NVIDIA Announces New GeForce 400M GPUs, Geared for Next-Gen Optimus, 3DVision Laptops

Friday, September 3 2010

NVIDIA today introduced the NVIDIA GeForce 400M series of graphics processing units (GPUs) -- the building blocks for the next-generation of NVIDIA Optimus and NVIDIA 3D Vision notebooks that are coming onto the market from leading vendors, including Acer, Asus, Dell, Lenovo, Samsung and Toshiba, with others set to announce soon.

A critical component of the GeForce 400M Series is support for NVIDIA Optimus technology, which enables extra-long battery life by automatically switching on and off the GPU so that it runs only when needed. It has been described by reviewers as among the most important notebook technologies to come to market in recent years.

The new series of NVIDIA GeForce 400M GPUs includes:

For enthusiast users: GeForce GTX 470M and GTX 460M.
For performance users: GeForce GT 445M, GT 435M, GT 425M, GT 420M and GT 415M.

The NVIDIA GeForce 400M series are the first notebook processors designed with NVIDIA's Fermi architecture and built from the ground-up for Microsoft DirectX 11. They power notebooks with great battery life, and deliver the best high-definition (HD) experience, extensive Web browsing, immersive 3D and awesome gaming. With up to 5X faster HD video uploads to Facebook and up to 10X the game performance on the year's top title StarCraft II, GeForce 400M GPUs are the ultimate notebook upgrade.

The GeForce 400M series is also able to deliver breathtaking stereoscopic 3D images for gamers, movie-lovers and photo enthusiasts when configured with NVIDIA 3D Vision glasses and a 3D display. 3D Vision supports the richest array of 3D content available, including over 425 games, Blu-ray 3D movies, photos and streaming Web video. Notebook models featuring the GeForce 400M series and NVIDIA 3D Vision glasses will be available soon after launch, including the Acer Aspire 5745DG with GeForce GT 425M and the Asus G53Jw with GeForce GTX 460M. In addition, by including support for NVIDIA 3DTV Play, consumers can attach their notebook to a brand new 3D TV and enjoy all the latest 3D content including the hottest games in the comfort of their living room.

Only NVIDIA GeForce GPUs offer "Graphics Plus" features such as:

NVIDIA 3D Vision support, for eye-popping immersive 3D environments
PhysX support, for experiencing games with realistic physics effects
CUDA support, for GPU computing applications
NVIDIA Verde notebook drivers, for system stability and optimal performance
Support for NVIDIA 3DTV Play software, for connecting 3D Vision-based notebooks and desktops to a 3D TV.

Acer, Asus, Dell, Lenovo, Samsung, and Toshiba all announced today support for 400 Series GPUs, with more OEMs announcing soon.

posted by btarunr - 7:37 AM | Related News |

User comments

by afw (September 3rd - 8:03 AM) - Reply

Are these based on GF104 ... ??? and where is the GTX 480M ... ???

by Atom_Anti (September 3rd - 8:25 AM) - Reply

Very interesting that Dell did not announced any mobility HD5XXX DirectX11 laptops at all since last year, but when Nvidia brings their news they do not hesitate to act:wtf:.

Ati's have few very good energy efficient cards, like as HD5830 with only 24Watt. I would curious these new arrivals power consumption:rolleyes:.

by Xaser04 (September 3rd - 8:39 AM) - Reply

by: afw
Are these based on GF104 ... ??? and where is the GTX 480M ... ???

It's possible although the GTX480m is a GF100 derived chip (gtx 465 with 352 cuda cores) downclocked massively. It still requires 100w of power (or more than double its closest rival, the HD5870m).

Why Nvidia didn't simply wait for the G104 before making a mobile gpu I don't know. A downclocked mobile equivilant of the GTX460 would be perfect for gaming laptops. It would also be vastly superior to the current 480m (this desktop GTX460 vs GTX465, same performance but much better power consumption and thermals (something very important for laptops)).

EDIT: It looks like the 470m and 460m are both based on the GF104

http://hothardware.com/News/NVIDIA-Announces-Entire-Line-of-FermiBased-Mobile-GPUs/

The cuda core count appears to be a multiple of 48 (1 SM disabled on the GTX470m compared to the desktop GTX460, whilst the mobile GTX460m only appears to have 4 of the SM enabled (or physically only has 4)). The memory bus of 192bit also aligns with the GF104 (GTX460 768mb).

