NVIDIA GeForce GT 230M

The Nividia GeForce GT 230M is a DirectX 10.1 graphics adapter for notebooks based on the GT216 core. Because of the 48 shader cores, it should perform better than the GT 130M and due to the 40nm production process the power consumption should stay the same.

The core of the GT230M is internally called GT216 and according to Nvidia based on the current high-end desktop architecture (GTX 200 series). Furthermore, Nvidia has improved the micro-architecture for further power saving and performance increases. Therefore, the performance per shader unit should be slightly improved compared to the previous generation.

As the GeForce 9700M GTS, the GT 230M features 48 stream processors that do the work of the former dedicated pixel- and vertex-shaders. The unified shaders of Nvidia are 1-dimensional (AMD has 5-dimensional shaders which leads to the higher number of shaders).

The GeForce GT230M also supports CUDA, DirectX Compute, OpenCL, and PhysiX to use the shaders for other tasks than rendering images (like encoding videos, calculating the physics of a game or mathematical tasks). For these special tasks, the GPU can be noticeably faster than current CPUs.

The mobile graphics card has a built in video decoder called PureVideo HD with VP4. The Video Processor 4 (VP4) supports the full decoding of H.264, VC-1, and now also MPEG-4 ASP (e.g. DivX or XviD). MPEG-1 still wont be supported, but the decoding of this codec is quite trivial on a CPU.

In conjunction with a chipset from Nvidia with integrated graphics (e.g. 9400M), the GT 230M supports Hybrid-SLI (HybridPower and GeForceBoost). HybridPower is a technique to choose between the integrated and dedicated graphics core, if performance or battery runtime is needed. This works only in Windows Vista (and possibly Windows 7). Up to now the user has to use a tool to switch between the GPUs. Later Nvidia wants to switch automatically in the drivers. GeForceBoost is not supported by the G 230M because the SLI combination would not perform better.

The performance of the middle class gpu GT 230M should be somewhere between the GeForce GT130M and the 9700M GTS and below the GT 240M because of the lower clock rate. Demanding DirectX 10 games like Crysis should run fluently in medium details. Older or less demanding games should run in high detail settings and high resolutions.

Depending on the the used type of graphics memory (GDDR2, GDDR3 or perhaps even DDR2/DDR3) the performance may differ noticeably.

The power consumption of the mobile graphics card is - like the GT 130M and GT 240M - 23 Watt (TDP). Furthermore, according to Nvidia, the new improved core does only need half of the power in Idle mode.

benchmarks

3DMark 2001: - Standard 1024x768
0% 100%
      min: 21800, avg: 21800, max: 21800 Points ... More Details

3DMark 03: - Standard 1024x768
0% 100%
      min: 15514, avg: 15514, max: 15514 Points ... More Details

3DMark 05: - Standard 1024x768
0% 100%
      min: 10397, avg: 10397, max: 10397 Points ... More Details

3DMark 06:
0% 100%
      min: 5676, avg: 5676, max: 5676 Points ... More Details

Cinebench R10: - Shading
0% 100%
      min: 3109, avg: 3109, max: 3109 Points ... More Details

- Range of benchmark values for this graphics card
- Average benchmark values for this graphics card
Based on 5 benchmarks

Game Benchmarks

CoD Modern Warfare 2 (2009)

low:

88.4

[X] Intel Core 2 Duo P7450 2.1GHz MB RAM
GeForce GT 230M,

 fps

med.:

32.9

[X] Intel Core 2 Duo P7450 2.1GHz MB RAM
GeForce GT 230M,

 fps

high:

28.5

[X] Intel Core 2 Duo P7450 2.1GHz MB RAM
GeForce GT 230M,

 fps

» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.

Risen (2009)

low:

53.3

[X] Intel Core 2 Duo P7450 2.1GHz MB RAM
GeForce GT 230M,

 fps

med.:

23

[X] Intel Core 2 Duo P7450 2.1GHz MB RAM
GeForce GT 230M,

 fps

» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.

Need for Speed Shift (2009)

low:

52

[X] Intel Core 2 Duo P7450 2.1GHz MB RAM
GeForce GT 230M,

 fps

med.:

29

[X] Intel Core 2 Duo P7450 2.1GHz MB RAM
GeForce GT 230M,

 fps

high:

19.5

[X] Intel Core 2 Duo P7450 2.1GHz MB RAM
GeForce GT 230M,

 fps

» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.

Crysis - GPU Benchmark (2007)

low:

43.1

[X] Intel Core 2 Duo P7450 2.1GHz 4096MB RAM
GeForce GT 230M (450MHz), 512MB (680MHz) GDDR3, ForceWare 186.47

 fps

med.:

27.1

[X] Intel Core 2 Duo P7450 2.1GHz 4096MB RAM
GeForce GT 230M (450MHz), 512MB (680MHz) GDDR3, ForceWare 186.47

 fps

high:

17

[X] Intel Core 2 Duo P7450 2.1GHz 4096MB RAM
GeForce GT 230M (450MHz), 512MB (680MHz) GDDR3, ForceWare 186.47

 fps

» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.

Crysis - CPU Benchmark (2007)

low:

44.8

[X] Intel Core 2 Duo P7450 2.1GHz 4096MB RAM
GeForce GT 230M (450MHz), 512MB (680MHz) GDDR3, ForceWare 186.47

 fps

med.:

25

[X] Intel Core 2 Duo P7450 2.1GHz 4096MB RAM
GeForce GT 230M (450MHz), 512MB (680MHz) GDDR3, ForceWare 186.47

 fps

high:

15.3

[X] Intel Core 2 Duo P7450 2.1GHz 4096MB RAM
GeForce GT 230M (450MHz), 512MB (680MHz) GDDR3, ForceWare 186.47

 fps

» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.

F.E.A.R. (2005)

low:

343

[X] Intel Core 2 Duo P7450 2.1GHz 4096MB RAM
GeForce GT 230M (450MHz), 512MB (680MHz) GDDR3, ForceWare 186.47

 fps

med.:

159

[X] Intel Core 2 Duo P7450 2.1GHz 4096MB RAM
GeForce GT 230M (450MHz), 512MB (680MHz) GDDR3, ForceWare 186.47

 fps

high:

58

[X] Intel Core 2 Duo P7450 2.1GHz 4096MB RAM
GeForce GT 230M (450MHz), 512MB (680MHz) GDDR3, ForceWare 186.47

 fps

» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.

Quake 3 Arena - Timedemo (1999)

high:

454.9

[X] Intel Core 2 Duo P7450 2.1GHz 4096MB RAM
GeForce GT 230M (450MHz), 512MB (680MHz) GDDR3, ForceWare 186.47

 fps

» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.

Notebook reviews with NVIDIA GeForce GT 230M graphics card

HP Pavilion dv8 (Intel Core i7 720QM, 18.4")
» HP Pavilion dv8 - External Review