NVIDIA GeForce MX150 vs NVIDIA GeForce MX250 vs NVIDIA GeForce MX230
NVIDIA GeForce MX150
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The Nvidia GeForce MX150 is a dedicated entry-level mobile graphics card for laptops based on the GP108 chip with the Pascal architecture. It was announced mid 2017 and is the mobile version of the desktop GeForce GT 1030. It offers the same 384 shader cores and 64 Bit memory bus manufactured in 14 nm. The clock rates and performance however are a bit higher than the desktop GT 1030. Officially it is the successor to the older Maxwell based GeForce 940MX.
Currently there are two variants of the MX150, a "normal" N17S-G1-A1 with 1468 - 1531 MHz and 25 Watt TDP and a power efficient variant named N17S-LG-A1 with 936 - 1037 MHz (-32%) and 10 Watt TDP (-60%) for thin and light laptops.
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.
The performance however is higher than the old GeForce GTX 950M with GDDR5 memory. Still modern and demanding games only run in low settings and resolutions fluently. E.g. Assassin's Creed Origins was only playable in lowest settings and 1280x720 pixels. Less demanding games like Call of Duty WW2 also ran in medium settings and Full HD fluently. See below for more and detailed gaming benchmarks.
The power efficient N17S-LG-A1 ULV variant is clearly slower than the normal one (due to the 32% lower boost clock).
The power consumption (25 Watt TDP of the chip alone) however lies on a level of the old 940MX (23 Watt). The older 950M and the new GTX 1050 are rated much higher with 40 Watt TDP. The GeForce MX150 also uses a small 23 x 23 mm package due to the small chip size.
NVIDIA GeForce MX250
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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 MX230
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The Nvidia GeForce MX230 is an entry-level dedicated laptop graphics card with DirectX 12 support (FL 12_1) based (most likely) on the Pascal architecture (and not Maxwell as the older MX130). Similar to the faster MX250, the MX230 is based on the GP108 chip.
Features
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.
Performance
Thanks to the newer Pascal architecture, the MX230 is significantly faster than the old GeForce MX130 (Maxwell based). Demanding games of 2019 run only in lowest resolution and detail settings and may stutter (e.g. Anno 1800 or Rage 2 ran with under 30fps in our benchmarks). Less demanding games like Overwatch, Fifa 19 or Rocket League, however, can be played in higher detail and resolution settings without stuttering (see benchmarks below).
Power Consumption
The MX230 is manufactured in 14nm at Samsung and due to the low shader count and 64 Bit memory bus, the power consumption is rather low. Therefore, the chip can be also used for small and thin laptops. In our power tests, the faster MX250 needed 22% more power (Furmark load) and the old MX130 even 38% more. The integrated UHD Graphics 620 needed on average only 17% less power at a much lower performance.
NVIDIA GeForce MX150 | NVIDIA GeForce MX250 | NVIDIA GeForce MX230 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
GeForce MX200 Series |
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Codename | N17S-G1 | N17S-G2 | N17S-G0 | |||||||||||||||||||||
Architecture | Pascal | Pascal | Pascal | |||||||||||||||||||||
Pipelines | 384 - unified | 384 - unified | 256 - unified | |||||||||||||||||||||
TMUs | 24 | 32 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
ROPs | 16 | 16 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Core Speed | 1468 - 1532 (Boost) MHz | 1518 - 1582 (Boost) MHz | 1519 - 1531 (Boost) MHz | |||||||||||||||||||||
Memory Speed | 6008 effective = 1502 MHz | 7000 effective = 1502 MHz | 7000 MHz | |||||||||||||||||||||
Memory Bus Width | 64 Bit | 64 Bit | 64 Bit | |||||||||||||||||||||
Memory Type | GDDR5 | GDDR5 | GDDR5 | |||||||||||||||||||||
Max. Amount of Memory | 4 GB | 4 GB | 4 GB | |||||||||||||||||||||
Shared Memory | no | no | no | |||||||||||||||||||||
Memory Bandwidth | 40.1 GB/s | 48.1 GB/s | ||||||||||||||||||||||
API | DirectX 12_1, OpenGL 4.5 | DirectX 12_1, OpenGL 4.5 | DirectX 12_1, Shader 5.0, OpenGL 4.5 | |||||||||||||||||||||
Power Consumption | 25 Watt (10 - 25 Watt TGP) | 10/25 Watt | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Transistors | 1.8 Billion | 1.8 Billion | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Die Size | 71 mm² | |||||||||||||||||||||||
technology | 14 nm | 14 nm | 14 nm | |||||||||||||||||||||
PCIe | 3 x4 | 3.0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Features | Vulkan, Multi Monitor, Nvidia Optimus | Vulkan 1.1, OpenGL 4.6, OpenCL 1.2, GPU Boost 3.0, Multi Monitor, Nvidia Optimus | Vulcan 1.1, GPU Boost 3.0, Optimus, PhysX, CUDA, GeForce Experience, GameWorks | |||||||||||||||||||||
Date of Announcement | 16.05.2017 | 20.02.2019 | 20.02.2019 | |||||||||||||||||||||
Link to Manufacturer Page | www.geforce.com | www.geforce.com | www.geforce.com | |||||||||||||||||||||
Successor | GeForce MX250 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Predecessor | GeForce 940MX | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Notebook Size | medium sized |
Benchmarks
3DM Vant. Perf. total + NVIDIA GeForce MX150
specvp12 sw-03 + NVIDIA GeForce MX150
Cinebench R15 OpenGL 64 Bit + NVIDIA GeForce MX150
GFXBench T-Rex HD Offscreen C24Z16 + NVIDIA GeForce MX150
Average Benchmarks NVIDIA GeForce MX150 → 100% n=24
Average Benchmarks NVIDIA GeForce MX250 → 115% n=24
Average Benchmarks NVIDIA GeForce MX230 → 92% n=24

* Smaller numbers mean a higher performance
1 This benchmark is not used for the average calculation
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.

Ready or Not
2023
The Finals
2023
EA Sports WRC
2023
Total War Pharaoh
2023
EA Sports FC 24
2023
Counter-Strike 2
2023
Baldur's Gate 3
2023
Lies of P
2023
Armored Core 6
2023
Immortals of Aveum
2023
Atlas Fallen
2023
F1 23
2023
Diablo 4
2023
Dead Island 2
2023
Company of Heroes 3
2023
Sons of the Forest
2023
Atomic Heart
2023
Hogwarts Legacy
2023
Dead Space Remake
2023
The Witcher 3 v4.00
2023
High On Life
2023
FIFA 23
2022
The Quarry
2022
F1 22
2022
Vampire Bloodhunt
2022
Ghostwire Tokyo
2022
Cyberpunk 2077 1.6
2022
GRID Legends
2022
Elden Ring
2022
Dying Light 2
2022
God of War
2022