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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M

 

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M is a high-end DirectX 11.1-compatible graphics card for laptops and was announced during Computex 2012. It was the fastest GPU available for notebooks at the time of announcement and 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).

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. In the GTX 680M, 7 blocks are active leading to the 1344 CUDA cores. 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 is on average above the Radeon HD 7970M, thus making the Nvidia card the fastest mobile graphics card as of summer 2012. The GPU has enough power to run demanding games of 2012 fluently with Full HD resolution and maxed out graphical settings. Only the extremely demanding title The Witcher 2 will not run fluently in ultra settings. Battlefield 3, Skyrim, and Crysis 2, for example, 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 should be similar to the GTX 580M and therefore best suited for large notebooks (17-inches or greater) and desktop replacements.

GeForce GTX 600M Series

GeForce GTX 680M SLI compare 2688 @ 0.72 GHz2x 256 Bit @ 3600 MHz
GeForce GTX 680MX compare 1536 @ 0.72 GHz256 Bit @ 5000 MHz
GeForce GTX 675M SLI compare 768 @ 0.62 GHz256 Bit @ 3000 MHz
GeForce GTX 680M 1344 @ 0.72 GHz256 Bit @ 3600 MHz
GeForce GTX 670MX SLI compare 1920 @ 0.6 GHz2x 192 Bit @ 2800 MHz
GeForce GTX 675MX compare 960 @ 0.6 GHz256 Bit @ 3600 MHz
GeForce GTX 675M compare 384 @ 0.62 GHz256 Bit @ 3000 MHz
GeForce GTX 670MX compare 960 @ 0.6 GHz192 Bit @ 2800 MHz
GeForce GTX 670M compare 336 @ 0.6 GHz192 Bit @ 3000 MHz
GeForce GTX 660M compare 384 @ 0.84 GHz128 Bit @ 4000 MHz
CodenameN13E-GTX
ArchitectureKepler
Pipelines1344 - unified
Core Speed720 MHz
Memory Speed3600 MHz
Memory Bus Width256 Bit
Memory TypeGDDR5
Max. Amount of Memory4 GB
Shared Memoryno
APIDirectX 11, Shader 5.0
Power Consumption100 Watt
Transistor Count3.5 Billion
technology28 nm
FeaturesOptimus, SLI, PhysX, Verde Drivers, CUDA, 3D Vision, 3DTV Play
Notebook Sizelarge
Date of Announcement04.06.2012
Link to Manufacturer Pagewww.nvidia.com

Benchmarks

Performance Rating - 3DMark 11 + Fire Strike + Time Spy
1.8 pt (6%)
3DMark - 3DMark Cloud Gate Score
min: 15255     avg: 15259     median: 15258.5 (16%)     max: 15262 Points
3DMark - 3DMark Cloud Gate Graphics
min: 26851     avg: 27684     median: 27684 (7%)     max: 28517 Points
3DMark - 3DMark Fire Strike Standard Score
min: 3681     avg: 3763     median: 3762.5 (7%)     max: 3844 Points
3DMark - 3DMark Fire Strike Standard Graphics
min: 3952     avg: 4049     median: 4049 (5%)     max: 4146 Points
3DMark Vantage
3DM Vant. Perf. total +
3DMark Vantage - 3DM Vant. Perf. total
min: 19575     avg: 21164     median: 21533.5 (6%)     max: 21952 Points
3DM Vant. Perf. GPU no PhysX +
3DMark Vantage - 3DM Vant. Perf. GPU no PhysX
min: 18266     avg: 20575     median: 20891 (11%)     max: 21489 Points
3DMark 06 3DMark 06 - Standard 1280x1024 +
3DMark 06
min: 18529     avg: 22479     median: 22760 (30%)     max: 25378 Points
Unigine Heaven 3.0 - Unigine Heaven 3.0 DX 11
min: 57.6     avg: 57.7     median: 57.7 (19%)     max: 57.7 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
- 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.

Titanfall

Titanfall

2014
low 1024x768
60  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
60  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
59.8  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
53.9  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Thief

Thief

2014
low 1024x768
56.3  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
54  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
51  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
31.3  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
low 1024x768
61.5  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
60.6  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
47.2  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
26.2  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
low 1024x768
82.2  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
39.2  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
21.5  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
17.1  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings med..
low 1024x768
82  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
80  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
55.3  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
31.7  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
low 1024x768
111.1  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
91  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
69.7  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
31.1  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
low 1024x768
249  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
189  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
107  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
54  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
F1 2013

F1 2013

2013
low 1024x768
157  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
121  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
115  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
91  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Fifa 14

Fifa 14

2013
low 1024x768
432.1  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
349.7  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
349.2  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
290.4  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
low 1024x768
219.6  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
160.3  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
121  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
27  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
low 1280x720
81.3  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
70  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
58  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
41.6  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
low 1024x768
121.7  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
116.4  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768