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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M

The NVidia GeForce GTX 260M is the high-end graphic card of the 200M series and based on the G92b core. Therefore, the chip is a 9800M GTX with slightly higher clock rates of 550/1375/950 against 500/1250/800. It is produced in 55nm. Therefore, it is not similar to the Desktop GTX 260 but somewhat similar to the 9800 GT.

As all cards with DirectX 10 capabilities, the GeForce GTX 260M renders the 3D images using "Unified Shaders". There don't exist any more dedicated pixel- and vertex shaders but 112 so called stream processors make the graphic work (which has been done by pixel and vertex shaders in former days). Furthermore, the shader units are higher clocked than the chip (1375 MHz).

The performance of the GTX 260M is somewhat higher than with the 9800M GTX due to the higher clock speed. For current DirectX 10 games like Crysis, World in Conflict, Bioshock or Age of Conan, the performance of this graphic card is sufficient with medium and high details. Older games run fluently with high resolutions and full details. The memory equipment is up to 1024 MB GDDR3 (up to 950MHz in MXM 3.0 boards and up to 800 MHz in MXM 2.0 boards).

An advantage of the GeForce GTX 260M is the integrated PureVideo HD video processor. It is able to help with the decoding of H.264-, VC-1-, MPEG2- and WMV9 video material in HD quality and therefore eases the CPU usage.

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. 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 with this card, as there would be no performance gain to combine the integrated GPU with the video card.

The current consumption of up to 75 Watts (of the whole board) allows the use of the card only in laptops with a strong cooling system. Therefore, the GTX 260M can be found only in heavy and big notebooks.

Compared with Desktop graphic cards, the performance is about at the level of the GeForce 9800 GT (600/1500/900).

ManufacturerNVIDIA
SeriesGeForce GTX 200M
CodenameN10E-GT
Pipelines112 - unified
Core Speed *550 MHz
Shader Speed *1375 MHz
Memory Speed *950 MHz
Memory Bus Width256 Bit
Memory TypeGDDR3
Max. Amount of Memory1024 MB
Shared Memoryno
DirectXDirectX 10, Shader 4.0
Current Consumption75 Watt
Transistors754 Million
technology55 nm
FeaturesHybridPower, PureVideo HD, CUDA, PhysX ready
Notebook Sizelarge
Date of Announcement02.03.2009
InformationMXM 3
Link to Manufacturer Page
* The specified clock rates are only guidelines for the manufacturer and can be altered by them.

benchmarks

3DMark 2001: - Standard 1024x768
0% 100%
      min: 32699, avg: 34053, max: 34905 Points
... More Details

3DMark 03: - Standard 1024x768
0% 100%
      min: 30539, avg: 30625, max: 30685 Points
... More Details

3DMark 05: - Standard 1024x768
0% 100%
      min: 12669, avg: 14742, max: 16611 Points
... More Details

3DMark 06:
0% 100%
      min: 9458, avg: 10074, max: 11080 Points
... More Details

Cinebench R10: - Shading
0% 100%
      min: 3702, avg: 3901, max: 4186 Points
... More Details

3DMark Vantage: - P Result 1280x1024
0% 100%
      min: 4080, avg: 4824, max: 5686 Points
... More Details

- Range of benchmark values for this graphics card
- Average benchmark values for this graphics card
Based on 36 benchmarks

