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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M is the fastest laptop graphics card as of this writing and was presented in June 2011. It is based on the GF114 core, which is related to the Fermi architecture. Therefore, it supports DirectX 11 and OpenGL 4.0. Compared to the previous GeForce GTX 485M, the 580M offers higher clock rates at the same power consumption levels.

GF114 architecture

The GF114 core is a power optimized version of the GF104 (used in the GTX 485M) but with no architectural changes. Therefore, the performance per MHz stays the same, but Nvidia was able to clock the shaders higher while still remaining in the same power envelope. In fact, all 384 shader cores of the GF114 architecture are enabled in the GTX 580M. More information on the similar GF104 architecture can be found on the GeForce GTX 485M page.

Performance

Due to higher clock speeds, the GeForce GTX 580M is faster than the GTX 485M which was the fastest mobile graphics card at the time. As of 2011, only Metro 2033 cannot run fluently at highest settings and full HD resolution. All other demanding games (like Crysis 2, Duke Nukem Forever, Withcer 2, Dirt 3, BF: Bad Company 2 or Bulletstorm) can be played fluently in highest settings and 1080p resolution.

Features

Similarly to the older GF104 chip, the GF114 supports Bitstream HD Audio (Blu-Ray) output via HDMI. That means it can transfer for example Dolby True HD or DTS-HD bitstream-wise without quality loss to a HiFi receiver.

The GTX 580M 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 580M can assist in general calculations. For example, the stream processor can encode videos considerably faster than many modern CPUs. Furthermore, physics calculations can be done by the GPU using PhysX (e.g. supported by Mafia 2 or Metro 2033).

3D Vision enables 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 the GeForce GTX 580M is in the same region as the old GTX 485M which is supposedly about 100 Watt (TDP including the MXM board and memory). If idle, the chip is clocked at 50/100 MHz and 200/400 MHz (chip/shader) in 2D mode and 3D mode, respectively, to save power. Furthermore, the 500M series supports Optimus for automatic switching between the Intel integrated graphics card and the Nvidia GPU. However, implementation of Optimus is dependent upon the manufacturer of the notebook.

The related desktop GeForce GTX 580 is based on the GF110 chip and is much faster than the GeForce GTX 580M. Therefore, in terms of general performance, the 580M is more closely related to the GeForce GTX 560Ti. Even then, the 580M performs slightly slower due to the higher clock speeds of the desktop 560Ti.

GeForce GTX 500M Series

GeForce GTX 580M SLI compare 768 @ 0.62 GHz256 Bit @ 1500 MHz
GeForce GTX 560M SLI compare 384 @ 0.78 GHz192 Bit @ 1250 MHz
GeForce GTX 580M 384 @ 0.62 GHz256 Bit @ 1500 MHz
GeForce GTX 570M compare 336 @ 0.58 GHz192 Bit @ 1150 MHz
GeForce GTX 560M compare 192 @ 0.78 GHz192 Bit @ 1250 MHz
CodenameN12E-GTX2
ArchitectureFermi
Pipelines384 - unified
Core Speed620 MHz
Shader Speed1240 MHz
Memory Speed1500 MHz
Memory Bus Width256 Bit
Memory TypeGDDR5
Max. Amount of Memory2 MB
Shared Memoryno
APIDirectX 11, Shader 5.0
Power Consumption100 Watt
Transistor Count2 Billion
technology40 nm
Notebook Sizelarge
Date of Announcement28.06.2011

Benchmarks

3DMark 11 - 3DM11 Performance Score
min: 3391     avg: 3429     median: 3424 (4%)     max: 3475 Points
3DMark 11 - 3DM11 Performance GPU
min: 3101     avg: 3131     median: 3116.5 (2%)     max: 3191 Points
3DMark Vantage
3DM Vant. Perf. total +
3DM Vant. Perf. GPU no PhysX +
3DMark Vantage - 3DM Vant. Perf. GPU no PhysX
min: 13234     avg: 13296     median: 13315 (7%)     max: 13338 Points
3DMark 06 3DMark 06 - Standard 1280x1024 +
3DMark 06
min: 19850     avg: 20665     median: 20550.5 (27%)     max: 21707 Points
Unigine Heaven 2.1 - Heaven 2.1 high
min: 41.8     avg: 43.3     median: 43.8 (8%)     max: 44.3 fps
SPECviewperf 11
specvp11 snx-01 +
specvp11 tcvis-02 +
specvp11 sw-02 +
specvp11 proe-05 +
specvp11 maya-03 +
specvp11 lightwave-01 +
specvp11 ensight-04 +
specvp11 catia-03 +
Cinebench R10 Cinebench R10 Shading (32bit) +
Cinebench R11.5 Cinebench R11.5 OpenGL 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 1024x768
62.7  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
60.1  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
30  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
24.6  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings med..
low 1024x768
79.6  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
62.6  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
61.4  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
34.3  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
low 1024x768
191.2  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
156.9  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
99.7  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
70.9  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
low 1024x768
91.1  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
72.7  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
61.3  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
29.1  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
low 1280x720
60  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
59.9  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
59.5  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Alan Wake

Alan Wake

2012
low 1024x768
93.8  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
63.4  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
28.4  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings med..
Star Wars: The Old Republic

Star Wars: The Old Republic

2011
low 1024x768
72.9  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
56.1  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
49.4  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Anno 2070

Anno 2070

2011
low 1024x768
195.9  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
99.7  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
63.8  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
31.6  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
low 1280x720
61.1  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
56.1  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
47.1  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
32.9  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
low 1024x768
213.7  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
136.1  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
95.4  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
64.7  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
low 1024x768
98.1  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
69.5  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
54.3  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
24  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
low 1024x768
131  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
121  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
67  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
34  fps    + Compare