NVIDIA GeForce GTX 485M SLI

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 485M SLI

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 485M SLI is a high-end laptop graphics solution based on two GTX 485M graphics cards. With SLI, each card usually renders a single frame (AFR mode). Therefore, it may suffer from micro stuttering in low fps ranges of 30fps. This happens because of different timespans between two frames (e.g. irregular delays between sequential frames).

The GeForce GTX485M SLI supports the same features as a single GTX 485M card. Therefore, it supports DirectX 11 and is produced in a 40nm fabrication process at TSMC. 

Unlike the GeForce GTX 480M, the 485M is no longer based on a trimmed down GF100 core, but on the GF104 core instead. The latter has been designed for the consumer sector and has 384 cores maximum if completely enabled. More information on the GF104 core can be found on the GTX 485M page.  

The performance of the Nvidia GeForce GTX 485M SLI is clearly better than the GTX 480M SLI and is therefore the fastest graphics solution for laptops as of early 2011. It allows the user to play all current games in high resolutions and detail settings with Antialiasing activated. Only Metro 2033 and Crysis may stutter with high Antialiasing and maximum details. Compared to a single GTX 485M, the performance from the SLI combination should be about 40% higher on average (with high details and Antialiasing). Compared to Crossfire solutions by AMD, the Nvdia SLI drivers have the advantage as of this writing.

As the GeForce 300M series, the GeForce GTX 485M supports PureVideo HD with VideoProcessor 4 (VP4 with Feature Set C). This means that the GPU is able to fully decode HD videos in H.254, VC-1, MPEG-2, and MPEG-4 ASP. Using Flash 10.1, the graphics card can also accelerate Flash videos.

What's new in the GF104 chips compared to the GF100 (480M) is the support for Bitstream transfer of HD Audio (Blu-Ray) via HDMI. Similar to the HD 5850, the GTX 485M can transmit Dolby True HD and DTS-HD via Bitstream to compatible receivers without quality loss.

The rendering cores of the Nvidia GeForce GTX 485M can be used for general calculations using CUDA or DirectCompute. In other words, the encoding for HD videos can be done significantly faster by using the shader cores of the GPUs instead of using modern CPUs. PhysX is also supported by the mobile Fermi to calculate physics effects in supported games. Furthermore, a single GTX485M can be used to calculate PhysX while the other card can render frames in the SLI setup.

Compared to desktop GPUs, the Geforce GTX 485M SLI is most similar to two Nvidia GeForce GTX 460 cards running in an SLI configuration.

ManufacturerNVIDIA
GeForce GTX 400M Series

GeForce GTX 485M SLI 768@575MHz

GeForce GTX 470M SLI 576@535MHz

GeForce GTX 480M SLI 704@425MHz

GeForce GTX 460M SLI 384@675MHz

GeForce GTX 485M 384@575MHz

GeForce GTX 470M 288@535MHz

GeForce GTX 480M 352@425MHz

GeForce GTX 460M 192@675MHz

CodenameN11E-GTX-A1
ArchitectureFermi
Pipelines768 - unified
Core Speed *575 MHz
Shader Speed *1150 MHz
Memory Speed *1500 MHz
Memory Bus Width256 Bit
Memory TypeGDDR5
Max. Amount of Memory2x2048 MB
Shared Memoryno
DirectXDirectX 11, Shader 5.0
Current Consumption100 Watt
technology40 nm
Notebook Sizelarge
Date of Announcement06.01.2011
Link to Manufacturer Pagehttp://www.nvidia.com/object/geforce_gtx...
* The specified clock rates are only guidelines for the manufacturer and can be altered by them.

