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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M is a high-end laptop graphics card released in 2010. It is based on the GF106 core as part of the Fermi architecture. As a result, the GPU supports DirectX 11 and OpenGL 4.0. In contrast to the GT 445M, which only features 144 core, the GTX 460M offers all the 192 shader cores of the GF106. The faster GTX 470M is based on the GF104 and offers even more shader cores at 288.

GF106 architecture

The GF106 core of the GTX 460M is related to the GF100 core of the GeFore GTX 480M and offers 192 shaders and a 192 Bit memory bus for GDDR5. Except for the memory controllers, the GF106 can basically be considered a halved GF104. 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 cores have not only been reduced in size, but have also been 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 effectively and the performance per core can be 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 of the GTX 460M cannot be directly compared to AMD cores of the Radeon 5000 series (e.g. HD 5850).

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

Performance

Because the GeForce GTX 460M features a new architecture, the performance is not comparable to older chips with a similar core count. In contrast to the Radeon HD 5850, which could optionally use DDR3 memory, the 192 Bit memory bus of the GTX 460M is combined with GDDR5. Furthermore, the Fermi based chips offer a higher Tessellation performance than DX11 chips of the Radeon HD 5000 series.

We ran a set of benchmarks on an early pre-sample of a Toshiba Qosmio X500 with a 740QM CPU. In the synthetic benchmarks, the GTX 460M was on par with the DDR3 based Mobility Radeon HD 5850. In actual game benchmarks and tests, the performance was better than a HD 5850 with GDDR5 on average. In some cases (e.g., Unigine Heaven 2.1 and Dirt 2 Demo), the card even beat a Mobility Radeon HD 5870. On average, the GTX 480M was about 8-18% faster. The detailed benchmark and gaming results (including charts) can be found below.

Features

A novelty of the GF104/106/108 chips is the support for Bitstream HD Audio (Blu-Ray) output via HDMI. Similar to the Radeon HD 5850, the GTX 460M can transfer Dolby True HD and DTS-HD bitstream without quality loss to a HiFi receiver.

The GTX460M offers 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). The X500 notebook tester was able to decode the VC-1 encoded Elephants Dream video with about 3-6% CPU load (according to the task manager). The H.264 coded Big Buck Bunny video was played back with 1-3% CPU load (both 1080p videos).

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 GTX 460M can be of use in general calculations. For example, the stream processor can encode videos considerably faster than can many modern CPUs. Furthermore, physics calculations can be done by the GPU using PhysX if supported (e.g., Mafia 2 or Metro 2033). For example, the X500’s GPU ran Fluidmark more than 3x faster than its CPU (36 versus 11 fps) in our tests.

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

Unofficially, the power consumption of the GeForce GTX 460M should be about 72 Watt (TDP including the MXM board and memory), which is about the level of the Mobility Radeon HD 5850 - 5870. If not under load, the chip is clocked at 50/100 MHz (chip/shader) and 200/400 in 2D mode and 3D mode, respectively, to save power. Furthermore, the 400M series supports Optimus to automatically switch between the integrated graphics card from Intel and the Nvidia GPU. However, its implementation is dependent on the manufacturer. As current (2010) quad-cores don’t house an integrated GPU, we won’t see many Optimus designs with a GTX 460M GPU before the launch of Sandy Bridge in 2011.

The similarly named desktop GeForce GTX 460 is based on the GF104 chip and offers more shader cores at 336. Therefore, it is significantly faster than the GTX 460M and even the GTX 470M.

GeForce GTX 400M Series

GeForce GTX 485M SLI compare 768 @ 0.58 GHz256 Bit @ 1500 MHz
GeForce GTX 470M SLI compare 576 @ 0.54 GHz192 Bit @ 1250 MHz
GeForce GTX 480M SLI compare 704 @ 0.43 GHz256 Bit @ 1200 MHz
GeForce GTX 460M SLI compare 384 @ 0.68 GHz192 Bit @ 1250 MHz
GeForce GTX 485M compare 384 @ 0.58 GHz256 Bit @ 1500 MHz
GeForce GTX 470M compare 288 @ 0.54 GHz192 Bit @ 1250 MHz
GeForce GTX 480M compare 352 @ 0.43 GHz256 Bit @ 1200 MHz
GeForce GTX 460M 192 @ 0.68 GHz192 Bit @ 1250 MHz
CodenameN11E-GS
ArchitectureFermi
Pipelines192 - unified
Core Speed675 MHz
Shader Speed1350 MHz
Memory Speed1250 MHz
Memory Bus Width192 Bit
Memory TypeGDDR5
Max. Amount of Memory1536 MB
Shared Memoryno
APIDirectX 11, Shader 5.0
technology40 nm
FeaturesOptimus Support, PureVideo HD VP4, 3D Vision, Bitstream HD Audio, CUDA, DirectCompute, OpenCL, OpenGL 4.0, DirectX 11, SLI Supported
Notebook Sizelarge
Date of Announcement03.09.2010
Link to Manufacturer Pagewww.nvidia.com

