Asus Taichi 31 Review
AMD A6-1450 APU "Temash" Review
Lenovo ThinkPad X230t Review
Sony Xperia Tablet Z Review

NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M

The NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M is a fast middle class graphics card for laptops. Depending on the version, it is based on the GF108, GF116 or GF106 architecture with different shader counts, clock speeds and memory configurations. It stems from the Fermi generation and supports DirectX 11 and OpenGL 4.0.

Versions (From lowest to highest performance):

  1. 144 cores 709MHz (GF106), 128Bit GDDR5, e.g. MSI GX780
  2. 144 cores 590MHz (GF106), 192Bit DDR3, e.g. Dell XPS 17, Alienware M14x
  3. 144 cores 590MHz (GF106), 128Bit DDR3, e.g. Schenker XMG A501 / A701 (Clevo W150HRM / W170HN)
  4. 96 cores 753MHz (GF108), 128Bit GDDR5, e.g. Lenovo Y570p / Y560p
  5. 144 cores 525 MHz (GF116), 128 Bit DDR3, e.g. Medion Akoya P6812

GF106 architecture

The GF106 core of the GTX 555M is related to the GF100 core of the GeFore GTX 480M and offers 192 shaders and a 192 Bit memory bus for GDDR5. The GT 555M offers only 144 shaders and in some variants and a smaller memory bus with DDR3. Except for the memory controllers, the GF106 can basically be considered a halved GF104. Therefore, the architecture is not comparable to the old GT215 (e.g., GeForce GTS 350M) or GT216 (e.g., GeForce GT 330M) cores.

Unlike the GF100, the smaller GF104, GF106, and GF108 cores have been both shortened and considerably modified. In contrast to the GF100, which was designed for professional applications, these latter chips target the consumer market. They feature more shaders (3x16 instead of 2x16) and more texture units (8 instead of 4) and SFUs per streaming multi-processor (SM). Since there are still only 2 warp schedulers (versus 3 shader groups), Nvidia now uses superscalar execution to use the higher amount of shaders per SM more efficiently. In theory, the shaders can be utilized more efficiently and the performance per core can be improved.

However, it's worth noting that the performance of the GF106 can also be worse than the GF100 (and its predecessors) in worst case scenarios. The ECC memory protection, which is important for professional applications, was completely omitted and the FP64 hardware was shortened (only 1/3 of the shader are FP64-capable and thereby only 1/12 of the FP32’s performance). Because of these cutbacks, the size of the SM  grew only by 25% despite the higher number of shaders and larger warp schedulers with superscalar dispatch capabilities. Due to the different shader architectures and the higher clock rate of the shader domain, the core count of the Nvidia chip cannot be directly compared to AMD cores of the Radeon 5000 series (e.g. HD 5830).

Detailed information on the GF104 architecture (and by extension also the GF106 and GF108) can be found in the desktop GTX 460 article by Anandtech.

The GF114 and GF116 chips are slightly reworked chips that were introduced in 2011. Due to a changed transistor design, the clock rates were raised while maintaining more or less the same power consumption levels.

Performance

The performance of the GT 555M is highly dependent on the version of the card (see above). The 3DMark 06 performance, for example, ranges from 8857 points (Lenovo Ideapad Y570) to 13000 points (MSI GX780R). For all intents and purposes, the GT 555M in the Lenovo is therefore essentially a fast GeForce 550M. The average GT 555M (with 144 shaders) is positioned in the lower high end class and enables users to play demanding games in high settings at 1366x768. Only Metro 2033 had to be played in lower settings during our benchmark tests (see below).

Features

A feature of the GF104/106/108 chips is the support for Bitstream HD Audio (Blu-Ray) output via HDMI. Similar to the Radeon HD 5730, the GT 555M can transfer Dolby True HD and DTS-HD bitstream-wise without quality loss to a HiFi receiver.

The GT 555M offers PureVideo HD technology for video decoding. The included Video Processor 4 (VP4) supports feature set C and allows the GPU to fully decode MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 Part 2 (MPEG-4 ASP - e.g., DivX or Xvid), VC-1/WMV9, and H.264 (VLD, IDCT, Motion Compensation, and Deblocking). 

Furthermore, the GPU is able to decode two 1080p streams simultaneously (e.g., for Blu-Ray Picture-in-Picture).

Through CUDA, OpenCL, and DirectCompute 2.1 support, the GeForce GT 555M can be of help in general calculations. For example, the stream processor can encode videos considerably faster than can a modern CPU. Furthermore, physics calculations can be done by the GPU using PhysX if supported, such as in Mafia 2 or Metro 2033.

According to Nvidia, the GT 555M supports 3D Vision. It enables the laptop to send 3D content (3D games, 3D Web Streaming, 3D photos, 3D Blu-Rays) to a built-in 3D-enabled screen or an external 3D TV if supported by the laptop manufacturer and when not in conjunction with Optimus.

The relatively high power consumption of the GeForce GT 555M suits it for larger laptops from 14-17". To save power, the card supports Optimus for automatic switching between the integrated graphics card from Intel and the Nvidia GPU. Even though the video card natively supports this feature, its implementation is fully dependent on the notebook manufacturer.