Game Benchmarks

Anno 1404
Anno 1404 (2009)
low:
125.2 133 ~ 129 fps
ultra:
36.2 39 44 49.5 ~ 42 fps
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Sims 3
Sims 3 (2009)
low:
313  fps
med.:
105  fps
high:
89  fps
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
F.E.A.R. 2
F.E.A.R. 2 (2009)
low:
132 151.2 ~ 142 fps
med.:
86.5 89 91.1 ~ 89 fps
high:
63.8 65 67.4 73.4 77.4 ~ 69 fps
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
GTA IV - Grand Theft Auto
GTA IV - Grand Theft Auto (2008)
low:
57.9  fps
med.:
48  fps
high:
36.7  fps
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Left 4 Dead
Left 4 Dead (2008)
low:
107 135.8 ~ 121 fps
high:
69 85.8 103.3 111.7 ~ 92 fps
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Racedriver: GRID
Racedriver: GRID (2008)
low:
105 111.9 ~ 108 fps
med.:
61.5 72 75.1 ~ 70 fps
high:
52.7 53 56.2 59.1 ~ 55 fps
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Call of Duty 4 - Modern Warfare
Call of Duty 4 - Modern Warfare (2007)
low:
211.3  fps
med.:
95.2 168.8 ~ 132 fps
high:
52.8 67.3 77.8 88.5 ~ 72 fps
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Supreme Commander - FA Bench
Supreme Commander - FA Bench (2007)
med.:
53.4  fps
high:
49.2  fps
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Crysis - GPU Benchmark
Crysis - GPU Benchmark (2007)
low:
92 123.7 ~ 108 fps
med.:
56 57.2 76.9 ~ 63 fps
high:
31 38 38.4 39.3 41.9 ~ 38 fps
» With most tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Crysis - CPU Benchmark
Crysis - CPU Benchmark (2007)
low:
110 129.5 ~ 120 fps
med.:
49 52.6 76.9 ~ 60 fps
high:
30.7 35.5 37 37 39.2 ~ 36 fps
» With most tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
World in Conflict - Benchmark
World in Conflict - Benchmark (2007)
med.:
47 72 ~ 60 fps
high:
38 42 ~ 40 fps
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Call of Juarez Benchmark
Call of Juarez Benchmark (2006)
high:
22.7 26.6 27.2 ~ 26 fps
» With most tested laptops not playable.
Half Life 2 - Lost Coast Benchmark
Half Life 2 - Lost Coast Benchmark (2005)
high:
158  fps
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Quake 4
Quake 4 (2005)
ultra:
62  fps
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft (2005)
high:
51.8  fps
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Counter-Strike Source
Counter-Strike Source (2004)
high:
121 270 ~ 196 fps
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Doom 3
Doom 3 (2004)
ultra:
178  fps
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Quake 3 Arena - Timedemo
Quake 3 Arena - Timedemo (1999)
high:
575  fps
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.

For more games that might be playable and a list of all games and graphics cards visit our Gaming List

Gaming Performance

The following gaming tests were conduced with a GTX 260M with 1GB GDDR3 and a Core 2 Duo P8600 CPU.

Crysis Warhead: 1024x768, Enthusiast: 26.7 fps -> playable
World in Conflict: 1680x1050, Very High: 22.0 fps -> no shooter, therefore playable
Far Cry 2: 1680x1050, Very High, 2xAA: 42 fps -> fluently playable
Call of Duty 5: 1680x1050, 2xAA: 49 fps -> fluently playable
Call of Duty 4: 1680x1050, 4xAA: 65 fps -> fluently playable
Left 4 Dead: 1680x105, high, 4xAA: 60 fps -> fluently playable

Notebook reviews with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M graphics card

Asus G51VX (Intel Core 2 Quad Q9000, 15.6")
» Asus G51VX - External Review

Asus G60VX (Intel Core 2 Duo T9400, 16.0")
» Review Asus G60VX Gaming Notebook - Review
» Asus G60VX - External Review

Asus G71GX (Intel Core 2 Duo T9550, 17.0")
» Review Asus G71GX Gaming-Notebook - Review
» Asus G71GX - External Review

Ibuypower Battalion 101 M865TU (Intel Core 2 Duo P8700, 15.0")
» Ibuypower Battalion 101 M865TU - External Review

mySN mySN XMG5 (Intel Core 2 Quad Q9100, 15.4")
» Review mySN XMG5 (Clevo M860TU) Notebook - Review

Pioneer Dreambook M86 (Intel Core 2 Duo T9600, 15.4")
» Pioneer Dreambook M86 - External Review

Sager NP8662 (Intel Core 2 Duo P8600, 15.4")
» Sager NP8662 - External Review

 

Author: Klaus Hinum (Update: 2009-09-24)