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NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M

NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M

The NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M is a mid-range, DirectX 11.1 compatible graphics card that was announced in the first quarter of 2012 for laptops. It is a 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 either the more common but slower DDR3 for VRAM or the more expensive and faster GDDR5.

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 the processor 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 as fast as one shader of a Fermi chip (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 gaming performance of the GeForce GT 640M equipped with DDR3 graphics memory lies somewhere in the former 2011 high-end category between the older GeForce GT 555M and GeForce GTX 460M. The performance is exceptionally good in shader-heavy DirectX 11 games and benchmarks. However, the 128-Bit memory interface can be a bottleneck if DDR3 graphics memory is used. In our tests, demanding games of 2011 like Battlefield 3 are playable in 1366x768 and medium settings. Less demanding games, such as Modern Warfare 3, are easily playable with maxed out settings and high resolutions. Details on synthetic and gaming benchmarks performances of the GT 640M can be seen below. The more uncommon GDDR5 version of the GT 640M is slightly faster, getting closer to the DDR3 version of the GT 650M.

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 NVENCI API.

The power consumption of the GeForce GT 640M is a bit below that of the older GeForce GT 540M and more in line with the GT 525M. As a result, the Nvidia GPU is best suited for multimedia notebooks 14-inches or greater.

ManufacturerNVIDIA
GeForce GT 600M Series

GeForce GT 650M SLI 768@790-835MHz

GeForce GT 650M 384@735 - 850MHz

GeForce GT 645M 384@710MHz

GeForce GT 640M 384@625MHz

GeForce GT 640M LE 384@500MHz

GeForce GT 635M 144@675-753MHz

GeForce GT 630M 96@672MHz

GeForce GT 625M 96@625MHz

GeForce GT 620M 96@625 - 715MHz

CodenameN13P-GS
ArchitectureKepler
Pipelines384 - unified
Core Speed *625 MHz
Shader Speed *625 MHz
Memory Speed *900 MHz
Memory Bus Width128 Bit
Memory TypeDDR3
Max. Amount of Memory2048 MB
Shared Memoryno
DirectXDirectX 11, Shader 5.0
technology28 nm
FeaturesOptimus, PhysX, Verde Drivers, CUDA, 3D Vision, 3DTV Play
Notebook Sizemedium sized
Date of Announcement22.03.2012
* The specified clock rates are only guidelines for the manufacturer and can be altered by them.

Benchmarks

3DMark 11 - Performance 1280x720
0% 100%
min: 1691     avg: 1854.9 (18%)     max: 1968 points
3DMark 11 - Performance GPU 1280x720
0% 100%
min: 1534     avg: 1708.3 (15%)     max: 1778 points
3DMark Vantage - P Result no PhysX 1280x1024
0% 100%
min: 6648     avg: 7412.7 (20%)     max: 8551 Points
3DMark Vantage - P GPU no PhysX 1280x1024
0% 100%
min: 5773     avg: 6577.8 (18%)     max: 7440 Points
3DMark 06
0% 100%
min: 10001     avg: 11136.4 (38%)     max: 12843 Points
3DMark 05 - Standard 1024x768
0% 100%
min: 15287     avg: 17104.8 (46%)     max: 19564 Points
3DMark 03 - Standard 1024x768
0% 100%
min: 28232     avg: 29495 (20%)     max: 31151 Points
3DMark 2001SE - Standard 1024x768
0% 100%
min: 12955     avg: 12955 (21%)     max: 12955 Points
Unigine Heaven 2.1 - high, Tesselation (normal), DirectX11 1280x1024
0% 100%
min: 22.5     avg: 23.9 (16%)     max: 26 fps
PCMark Vantage - Gaming Score 1024x768
0% 100%
min: 4646     avg: 8202.4 (31%)     max: 13470 Points
SPECviewperf 11 - Catia 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 6.75     avg: 6.9 (10%)     max: 7.14 fps
SPECviewperf 11 - Ensight 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 18.15     avg: 18.3 (31%)     max: 18.39 fps
SPECviewperf 11 - Lightwave 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 9.11     avg: 11.8 (15%)     max: 14.44 fps
SPECviewperf 11 - Maya 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 8.97     avg: 9.9 (9%)     max: 10.86 fps
SPECviewperf 11 - Pro/ENGINEER 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 1.07     avg: 1.7 (10%)     max: 2.23 fps
SPECviewperf 11 - SolidWorks 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 5.97     avg: 6.6 (10%)     max: 7.17 fps
SPECviewperf 11 - Tcvis 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 0.71     avg: 0.8 (1%)     max: 0.82 fps
SPECviewperf 11 - Siemens NX 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 2.48     avg: 2.5 (4%)     max: 2.6 fps
Cinebench R11.5 - OpenGL 64Bit
0% 100%
min: 32.37     avg: 37.4 (43%)     max: 41.86 Points
Cinebench R10 - Shading 32Bit
0% 100%
min: 4578     avg: 5741.4 (53%)     max: 7081 Points
Windows 7 Experience Index - Graphics
0% 100%
min: 4.6     avg: 6.3 (80%)     max: 7 points
Windows 7 Experience Index - Gaming graphics
0% 100%
min: 6.7     avg: 6.9 (87%)     max: 7 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.

Metro: Last Light
Metro: Last Light (2013)
low:
34  fps      Compare
med.:
28.4  fps      Compare
high:
13.8  fps      Compare
ultra:
9.2  fps      Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
BioShock Infinite
low:
83.3  fps      Compare
med.:
47.4  fps      Compare
high:
40.4  fps      Compare
ultra:
14.3  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm
low:
177  fps      Compare
med.:
75  fps      Compare
high:
50  fps      Compare
ultra:
18.6  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
SimCity
SimCity (2013)
low:
36.1  fps      Compare
med.:
20.8  fps      Compare
high:
16.7  fps      Compare
ultra:
9.8  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
Tomb Raider
Tomb Raider (2013)
low:
87.6  fps      Compare
med.:
50.1  fps      Compare
high:
38.5  fps      Compare
ultra:
9.9  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Crysis 3
Crysis 3 (2013)
low:
44.3  fps      Compare
med.:
25.3  fps      Compare
high:
17  fps      Compare
ultra:
6.5  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
Dead Space 3
Dead Space 3 (2013)
low:
155  fps      Compare
med.:
72  fps      Compare
high:
54.8  fps      Compare
ultra:
32.6  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Far Cry 3
Far Cry 3 (2012)
low:
44.1  fps      Compare