Looking at the specs and clock speeds the GTX470m might not be far behind the GTX480m.

btarunr - perhaps you could update your post above with this table (the one shown on the hot hardware link). I assume it has come straight from Nvidia rather than something hothardware have put together.

by W1zzard (September 3rd - 9:10 AM) - Reply

added the table from nvidia's reviewer FAQ

by TheLostSwede (September 3rd - 9:28 AM) - Reply

The 470M looks to be something different, as the 460M and 445M seems to share the same core, at least judging by the pictures, while the 480M is an entirely different chip again. Confusing...

by Faith[ROG].Anarchy (September 3rd - 12:28 PM) - Reply

Nice :D No more wait :D Now we have more Fermi GPU for notebook :toast: :banghead:

by Xaser04 (September 3rd - 12:33 PM) - Reply

by: TheLostSwede
The 470M looks to be something different, as the 460M and 445M seems to share the same core, at least judging by the pictures, while the 480M is an entirely different chip again. Confusing...

The cover on the 470m is just a heat spreader (although you are right it is oblong shaped like the GTX460.

Its interesting what desktop chip the GTX460m is based on as it doesn't match the specs of the GT(S) 450 (GF106) when it comes to memory bus width.

The 470m certainly interests me though. From the specs it should perform somwhere between the HD5770 and GTX460 desktop cards. Perhaps it could even be overclockable.

If anything it makes the 480m look like a big fat bloated whale.

by btarunr (September 3rd - 2:02 PM) - Reply

by: TheLostSwede
The 470M looks to be something different, as the 460M and 445M seems to share the same core, at least judging by the pictures, while the 480M is an entirely different chip again. Confusing...

470M is based on GF104, 460M is based on GF106. 480M was rushed in because NV desperately needed a DirectX 11 mGPU to speak of. So they crippled GF100 to epic proportions (disabling nearly half its parallel machinery) and came up with it. Now it's safe to say that NV gave up on GTX 480M. Nobody wants to rest their palms on a waffle iron.

by HossHuge (September 3rd - 2:20 PM) - Reply

by: btarunr
Nobody wants to rest their palms on a waffle iron.

:laugh:

by wolf (September 3rd - 2:28 PM) - Reply

figgen awesome to see the power of GF104 make it into a laptop, I wonder if it will take with it its legendary overclockability.

by entropy13 (September 3rd - 2:33 PM) - Reply

by: Atom_Anti
Very interesting that Dell did not announced any mobility HD5XXX DirectX11 laptops at all since last year, but when Nvidia brings their news they do not hesitate to act:wtf:.

Ati's have few very good energy efficient cards, like as HD5830 with only 24Watt. I would curious these new arrivals power consumption:rolleyes:.

The American brands didn't advertise their ATi...I mean AMD GPUs of their laptops much, but Asus, MSI, Acer and Lenovo usually promotes them quite well. Initially it was the Mobility HD 5870, 5730, 5650 and 5470, then there was the 5850, 5830, 5770 and 5450.

by lism (September 3rd - 3:49 PM) - Reply

by: Atom_Anti
Very interesting that Dell did not announced any mobility HD5XXX DirectX11 laptops at all since last year, but when Nvidia brings their news they do not hesitate to act:wtf:.

Ati's have few very good energy efficient cards, like as HD5830 with only 24Watt. I would curious these new arrivals power consumption:rolleyes:.

Because of deals with Nvidia > Cheaper chips for selling Nvidia only.

by wolf (September 3rd - 6:36 PM) - Reply

I was just noticing on the 470M and 460M the memory speed is shown as 1250mhz, is that before quad pumping?

192-bit x 5ghz effective GDDR5 speed is a butload of bandwidth for a mobile card... I mean, by my calculation, thats 120gb/s of memory bandwidth...

by Mussels (September 4th - 4:25 AM) - Reply

With up to 5X faster HD video uploads to Facebook and up to 10X the game performance on the year's top title StarCraft II, GeForce 400M GPUs are the ultimate notebook upgrade.

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