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MagyarNVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M SLI vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 470M SLI vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 470M
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M SLI
► remove from comparison
The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M SLI consists of two high end DirectX 11 capable Geforce GTX460M cards connected with an SLI bridge. Therefore, it offers 2x 192 cores of the GF106 chip. Due to the alternating frame rendering (AFR), the SLI solution may suffer from micro stuttering in low fps ranges (around 30fps). Furthermore, the 2x1536 MB GDDR5 cant be added together as each card uses the same date in the graphics memory.
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 all been shortened and considerably modified. In contrast to the GF100, which was designed for professional applications, these GF10x 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 should 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 shaders are FP64-capable and thereby 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 5850).
Detailed information on the GF104 architecture (and by extension the GF106 and GF108) can be found in the desktop GTX 460 article by Anandtech.
Performance
The SLI performance with the current drivers (mid 2010) should be about 15-20% faster than a single GTX 460M in high settings and resolutions. Therefore, all current games (as of 2011) should run fluently in highest detail settings with antialiasing and Full HD resolution, with the exception of Metro 2033 and Crysis.
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-wise without quality loss to a HiFi receiver.
The GTX460M 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). The X500 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 used for 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 (e.g. supported by Mafia 2 or Metro 2033). A single GTX 460M of the SLI combination can also be used for dedicated calculations.
According to Nvidia, support for 3D Vision on the GTX graphics cards is also enabled. It allows the laptop to send 3D content (3D games, 3D Web Streaming, 3D photos, 3D Blu-Rays) to a supported 3D enabled screen or an external 3D TV if compatible.
The power consumption of a single GeForce GTX 460M is supposedly about 72 Watts (TDP including the MXM board and memory). By extension, the GTX 460M SLI should use twice as much power. However, a single 460M in the SLI setup can be deactivated in the drivers to save power. If idle, each chip is clocked at 50/100 MHz and 200/400MHz (chip/shader) in 2D mode and 3D mode, respectively, to save power.
The similar desktop GeForce GTX 460 SLI is based on the GF104 chip and offers significantly more shader cores at 2x336 cores. Therefore, the desktop setup is significantly faster than the 460M SLI and even the 470M SLI graphics solutions.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 470M SLI
► remove from comparison
The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 470M SLI is a high-end graphics solution for laptops based on two GeForce GTX 470M graphic cards in SLI mode. Each card usually renders a single frame in an alternating manner. Therefore, it may suffer from micro stuttering in low fps ranges of 30fps. This happens because of different timespans between two frames (e.g. Irregular delays between sequential frames). Each single GTX 470M is based on the GF104 core and therefore supports DirectX1 11 and OpenGL 4.0.
GF104 architecture
The GF104 core of the GTX 470M is related to the GF100 core of the GeFore GTX 480M that offers 384 shaders and a 256 Bit memory bus for GDDR5. The GTX 470M, however, offers only 288 cores of the 384 and a 192 Bit memory bus. The architecture of the GF104 is not comparable to the old GT215 (e.g., GeForce GTS 350M) or G92b (e.g., GeForce GTX 285M) cores.
Unlike the GF100, the smaller GF104, GF106, and GF108 cores were shortened and 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 therefore be utilized more efficiently and the performance per core is improved.
However, in worst case scenarios the performance can also be worse than that of the GF100 (and its predecessors). The ECC memory protection, which is important for professional applications, was completely omitted and the FP64 hardware was shortened (only 1/3 of the shader are FP64-capable and therefore only 1/12 of the performance of the FP32). 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 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
The performance of the GTX 470M SLI combination should be similar to the GTX 480M SLI due to the high-clocked GTX470M cards. Generally, the SLI gain depends on the used application/game and the driver support. Currently, the SLI driver support from Nvidia is better than the Crossfire support from AMD, leading to higher gains. About 30% more performance is gained on average compared to a single GTX 470M (in high resolutions and with Anti-Aliasing). Therefore, all games from 2010 except Metro 2033 should be playable in the highest detail settings. Metro 2033 only ran with 23 fps in our tests with a GTX 480M SLI system and should therefore score similar on the GTX 470M SLI combination.
Features
A novelty of the GF104/106/108 chips is the support of Bitstream HD Audio (Blu-Ray) output via HDMI. Similar to the Radeon HD 5850, the GTX 470M can transfer Dolby True HD and DTS-HD bitstream without quality loss to a HiFi receiver.
The GTX470M 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). The X500 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-encoded 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 470M can assist in general calculations. For example, the stream processor can encode videos considerably faster than certain high-end CPUs. Furthermore, physics calculations can be done by the GPU using PhysX (e.g. supported by Mafia 2 or Metro 2033). SLI systems can also dedicate a single card for PhysX calculations.
