developer Jetpac and translation specialist Quest Visual for undisclosed sums. Undisclosed, but undoubtedly very high.

Rise and shine

When we last saw Lara Croft, she was battered, bruised and barely alive. Two years later, Crystal Dynamics invites to meet a very different kind of hero…

Aflare fizzes to life and illuminates dripping icicles that line the cave like drool-covered teeth. Its holder is not the human-shaped bruise we last saw staggering from Yamatai, but a glimpse of the raider she once was: the bright-eyed explorer with money to burn, who travels to the world’s most dangerous corners in maximum comfort. Bloodied rags are swapped for expensive climbing gear and two shiny ice axes promise swift ascent up the glistening walls. A wise investment, after her last model was dulled by all the skulls she thunked it into. Lara Croft looks ready for anything.

Fatal Attraction

After rejuvenating the series with a nostalgia-heavy reboot, NetherRealm Studios is hoping to build a bright new future for the blood-soaked world of Mortal Kombat

Stepping into NetherRealm Studios for the first time, we weren’t sure what to expect from the office that the notoriously violent Mortal Kombat series calls home. Water coolers that dispense gushing blood? Work experience kids staggering around with no arms? Keyboard wrist rests fashioned from freshly severed spinal columns?

As it turns out, and probably for the best, NetherRealm’s Chicago office is more functional than ostentatious, with nary a hint of blood splatter or brain matter decorating its clean hallways and cubicles. Only the cabinets stuffed with trophies, plaques and merchandise samples hint that this is the building where the latest chapter in Mortal Kombat’s incredible legacy is being forged.