Nvidia's new desktop GPU flagship, the GeForce GTX 680, is certainly getting most of the attention from PC enthusiats and gamers today but the company is also taking the wraps off a whole range of products aimed at the notebook market. We already knew about the GeForce GT 640M that will be shipping inside the Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3, and now Nvidia is detailing the rest of the lineup from top to bottom.
The GeForce 600M series features a die shrink and a couple of rebrands as we've become accustomed in the past, but there is a fair bit of Kepler technology across the board as well. Here's how the new lineup looks:
GPU | CUDA Cores | GPU Clock | Memory bus (bits) | Memory |
Memory bandwidth |
|
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
GeForce GTX 675M | 40nm GF114 | 384 | 620MHz | 256 | up to 2GB GDDR5 | 96GB/s |
GeForce GTX 670M | 40nm GF114 | 336 | 598MHZ | 192 | up to 3GB GDDR5 | 72GB/s |
GeForce GTX 660M | 28nm GK107 | 384 | 835MHZ | 128 | up to 2GB GDDR5 | 64GB/s |
GeForce GT 650M | 28nm GK107 | 384 | 735/850MHz | 128 |
up to 2GB DDR3 or GDDR5 |
up to 64GB/s |
GeForce GT 640M | 28nm GK107 | 384 | up to 625MHZ | 128 |
up to 2GB DDR3 or GDDR5 |
up to 64GB/s |
GeForce GT 640M LE |
40nm GF108 or 28nm GK107 |
96 or up to 384 |
762MHz or up to 500MHz | 128 |
up to 2GB DDR3 or GDDR5 |
up to 50.2 or 28.8GB/s |
GeForce GT 635M | 40nm GF116 | 144/96 | Up to 675/753MHz | up to 192 | up to 2GB GDDR5 | up to 43.2GB/s |
GeForce GT 630M | 28nm/40nm GF108 | 144/96 | up to 525/672MHz | 128 | up to 2GB GDDR5 | up to 28.8GB/s |
GeForce GT 620M | 28nm GF108 | 96 | up to 625MHZ | up to 128 | up to 1GB DDR3 | up to 28.8GB/s |
GeForce 610M | 40nm GF119 | 48 | up to 900MHZ | 64 | DDR3 | Up to 14.4GB/s |
As you can see, the GeForce 675M and 670M are essentially the same as the previous generation GTX 580M and 570M – with a minor clock bump from 575MHz on the latter. Nvidia will likely release a GTX 680M model in the future to lead its mobile range but for now the faster Kepler-based option is the GTX 660M.
There's some flexibility with the core counts and clock speeds with Nvidia quoting only 'up to' values for some models. Adding to the confusion, the GeForce GT 640M LE and GeForce GT 630 will be offered in both 40nm and 28nm GPU variants. It's unclear how we're going to be able to tell them apart in the marketplace until Nvidia eventually phases out all 40nm parts in favor of the newer 28nm process.
The GeForce 600M family supports the company's Optimus technology, which optimizes battery life by powering the GPU only when it's needed, Verde notebook drivers for frequent performance and stability updates, Nvidia's PhysX engine, optional 3D Vision and 3DTV Play, and SLI configs for a performance boost.
Most of these mobile graphics chips won't see the light of day until manufacturers start shipping new notebooks with Intel Ivy Bridge processors, although Nvidia notes that many OEMs' are already offering 600M-series GeForces in Sandy Bridge notebooks. The list of notebook manufacturers using Nvidia graphics include Acer, Alienware, Asus, Dell, Gigabyte, HP, Lenovo, MSI, Samsung, Toshiba, and Vizio.