NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Mobile vs NVIDIA GeForce MX250 vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Mobile

The Nvidia GTX 1050 is a mainstream GPU based on the Pascal architecture and was announced in January 2017. Contrary to the faster models, the GTX 1050 uses the GP107 chip, which is manufactured in a 14 nm process at Samsung.

The notebook version differs a bit in terms of clocks, but is equipped with 640 shader units, just like the desktop model. It is shipped with up to 4 GB GDDR5-VRAM attached via 128-bit interface and a 7 Gbps memory data rate (112 GB/s).

Features

The GP107 chip is manufactured in a 14 nm FinFET process at Samsung and offers a number of new features, including support for DisplayPort 1.4 (ready), HDMI 2.0b, HDR, Simultaneous Multi-Projection (SMP) as well as improved H.265 video de- and encoding (PlayReady 3.0). A full list of improvements and the new Pascal desktop GPUs is available in our dedicated Pascal architecture article.

Performance

The performance of the GeForce GTX 1050 can vary quite a lot depending on the cooling performance of the laptop. It can be just as fast as the desktop model under ideal conditions, but the notebook model is usually a bit slower. The GeForce GTX 960M is beaten by around 30%, so the GTX 1050 is comparable to a GTX 965M in general. It is therefore an upper mainstream GPU. Games from 2016 can be played in high settings an the Full HD resolution.

Power Consumption

The power consumption of the GeForce GTX 1050 is roughly on par with the old GTX 960M, which would mean around 40-50 Watts and (probably due to better selection and optimized parts) therefore much lower compared to the desktop counterpart. This means the graphics card will usually be used for powerful multimedia notebooks and entry-level gaming systems with at least 15.4 inches.

NVIDIA GeForce MX250

The Nvidia GeForce MX250 is a dedicated entry-level mobile graphics card for laptops. It is based on the same Pascal GP108 chip as the predecessor, the GeForce MX150 / desktop GeForce GT 1030 but features increased clock speeds. As with the MX150, the MX250 is available in two versions, the normal 25 Watt version (1D13 device ID) and a low power version with 10 Watt TDP (1D25 device ID) and reduced performance (The MX150 with 10W had a 32% lower clock speed). The GDDR5 memory interface now also supports speeds up to 3.5 GHz = 7 GHz effective (up from 3 GHz).

The GP108 chip is manufactured in a 14 nm FinFET process at Samsung (LPP) and offers a number of new features, including support for DisplayPort 1.4 (ready), HDMI 2.0b, HDR and improved H.265 video de- and encoding (PlayReady 3.0). 4K HDR with Netflix however wont run due to the minimum 3 GB graphics memory that is required. Compared to the bigger Pascal chips, the small GP108 does not support Simultaneous Multi-Projection (SMP) for VR and G-Sync. A full list of improvements and the new Pascal desktop GPUs is available in our dedicated Pascal architecture article.

Thanks to the increased core speeds (up to +3% in Boost for the 25 Watt version, and faster memory speeds), the new MX250 should be slightly faster than the older MX150. First benchmarks indicate a 5% increase. Still modern should only run fluent in low settings (see the page of the MX150 for games and benchmarks).

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile

The Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 for laptops (formerly known as GTX 1080M) is the mobile counterpart of the desktop GeForce GTX 1080. It uses the same GP104 chip and was officially announced at 16. August. The performance should be around +-10% of a non overclocked desktop GTX 1080. The amount of shaders and other technical specifications should be identical.

The mobile GTX1080 is the successor to the GeForce GTX 980 for Laptops and offers a significantly higher performance at the same TDP.

For thin and light laptops Nvidia offer a Max-Q called version of the GTX 1080 with lower TDP and also significantly lower performance. Sadly this variant im sold with the same GTX 1080 name, making it hard to judge the performance.

The performance depends on the used thermal headroom, processor and game. In our benchmarks the mobile GTX 1080 was between 0 to 10 percent slower than the desktop GTX 1080. Therefore, the card also allows gaming in 4k for modern and demanding games of 2017. However, the performance depends on the cooling and TDP settings in each laptop. E.g. the MSI GT73VR (200 W TDP) is much faster than the 1080 in the Razer Blade Pro (<=150 W).

The GP104 chip is manufactured in 16nm FinFET process at TSMC and offers a range of new features. DisplayPort 1.4 (ready), HDMI 2.0b, HDR, Simultaneous Multi-Projection (SMP), improved H.265 video en- and decoders (for PlayReady 3.0) are only some of the improvements. See our detailed Pascal architecture article for more details.

Due to the high TDP, the mobile GTX 1080 is only suited for large laptops with high performance cooling solutions. The power consumption is ranging from 150 to 200 Watt (according to Nvidia, up to 220 W in the Asus G701VIK, G800, GX800). A low power version (Max-Q) is available beginning summer 2017 with a reduced TGP of 90 - 110 Watt (at a reduced performance).