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
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Codename | N13E-GTX | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Architecture | Kepler | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Pipelines | 1344 - unified | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Core Speed | 720 MHz | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Memory Speed | 3600 MHz | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Memory Bus Width | 256 Bit | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Memory Type | GDDR5 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Max. Amount of Memory | 4 GB | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shared Memory | no | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| API | DirectX 11, Shader 5.0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Power Consumption | 100 Watt | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Transistor Count | 3.5 Billion | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| technology | 28 nm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Features | Optimus, SLI, PhysX, Verde Drivers, CUDA, 3D Vision, 3DTV Play | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Notebook Size | large | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Date of Announcement | 04.06.2012 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Link to Manufacturer Page | www.nvidia.com | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
- Average benchmark valuesThe 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 | med. | high | ultra | QHD | 4K | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Titanfall | 60 | 60 | 59.8 | 53.9 | ||
| Thief | 56.3 | 54 | 51 | 31.3 | ||
| Assassin´s Creed IV: Black Flag | 61.5 | 60.6 | 47.2 | 26.2 | ||
| X-Plane 10.25 | 82.2 | 39.2 | 21.5 | 17.1 | ||
| Call of Duty: Ghosts | 82 | 80 | 55.3 | 31.7 | ||
| Battlefield 4 | 111.1 | 91 | 69.7 | 31.1 | ||
| Batman: Arkham Origins | 249 | 189 | 107 | 54 | ||
| F1 2013 | 157 | 121 | 115 | 91 | ||
| Fifa 14 | 432.1 | 349.7 | 349.2 | 290.4 | ||
| Total War: Rome II | 219.6 | 160.3 | 121 | 27 | ||
| Saints Row IV | 81.3 | 70 | 58 | 41.6 | ||
| The Bureau: XCOM Declassified | 121.7 | 116.4 | 59.9 | 30.2 | ||
| Splinter Cell: Blacklist | 102.1 | 116.7 | 62.7 | 30.6 | ||
| Dota 2 | 106.6 | 92.3 | 63.3 | |||
| Company of Heroes 2 | 52.5 | 50 | 37.4 | 18.4 | ||
| GRID 2 | 143.7 | 110.7 | 102.2 | 48.2 | ||
| Metro: Last Light | 102.3 | 87.8 | 54.5 | 30.5 | ||
| BioShock Infinite | 184.4 | 133 | 117 | 46 | ||
| StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm | 264.4 | 103 | 90 | 60 | ||
| SimCity | 77.3 | 56.9 | 48.3 | 32.1 | ||
| Tomb Raider | 283.8 | 170 | 109 | 40 | ||
| Crysis 3 | 84.1 | 69.8 | 51.4 | 21.8 | ||
| Dead Space 3 | 287 | 220.4 | 182.8 | 111.1 | ||
| Far Cry 3 | 78.7 | 69.4 | 68.4 | 24 | ||
| Assassin´s Creed III | 70.4 | 66.9 | 34 | |||
| Hitman: Absolution | 71.8 | 66.1 | 50.3 | 25 | ||
| Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 | 214 | 165 | 110 | 75 | ||
| Need for Speed: Most Wanted | 59.8 | 59.8 | 58.3 | 53 | ||
| Medal of Honor: Warfighter | 154.9 | 111.3 | 93.1 | 42 | ||
| Dishonored | 121.4 | 121.5 | 120 | 114 | ||
| World of Tanks v8 | 64.6 | 44 | 39.7 | 29.5 | ||
| Fifa 13 | 387.6 | 324.5 | 297.3 | 256.9 | ||
| F1 2012 | 158 | 120 | 111 | 76 | ||
| Borderlands 2 | 119.9 | 98.9 | 88.4 | 72 | ||
