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NVIDIA GeForce 940M

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.

ManufacturerNVIDIA
GeForce 900M Series
GeForce 945M (compare) 512 @ 928 - 1045 (Boost) MHz128 Bit @ 2000 MHz
Maxwell GPU (940M, GDDR5) (compare) 384 @ 954 - 993 (Boost) MHz64 Bit @ 5012 MHz
GeForce 940MX (compare) 384 @ 1122 - 1242 (Boost) MHz64 Bit
GeForce 940M 384 @ 1072 - 1176 (Boost) MHz64 Bit @ 2000 MHz
GeForce 930MX (compare) 384 @ 952 - 1020 (Boost) MHz64 Bit @ 2000 MHz
GeForce 930M (compare) 384 @ 928 - 941 (Boost) MHz64 Bit @ 1800 MHz
GeForce 920MX (compare) 256 @ 965 - 993 (Boost) MHz64 Bit @ 1800 MHz
GeForce 920M (compare) 384 @ 954 MHz64 Bit @ 1800 MHz
GeForce 910M (compare) 384 @ 641 MHz64 Bit @ 2000 MHz
CodenameN16S-GT-S/B
ArchitectureMaxwell
Pipelines384 - unified
Core Speed1072 - 1176 (Boost) MHz
Memory Speed2000 MHz
Memory Bus Width64 Bit
Memory TypeDDR3
Max. Amount of Memory4096 MB
Shared Memoryno
DirectXDirectX 12 (FL 11_0), Shader 5.0
technology28 nm
FeaturesGPU Boost 2.0, Optimus, PhysX, CUDA, GeForce Experience
Notebook Sizemedium sized
Date of Announcement12.03.2015
Link to Manufacturer Pagehttp://www.geforce.com/hardware/notebook...

Benchmarks

3DMark - Ice Storm Unlimited Graphics Score 1280x720 offscreen
min: 107932     avg: 123225     median: 123311 (27%)     max: 138345 Points
+ 4 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark - Ice Storm Extreme Graphics 1920x1080
min: 16718     avg: 36480.5     median: 42559.5 (6%)     max: 44085 Points
+ 4 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark - Cloud Gate Standard Score 1280x720
min: 5816     avg: 6442.2     median: 6342 (13%)     max: 9112 Points
+ 25 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark - Cloud Gate Standard Graphics 1280x720
min: 7647     avg: 8888.1     median: 8818.5 (5%)     max: 9807 Points
+ 24 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark - Fire Strike Score 1920x1080
min: 1333     avg: 1421.6     median: 1422 (6%)     max: 1555 Points
+ 25 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark - Fire Strike Graphics 1920x1080
min: 1530     avg: 1631.5     median: 1622 (4%)     max: 1739 Points
+ 24 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark - Ice Storm Standard Graphics 1280x720
min: 16771     avg: 52185.2     median: 51180.5 (7%)     max: 81426 Points
+ 22 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark 11 - Performance 1280x720
min: 2282     avg: 2479.8     median: 2485 (9%)     max: 2800 points
+ 25 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark 11 - Performance GPU 1280x720
min: 2178     avg: 2416.9     median: 2405.5 (5%)     max: 2602 points
+ 24 benchmarks and specifications   - Hide comparison chart
3DMark Vantage
P Result 1280x1024 +
P GPU no PhysX 1280x1024 +
3DMark 06 Standard 1280x1024 +
Unigine Heaven 2.1 - high, Tesselation (normal), DirectX11 1280x1024
28.3 fps (13%)
+ 1 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
SPECviewperf 11
Siemens NX 1920x1080 +
Tcvis 1920x1080 +
SolidWorks 1920x1080 +
Pro/ENGINEER 1920x1080 +
Maya 1920x1080 +
Lightwave 1920x1080 +
Ensight 1920x1080 +
Catia 1920x1080 +
SPECviewperf 12
Solidworks (sw-03) 1900x1060 +
Siemens NX (snx-02) 1900x1060 +
Showcase (showcase-01) 1900x1060 +
Medical (medical-01) 1900x1060 +
Maya (maya-04) 1900x1060 +
Energy (energy-01) 1900x1060 +
Creo (creo-01) 1900x1060 +
Catia (catia-04) 1900x1060 +
Cinebench R10 Shading 32Bit +
Cinebench R11.5 OpenGL 64Bit +
Cinebench R15
OpenGL 64Bit +
Ref. Match 64Bit +
GFXBench (DX / GLBenchmark) 2.7
T-Rex HD Offscreen C24Z16 1920x1080 +
T-Rex HD Onscreen C24Z16 +
GFXBench 3.0 - Manhattan Offscreen OGL off screen
min: 62.87     avg: 65.6     median: 64 (12%)     max: 70 fps
+ 3 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
GFXBench 3.0 - Manhattan Onscreen OGL on screen
min: 32.35     avg: 42     median: 37.8 (10%)     max: 55.7 fps
+ 3 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
LuxMark v2.0 64Bit - Room GPUs-only
min: 359     avg: 392     median: 386 (7%)     max: 431 Samples/s
+ 3 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
LuxMark v2.0 64Bit - Sala GPUs-only
min: 781     avg: 858.3     median: 878 (8%)     max: 916 Samples/s
+ 3 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
ComputeMark v2.1 - Normal, Score 1024x600
min: 1685     avg: 1719     median: 1719 (8%)     max: 1753 Points
+ 2 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
Power Consumption - FurMark 1.19 GPU Stress Test - Power Consumption (external Monitor) 1280x720 *
62.8 Watt (17%)
+ 1 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
Power Consumption - The Witcher 3 Power Consumption (external Monitor) ultra 1920x1080 *
45.1 Watt (12%)
+ 1 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
- Range of benchmark values for this graphics card
- 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 detailled information on the benchmark results, click on the fps number.

Ark Survival Evolved

Ark Survival Evolved

2017
low 1280x720
28.2  fps    + Compare
med. 1920x1080
7.5  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
Playerunknown's Battlegrounds
low 1280x720
42.4  fps    + Compare
med. 1920x1080
14.2  fps