Asus Taichi 31 Review
AMD A6-1450 APU "Temash" Review
Lenovo ThinkPad X230t Review
Sony Xperia Tablet Z Review

NVIDIA Quadro K2000M

NVIDIA Quadro K2000M

The NVIDIA Quadro K2000M (or K2100M due to an internal code name) is a mid-range, DirectX 11.1-compatible graphics card for mobile workstations. It is a Kepler-based GPU built using the GK107 chip and is manufactured in 28nm at TSMC.

The Quadro series offers certified drivers that are optimized for stability and performance in professional applications like CAD or DCC. OpenGL performance, for example, should be significantly better than GeForce graphics cards of similar specifications.

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 central 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 about as fast as one shader of a Fermi chip (as 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

Depending on the clock speeds,  the gaming performance should be similar or slower than the consumer GeForce GT 650M equipped with DDR3 graphics memory. Games of 2012 will run fluently on medium or high settings.

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 NVENC API.

The power consumption of the K2000M is rated at 55 Watt (TGP according to Nvidia) and therefore suited for medium-sized notebooks of 15-inches or greater.

ManufacturerNVIDIA
Quadro K Series

Quadro K5000M 1344@706MHz

Quadro K4000M 960@600MHz

Quadro K3000M 576@654MHz

Quadro K2000M 384@745MHz

Quadro K1000M 192@850MHz

Quadro K500M 192@850MHz

CodenameN14P-Q3
ArchitectureKepler
Pipelines384 - unified
Core Speed *745 MHz
Shader Speed *745 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 Announcement01.06.2012
* The specified clock rates are only guidelines for the manufacturer and can be altered by them.

Benchmarks

3DMark 11 - Performance 1280x720
0% 100%
min: 1990     avg: 2008.8 (19%)     max: 2031 points
3DMark 11 - Performance GPU 1280x720
0% 100%
min: 1797     avg: 1810 (16%)     max: 1834 points
3DMark Vantage - P Result no PhysX 1280x1024
0% 100%
min: 3927     avg: 6607 (18%)     max: 7951 Points
3DMark Vantage - P GPU no PhysX 1280x1024
0% 100%
min: 3085     avg: 5368.7 (15%)     max: 6524 Points
3DMark 06
0% 100%
min: 6073     avg: 10540.3 (36%)     max: 12064 Points
3DMark 05 - Standard 1024x768
0% 100%
min: 10930     avg: 16019.5 (43%)     max: 21109 Points
3DMark 03 - Standard 1024x768
0% 100%
min: 14435     avg: 22010 (15%)     max: 29585 Points
Unigine Heaven 2.1 - high, Tesselation (normal), DirectX11 1280x1024
0% 100%
min: 23.6     avg: 24 (16%)     max: 24.4 fps
PCMark Vantage - Gaming Score 1024x768
0% 100%
min: 8143     avg: 11665.7 (45%)     max: 18025 Points
SPECviewperf 11 - Catia 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 33.44     avg: 33.5 (48%)     max: 33.54 fps
SPECviewperf 11 - Ensight 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 18.18     avg: 19.1 (32%)     max: 20.8 fps
SPECviewperf 11 - Lightwave 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 44.38     avg: 45.5 (56%)     max: 46.35 fps
SPECviewperf 11 - Maya 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 46.44     avg: 47 (42%)     max: 47.58 fps
SPECviewperf 11 - Pro/ENGINEER 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 13.13     avg: 13.9 (81%)     max: 14.98 fps
SPECviewperf 11 - SolidWorks 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 33.01     avg: 34.6 (53%)     max: 35.59 fps
SPECviewperf 11 - Tcvis 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 28.1     avg: 28.9 (48%)     max: 29.46 fps
SPECviewperf 11 - Siemens NX 1920x1080
0% 100%
min: 24.67     avg: 25.1 (40%)     max: 25.63 fps
Cinebench R11.5 - OpenGL 64Bit
0% 100%
min: 42.85     avg: 43.5 (49%)     max: 44 Points
Cinebench R10 - Shading 32Bit
0% 100%
min: 6716     avg: 6770 (63%)     max: 6812 Points
Windows 7 Experience Index - Graphics
0% 100%
min: 5.3     avg: 6.4 (81%)     max: 7.1 points
Windows 7 Experience Index - Gaming graphics
0% 100%
min: 6.9     avg: 7 (88%)     max: 7.1 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.

Counter-Strike: GO
low:
231.2  fps      Compare
med.:
165.4  fps      Compare
high:
112.3  fps      Compare
ultra:
63.4  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Darksiders II (2012): Playable with a weaker graphics card in detail settings med.. - more...
Sleeping Dogs
low:
89.3  fps      Compare
med.:
66  fps      Compare
high:
24.9  fps      Compare
ultra:
6.2  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings med..
The Secret World (2012): Playable with a weaker graphics card in detail settings med.. - more...
Dirt Showdown
low:
90 108 ~ 99 fps      Compare
med.:
77 78.1 ~ 78 fps      Compare
high:
34.5 46 ~ 40 fps      Compare
ultra:
16.5 17 ~ 17 fps      Compare
» With most tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Diablo III
Diablo III (2012)
low:
136.1 141 ~ 139 fps      Compare
med.:
86 92.4 ~ 89 fps      Compare
high:
72 81.6 ~ 77 fps      Compare
ultra:
40 48.6 ~ 44 fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Risen 2: Dark Waters (2012): Playable with a weaker graphics card in detail settings high. - more...
Alan Wake
Alan Wake (2012)
low:
42  fps      Compare
med.:
25  fps      Compare
ultra:
11  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
Star Wars: The Old Republic (2011): Playable with a weaker graphics card in detail settings low. - more...
Anno 2070
Anno 2070 (2011)
low:
123.1 124 ~ 124 fps      Compare
med.:
51.8 54 ~ 53 fps      Compare
high:
31.9 36 ~ 34 fps      Compare
ultra:
15.9 18 ~ 17 fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings med..
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
med.:
46  fps      Compare
high:
33  fps      Compare
ultra:
17  fps      Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings med..
CoD: Modern Warfare 3 (2011): Playable with a weaker graphics card in detail settings ultra. - more...
Battlefield 3
low:
51.3  fps      Compare
med.:
35.2  fps      Compare
high:
28.7  fps      Compare
ultra:
11.6  fps      Compare