| Torchlight 2 | 95 | 81 | 79 | |||
| Guild Wars 2 | 79.6 | 46 | 32 | |||
| Counter-Strike: GO | 230.8 | 194.7 | 169.3 | 128 | ||
| Darksiders II | 177.8 | 95 | ||||
| Sleeping Dogs | 120.3 | 92 | 74 | 24 | ||
| The Secret World | 81.4 | 69.2 | 65 | 32 | ||
| Ghost Recon: Future Soldier | 62.5 | 62 | 29 | |||
| Max Payne 3 | 74.8 | 81.5 | 54 | 42 | ||
| Dirt Showdown | 101.1 | 81.3 | 76 | 54 | ||
| Diablo III | 186.5 | 168.5 | 185 | 173 | ||
| Risen 2: Dark Waters | 93.2 | 96.3 | 75 | 42 | ||
| Mass Effect 3 | 60.2 | 60 | 60 | |||
| Alan Wake | 120.1 | 83 | 42 | |||
| Anno 2070 | 231.9 | 149 | 103 | 52 | ||
| The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim | 88 | 81 | 60 | |||
| CoD: Modern Warfare 3 | 227.7 | 160.2 | 141 | 104 | ||
| Battlefield 3 | 122.3 | 90 | 74 | 36 | ||
| Batman: Arkham City | 152 | 142 | 110 | 59 | ||
| Fifa 12 | 419.9 | 292.7 | 266 | 228 | ||
| F1 2011 | 149 | 108 | 86 | 67 | ||
| Deus Ex Human Revolution | 248.1 | 181 | 110 | |||
| Crysis 2 | 103.7 | 103 | 101 | 49 | ||
| StarCraft 2 | 278.9 | 116.1 | 112 | 96 | ||
| Metro 2033 | 139.2 | 128 | 69 | 25 | ||
| low | med. | high | ultra | QHD | 4K | < 30 fps < 60 fps < 120 fps ≥ 120 fps | 3 24 28 | 6 30 19 | 1 15 27 10 | 11 26 16 5 | | |
For more games that might be playable and a list of all games and graphics cards visit our Gaming List
MSI GT70-0NE-1027XPL: Intel Core i7-3630QM, 17.30", 3.7 kg
External Review » MSI GT70-0NE-1027XPL
Alienware M17X, i7-3630QM: Intel Core i7-3630QM, 17.30", 4.3 kg
External Review » Alienware M17X, i7-3630QM
Cyberpower FangBook X7-300: Intel Core i7-3630QM, 17.30", 3.9 kg
External Review » Cyberpower FangBook X7-300
AVADirect Clevo P570WM: Intel Core i7-3960X, 17.30", 5.9 kg
External Review » AVADirect Clevo P570WM
Medion Erazer X6825-MD98235: Intel Core i7-3630QM, 15.60", 3.3 kg
External Review » Medion Erazer X6825-MD98235
Maingear Nomad 15: Intel Core i7-3840QM, 15.60", 3.5 kg
External Review » Maingear Nomad 15
Alienware M17xR4 3D GTX 680M: Intel Core i7-3610QM, 17.30", 4.5 kg
External Review » Alienware M17xR4 3D GTX 680M
Maingear Nomad 17: Intel Core i7-3820QM, 17.30", 3.8 kg
External Review » Maingear Nomad 17
Deviltech Devil 6700: Intel Core i7-3610QM, 15.60", 3.3 kg
External Review » Deviltech Devil 6700
Eurocom Scorpius P370EM: Intel Core i7-3920XM, 17.30", 3.5 kg
External Review » Eurocom Scorpius P370EM
MSI GT70 0NE-255FR: Intel Core i7-3610QM, 17.30", 3.8 kg
External Review » MSI GT70 0NE-255FR
MSI GT70-0NE-276US: Intel Core i7-3610QM, 17.30", 3.9 kg
External Review » MSI GT70-0NE-276US
Ibuypower Valkyrie CZ 17: Intel Core i7-3630QM, 17.30", 4 kg
External Review » Ibuypower Valkyrie CZ-17
Alienware M17x R4, GTX 680M, i7-3820QM: Intel Core i7-3820QM, 17.30", 4.4 kg
External Review » Alienware M17x R4, GTX 680M, i7-3820QM
» Comparison of GPUs
Detailed list of all laptop GPUs sorted by class and performance.
» Benchmark List
Sort and restrict laptop GPUs based on performance in synthetic benchmarks.
» Notebook Gaming List
Playable games for each graphics card and their average FPS results.
* Approximate position of the graphics adapter
Top 10 Laptops
Multimedia, Budget Multimedia, Gaming, Budget Gaming, Lightweight Gaming, Business, Budget Office, Workstation, Subnotebooks, Ultrabooks, Chromebooks
under 300 USD/Euros, under 500 USD/Euros, 1,000 USD/Euros, for University Students, Best Displays
Top 10 Smartphones
Smartphones, Phablets, ≤6-inch, Camera Smartphones
