NVIDIA Announces New Line of Fermi-Based Mobile Chips 54
MojoKid writes "NVIDIA has announced an entire line-up of Fermi-based GeForce GT and GTX 400M mobile GPUs, seven in total, and revealed a number of notebook design wins from major OEMs. Like their desktop-targeted counterparts, the mobile GeForce GT and GTX 400M series GPUs make use of technology from NVIDIA's desktop architecture, which debuted in the GF100 GPU at the heart of the company's flagship GeForce GTX 480. GeForce GT and GTX 400M series GPUs are DirectX 11 compatible and support all of NVIDIA's 'Graphics Plus' features, including PhysX, 3D Vision, CUDA, Verde drivers, 3DTV Play and Optimus dynamic switching technology. The GeForce GTX 470M and GTX 460M are the most powerful of the group and target enthusiasts and gamers, while the GeForce GT 445M, GT 435M, GT 425M, GT 420M and GT 415M target performance-conscious, but more mainstream consumers."
That's a lot of model names (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:1)
I bought a laptop with GeForce GTX 480M [avadirect.com] a month ago and the performance is awesome, you can basically set full resolution and all settings to max. Definitely best you can get for laptops at the moment.
What programs are you running at "full resolution and all settings to max"? Crysis? Starcraft 1?
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
This review [notebookcheck.net] suggests that the 480M is good for perhaps 16.1 fps.
Re: (Score:2)
What thermal compound did you specify?
Re: (Score:2)
And do they die en masse every few months? I'm still a bit skittish over the whole bad bump debacle [theinquirer.net]....
Let me answer to that (Score:2)
Probably way better than their only remaining serious rival who are busy with removing a World known brand instead of fixing never ending Windows driver issues or the horrible image resulting from them.
Too cryptic? Well, it is ATI I talk about. I was thinking "oh these guys never satisfy?" while reading never ending whining (!) from their customers until I actually had to install ATI Windows drivers, control centre to a laptop and see they even linked to Microsoft .NET 2.0. Yes, 2.0.
They also seem to abando
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Don't be surprised when Intel buys nVidia.
Re: (Score:2)
Intel has enough money to buy AMD several times over - but buying something like nVidia (or AMD, or VIA for that matter) might be veto-ed by the Federal Trade Comission (for anti competitive reasons)
Re:That's a lot of model names (Score:4, Insightful)
Who cares? Between AMD and Intel, they are toast. Even AnandTech agrees http://www.anandtech.com/show/3871/the-sandy-bridge-preview-three-wins-in-a-row/7 [anandtech.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Haha. The first thing that strikes me about that article is how they used a block diagram to explain the naming scheme .
Re: (Score:2)
An Intel GPU outperforming a same-gen Radeon? Holy crap, did I wake up in an alternate universe today?
GF104? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
You've crossed a line (Score:2)
I think there are more product names than words in that summary. What was this all about again?
Re: (Score:2)
We are talking about graphics cards, not music instruments.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
This reads more like a press release than news (Score:2)
What's the point? (Score:2, Insightful)
99% of laptops do not have a cooling solution robust enough to handle a dual core CPU and a proper graphics card going full throttle.
I point a fan at my laptop whenever I have to do anything intensive so that it won't throttle back or just shut down.
Re:What's the point? (Score:5, Insightful)
This is kind of like saying "The average car cannot handle 400 horsepower."
Well of course not, because the average car wasn't designed to handle it. Nobody would put a transmission that can handle 400 horses into a car that only produces 100. Laptops are built to spec. There are dual, even quad core laptops out there that handle 100% load just fine. Many of the new i5 and i7 based laptops come with graphics cards powerful enough to run Crysis on high settings, and within reasonable temp ranges too. That's not to say there aren't poorly designed laptops out there that overheat, but 99% is a huge exaggeration.
There *is* a point to high end graphics in a laptop though; 3D modeling and gaming just to name a couple. Personally, I'm deeply interested in the performance of laptops, as I believe they are a huge part of what drives manufacturers to make more efficient designs.
Re: (Score:2)
No, the cooling solutions are robust, the urethane thermal heat pads making the connection between die and heat sink are what suck.
