Notebookcheck

NVIDIA GeForce GT 425M

NVIDIA GeForce GT 425M

The NVIDIA GeForce GT 425M is a fast mid-range laptop graphics card presented in 2010. It is based on the GF108 core, which is related to the Fermi architecture. Therefore, it supports DirectX 11 and OpenGL 4.0. In contrast to the GTX 415M, the card features the full 96 shader cores. The difference of the GT420M, GT425M and GT435M is only the core and memory speed.

GF108 architecture

The GF108 core of the GT 425M is related to the GF100 core of the GeFore GTX 480M and offers 96 shaders and a 128 Bit memory bus for DDR3. Except for the memory controllers the GF108 can basically be considered a halved GF106. 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 core were not only shortened, but also considerably modified. In contrast to the GF100, which was designed for professional applications, these chips target the consumer market. They feature more shaders (3x16 instead of 2x16), more texture units (8 instead of 4) and SFUs per streaming multi-processor (SM). As 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 thereby be utilized more efficiently and the performance per core is improved. However, in worst case scenarios the performance can also be worse than of the GF100 (and its predecessors). The ECC memory protection, which is important for professional applications, was completely omitted and the FP64 hardware shortened (only 1/3 of the shader are FP64-capable and therewith 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 can not be directly compared to AMD cores of the Radeon 5000 series (e.g. HD 5650).

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

Performance

Because the GeForce GT 425M features a new architecture, the performance is not comparable to older chips with a similar core count. The DDR3 graphics memory combined with the 128 Bit bus should be the bottleneck of the GT 425M. In our tests with an Acer Aspire 5745PG pre-sample, a GT 420M performed on average between a GeForce GT 330M and GT 335M. Therefore, the GT 425 should be a bit faster than the GT 335M. Nvidia positions the card against the Mobility Radeon HD 5650.

The gaming performance of the GT 425M is sufficient for medium detail settings in modern games like Battlefield Bad Company 2. Less demanding games should run in high detail settings. The best resolution to choose is about 1360x768 due to the limited performance. Benchmarks and comparison charts on the 3D performance can be found below.

Features

A novelty of the GF104/106/108 chips is the support of Bitstream HD Audio (Blu-Ray) output via HDMI. Alike the Radeon HD 5730, the GT 425M can transfer Dolby True HD and DTS-HD bitstream-wise without quality loss to a HiFi receiver.

The GT425M offers the PureVideo HD technology for video decoding. The included Video Processor 4 (VP4) supports feature set C and therefore the GPU is able 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 425M can be of help in general calculations. For example, the stream processor can considerably faster encode videos than a fast CPU can. Furthermore, physics calculations can be done by the GPU using PhysX (e.g. supported by Mafia 2 or Metro 2033).

According to Nvidia, support for 3D Vision on the new graphics cards is also new. It enables the laptop to send 3D contents (3D games, 3D Web Streaming, 3D photos, 3D Blu-Rays) to a built-in 3D enabled screen or an external 3D TV (only if supported by the laptop manufacturer).

According to rumors, the power consumption of the GeForce GT 425M should be about 35 Watt (TDP including the MXM board and memory), and therefore suited for 15” laptops. Without load, the chip is clocked at 50/100/135 MHz (chip/shader/memory) in 2D respectively 200/400/325 in 3D mode to save power. Furthermore, the 400M series supports Optimus to automatically switch between the integrated graphics card from Intel and the Nvidia GPU. However, the laptop manufacturers need to implement it and it cannot be upgraded.

