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Nvidia adds GeForce GTX 960M, 950M GPUs to mobile lineup

by Mark Tyson on 13 March 2015, 10:02

Tags: NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA), MSI, Hewlett Packard (NYSE:HPQ), Acer (TPE:2353), ASUSTeK (TPE:2357), AORUS

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Nvidia has officially launched the GeForce GTX 960M, 950M and GeForce 940M, 930M and 920M GPUs. These new parts will flesh out its Maxwell GeForce 900M GPU family and join the higher end GeForce GTX 980M and 970M which have already appeared in powerful gaming laptops like the MSI GT80 Titan SLI (GTX 980M x2) and Aorus X3 Plus v3 (GTX970M).

To accompany the launch of the GeForce GTX 960M and 950M parts Nvidia wanted to highlight the raft of new gaming laptops sporting these mid-range mobile GPUs. It says that these GPUs can "deliver never-before-seen levels of gaming performance wrapped inside sleek notebook designs." Partners including Acer, Alienware, ASUS, HP, MSI and Lenovo have all launched new laptops incorporating the new Maxwell GPUs. Updated models include the Acer V Nitro, Alienware 13, ASUS ROG G501, HP Omen, MSI GE Apache, MSI GS70 Stealth, MSI GS60 Ghost and Lenovo Y50. Rather than completely new designs they all seem to be updated models that used to sport a previous generation Nvidia chip.

With the above laptop upgrades users probably won't see a large performance leap in comparison to the old model but the better performance per watt of the Maxwell architecture could be especially welcome in a mobile computer. With regard to power consumption, Nvidia is also keen to point out the laptops will support an improved 'BatteryBoost' utility and Optimus technology to intelligently switch between integrated and discrete graphics. Other important features buyers of the new laptops can enjoy include ShadowPlay video recording and DirectX 12 support.

Key specifications:

 

GTX 960M

GTX 950M

CUDA Cores

Base Clock (MHz)

Memory Clock

Memory Interface

Memory Interface Width

Memory Bandwidth (GB/sec)

640

1096 + Boost

2500MHz

GDDR5

128-bit

80

640

914 + Boost

1000 or 2500 MHz

DDR3 or GDDR5

128-bit

23 or 80

 

Many of the new updated laptops are already shipping, according to Nvidia. For some users these GTX 960M and 950M powered - and typically thin and light - laptops could represent the sweet spot that balances price, performance and portability.



HEXUS Forums :: 7 Comments

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So wait - there are two different versions of the 950M, one of which is virtually identical to the 960M and one of which is totally hamstrung by terrible memory architecture?!

Nice and clear, thanks NVidia…
CK_1985
So wait - there are two different versions of the 950M, one of which is virtually identical to the 960M and one of which is totally hamstrung by terrible memory architecture?!

Nice and clear, thanks NVidia…
I would guess the one using ddr3 is using the motherboard ram rather than it's own ram.
LSG501
I would guess the one using ddr3 is using the motherboard ram rather than it's own ram.

Unlikely. For several generations now, Nvidia has done midrange mobile GPUs in DDR3 and GDDR5 variants, with the former having significantly less memory bandwidth and clocks, translating into quite lower real world performance. The numbers match what they have done since midrange mobile Fermi (1st and 2nd gen), with a 5GB/s deviation.

Regarding system RAM, all mobile GPUs still use any form of TurboCache to inflate numbers, even if that doesn't actually reflect on actual usage. On virtually all cases (barring very low-end devices) system RAM isn't used at all.
AMD does same gpu's with both ddr3 and gddr5 for over 5 years too… stop the blame game
I can't find any benchmarks comparing the 960m with the 860m, but they don't look all that different. Can anyone point me to one, if on even exists yet?