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NVIDIA GeForce G210M

NVIDIA GeForce G210M

The Nividia GeForce G210M or G 210 M is a DirectX 10.1 graphics adapter for notebooks based on the GT218 core. As its predecessor, it features 16 shaders but the clock rates have been greatly increased and also the shaders were improved (different core). Because of the 40nm process (compared to the 55nm process of the G110M) the maximum power consumption stays the same. The later announced GeForce 310M for Arrandale laptops is just a renamed GeForce G210M.

The core of the G210M is internally called GT218 and according to Nvidia based on the current high-end desktop architecture (GTX 200 series). Furthermore, Nvidia has improved the micro-architecture for further power saving and performance increases. Therefore, the performance per shader unit should be slightly improved compared to the previous generation.

As the G 110M / 8400M GT, the G 210M features 16 stream processors that do the work of the former dedicated pixel- and vertex-shaders. The unified shaders of Nvidia are 1-dimensional (AMD has 5-dimensional shaders which leads to the higher number of shaders).

The GeForce G210M also supports CUDA, DirectX Compute and OpenCL to use the shaders for other tasks than rendering images (like encoding videos or mathematical tasks). For these special tasks, the GPU can be noticeably faster than current CPUs. PhysX is not supported by the G210M because of too less shaders (for rendering and PhysX).

The mobile graphics card has a built in video decoder called PureVideo HD with VP4. The Video Processor 4 (VP4) supports the full decoding of H.264, VC-1, and now also MPEG-4 ASP (e.g. DivX or XviD). MPEG-1 still wont be supported, but the decoding of this codec is quite trivial on a CPU.

In conjunction with a chipset from Nvidia with integrated graphics (e.g. 9400M), the G 210M supports Hybrid-SLI (HybridPower and GeForceBoost). HybridPower is a technique to choose between the integrated and dedicated graphics core, if performance or battery runtime is needed. This works only in Windows Vista (and possibly Windows 7). Up to now the user has to use a tool to switch between the GPUs. Later Nvidia wants to switch automatically in the drivers. GeForceBoost uses the integrated graphics core of the Nvidia chipset (e.g. 105M) and the dedicated of the G 210M in SLI mode to achieve better frame rates.

The performance of the entry level G 210M is on a level with the older GeForce 9500M G. Therefore, older or less demanding games should run fluently with medium to high details. Demanding DirectX 10 games, like Crysis, are playable only in low detail settings and low resolutions. Some games like GTA4 or NFS Shift wont even run in the lowest settings fluently. See below for a list of games we tested with the G 210M and the framerate we achieved.

Depending on the the used type of graphics memory (GDDR2, GDDR3 or perhaps even DDR2/DDR3) the performance may differ noticeably.

The power consumption of the mobile graphics card is - like the 110M - 14 Watt (TDP). Furthermore, according to Nvidia, the new improved core does only need half of the power in Idle mode.

GeForce G 200M Series

GeForce G210M 16 @ 0.63 GHz64 Bit @ 800 MHz
GeForce G 205M compare 16 @ 0.45 GHz
CodenameN10M-GS
ArchitectureGT2xx
Pipelines16 - unified
Core Speed625 MHz
Shader Speed1500 MHz
Memory Speed800 MHz
Memory Bus Width64 Bit
Memory TypeGDDR2, GDDR3
Max. Amount of Memory512 MB
Shared Memoryno
APIDirectX 10.1, Shader 4.1
Power Consumption14 Watt
Transistor Count260 Million
technology40 nm
FeaturesDirectX Compute Support (Windows 7), CUDA, OpenCL, OpenGL 2.1, HybridPower
Date of Announcement15.06.2009
Information72 Gigaflops
Link to Manufacturer Pagewww.nvidia.com

Benchmarks

3DMark Vantage
3DM Vant. Perf. total +
3DM Vant. Perf. GPU no PhysX +
3DMark 2001SE - 3DMark 2001 - Standard
min: 17151     avg: 17505     median: 17585 (18%)     max: 17779 Points
3DMark 03 - 3DMark 03 - Standard
min: 9881     avg: 10295     median: 10187 (5%)     max: 10923 Points
3DMark 06 3DMark 06 - Score Unknown Settings +
3DMark 06
min: 3310     avg: 3394     median: 3418 (4%)     max: 3453 points
3DMark 06 - Standard 1280x1024 +
3DMark 06 - Standard 1280x768 +
SPECviewperf 11
specvp11 snx-01 +
specvp11 tcvis-02 +
specvp11 sw-02 +
specvp11 proe-05 +
specvp11 maya-03 +
specvp11 lightwave-01 +
SPECviewperf 11 - specvp11 lightwave-01
5 fps (5%)
specvp11 ensight-04 +
specvp11 catia-03 +
Cinebench R10 Cinebench R10 Shading (32bit) +
Cinebench R11.5 Cinebench R11.5 OpenGL 64 Bit +
Cinebench R11.5 - Cinebench R11.5 OpenGL 64 Bit
min: 8.14     avg: 8.2     median: 8.1 (3%)     max: 8.24 fps
Cinebench R15
Cinebench R15 OpenGL 64 Bit +
Cinebench R15 OpenGL Ref. Match 64 Bit +
- Range of benchmark values for this graphics card
red legend - 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 detailed information on the benchmark results, click on the fps number.

low 1280x720
37  fps    + Compare
med. 1920x1080
35.2  fps    + Compare
high 1920x1080
25.1  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
21.5  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings med..
GRID 2

GRID 2

2013
low 1024x768
30  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
18.3  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
low 1024x768
78  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
25  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
12.4  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
low 1024x768
47.3  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
18.4  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
13.1  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
low 1024x768
26.4  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
22  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
19.8  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
low 1024x768
23  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
Fifa 13

Fifa 13

2012
low 1024x768
92  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
57  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
47  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
26  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Torchlight 2

Torchlight 2

2012
low 1024x768
41.1  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
34.4  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
21.1  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
low 1024x768
63  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
43  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
29  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
14  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings med..
low 1024x768
32  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
20  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
10  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
low 1024x768
38  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
25  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
21  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
13  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
low 1024x768
12.6  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
low 1280x720
23  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
16  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
Alan Wake

Alan Wake

2012
low 1024x768
10  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
Anno 2070

Anno 2070

2011
low 1024x768
29  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
12  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
low 1024x768
57  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
25  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
14  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
Fifa 12

Fifa 12

2011
med. 1024x768
49  fps    + Compare
high 1360x768
33 (!)  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings med..
Dirt 3

Dirt 3

2011
low 800x600
53.3  fps    + Compare
med. 1024x768
25  fps    + Compare
high 1360x768
16  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
12.8  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
Crysis 2

Crysis 2

2011
low 800x600
22  fps    + Compare
med. 1024x768
15  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
Total War: Shogun 2

Total War: Shogun 2

2011
low 800x600
29  fps    + Compare
med. 1024x768
21  fps    + Compare