Benchmarks

3DMark 11 - Performance 1280x720
0% 100%
min: 5468     avg: 5468 (53%)     max: 5468 points
3DMark 11 - Performance GPU 1280x720
0% 100%
min: 5334     avg: 5334 (48%)     max: 5334 points
...
GeForce GTX 560 Ti -25%
Radeon HD 6870 -21%
GeForce GTX 480 -6%
GeForce GTX 570 -6%
GeForce GTX 485M SLI
GeForce GTX 580 14%
Radeon HD 7870 16%
...
0%
100%
3DMark Vantage - P Result no PhysX 1280x1024
0% 100%
min: 24816     avg: 24830 (68%)     max: 24844 Points
3DMark Vantage - P GPU no PhysX 1280x1024
0% 100%
min: 23082     avg: 23092 (63%)     max: 23102 Points
3DMark 06
0% 100%
min: 23286     avg: 23415 (79%)     max: 23544 Points
3DMark 05 - Standard 1024x768
0% 100%
min: 29690     avg: 29690 (81%)     max: 29690 Points
3DMark 03 - Standard 1024x768
0% 100%
min: 87591     avg: 87591 (58%)     max: 87591 Points
Unigine Heaven 2.1 - high, Tesselation (normal), DirectX11 1280x1024
0% 100%
min: 78.5     avg: 78.5 (52%)     max: 78.5 fps
PCMark Vantage - Gaming Score 1024x768
0% 100%
min: 16005     avg: 16005 (61%)     max: 16005 Points
SPECviewperf 11 - Catia 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 5.21     avg: 5.2 (8%)     max: 5.21 fps
SPECviewperf 11 - Ensight 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 22.62     avg: 22.6 (38%)     max: 22.62 fps
SPECviewperf 11 - Lightwave 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 10.23     avg: 10.2 (13%)     max: 10.23 fps
SPECviewperf 11 - Maya 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 7.4     avg: 7.4 (7%)     max: 7.4 fps
SPECviewperf 11 - Pro/ENGINEER 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 1.37     avg: 1.4 (8%)     max: 1.37 fps
SPECviewperf 11 - SolidWorks 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 6.42     avg: 6.4 (10%)     max: 6.42 fps
SPECviewperf 11 - Tcvis 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 0.74     avg: 0.7 (1%)     max: 0.74 fps
SPECviewperf 11 - Siemens NX 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 2.15     avg: 2.2 (3%)     max: 2.15 fps
Cinebench R11.5 - OpenGL 64Bit
0% 100%
min: 44.82     avg: 44.8 (51%)     max: 44.82 Points
Cinebench R10 - Shading 32Bit
0% 100%
min: 5658     avg: 5658 (52%)     max: 5658 Points
Windows 7 Experience Index - Graphics
0% 100%
min: 7.5     avg: 7.5 (95%)     max: 7.5 points
Windows 7 Experience Index - Gaming graphics
0% 100%
min: 7.5     avg: 7.5 (95%)     max: 7.5 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.

Call of Duty: Black Ops
low:
167  fps      Compare
med.:
125.1  fps      Compare
high:
128.4  fps      Compare
ultra:
119  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Fifa 11
Fifa 11 (2010)
low:
637.8  fps      Compare
med.:
426.6  fps      Compare
high:
307.3  fps      Compare
ultra:
199.2  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Civilization 5 (2010): Playable with a weaker graphics card in detail settings ultra. - more...
Mafia 2
Mafia 2 (2010)
low:
145.3  fps      Compare
med.:
139.5  fps      Compare
high:
132.4  fps      Compare
ultra:
102.2  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
StarCraft 2
StarCraft 2 (2010)
low:
323.8  fps      Compare
med.:
105.3  fps      Compare
high:
94.8  fps      Compare
ultra:
65.9  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Just Cause 2 (2010): Playable with a weaker graphics card in detail settings ultra. - more...
Metro 2033
Metro 2033 (2010)
low:
149.6  fps      Compare
med.:
141  fps      Compare
high:
89.4  fps      Compare
ultra:
31.4  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Dawn of War II - Chaos Rising (2010): Playable with a weaker graphics card in detail settings ultra. - more...
Battlefield: Bad Company 2
low:
198.2  fps      Compare
med.:
192.4  fps      Compare
high:
168.6  fps      Compare
ultra:
96.8  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Stalker: Call of Pripyat (2010): Playable with a weaker graphics card in detail settings ultra. - more...
CoD Modern Warfare 2
low:
361.4  fps      Compare
med.:
212.5  fps      Compare
high:
190.1  fps      Compare
ultra:
142  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Risen
Risen (2009)
low:
189.2  fps      Compare
med.:
157.5  fps      Compare
high:
142.7  fps      Compare
ultra:
109.1  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Resident Evil 5
Resident Evil 5 (2009)
low:
202.6  fps      Compare
high:
143.7  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Need for Speed Shift
Need for Speed Shift (2009)
med.:
138.6  fps      Compare
high:
139  fps      Compare
ultra:
126  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Colin McRae: DIRT 2
Colin McRae: DIRT 2 (2009)
low:
234.9  fps      Compare
med.:
197.6  fps      Compare
high:
177.2  fps      Compare
ultra:
114.3  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Anno 1404
Anno 1404 (2009)
low:
228.2  fps      Compare
ultra:
138.9  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
ArmA 2 (2009): Playable with a weaker graphics card in detail settings ultra. - more...
F.E.A.R. 2
F.E.A.R. 2 (2009)
low:
283.8  fps      Compare
med.:
202.4  fps      Compare