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
GeForce GTX 200M Series

GeForce GTX 285M SLI 256@576MHz

GeForce GTX 280M SLI 256@585MHz

GeForce GTX 260M SLI 224@550MHz

GeForce GTX 285M 128@576MHz

GeForce GTX 280M 128@585MHz

GeForce GTX 260M 112@550MHz

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 Pagehttp://www.nvidia.com/object/product_gef...
* The specified clock rates are only guidelines for the manufacturer and can be altered by them.

Benchmarks

3DMark 2001SE - Standard 1024x768
0% 100%
min: 32699     avg: 34053 (56%)     max: 34905 Points
3DMark 03 - Standard 1024x768
0% 100%
min: 27301     avg: 29794.3 (28%)     max: 30685 Points
3DMark 05 - Standard 1024x768
0% 100%
min: 12669     avg: 14772.6 (46%)     max: 16611 Points
3DMark 06
0% 100%
min: 9458     avg: 10177.2 (39%)     max: 11209 Points
PCMark Vantage - Gaming Score 1024x768
0% 100%
min: 4032     avg: 4911.2 (23%)     max: 6382 Points
Windows Vista Experience Index - GPU
0% 100%
min: 5.9     avg: 5.9 (87%)     max: 5.9 Points
Windows Vista Experience Index - GPU Games
0% 100%
min: 5.8     avg: 5.8 (85%)     max: 5.8 Points
Cinebench R10 - Shading 32Bit
0% 100%
min: 3702     avg: 3966.3 (37%)     max: 4425 Points
3DMark Vantage - P Result no PhysX 1280x1024
0% 100%
min: 4080     avg: 4953.1 (16%)     max: 5686 Points
3DMark Vantage - P GPU no PhysX 1280x1024
0% 100%
min: 3840     avg: 4315.8 (13%)     max: 5058 Points
Windows 7 Experience Index - Graphics
0% 100%
min: 6.8     avg: 6.8 (86%)     max: 6.8 points
Windows 7 Experience Index - Gaming graphics
0% 100%
min: 6.8     avg: 6.8 (86%)     max: 6.8 points
Cinebench R11.5 - OpenGL 64Bit
0% 100%
min: 28     avg: 28 (37%)     max: 28 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.

Mafia 2
Mafia 2 (2010)
med.:
45  fps      Compare
high:
43.8  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
StarCraft 2
StarCraft 2 (2010)
low:
154  fps      Compare
high:
47  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Just Cause 2 (2010): Not playable with a weaker graphics card. - more...
Battlefield: Bad Company 2
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (2010)
low:
79.1  fps      Compare
med.:
54.8  fps      Compare
high:
41.6  fps      Compare
ultra:
23.2  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Stalker: Call of Pripyat (2010): Not playable with a weaker graphics card. - more...
CoD Modern Warfare 2
CoD Modern Warfare 2 (2009)
low:
137.4  fps      Compare
med.:
59.1  fps      Compare
high:
55.4  fps      Compare
ultra:
40  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Risen
Risen (2009)
low:
51.3 80.3 ~ 66 fps      Compare
med.:
41.3 50.5 ~ 46 fps      Compare
high:
31.7 36.5 ~ 34 fps      Compare
ultra:
26.9  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings med..
Resident Evil 5 (2009): Playable with a weaker graphics card in detail settings high. - more...
Need for Speed Shift
Need for Speed Shift (2009)
med.:
66.5  fps      Compare
high:
61  fps      Compare
ultra:
39.1  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Colin McRae: DIRT 2
Colin McRae: DIRT 2 (2009)
low:
92  fps      Compare
med.:
79.2  fps      Compare
high:
61.5  fps      Compare
ultra:
35.3  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Anno 1404
Anno 1404 (2009)
low:
125.2 133 ~ 129 fps      Compare
ultra:
36.2 39 44 49.5 ~ 42 fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
ArmA 2 (2009): Not playable with a weaker graphics card. - more...
Sims 3
Sims 3 (2009)
low:
313  fps      Compare
med.:
105  fps      Compare
high:
89  fps      Compare
» 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      Compare
med.:
86.5 89 91.1 ~ 89 fps      Compare
high:
63.8 65 67.4 73.4 77.4 ~ 69 fps      Compare
ultra:
41.8  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
GTA IV - Grand Theft Auto
GTA IV - Grand Theft Auto (2008)
low:
57.9  fps      Compare
med.:
48  fps      Compare
high:
36.7  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Left 4 Dead
Left 4 Dead (2008)
low:
107 135.8 ~ 121 fps      Compare
high:
69 85.8 103.3 111.7 ~ 92 fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Far Cry 2 (2008): Playable with a weaker graphics card in detail settings high. - more...
Racedriver: GRID
Racedriver: GRID (2008)
low:
105 111.9 ~ 108 fps      Compare
med.:
61.5 72 75.1 ~ 70 fps      Compare
high:
52.7 53 56.2 59.1 ~ 55 fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Trackmania Nations Forever (2008): Playable with a weaker graphics card in detail settings ultra. - more...
Call of Duty 4 - Modern Warfare
Call of Duty 4 - Modern Warfare (2007)
low:
211.3  fps      Compare
med.:
95.2 168.8 ~ 132 fps      Compare
high:
52.8 67.3 77.8 88.5 ~ 72 fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Supreme Commander - FA Bench
Supreme Commander - FA Bench (2007)
med.:
53.4  fps      Compare
high:
49.2  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Crysis - GPU Benchmark
Crysis - GPU Benchmark (2007)
low:
92 123.7 ~ 108 fps      Compare
med.:
56 57.2 76.9 ~ 63 fps      Compare
high:
31 38 38.4 39.3 41.9 ~ 38 fps      Compare
ultra:
12.2  fps      Compare
» With most tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Crysis - CPU Benchmark
Crysis - CPU Benchmark (2007)
low:
110 129.5 ~ 120 fps      Compare
med.:
49 52.6 76.9 ~ 60 fps      Compare
high:
30.7 35.5 37 37 39.2 ~ 36 fps      Compare
ultra:
11.5  fps      Compare
» With most tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
World in Conflict - Benchmark
World in Conflict - Benchmark (2007)
med.:
47 72 ~ 60 fps      Compare
high:
38 42 ~ 40 fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Command and Conquer III (2007): Not playable with a weaker graphics card. - more...
Call of Juarez Benchmark
Call of Juarez Benchmark (2006)
high:
22.7 26.6 27.2 ~ 26 fps      Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
Half Life 2 - Lost Coast Benchmark
Half Life 2 - Lost Coast Benchmark (2005)
high:
158  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
F.E.A.R. (2005): Playable with a weaker graphics card in detail settings high. - more...
Quake 4
Quake 4 (2005)
ultra:
62  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft (2005)
high:
51.8  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Counter-Strike Source
Counter-Strike Source (2004)
high:
121 270 ~ 196 fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Doom 3
Doom 3 (2004)
ultra:
178  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Quake 3 Arena - Timedemo
Quake 3 Arena - Timedemo (1999)
high:
575  fps      Compare
» 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

