Nvidia has launched its GeForce GT 500M mobile graphics series with four semi-new chips: the GT 520M, 525M, 540M, 550M, and 555M. All are rebranded versions of the GT 400M series that launched only a few months ago in September, except they have quicker clock frequencies with the same thermal envelopes.
The GeForce GT 520M and 525M are aimed at mainstream consumer devices, such as multimedia laptops, while the GT 540M and up are a bit beefier. All of the new chips support Nvidia's Optimus graphics switching technology, which Nvidia says is offered in over 80% of notebooks that use the GeForce GT 500M series.
Interestingly, the 400M series also received an update and is currently home to Nvidia's fastest mobile graphics processor – despite having a lower model. The new GeForce GTX 485 replaces the GTX 480 and has 32 more CUDA cores enabled, 300MHz faster processor and memory clocks, as well as added support for OpenGL 4.1.