Notebookcheck

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.

ManufacturerNVIDIA
GeForce GTX 600M Series
GeForce GTX 680M SLI (compare) 2688 @ 720 MHz2x 256 Bit @ 3600 MHz
GeForce GTX 680MX (compare) 1536 @ 720 MHz256 Bit @ 5000 MHz
GeForce GTX 675M SLI (compare) 768 @ 620 MHz256 Bit @ 3000 MHz
GeForce GTX 680M 1344 @ 720 MHz256 Bit @ 3600 MHz
GeForce GTX 670MX SLI (compare) 1920 @ 600 MHz2x 192 Bit @ 2800 MHz
GeForce GTX 675MX (compare) 960 @ 600 MHz256 Bit @ 3600 MHz
GeForce GTX 675M (compare) 384 @ 620 MHz256 Bit @ 3000 MHz
GeForce GTX 670MX (compare) 960 @ 600 MHz192 Bit @ 2800 MHz
GeForce GTX 670M (compare) 336 @ 598 MHz192 Bit @ 3000 MHz
GeForce GTX 660M (compare) 384 @ 835 MHz128 Bit @ 4000 MHz
CodenameN13E-GTX
ArchitectureKepler
Pipelines1344 - unified
Core Speed720 MHz
Memory Speed3600 MHz
Memory Bus Width256 Bit
Memory TypeGDDR5
Max. Amount of Memory4096 MB
Shared Memoryno
DirectXDirectX 11, Shader 5.0
Transistor Count3540 Million
technology28 nm
FeaturesOptimus, SLI, PhysX, Verde Drivers, CUDA, 3D Vision, 3DTV Play
Notebook Sizelarge
Date of Announcement04.06.2012
Link to Manufacturer Pagehttp://www.nvidia.com/page/home.html

Benchmarks

3DMark - Cloud Gate Standard Score 1280x720
min: 15255     avg: 15258.5     median: 15258.5 (31%)     max: 15262 Points
+ 2 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark - Cloud Gate Standard Graphics 1280x720
min: 26851     avg: 27684     median: 27684 (15%)     max: 28517 Points
+ 2 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark - Fire Strike Score 1920x1080
min: 3681     avg: 3762.5     median: 3762.5 (14%)     max: 3844 Points
+ 2 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark - Fire Strike Graphics 1920x1080
min: 3952     avg: 4049     median: 4049 (10%)     max: 4146 Points
+ 2 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark - Ice Storm Standard Graphics 1280x720
min: 77067     avg: 110472     median: 110472 (15%)     max: 143878 Points
+ 2 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark 11 - Performance 1280x720
min: 5804     avg: 6158.5     median: 5996.5 (20%)     max: 7218 points
+ 6 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark 11 - Performance GPU 1280x720
min: 5647     avg: 6073.8     median: 5897.5 (12%)     max: 7214 points
+ 6 benchmarks and specifications   - Hide comparison chart
3DMark Vantage
P Result 1280x1024 +
P GPU no PhysX 1280x1024 +
3DMark 03 - Standard 1024x768
min: 55426     avg: 68272     median: 71104 (39%)     max: 72750 Points
+ 5 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark 05 - Standard 1024x768
min: 26556     avg: 29052     median: 28444.5 (61%)     max: 32763 Points
+ 4 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark 06 Standard 1280x1024 +
Unigine Heaven 3.0 - DX 11, Normal Tessellation, High Shaders 1920x1080
min: 57.6     avg: 57.7     median: 57.7 (21%)     max: 57.7 fps
+ 2 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
Unigine Heaven 2.1 - high, Tesselation (normal), DirectX11 1280x1024
min: 71.6     avg: 73.9     median: 73.1 (33%)     max: 77.6 fps
+ 4 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 +
Windows 7 Experience Index - Gaming graphics
min: 6.9     avg: 7.2     median: 7 (89%)     max: 7.7 points
+ 3 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
Windows 7 Experience Index - Graphics
min: 6.9     avg: 7.2     median: 7 (89%)     max: 7.7 points
+ 3 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
Cinebench R10 Shading 32Bit +
Cinebench R11.5 OpenGL 64Bit +
LuxMark v2.0 64Bit - Room GPUs-only
327 Samples/s (6%)
+ 1 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
LuxMark v2.0 64Bit - Sala GPUs-only
614 Samples/s (6%)
+ 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.

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.
Assassin´s Creed IV: Black Flag

Assassin´s Creed IV: Black Flag

2013
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.
X-Plane 10.25

X-Plane 10.25

2013
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..
Call of Duty: Ghosts

Call of Duty: Ghosts

2013
low 1024x768
82  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
80  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
55.3  fps    + Compare