ManufacturerNVIDIA
GeForce GT 400M Series

GeForce GT 445M

144 @ 590 MHz192 / 128 Bit @ 1250 MHz

GeForce GT 435M

96 @ 650 MHz128 Bit @ 800 MHz
GeForce GT 425M 96 @ 560 MHz128 Bit @ 800 MHz

GeForce GT 420M

96 @ 500 MHz128 Bit @ 800 MHz

GeForce GT 415M

48 @ 500 MHz128 Bit @ 800 MHz
CodenameN11P-GS
ArchitectureFermi
Pipelines96 - unified
Core Speed *560 MHz
Shader Speed *1120 MHz
Memory Speed *800 MHz
Memory Bus Width128 Bit
Memory TypeDDR3
Max. Amount of Memory1024 MB
Shared Memoryno
DirectXDirectX 11, Shader 5.0
technology40 nm
FeaturesOptimus Support, PureVideo HD VP4, 3D Vision, Bitstream HD Audio, CUDA, DirectCompute, OpenCL, OpenGL 4.0, DirectX 11
Notebook Sizemedium sized
Date of Announcement15.08.2010
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 11 - Performance GPU 1280x720
0% 100%
min: 747      avg: 755.7 (5%)     median: 753 (5%)     max: 767 points
3DMark 11 - Performance 1280x720
0% 100%
min: 832      avg: 836.7 (6%)     median: 832 (6%)     max: 846 points
3DMark Vantage - P GPU no PhysX 1280x1024
0% 100%
min: 2699      avg: 2803.1 (6%)     median: 2789 (6%)     max: 2993 Points
3DMark Vantage - P Result no PhysX 1280x1024
0% 100%
min: 3256      avg: 3386 (9%)     median: 3380.5 (9%)     max: 3518 Points
3DMark 06
0% 100%
min: 6564      avg: 6906.9 (23%)     median: 6757.5 (23%)     max: 7605 Points
3DMark 05 - Standard 1024x768
0% 100%
min: 11636      avg: 12975.2 (35%)     median: 13104.5 (36%)     max: 13374 Points
3DMark 03 - Standard 1024x768
0% 100%
min: 15802      avg: 17131.5 (11%)     median: 17344.5 (12%)     max: 17833 Points
3DMark 2001SE - Standard 1024x768
0% 100%
min: 17850      avg: 27557.8 (45%)     median: 30484.5 (50%)     max: 31412 Points
Unigine Heaven 2.1 - high, Tesselation (normal), DirectX11 1280x1024
0% 100%
min: 10.9      avg: 11.1 (6%)     median: 11.1 (6%)     max: 11.6 fps
PCMark Vantage - Gaming Score 1024x768
0% 100%
min: 4780      avg: 5616.7 (21%)     median: 5601 (21%)     max: 6360 Points
SPECviewperf 11 - Siemens NX 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 0.88      avg: 1.4 (2%)     median: 1.6 (3%)     max: 1.63 fps
SPECviewperf 11 - Tcvis 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 0.61      avg: 0.8 (1%)     median: 0.6 (1%)     max: 1.23 fps
SPECviewperf 11 - SolidWorks 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 3.74      avg: 6 (9%)     median: 4.2 (6%)     max: 10.12 fps
SPECviewperf 11 - Pro/ENGINEER 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 0.8      avg: 3.2 (17%)     median: 1.1 (6%)     max: 7.6 fps
SPECviewperf 11 - Maya 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 1.89      avg: 7.5 (7%)     median: 2.3 (2%)     max: 18.26 fps
SPECviewperf 11 - Lightwave 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 5.58      avg: 8.4 (10%)     median: 8.2 (10%)     max: 11.47 fps
SPECviewperf 11 - Ensight 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 7.04      avg: 7.6 (9%)     median: 7.9 (10%)     max: 8.01 fps
SPECviewperf 11 - Catia 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 2.52      avg: 3.8 (5%)     median: 3 (4%)     max: 5.78 fps
Cinebench R11.5 - OpenGL 64Bit
0% 100%
min: 20.57      avg: 20.8 (19%)     median: 20.7 (19%)     max: 21.18 Points
Cinebench R10 - Shading 32Bit
0% 100%
min: 3442      avg: 4114.6 (34%)     median: 4098 (34%)     max: 4696 Points
Windows 7 Experience Index - Gaming graphics
0% 100%
min: 6.5      avg: 6.6 (83%)     median: 6.6 (84%)     max: 6.6 points
Windows 7 Experience Index - Graphics
0% 100%
min: 4.6      avg: 6 (76%)     median: 6.5 (82%)     max: 6.6 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.