ManufacturerNVIDIA
GeForce GT 500M Series

GeForce GT 555M 144@525-753MHz

GeForce GT 550M 96@740MHz

GeForce GT 540M 96@672MHz

GeForce GT 525M 96@600MHz

GeForce GT 520MX 48@900MHz

GeForce GT 520M 48@740 / 600MHz

CodenameN12E-GE-B
ArchitectureFermi
Pipelines144 - unified
Core Speed *525-753 MHz
Shader Speed *1180-1505 MHz
Memory Speed *785-900 MHz
Memory Bus Width128/192 Bit
Memory TypeDDR3/GDDR5
Max. Amount of Memory3072 MB
Shared Memoryno
DirectXDirectX 11, Shader 5.0
technology40 nm
Notebook Sizelarge
Date of Announcement06.01.2011
* The specified clock rates are only guidelines for the manufacturer and can be altered by them.

Benchmarks

3DMark 11 - Performance 1280x720
0% 100%
min: 1162     avg: 1322.5 (13%)     max: 1673 points
3DMark 11 - Performance GPU 1280x720
0% 100%
min: 1010     avg: 1178.9 (11%)     max: 1467 points
3DMark Vantage - P Result no PhysX 1280x1024
0% 100%
min: 4752     avg: 5797.1 (16%)     max: 6462 Points
3DMark Vantage - P GPU no PhysX 1280x1024
0% 100%
min: 4128     avg: 4847.1 (13%)     max: 5381 Points
3DMark 06
0% 100%
min: 8836     avg: 10585.1 (36%)     max: 13033 Points
3DMark 05 - Standard 1024x768
0% 100%
min: 13882     avg: 18199.3 (49%)     max: 19357 Points
3DMark 03 - Standard 1024x768
0% 100%
min: 23096     avg: 26417.7 (18%)     max: 28937 Points
3DMark 2001SE - Standard 1024x768
0% 100%
min: 12299     avg: 14449 (24%)     max: 16599 Points
Unigine Heaven 2.1 - high, Tesselation (normal), DirectX11 1280x1024
0% 100%
min: 16.6     avg: 17.4 (11%)     max: 18.7 fps
PCMark Vantage - Gaming Score 1024x768
0% 100%
min: 5130     avg: 8215.4 (31%)     max: 15041 Points
SPECviewperf 11 - Catia 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 3.49     avg: 4.1 (6%)     max: 4.61 fps
SPECviewperf 11 - Ensight 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 11.12     avg: 12 (20%)     max: 13.52 fps
SPECviewperf 11 - Lightwave 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 8.74     avg: 10.2 (13%)     max: 12.27 fps
SPECviewperf 11 - Maya 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 6.85     avg: 8.2 (7%)     max: 10.53 fps
SPECviewperf 11 - Pro/ENGINEER 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 0.96     avg: 1 (6%)     max: 1.1 fps
SPECviewperf 11 - SolidWorks 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 4.92     avg: 7.2 (11%)     max: 10.19 fps
SPECviewperf 11 - Tcvis 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 0.69     avg: 0.8 (1%)     max: 0.92 fps
SPECviewperf 11 - Siemens NX 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 1.86     avg: 2.4 (4%)     max: 3.1 fps
Cinebench R11.5 - OpenGL 64Bit
0% 100%
min: 26.61     avg: 32.2 (37%)     max: 35.21 Points
Cinebench R10 - Shading 32Bit
0% 100%
min: 4316     avg: 5320.8 (49%)     max: 5950 Points
Windows 7 Experience Index - Graphics
0% 100%
min: 5.3     avg: 6.5 (82%)     max: 6.9 points
Windows 7 Experience Index - Gaming graphics
0% 100%
min: 6.7     avg: 6.8 (87%)     max: 6.9 points
- Range of benchmark values for this graphics card
- Average benchmark values for this graphics card

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 detailled information on the benchmark results, click on the fps number.

The Secret World
low:
43.8  fps      Compare
med.:
34.1  fps      Compare
high:
21.1  fps      Compare
ultra:
8.1  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
Ghost Recon: Future Soldier
low:
34.8  fps      Compare
med.:
16.2  fps      Compare
ultra:
7.8  fps      Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
Max Payne 3
Max Payne 3 (2012)
low:
45.3  fps      Compare
med.:
41.9  fps      Compare
high:
12.6  fps      Compare
ultra:
9.9  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings med..
Dirt Showdown
low:
66.6  fps      Compare
med.:
61.4  fps      Compare
high:
37.1  fps      Compare
ultra:
12.9  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Diablo III
Diablo III (2012)
low:
119.4  fps      Compare
med.:
61.2  fps      Compare
high:
39.1  fps      Compare
ultra:
27.7  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Risen 2: Dark Waters
low:
41.6  fps      Compare
med.:
28.1  fps      Compare
high:
22.6  fps      Compare
ultra:
10.6  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
Mass Effect 3
low:
59  fps      Compare
high:
48  fps      Compare
ultra:
27.2  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Alan Wake
Alan Wake (2012)
low:
36.2  fps      Compare
med.:
24.6  fps      Compare