Alienware M15x (Intel Core i7 720QM, 15.6")
» Review Alienware M15x Gaming-Notebook - Review
» Alienware M15x - External Review

Asus G51J (Intel Core i7 720QM, 15.6")
» Asus G51J - External Review

Asus G51J-1B (Intel Core i7 720QM, 15.6")
» Asus G51J-1B - External Review

Asus G51J-3D (Intel Core i7 720QM, 15.6")
» Asus G51J-3D - External Review

Asus G51J-A1 (Intel Core i7 720QM, 15.6")
» Asus G51J-A1 - External Review

Asus G51J-IX097V (Intel Core i7 720QM, 15.6")
» Asus G51J-IX097V - External Review

Asus G51JX-IX044V (Intel Core i7 720QM, 15.6")
» Asus G51JX-IX044V - External Review

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

Asus G60J (Intel Core i7 720QM, 16.0")
» Review Asus G60J Gaming-Notebook - Review
» Asus G60J - 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

Asus G72GX (Intel Core 2 Quad Q9000, 17.3")
» Review Asus G72GX Gaming Notebook - Review
» Asus G72GX - External Review

Asus G72GX-TY013V (Intel Core 2 Duo P8700, 17.3")
» Asus G72GX-TY013V - External Review

Gateway P-7908u (Intel Core 2 Duo P8700, 17")
» Gateway P-7908u - External Review

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

MALIBAL Lotus (Intel Core i7 920XM, 15.4")
» Malibal Lotus - External 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

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

» Comparison of GPUs
Detailled list of all laptop GPUs with a short description. Classified and sorted by performance.

» Benchmark List
Sortable and restrainable list of all GPUs with benchmarks (e.g. 3DMarks).

» Notebook Gaming List
Which game can be played with my graphics card.

Class 1
GeForce GTX 590
GeForce GTX 580
Radeon HD 6970
GeForce GTX 570
GeForce GTX 480
GeForce GTX 560 Ti
Radeon HD 6870
GeForce GTX 470
Radeon HD 5850
GeForce GTX 460 768MB
Radeon HD 6790
Radeon HD 5770
GeForce GTX 550 Ti
GeForce GTS 450
Radeon HD 4850
Radeon HD 5670
Class 2
GeForce GT 240
GeForce GT 430
7590M *
Radeon HD 5570
Radeon HD 6550D *
GeForce GT 220
Radeon HD 6450 GDDR5
Class 3
Radeon HD 4350
GeForce G 107M *
Chrome9HD *
Class 4
Class 5
Class 6
SGX543MP2 *
Mali-400 MP *
PowerVR SGX540 *
PowerVR SGX535
unknown *

* Approximate position of the graphics adapter

> Notebook / Laptop Reviews and News > FAQ / Tips / Technics > Comparison of Laptop Graphics Cards > NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M
Author: Klaus Hinum (Update: 2012-01-25)