NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI is a high-end DirectX 11-compatible graphics card for laptops, consisting of two GeForce GTX 680M. Each card has a 28nm GK104 core based on the Kepler architecture. Compared to the desktop GeForce GTX 670, the GTX 680M also features 1344 CUDA cores, but the mobile counterpart operates at reduced core and memory clock speeds (720/1800MHz vs 915-980/3004MHz). The clocks for the SLI-setup are identical. With SLI, each card usually renders a single frame (AFR mode). 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).
Architecture
The Kepler architecture is the successor to the Fermi architecture that first appeared in laptops with the GeForce 400M series. The GK104 Kepler core offers eight shader blocks, called SMX, that are clocked at the same speed as the central core. Although more shader cores are available in the Kepler architecture as compared to the Fermi design, the Kepler shaders are still expected to be up to twice as power efficient. However, due to the missing hot clock of the shader domain, two shaders of a Kepler chip are of similar speed to one shader of a Fermi chip (as the latter is clocked twice as fast). PCIe 3.0 is now supported by the mobile Kepler series and an optional Turbo mode can automatically overclock the Nvidia card by a theoretical 15 percent if the laptop cooling system allows it. The implementation of this boost mode is done in the BIOS, but it is ultimately dependent upon the manufacturer of the laptop.
Performance
The graphics performance of the GeForce GTX 680M SLI is on the same level as the Radeon HD 7970M Crossfire, thus making both the fastest mobile solution as of summer 2012. In our Benchmarks, the 680M SLI is just marginal in front. The GPUs have enough power to run games of 2012 fluently with Full HD resolution, maxed out graphical settings and antialiasing. Even extremely demanding titles like Metro 2033, Alan Wake or Risen 2 are playable at the highest detail settings.
Features
The improved feature set now includes support for up to 4 active displays. Furthermore, high resolution monitors of up to 3840x2160 pixels can now be connected using DisplayPort 1.2 or HDMI 1.4a if available. HD-Audio codecs, such as Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD, can be transmitted via bitstream mode through the HDMI port. However, as most laptops will feature Optimus, the integrated GPU will likely have direct control over the display ports and may limit the feature set available by the Nvidia Kepler cards.
The 5th generation PureVideo HD video processor (VP5) is also integrated in the GK104 core and offers hardware decoding of HD videos. Common codecs such as MPEG-1/2, MPEG-4 ASP, H.264 and VC1/WMV9 are fully supported up to 4K resolutions while VC1 and MPEG-4 are supported up to 1080p. Two streams can be decoded in parallel for features such as Picture-in-Picture. Another novelty is the inclusion of a dedicated video encoding engine similar to Intel QuickSync that can be accessed by the NVENC API.
The power consumption of the GeForce GTX 680M SLI should double compared to a single GTX 680M. Therefore, only large desktop replacements can handle the heat.
Manufacturer | NVIDIA |
GeForce GTX 600M Series | |
Codename | N13E-GTX |
Architecture | Kepler |
Pipelines | 2688 - unified |
Core Speed | 720 MHz |
Memory Speed | 3600 MHz |
Memory Bus Width | 2x 256 Bit |
Memory Type | GDDR5 |
Max. Amount of Memory | 2x 4096 MB |
Shared Memory | no |
DirectX | DirectX 11, Shader 5.0 |
technology | 28 nm |
Features | Optimus, SLI, PhysX,
Verde Drivers,
CUDA, 3D Vision, 3DTV
Play |
Notebook Size | large |
Date of Announcement | 04.06.2012 |
Benchmarks
3DMark 11 - 3DM11 Performance Score
min: 9922 avg: 10053 median: 9946 (23%) max: 10292 Points
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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3DMark 11 - 3DM11 Performance GPU
min: 10921 avg: 10952 median: 10952 (19%) max: 10983 Points
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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3DMark Vantage
3DM Vant. Perf. total +3DMark Vantage - 3DM Vant. Perf. total
min: 32063 avg: 33812 median: 32635 (32%) max: 36739 Points
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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3DM Vant. Perf. GPU no PhysX +3DMark Vantage - 3DM Vant. Perf. GPU no PhysX
min: 35538 avg: 36214 median: 36213.5 (33%) max: 36889 Points
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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3DMark 03 - 3DMark 03 - Standard
min: 108274 avg: 108565 median: 108565 (57%) max: 108856 Points
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AMD Radeon HD 6970 -17%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 -14%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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3DMark 05 - 3DMark 05 - Standard
min: 32059 avg: 32434 median: 32434 (47%) max: 32809 Points
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AMD Radeon HD 6970 -3%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 -1%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT 70%
3DMark 06 3DMark 06 - Standard 1280x1024 +min: 26530 avg: 26984 median: 26983.5 (50%) max: 27437 Points
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT 75%
Unigine Heaven 3.0 - Unigine Heaven 3.0 DX 11
108 fps (36%)
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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Unigine Heaven 2.1 - Heaven 2.1 high
min: 131.8 avg: 135 median: 135.1 (25%) max: 138.3 fps
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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SPECviewperf 11
specvp11 snx-01 +SPECviewperf 11 - specvp11 snx-01
2.1 fps (2%)
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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specvp11 tcvis-02 +SPECviewperf 11 - specvp11 tcvis-02
0.8 fps (1%)
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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specvp11 sw-02 +SPECviewperf 11 - specvp11 sw-02
9.5 fps (11%)
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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specvp11 proe-05 +SPECviewperf 11 - specvp11 proe-05
1.1 fps (5%)
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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specvp11 maya-03 +SPECviewperf 11 - specvp11 maya-03
10.7 fps (8%)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 -86%
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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specvp11 lightwave-01 +SPECviewperf 11 - specvp11 lightwave-01
14 fps (15%)
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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specvp11 ensight-04 +SPECviewperf 11 - specvp11 ensight-04
19.9 fps (10%)
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ATI Radeon HD 5770 0%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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specvp11 catia-03 +SPECviewperf 11 - specvp11 catia-03
9.7 fps (12%)
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ATI Radeon HD 5770 -11%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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Windows 7 Experience Index - Win7 Gaming graphics
7.9 Points (100%)
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ATI Radeon HD 5850 -3%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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Windows 7 Experience Index - Win7 Graphics
7.9 Points (100%)
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ATI Radeon HD 5850 -3%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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Cinebench R11.5 Cinebench R11.5 OpenGL 64 Bit +Cinebench R11.5 - Cinebench R11.5 OpenGL 64 Bit
min: 48.98 avg: 51.4 median: 52.5 (22%) max: 52.59 fps
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ATI Radeon HD 5850 -2%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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- 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 detailed information on the benchmark results, click on the fps number.
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450 -30%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
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NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450 -15%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450 -10%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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ATI Radeon HD 5850 -16%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
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ATI Radeon HD 5850 -6%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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ATI Radeon HD 5850 -10%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
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ATI Radeon HD 5850 0%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI