NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M
► remove from comparisonThe NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M is an upper mid-range, DirectX 11.1 compatible graphics card that was announced in the first quarter of 2012 for laptops. As of this writing, it is the fastest Kepler-based GPU built on the GK107 architecture and is manufactured in 28nm at TSMC. The graphics card uses a 128-Bit wide memory interface with GDDR5-VRAM.
Architecture
The Kepler architecture is the successor to the Fermi architecture that first appeared in laptops with the GeForce 400M series. The GK107 Kepler core offers two shader blocks, called SMX, each with 192 shaders for a total of 384 shader cores that are clocked at the same speed as as the central core. Although more shader cores are available in the Kepler architecture as compared to the Fermi design, the Kepler shaders are still expected to be up to twice as power efficient. However, due to the missing hot clock of the shader domain, two shaders of a Kepler chip are of similar speed to one shader of a Fermi chip (as the latter was clocked twice as fast). PCIe 3.0 is now supported by the mobile Kepler series and an optional Turbo mode can automatically overclock the Nvidia card by a theoretical 15 percent if the laptop cooling system allows it. The implementation of this boost mode is done in the BIOS, but it is ultimately dependent upon the manufacturer of the laptop.
Performance
Thanks to the GDDR5-VRAM, the gaming performance of the GeForce GTX 660M is well ahead of the GT 650M DDR3 and on par with the AMD Radeon HD 6950M. Even the older high-end Fermi-GPU GTX 570M is only slightly faster. Therefore, current games as of 2012 run moderately well in 1080p resolution and high details. Only a few very demanding games, such as Metro 2033 or Crysis 2, may need reduced graphical settings for smoother gameplay.
Features
The improved feature set now includes support for up to 4 active displays. Furthermore, high resolution monitors of up to 3840x2160 pixels can now be connected using DisplayPort 1.2 or HDMI 1.4a if available. HD-Audio codecs, such as Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD, can be transmitted via bitstream mode through the HDMI port. However, as most laptops will feature Optimus, the integrated GPU will likely have direct control over the display ports and may limit the feature set available by the Nvidia Kepler cards.
The 5th generation PureVideo HD video processor (VP5) is also integrated in the GK107 core and offers hardware decoding of HD videos. Common codecs such as MPEG-1/2, MPEG-4 ASP, H.264 and VC1/WMV9 are fully supported up to 4K resolutions while VC1 and MPEG-4 are supported up to 1080p. Two streams can be decoded in parallel for features such as Picture-in-Picture. Another novelty is the inclusion of a dedicated video encoding engine similar to Intel QuickSync that can be accessed by the NVENC API.
The power consumption of the GeForce GTX 660M should be best suited for notebooks 15-17 inches or greater.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
► remove from comparisonThe NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI is a high-end DirectX 11-compatible graphics card for laptops, consisting of two GeForce GTX 680M. Each card has a 28nm GK104 core based on the Kepler architecture. Compared to the desktop GeForce GTX 670, the GTX 680M also features 1344 CUDA cores, but the mobile counterpart operates at reduced core and memory clock speeds (720/1800MHz vs 915-980/3004MHz). The clocks for the SLI-setup are identical. With SLI, each card usually renders a single frame (AFR mode). Therefore, it may suffer from micro stuttering in low fps ranges of 30fps. This happens because of different timespans between two frames (e.g., irregular delays between sequential frames).
Architecture
The Kepler architecture is the successor to the Fermi architecture that first appeared in laptops with the GeForce 400M series. The GK104 Kepler core offers eight shader blocks, called SMX, that are clocked at the same speed as the central core. Although more shader cores are available in the Kepler architecture as compared to the Fermi design, the Kepler shaders are still expected to be up to twice as power efficient. However, due to the missing hot clock of the shader domain, two shaders of a Kepler chip are of similar speed to one shader of a Fermi chip (as the latter is clocked twice as fast). PCIe 3.0 is now supported by the mobile Kepler series and an optional Turbo mode can automatically overclock the Nvidia card by a theoretical 15 percent if the laptop cooling system allows it. The implementation of this boost mode is done in the BIOS, but it is ultimately dependent upon the manufacturer of the laptop.
Performance
The graphics performance of the GeForce GTX 680M SLI is on the same level as the Radeon HD 7970M Crossfire, thus making both the fastest mobile solution as of summer 2012. In our Benchmarks, the 680M SLI is just marginal in front. The GPUs have enough power to run games of 2012 fluently with Full HD resolution, maxed out graphical settings and antialiasing. Even extremely demanding titles like Metro 2033, Alan Wake or Risen 2 are playable at the highest detail settings.
Features
The improved feature set now includes support for up to 4 active displays. Furthermore, high resolution monitors of up to 3840x2160 pixels can now be connected using DisplayPort 1.2 or HDMI 1.4a if available. HD-Audio codecs, such as Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD, can be transmitted via bitstream mode through the HDMI port. However, as most laptops will feature Optimus, the integrated GPU will likely have direct control over the display ports and may limit the feature set available by the Nvidia Kepler cards.
The 5th generation PureVideo HD video processor (VP5) is also integrated in the GK104 core and offers hardware decoding of HD videos. Common codecs such as MPEG-1/2, MPEG-4 ASP, H.264 and VC1/WMV9 are fully supported up to 4K resolutions while VC1 and MPEG-4 are supported up to 1080p. Two streams can be decoded in parallel for features such as Picture-in-Picture. Another novelty is the inclusion of a dedicated video encoding engine similar to Intel QuickSync that can be accessed by the NVENC API.
The power consumption of the GeForce GTX 680M SLI should double compared to a single GTX 680M. Therefore, only large desktop replacements can handle the heat.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
GeForce GTX 600M Series |
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Codename | N13E-GE | N13E-GTX | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Architecture | Kepler | Kepler | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pipelines | 384 - unified | 2688 - unified | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Core Speed | 835 MHz | 720 MHz | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Memory Speed | 4000 MHz | 3600 MHz | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Memory Bus Width | 128 Bit | 2x 256 Bit | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Memory Type | GDDR5 | GDDR5 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Max. Amount of Memory | 2048 MB | 2x 4096 MB | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Shared Memory | no | no | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
API | DirectX 11, Shader 5.0 | DirectX 11, Shader 5.0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
technology | 28 nm | 28 nm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Features | Optimus, SLI, PhysX, Verde Drivers, CUDA, 3D Vision, 3DTV Play | Optimus, SLI, PhysX, Verde Drivers, CUDA, 3D Vision, 3DTV Play | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Notebook Size | large | large | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Date of Announcement | 22.03.2012 | 04.06.2012 |
Benchmarks
3DM Vant. Perf. total + NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M
specvp11 snx-01 + NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M
- Average benchmark values for this graphics card
* Smaller numbers mean a higher performance
1 This benchmark is not used for the average calculation
Game Benchmarks
The following benchmarks stem from our benchmarks of review laptops. The performance depends on the used graphics memory, clock rate, processor, system settings, drivers, and operating systems. So the results don't have to be representative for all laptops with this GPU. For detailed information on the benchmark results, click on the fps number.
Titanfall
2014Thief
2014X-Plane 10.25
2013Call of Duty: Ghosts
2013Battlefield 4
2013F1 2013
2013Fifa 14
2013Total War: Rome II
2013Saints Row IV
2013Company of Heroes 2
2013Metro: Last Light
2013BioShock Infinite
2013SimCity
2013Tomb Raider
2013Crysis 3
2013Dead Space 3
2013Far Cry 3
2012Assassin´s Creed III
2012Hitman: Absolution
2012Dishonored
2012World of Tanks v8
2012Fifa 13
2012F1 2012
2012Borderlands 2
2012Guild Wars 2
2012Counter-Strike: GO
2012Darksiders II
2012Sleeping Dogs
2012The Secret World
2012Max Payne 3
2012Dirt Showdown
2012Diablo III
2012Risen 2: Dark Waters
2012Mass Effect 3
2012Alan Wake
2012Anno 2070
2011Battlefield 3
2011Batman: Arkham City
2011Fifa 12
2011F1 2011
2011Dirt 3
2011Crysis 2
2011Mafia 2
2010StarCraft 2
2010Metro 2033
2010Average Gaming NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M → 100%
Average Gaming 30-70 fps → 100%
Average Gaming NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI → 218%
Average Gaming 30-70 fps → 234%