Fifa 11

Fifa 11

2010
low 800x600
214.2 319.9 fps 334 ~ 289 fps      Compare
med. 1024x768
114 141.8 148.3 fps 161.8 fps ~ 141 fps      Compare
high 1360x768
94.1 95.8 98 fps 104.1 fps ~ 98 fps      Compare
ultra 1920x1080
51.3 57.6 fps ~ 54 fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Mafia 2

Mafia 2

2010
low 800x600
50  fps      Compare
med. 1024x768
29.6 33.4 39.2 ~ 34 fps      Compare
high 1360x768
24.4 26.5 33.3 ~ 28 fps      Compare
ultra 1920x1080
15.8 15.8 ~ 16 fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
StarCraft 2
low 1024x768
151 fps 172.3 fps ~ 162 fps      Compare
med. 1360x768
31.8 37.2 fps 37.8 fps 38.6 fps ~ 36 fps      Compare
high 1360x768
25 26.3 fps 27 fps 28.1 fps ~ 27 fps      Compare
ultra 1920x1080
13.7 15.5 fps ~ 15 fps      Compare
» With most tested laptops playable in detail settings med..
Metro 2033
low 800x600
40.6 40.7 fps 59.4 ~ 47 fps      Compare
med. 1360x768
22 fps 22.7 fps 30.2 30.3 ~ 26 fps      Compare
high 1600x900
11.2 fps 11.6 fps ~ 11 fps      Compare
ultra 1920x1080
4.2 fps 5.7 ~ 5 fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
Battlefield: Bad Company 2
low 1024x768
44.9 fps  fps      Compare
med. 1366x768
30.6 fps 32.8 fps 35.9 ~ 33 fps      Compare
high 1366x768
23.2 fps 24 fps 25.8 ~ 24 fps      Compare
ultra 1920x1080
12.2 fps 12.9 ~ 13 fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
CoD Modern Warfare 2
low 800x600
106.2 fps  fps      Compare
med. 1024x768
31 fps 39.2 fps 46.3 ~ 39 fps      Compare
high 1366x768
26.3 fps 33.6 fps 38.4 ~ 33 fps      Compare
ultra 1920x1080
17.9 fps 22.2 ~ 20 fps      Compare
» With most tested laptops playable in detail settings med..
Risen

Risen

2009
low 800x600
63.4 fps 65.5 75.1 77 ~ 70 fps      Compare
med. 1024x768
28.2 30.1 30.8 fps 31.5 32 fps 33.8 fps ~ 31 fps      Compare
high 1366x768
17.7 21.3 21.6 fps 22 fps 22.2 fps 25 ~ 22 fps      Compare
ultra 1920x1080
12.6 13.4 fps 14 14.9 fps ~ 14 fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
Resident Evil 5
low 800x600
82.5  fps      Compare
high 1360x768
38.8  fps      Compare
ultra 1920x1080
21.6  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Need for Speed Shift
low 800x600
59.7 86.7 ~ 73 fps      Compare
med. 1024x768
28.5 fps 34.8 40.5 45.6 fps 46 ~ 39 fps      Compare
high 1366x768
29.1 29.9 31.2 fps 31.6 33 fps ~ 31 fps      Compare
ultra 1920x1080
18.8 fps 19.1 19.3 ~ 19 fps      Compare
» With most tested laptops playable in detail settings med..
Colin McRae: DIRT 2
low 800x600
49.5 51.9 86.9 103 ~ 73 fps      Compare
med. 1024x768
41.7 45.4 55.5 57.1 58 ~ 52 fps      Compare
high 1360x768
23.2 24.9 33.9 34.3 36.5 ~ 31 fps      Compare
ultra 1920x1080
13 19.1 27.1 ~ 20 fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings med..
Anno 1404

Anno 1404

2009
low 1024x768
60 145.5 ~ 103 fps      Compare
ultra 1280x1024
19  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
Sims 3

Sims 3

2009
med. 1024x768
88.4  fps      Compare
high 1280x1024
43.4  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Far Cry 2

