NVIDIA GeForce 940M vs Intel HD Graphics 615

NVIDIA GeForce 940M

The NVIDIA GeForce 940M is a mid-range DirectX 11-compatible graphics card for laptops unveiled in March 2015. It is based on Nvidia's Maxwell architecture (GM108 chip) and manufactured in 28 nm. The 940M offers 384 shader units as well as 2 GB of DDR3 memory (64 bit, 2000 MHz effective).

Compared to the previous and technically very similar GeForce 840M, the GeForce 940M is clocked just slightly higher.

Architecture

Compared to Kepler, Maxwell has been optimized in several details to increase power efficiency. Smaller Streaming Multiprocessors (SMM) with only 128 ALUs (Kepler: 192) and an optimized scheduler should lead to better utilization of the shaders. Nvidia promises that a Maxwell SMM with 128 ALUs can offer 90 percent of the performance of a Kepler SMX with 192 ALUs. GM108 features 3 SMMs and thus 384 shader cores, 24 TMUs and 8 ROPs (64-bit interface).

Another optimization is the massively enlarged L2 cache. The larger size can process some of the memory traffic to allow for a relatively narrow memory interface without significantly reducing performance.

Similar to Fermi and Kepler, the GM107/GM108 support DirectX 12 with feature level 11_0 only.

Performance

Due to its just 5 percent higher core clock, the GeForce 940M is only marginally faster than the previous GeForce 840M and similar to the older GeForce GT 750M (DDR3 version). Many games of 2014/2015 can be played fluently in WXGA resolution (1366 x 768) and medium detail settings. However, very demanding games such as Assassin's Creed Unity will require lower resolutions and/or details.

Features

GM108 integrates the sixth generation of the PureVideo HD video engine (VP6), offering a better decoding performance for H.264 and MPEG-2 videos. Of course, VP6 supports all features of previous generations (4K support, PIP, video encoding via NVENC API). Unfortunately, HDMI 2.0 is still not supported.

Power Consumption

The power consumption of the GeForce 940M should be about 30 Watts or lower. Therefore, the GPU is best suited for laptops 13 - 14 inches in size and above. The 900M series also supports Optimus to automatically switch between an integrated graphics card and the Nvidia GPU.

Intel HD Graphics 615

The Intel HD Graphics 615 (GT2) is a low-end integrated graphics unit, which can be found in the Y-series of the Kaby Lake generation. This "GT2" version offers 24 Execution Units (EUs) clocked at up to 1050 MHz (depending on the CPU model). Due to its lack of dedicated graphics memory or eDRAM cache, the HD 615 has to access the main memory (2x 64bit DDR3L/LPDDR3).

Performance

The 3D performance of the HD 615 depends on the CPU model and the cooling / TDP-setting of the laptop. Furthermore, the used main memory (single channel, DDR3(L), amount) is influencing performance. On average the HD graphics 615 should be around 20 to 30 percent faster than the previous generation, the HD Graphics 615. Therefore, it may even reach the performance of the HD Graphics 520. Some low demanding games should therefore be playable with the chip.

Features

The revised video engine now supports H.265/HEVC Main10 profile in hardware with 10 bit colors. Furthermore, Googles VP9 codec can also be hardware decoded. The first models do not support HDCP 2.2 and therefore Netflix 4K. This was added with the new models in 2017 and beginning of May 2017 also the older CPU models like the m3-7Y30 are now shipped with a new S-Spec Code that supports HDCP 2.2. HDMI 2.0 however is still only supported with an external converter chip (LSPCon).

Power Consumption

The HD Graphics 615 can be found in Y processors with 4.5 W TDP (can be manipulated by the laptop manufacturers) and is therefore suited for very thin, mostly passively cooled 2-in-1 notebooks and tablets.