According to Nvidia, support for 3D Vision on the GTX 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).
Unofficially, the power consumption of the GeForce GTX 470M should be about 75 Watt (TDP including the MXM board and memory), which is about the level of the Mobility Radeon HD 5870. Therefore, the SLI system needs 2x75 Watt and therefore a lot less than the GTX 480M SLI with 2x100W. Without load, the chip is clocked at 50/100 MHz (chip/shader) in 2D respectively 200/400 in 3D mode to save power.
Compared to desktop graphics cards, the GTX 470M SLI combination is most similar in performance to a GTS 450 SLI combo, as the desktop GTX 470 is significantly faster.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 470M
► remove from comparison
The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 470M is a high-end laptop graphics card introduced in 2010. It is based on the GF104 core as part of the Fermi architecture (as opposed to the GF100 core that the faster GTX 480M is based off of). As a result, the GTX 470M supports both DirectX 11 and OpenGL 4.0.
GF104 architecture
The GF104 core of the GTX 470M is related to the GF100 core of the GeFore GTX 480M and offers 384 shaders and a 256 Bit memory bus for GDDR5. The GTX 470M, however, offers only 288 cores of the 384 and a 192 Bit memory bus. The architecture of the GF104 is not comparable to the old GT215 (e.g., GeForce GTS 350M) or G92b (e.g., GeForce GTX 285M) cores. Unlike the GF100, the smaller GF104, GF106, and GF108 cores were not only reduced in size, 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 of the GTX 470M 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 reduced (only 1/3 of the shader are FP64-capable and thereby 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 5850).
Detailed information on the GF104 architecture (and thereby also the GF106 and GF108) can be found in the desktop GTX 460 article by Anandtech.
Performance
Because the GeForce GTX 470M 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 470M is combined with GDDR5. Furthermore, the Fermi-based chips offer higher Tessellation performance than DX11 chips of the Radeon HD 5000 series. The performance of the GTX470M should also be a bit above the Mobility Radeon HD 5870 and first tests even show performance scores above a GTX 480M. Therefore, all modern games of 2010 (except Metro 2033 and Crysis) should run in highest detail settings fluently.
Features
A novel feature 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 470M can transfer Dolby True HD and DTS-HD bitstream-wise without quality loss to a HiFi receiver.
The GTX 470M 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).
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 470M 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).
According to Nvidia, support for 3D Vision on the GTX graphics cards is also enabled. 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 470M should be at about 75 Watt (TDP including the MXM board and memory), which is about the level of the Mobility Radeon HD 5870. Without load, the chip is clocked at 50/100 MHz (chip/shader) and 200/400 MHz 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, whether or not this feature is included on a notebook will be dependent on the notebook manufacturer. As modern quad cores (2010) don’t house an integrated GPU, we won’t see many Optimus designs with GTX 470M before the launch of Sandy Bridge in 2011.
The similarly named desktop GeForce GTX 470 is based on the GF100 chip and offers 448 shader cores. Therefore, it is significantly faster than a GTX 470M. Instead, a more comparable desktop GPU to the GTX 470M in terms of overall performance would be the GeForce GTS 450.
| NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M SLI | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 470M SLI | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 470M | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| GeForce GTX 400M Series |
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| Codename | N11E-GS | N11E-GT | N11E-GT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Architecture | Fermi | Fermi | Fermi | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Pipelines | 384 - unified | 576 - unified | 288 - unified | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Core Speed | 675 MHz | 535 MHz | 535 MHz | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shader Speed | 1350 MHz | 1070 MHz | 1070 MHz | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Memory Speed | 1250 MHz | 1250 MHz | 1250 MHz | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Memory Bus Width | 192 Bit | 192 Bit | 192 Bit | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Memory Type | GDDR5 | GDDR5 | GDDR5 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Max. Amount of Memory | 2x1536 MB | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shared Memory | no | no | no | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| API | DirectX 11, Shader 5.0 | DirectX 11, Shader 5.0 | DirectX 11, Shader 5.0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| technology | 40 nm | 40 nm | 40 nm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Features | Optimus Support, PureVideo HD VP4, 3D Vision, Bitstream HD Audio, CUDA, DirectCompute, OpenCL, OpenGL 4.0, DirectX 11, SLI Supported | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Notebook Size | large | large | large | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Date of Announcement | 03.09.2010 | 01.11.2010 | 01.11.2010 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Link to Manufacturer Page | www.nvidia.com |
- Average benchmark values for this graphics card
