Introducing AMD’s Radeon 7000M and NVIDIA’s GeForce 600M Mobile GPUs
by Jarred Walton on December 7, 2011 2:45 AM ESTNVIDIA’s GeForce 600M Parts
We just covered the AMD side of things, but yesterday NVIDIA quietly refreshed their entry-level and midrange mobile GPUs in a similar manner. We weren’t briefed on the updates, most likely because there’s not much to say. Like AMD there are three "new" 600M parts. Here’s the overview of what NVIDIA is offering, with the previous generation equivalents listed for reference.
| NVIDIA GeForce GT 635M, GT 630M, and 610M Specifications | ||||||
| GeForce GT 635M | GeForce GT 555M | GeForce GT 630M | GeForce GT 540M | GeForce 610M | GeForce 520MX | |
| Core Name | GF106/GF108 | GF106/GF108 | GF108 | GF108 | GF119 | GF119 |
| Stream Processors | 144/96 | 144/96 | 96 | 96 | 48 | 48 |
| Texture Units | 24/16 | 24/16 | 16 | 16 | 8 | 8 |
| ROPs | 24/4 | 24/4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| Core Clock | 675/753MHz | 675/753MHz | 672MHz | 672MHz | 900MHz | 900MHz |
| Memory Clock | 1.8/3.6GHz DDR3/GDDR5 | 1.8/3.14GHz DDR3/GDDR5 | Up to 900MHz (1.8GHz) DDR3 | 900MHz (1.8GHz) DDR3 | 900MHz (1.8GHz) DDR3 | 900MHz (1.8GHz) DDR3 |
| Memory Bus Width | 192/128-bit | 192/128-bit | 128-bit | 128-bit | 64-bit | 64-bit |
| Memory Bandwidth | 43.2/57.6GB/s | 43.2/50.2GB/s | 28.8GB/s | 28.8GB/s | 14.4GB/s | 14.4GB/s |
NVIDIA has the specifications up for their 600M parts, and it appears that they’ll be doing a straight rebadge without changing the clock speeds from the 500M equivalents—in fact, they’ll even keep the craziness that is the GT 555M. The only difference we could find is that GT 635M GDDR5 variants may have slightly more memory bandwidth (or more likely is that the spec page just doesn't adequately describe the bipolar nature of the product). What they will be changing is the apparent positioning of the products. The GT 630M and 610M drop 10 points from the model number, while the GT 635M drops 20 points; that appears to leave room for future GT 640M/650M parts, though nothing has been announced as yet. We also don’t have information on pricing, but there’s a possibility that with the drop in model number the prices will also be lower.
Like the AMD 7000M launch, GeForce 600M looks to be more about marketing and product positioning than anything. Mobile GPUs are about a generation behind their desktop counterparts, so with the renaming both AMD and NVIDIA are paving the way for new high-end GPUs to replace the current HD 6990M and GTX 580M. Thus, when we see the desktop HD 7970 and GTX 680 (or whatever they end up being named), we’ll should also see HD 7970M and GTX 680M. If recent history holds, those will end up being mobile variants of HD 7700 and GTX 660 (whatever those entail).
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Roland00Address - Wednesday, December 7, 2011 - link
The 6630m to 6770m has 480 shaders (vliw5) a die size of 118mm^2 (40nm) and it is effectively a 6670 that has been downclockedThe 6990m has 1120 shaders (vliw5) a die size of 255mm^2 (40nm) and it is effectively a 6870 that has been downclocked
You can easily find cheap sub 800 dollar notebooks with one of the 6630m to 6770m graphic card in there.
So assuming a die shrink of 40nm to 28nm (with perfect scaling, which I know is impossible) the
6990m replacement will have a die size 125mm^2 or very similar to the current 6630m to 6770m.
And while a perfect scaling is impossible, some of the 7000 series gpus will be vliw4 instead of vliw5. I am assuming the 6990m replacement will be vliw4, thus I believe it is likely to get 6990m performance in the 800 dollar range in the next 6 months or so.
SydneyBlue120d - Wednesday, December 7, 2011 - link
Is there any differences or is it always the same feature set? I red rumors of new UVD version with decrypt on board and maybe Nvidia may put the latest PV version on the old/new cards ? TnxRyan Smith - Wednesday, December 7, 2011 - link
Same GPUs. Same features.theangryintern - Wednesday, December 7, 2011 - link
So where are the 7000 and 600 series desktop cards?tzhu07 - Wednesday, December 7, 2011 - link
That's what I want to know too!I recently ordered a Sandy Bridge build from newegg sans video card. I plan on using the integrated HD3000 graphics in the meantime and later drop in a 7000/Kepler GPU. I mostly use my computer for productivity and light general use, so the lack of a real video card isn't too agonizing...Bleh.
Still, I'd like some official news of the HD7970 and GTX680 top end cards.
antef - Wednesday, December 7, 2011 - link
Hey I am right there with you. I don't really have time to build during the school semester so I am debating between either building over Christmas without a video card or delaying the whole build until after the spring semester. I can't decide! If the new cards are right around the corner I would build now, but people have been saying that since May! If they are delayed until March or later I might as well just wait.dj christian - Thursday, December 8, 2011 - link
Coming in Marssotoa - Wednesday, December 7, 2011 - link
Craptastic. Rebadge again.What gets me is... Where's the competition? How does one company know what the other is doing and they match each other STEP FOR FREAKIN STEP???
CarrellK - Wednesday, December 7, 2011 - link
Seeing as how I no longer represent AMD, I think I can comment on this.As the person responsible for AMD's graphics roadmap for many years, I know for a fact that neither company knows what the other does. You might read one of Anand's articles where I was interviewed. I believe I discussed this in passing in one of those articles. That isn't to say that I didn't make my best estimates for what I thought nV would do (and was right most of the time), I did. That rarely drove my decisions.
Doing what I thought we could do that would best address the market drove the decisions. We both use nearly identical technologies to build our products, and if we both do the best we can with those technologies, guess what the outcome is?
No collusion or evil intent.
Anand Lal Shimpi - Wednesday, December 7, 2011 - link
Carrell - thanks for dropping by :)FYI, CarrellK == http://www.anandtech.com/show/2937