Far Cry 2

2008
low 640x480
96.8  fps      Compare
high 1024x768
45.1  fps      Compare
ultra 1920x1080
21.5  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Crysis Warhead
low 800x600
68  fps      Compare
ultra 1024x768
12  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
Crysis - GPU Benchmark
low 1024x768
85.5 92.6 fps ~ 89 fps      Compare
med. 1024x768
43.6 44.7 fps ~ 44 fps      Compare
high 1024x768
24.3 25 fps ~ 25 fps      Compare
ultra 1920x1080
5.6 5.8 fps ~ 6 fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings med..
Crysis - CPU Benchmark
low 1024x768
90.2 94.5 fps ~ 92 fps      Compare
med. 1024x768
41 42.2 fps ~ 42 fps      Compare
high 1024x768
22.3 22.8 fps ~ 23 fps      Compare
ultra 1920x1080
5.3 5.5 fps ~ 5 fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings med..
World in Conflict - Benchmark
med. 1024x768
54 fps  fps      Compare
high 1024x768
33 fps  fps      Compare
ultra 1920x1080
12 fps  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings med..
Call of Juarez Benchmark
high 1024x768
28.4  fps      Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.

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

Notebook reviews with NVIDIA GeForce GT 425M graphics card

Acer Aspire 5745DG-7744G75Bnks: Intel Core i7 740QM, 15.6", 2.9 kg
  Review » Review Acer Aspire 5745DG 3D Notebook

Asus N73JQ-TZ087V: Intel Core i7 740QM, 17.3", 3.8 kg
  Review » Review Asus N73JQ Notebook

MSI GE603: Intel Core i5 460M, 16.0", 2.5 kg
  Review » Review MSI GE603 Notebook

Schenker XMG A500: Intel Core i5 580M, 15.6", 2.8 kg
  Review » Review Clevo B5130M / mySN XMG A500 Notebook

Sony Vaio VPC-F13L8E/H: Intel Core i5 480M, 16.4", 3 kg
  Review » Review Sony Vaio VPC-F13L8E/H (FHD) Notebook

Sony Vaio VPCF13Z1E/B: Intel Core i7 740QM, 16.4", 3.1 kg
  Review » Review Sony Vaio VPC-F13Z1E/B Notebook

Acer Aspire 5745DG: Intel Core i3 370M, 15.6", 3 kg
  External Review » Acer Aspire 5745DG

Acer Aspire 5745DG-374G32Mnks: Intel Core i3 370M, 15.6", 2.6 kg
  External Review » Acer Aspire 5745DG-374G32Mnks

Acer Aspire 5745DG-3855: Intel Core i5 450M, 15.6", 3 kg
  External Review » Acer Aspire 5745DG-3855

Acer Aspire 5745DG-3D: Intel Core i7 620M, 15.6", 2.8 kg
  External Review » Acer Aspire 5745DG-3D

Acer Aspire 5745DG-464G75Bn: Intel Core i5 460M, 15.6", 2.9 kg
  External Review » Acer Aspire 5745DG-464G75Bn

Acer Aspire 5745DG-5454G50Bnks: Intel Core i5 450M, 15.6", 2.9 kg
  External Review » Acer Aspire 5745DG-5454G50Bnks

Acer Aspire 5745DG-7744G75Bnks: Intel Core i7 740QM, 15.6", 2.9 kg
  External Review » Acer Aspire 5745DG-7744G75Bnks

Asus N43JF: Intel Core i5 520M, 14.0", 2.3 kg
  External Review » Asus N43JF

Asus N53jf: Intel Core i5 540M, 15.6", 3 kg
  External Review » Asus N53jf

Asus N53JF-XE1: Intel Core i5 460M, 15.6", 2.9 kg
  External Review » Asus N53JF-XE1

Asus N53JQ: Intel Core i7 720QM, 15.6", 3 kg
  External Review » Asus N53JQ

Asus N53JQ-SZ137V: Intel Core i7 740QM, 15.6", 2.7 kg
  External Review » Asus N53JQ-SZ137V

Asus N73JF-TY004V: Intel Core i5 450M, 17.3", 3.4 kg
  External Review » Asus N73JF-TY004V

Asus N73JF-TY096V: Intel Core i3 370M, 17.3", 3.3 kg
  External Review » Asus N73JF-TY096V

Asus N73JQ-TZ087V: Intel Core i7 740QM, 17.3", 3.8 kg
  External Review » Asus N73JQ-TZ087V

Asus U41JF-A1: Intel Core i3 380M, 14.1", 2.2 kg
  External Review » Asus U41JF-A1

