Nvidia has unveiled the first GPU from its next-generation GeForce 9 Series, claiming to offer the largest single-generation performance jump in the company's history.

The GeForce 9600 GT GPU delivers a claimed performance boost of up to 116 per cent compared with its predecessor.

"After going to all the GeForce Lans and seeing the rigs that gamers play on, we wanted to kick off the GeForce 9 with the perfect GPU for gamers," said Ujesh Desai, general manager of GeForce desktop GPUs at Nvidia.

"The first product to be introduced in the GeForce 9 family gives gamers the horsepower to play cutting-edge DirectX 10 games at a price they can afford."

Nvidia said that PC gaming had reached the point where the graphics requirements to play games such as Call of Duty 4 and Unreal Tournament 3 at resolutions such as 1,900 x 1,200 and above may have outpaced a lot of installed hardware.

Until now, graphics processors capable of delivering playable frame rates at such settings have cost in excess of $400, Nvidia said.

The GeForce 9600 GT GPU is designed to offer immersive gaming with " incredible" graphics to budget PC gamers for less than $199.

The company said that its 9600 GT GPU shows an improved performance-per-watt ratio compared to its predecessor as well as improved compression efficiency.

In addition to 64 stream processors each clocked at 1625MHz, and a 256-bit memory interface running at 900MHz, the GeForce 9600 GT GPU is designed for the new PCIe 2.0 bus standard and features backwards compatibility with the PCIe standard.