Benchmarks

3DMark 11 - 3DM11 Performance Score
min: 1788     avg: 1814     median: 1805 (2%)     max: 1861 Points
3DMark 11 - 3DM11 Performance GPU
min: 1598     avg: 1628     median: 1623 (1%)     max: 1692 Points
3DMark Vantage
3DM Vant. Perf. total +
3DMark Vantage - 3DM Vant. Perf. total
min: 6629     avg: 7617     median: 7507 (2%)     max: 8398 Points
3DM Vant. Perf. GPU no PhysX +
3DMark Vantage - 3DM Vant. Perf. GPU no PhysX
min: 6537     avg: 6763     median: 6709 (4%)     max: 7164 Points
3DMark 03 - 3DMark 03 - Standard
min: 33712     avg: 35178     median: 35451 (19%)     max: 36383 Points
3DMark 05 - 3DMark 05 - Standard
min: 17886     avg: 20171     median: 21131 (23%)     max: 21679 Points
3DMark 06 3DMark 06 - Score Unknown Settings +
3DMark 06 - Standard 1280x1024 +
3DMark 06
min: 11521     avg: 13112     median: 12942 (17%)     max: 14135 Points
Unigine Heaven 2.1 - Heaven 2.1 high
min: 23.5     avg: 24     median: 23.9 (4%)     max: 24.7 fps
SPECviewperf 11
specvp11 snx-01 +
specvp11 tcvis-02 +
specvp11 sw-02 +
SPECviewperf 11 - specvp11 sw-02
min: 3.75     avg: 4.7     median: 4.7 (4%)     max: 5.69 fps
specvp11 proe-05 +
specvp11 maya-03 +
specvp11 lightwave-01 +
SPECviewperf 11 - specvp11 lightwave-01
min: 5.21     avg: 7.4     median: 7.5 (8%)     max: 9.58 fps
specvp11 ensight-04 +
SPECviewperf 11 - specvp11 ensight-04
min: 16.85     avg: 17     median: 17 (8%)     max: 17.1 fps
specvp11 catia-03 +
Windows 7 Experience Index - Win7 Gaming graphics
min: 6.9     avg: 7     median: 7.1 (90%)     max: 7.1 Points
Windows 7 Experience Index - Win7 Graphics
min: 5.7     avg: 6.9     median: 7.1 (90%)     max: 7.1 Points
Cinebench R10 Cinebench R10 Shading (32bit) +
Cinebench R10 - Cinebench R10 Shading (32bit)
min: 3566     avg: 4942     median: 5312.5 (4%)     max: 5749 points
Cinebench R11.5 Cinebench R11.5 OpenGL 64 Bit +
Cinebench R11.5 - Cinebench R11.5 OpenGL 64 Bit
min: 26.15     avg: 36.1     median: 36.2 (12%)     max: 41.49 fps
- Range of benchmark values for this graphics card
red legend - Average benchmark values for this graphics card
* Smaller numbers mean a higher performance

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 detailed information on the benchmark results, click on the fps number.

Dirt 3

Dirt 3

2011
low 800x600
189.4  fps    + Compare
med. 1024x768
108  fps    + Compare
high 1360x768
73.6  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Crysis 2

Crysis 2

2011
low 800x600
102.9 106 ~ 104 fps    + Compare + 📈 Graph
med. 1024x768
70.8 71.9 ~ 71 fps    + Compare + 📈 Graph
high 1366x768
51.4 53.2 ~ 52 fps    + Compare + 📈 Graph
ultra 1920x1080
17.8 18.1 ~ 18 fps    + Compare + 📈 Graph
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
low 800x600
83.7  fps    + Compare
med. 1024x768
78.2  fps    + Compare
high 1360x768
58.5 75.8 86.3 ~ 74 fps    + Compare + 📈 Graph
ultra 1920x1080
47.2 47.8 55.7 55.7 56.5 59.3 ~ 54 fps    + Compare + 📈 Graph
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Fifa 11

Fifa 11

2010
low 800x600
543 664 ~ 604 fps    + Compare
med. 1024x768
301.6 320.6 ~ 311 fps    + Compare
high 1360x768
194 222.6 ~ 208 fps    + Compare + 📈 Graph
ultra 1920x1080
123.5 130 132.1 133 136.2 136.3 ~ 132 fps    + Compare + 📈 Graph
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Mafia 2

Mafia 2

2010
low 800x600
53.6 92.6 ~ 73 fps    + Compare
med. 1024x768
50.2 67.4 ~ 59 fps    + Compare
high 1360x768
46.7 51.2 56.3 62.3 ~ 54 fps    + Compare + 📈 Graph
ultra 1920x1080
32.9 33.7 33.9 34 34.4 34.7 34.8 39.2 ~ 35 fps    + Compare + 📈 Graph
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
low 1024x768
172 193 216.6 ~ 194 fps    + Compare + 📈 Graph
med. 1360x768
66 73 83.5 ~ 74 fps    + Compare + 📈 Graph
high 1360x768
57 61 65.4 68.4 ~ 63 fps    + Compare + 📈 Graph
ultra 1920x1080
31.4 31.5 31.6 31.9 32 34.5 36 47.3 ~ 35 fps    + Compare + 📈 Graph
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
low 800x600
88 115.8 ~ 102 fps    + Compare
med. 1360x768
53.1 54 55.5 ~ 54 fps    + Compare + 📈 Graph
high 1600x900
24.3 25.2 30 30 35.6 ~ 29 fps    + Compare + 📈 Graph
ultra 1920x1080
9 9.3 9.4 9.5 9.6 9.6 9.9 10.5 12.7 ~ 10 fps    + Compare + 📈 Graph