Less power for the job (Score:4, Insightful)
I use G4 Mac to read your comment and reply, on Safari. It is like 4 hours of battery on laptop remaining. How? Apple, while still old good Apple, put a real, designed to accelerate 2D/3D GPU to the laptop. GeForce FX Go5200. That is some old GPU but I am sure it uses considerably less power than a integrated intel junk.
Newer nvidia stuff, with seperated/optimized mobile drivers does considerably better. That is part of magic on 13watt idling Mac minis who have significant issues even compared to a large laptop.
With Windows 7, a modern x.org based Linux&BSD and OS X, having a good GPU optimized for job is way more than "500 fps gaming".
Buy a better laptop (Score:4, Interesting)
Or maybe blow the dust bunnies out.
Seriously, it should be no problem for a performance laptop to handle intense work. I have an MSI GX640 which has an i5 and a 5850M and it cools itself fine. I can play high end games and life is good. The fan spins up, of course, but the laptop has no failures.
If yours can't handle its hardware there's one of three things going on:
1) You upgraded it after the fact to hardware beyond it can handle. Don't do that, read up on the thermal limits and stay in them.
2) It is full of junk and can't cool properly. Clean it out. In any environment, but particularly in dusty ones, you need to clean your cooling system to keep it working well.
3) Your laptop is a crap design, get a better one.
I don't have a great deal of laptop experience, a desktop is my main system, but all the laptops I've had could cool themselves without a problem.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Or maybe blow the dust bunnies out.
Often you have to dismantle the entire laptop to get at the HSF.
Removable dust filters sure would be nice. Thanks to those my desktop is cleaner on the inside than the outside. Even after 1.5 years of neglect in a dusty room, it was spick and span when I went to work on it a couple of weeks ago.
Re: (Score:2)
Ya, never been a fan of that design. Again I'll pimp the GX640 as it has a removable back panel that reveals RAM, processor, GPU, wireless and HSF.
Re: (Score:1)
Get a can of compressed air. Turn off laptop. Blow air into that big square hole on the side of the laptop, the one with all the shiny copper fins in it. Done.
Re: (Score:2)
Thanks for the suggestion. I wonder where you learned that trick?
Could it have been... the very first line of the two preceding posts?!
Re: (Score:1, Insightful)
The point is you want to use whatever hardware is most efficient for the job. Perhaps you missed the news over the last year or so that showed adding an NVIDIA ION chipset to an Atom processor actually *increased* your battery life. If a GPU can perform a unit of work while burning through less power than a CPU would require to do the same work, you'd be nuts to use the CPU to do it.
Re: (Score:1, Insightful)
Sager is the 1% of laptops that *do* have a proper cooling solution. My i7 gtx 285 runs cooler than my desktop!
Besides, I'm glad that NVIDIA continues to support laptop and mobile devices. ATI/AMD/whatever-they're-called-now doesn't offer much support. They even have a disclaimer on their website when downloading their drivers which goes something like "installing this on a laptop? good luck with that".
Re: (Score:2)
Asus G73jh running quite well (cool) here as well...
Purchase decision relied on 1) no nVidia, 2) no SLI/CF and 3) no Dell.
My m1710 died three times, my (free replacement) m1730 died twice. Not willing to take a chance with a m17x R1 or R2
I do miss CUDA though.
Check the thermometer (Score:1)
99% of laptops do not have a cooling solution robust enough to handle a dual core CPU and a proper graphics card going full throttle. I point a fan at my laptop whenever I have to do anything intensive so that it won't throttle back or just shut down.
Maybe the "apartment" in your mom's basement might be too warm to surf n0rp "full throttle"?
Re: (Score:2)
Go back to /g/, nobody cares about tripfags here.
I'm sorry for not following the news (Score:2)
But could you at least talk a bit about what "fermi" actually is?
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Anyone who has even considered buying a graphics card recently knows that Fermi is the latest-generation GPU architecture from NVIDIA. It uses smaller transistors and crams many more cores on to one chip compared to previous generations.
nVidia's DirectX 11 graphics chip (Score:2)
That is all there really is to know. It is their latest generation of graphics hardware, and fully supports the most current standards.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:1)
Laptops don't used the PCMCIA interface for internal graphics solutions. Besides, the little expansion slots on the sides of laptops have used PCIe for ages. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Express_card [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:2)
I hope they use this for a desktop board (Score:4, Insightful)
how about openGL? (Score:1)
'Mobile' in what sense? (Score:2)