Mid-range Maxwell under the spotlight. With the launch of GeForce GTX 980 and GTX 970 back in September 2014, Maxwell improved high-end performance to a reasonable degree but advanced energy efficiency by a tremendous amount. HEXUS has since put numerous partner cards through the wringer, and the best of the bunch deliver stellar performance in a quiet-running package that consumes far less power than any competing solution.

It's easy to sing Maxwell's praises, but there is an obvious problem: GTX 970 pricing starts at £260 and rises to over £400 for the range-topping GTX 980. Sure, they're great parts, but not everyone can afford to lavish such sums on a GPU upgrade.