Chiligreen Mobilitas NW10714: Intel Core i3 380M, 15.6", 2.8 kg
  External Review » Chiligreen Mobilitas NW10714

Clevo B5130M: Intel Core i7 640M, 15.6", 2.6 kg
  External Review » Clevo B5130M

Cyberpower Xplorer X7-7300: Intel Core i5 560M, 17.3", 3.1 kg
  External Review » Cyberpower Xplorer X7-7300

Dell XPS 14-L401X: Intel Core i7 740QM, 14.0", 2.5 kg
  External Review » Dell XPS 14-L401X

Lenovo Ideapad Y460N-4937: Intel Core i5 460M, 14.0", 2.3 kg
  External Review » Lenovo Ideapad Y460N-4937

Lenovo Ideapad Y460N-ITH: Intel Core i3 380M, 14.0", 2.3 kg
  External Review » Lenovo Ideapad Y460N-ITH

Lenovo Lenovo Y460N-IFI: Intel Core i5 560M, 14.0", 2.3 kg
  External Review » Lenovo Lenovo Y460N-IFI

Medion Akoya P6624: Intel Core i5 460M, 15.6", 2.7 kg
  External Review » Medion Akoya P6624

Medion Akoya P6624/MD98390: Intel Core i3 370M, 15.6", 2.7 kg
  External Review » Medion Akoya P6624/MD98390

MSI FX700-012FR: Intel Core i5 460M, 17.3", 2.8 kg
  External Review » MSI FX700-012FR

MSI GE603: Intel Core i5 460M, 16.0", 2.5 kg
  External Review » MSI GE603

Schenker XMG A500: Intel Core i5 580M, 15.6", 2.8 kg
  External Review » mySN XMG A500

Sony Vaio F13M1E/H: Intel Core i5 560M, 16.4", 3.1 kg
  External Review » Sony Vaio F13M1E/H

Sony VAIO VPC F13M0E/B : Intel Core i7 740QM, 16.4", 3.1 kg
  External Review » Sony VAIO VPC F13M0E/B

Sony Vaio VPC-F133FX: Intel Core i7 740QM, 16.4", 3 kg
  External Review » Sony Vaio VPC-F133FX

Sony VAIO VPC-F136FM/B: Intel Core i7 740QM, 16.3", 3 kg
  External Review » Sony VAIO VPC-F136FM/B

Sony Vaio VPC-F13E4E: Intel Core i5 460M, 16.4", 3.1 kg
  External Review » Sony Vaio VPC-F13E4E

Sony Vaio VPC-F13E8R/H: Intel Core i3 380M, 16.4", 3 kg
  External Review » Sony Vaio VPC-F13E8R/H

Sony Vaio VPC-F13M1E/H: Intel Core i5 560M, 16.4", 3.1 kg
  External Review » Sony Vaio VPC-F13M1E/H

Sony Vaio VPCF13 : Intel Core i5 460M, 16.4", 3.1 kg
  External Review » Sony Vaio VPCF13

Sony VAIO VPCF13AFX : Intel Core i7 740QM, 16.4", 3.3 kg
  External Review » Sony VAIO VPCF13AFX

Sony Vaio VPCF13Z1E/B: Intel Core i7 740QM, 16.4", 3.1 kg
  External Review » Sony Vaio VPCF13Z1E/B

» 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 560 Ti
Radeon HD 5850
Radeon HD 7770
Radeon HD 7770
GeForce GTX 460 768MB
Radeon HD 6790
Radeon HD 5770
GeForce GTX 550 Ti
Class 2
GeForce GTS 450
Radeon HD 4850
Class 3
Radeon HD 5670
GeForce GT 240
Radeon R6 M255DX
GeForce GT 430
Radeon HD 5570
GeForce GT 220
Radeon HD 6450 GDDR5
Class 4
Radeon R3 (Mullins/Beema)
Mali-T760 MP6
Class 5
PowerVR GX6450
Radeon HD 4350
GeForce G 107M *
Chrome9HD *
Class 6
unknown *

* Approximate position of the graphics adapter

> Notebook / Laptop Reviews and News > FAQ / Tips / Technics > Comparison of Laptop Graphics Cards > NVIDIA Geforce GT 425M
Author: Klaus Hinum (Update: 2013-01-16)