NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 vs NVIDIA GeForce GT 740M vs NVIDIA GeForce GT 745M

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 is high-end desktop graphics card based on the Ampere generation. It uses the big GA102 chip and offers 8,704 shaders and 10 GB GDDR6X graphics memory.

The gaming performance in 4k is clearly better than the old GeForce RTX 2080 Ti (approximately 15% faster). Therefore, even demanding games should run with maximum detail settings in 4k. Enabling raytracing will however reduce the framerate and therefore maximum details won't be playable. 

The RTX3080 is produced in 8nm at Samsung and rated at 320 Watt but the power efficiency is still quite good.

NVIDIA GeForce GT 740M

The NVIDIA GeForce GT 740M is a DirectX 11 graphics card of the middle class. It is based on the Kepler architecture and manufactured by TSMC in a 28-nanometer process. In addition to an older version with the GK107 chip (384 shader, 810 - 895 MHz, 128 bit memory), there also exist models with the new GK208 (384 shader, up to 980 MHz plus boost, 64 bit memory). Both versions usually use DDR3 memory; however, GDDR5 versions are possible, too.

Architecture

Both GK107 and GK208 are based on the Kepler architecture and offer two shader blocks, called SMX, each with 192 shaders for a total of 384 shader cores. The shaders are clocked at the same speed as the rest of the chip. Although more shader cores are available in the Kepler architecture as compared to the Fermi design, the Kepler shaders are much more efficient. However, due to the missing hot clock of the shader domain, two shaders of a Kepler chip are as fast as one shader of a Fermi chip even though Fermi shaders are clocked at twice the speed.

PCIe 3.0 is now supported by the mobile Kepler series and an optional Turbo mode can automatically overclock the card if the laptop cooling system allows it. This feature is available on any notebook with a graphics card of the 700M series.

Performance

The gaming performance of the GeForce GT 740M depends on the used chip. Our benchmarks with a GK107 version show a performance just 10 percent below the GT 650M. Current games (as of 2013) can thus be played in medium to high settings. In older titles, there are also reserves for additional quality features like AA and AF. The GK208 version, however, performs significantly worse and is sometimes even below the GT 640M. Still, the performance depends on the core clock and the GPU Boost 2.0. Detailed benchmarks can be found further down on this page.

Features

The feature set of the GT 740M corresponds to the GT 730M. This 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) (also integrated in the GK107 core) 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 feature is the inclusion of a dedicated video encoding engine similar to Intel QuickSync that can be accessed via the NVENCI API.

Power Consumption

The power consumption of the GeForce GT 740M should be similar to the GT 730M. As a result, the Nvidia GPU is best suited for multimedia notebooks 14-inches in size or greater.

NVIDIA GeForce GT 745M

The NVIDIA GeForce GT 745M is a DirectX 11 graphics card of the middle class. It is based on the Kepler architecture and manufactured by TSMC in a 28-nanometer process. The GK107 chip (384 shaders) is clocked at up to 837 MHz plus boost and has a 128 bit memory interface (usually DDR3, but GDDR5 also possible).

Architecture

The GK107 Kepler core offers two shader blocks, called SMX, each with 192 shaders for a total of 384 shader cores that are clocked at the same speed as the processor core. Although more shader cores are available in the Kepler architecture as compared to the Fermi design, the Kepler shaders are expected to be up to two times more power efficient. However, due to the missing hot clock of the shader domain, two shaders of a Kepler chip are as fast as one shader of a Fermi chip, even though Fermi shaders are clocked at twice the speed.

PCIe 3.0 is now supported by the mobile Kepler series and GPU Boost 2.0 can automatically overclock the card if the laptop cooling system allows it. This feature is available on any notebook with a graphics card of the 700M series.

Performance

Depending on clock speed and memory configuration, the GT 745M performs just below the GT 650M or GTX 660M. Models with GDDR5 memory are usually slightly faster than models with DDR3. Current games (as of 2013) can be played fluently in medium to high settings. In older titles, there are also reserves for additional quality features like AA and AF.

Features

The feature set 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) (also integrated in the GK107 core) 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 feature is the inclusion of a dedicated video encoding engine similar to Intel QuickSync that can be accessed via the NVENCI API.

Power Consumption

The power consumption of the GeForce GT 745M should be similar to the GT 645M (about 25 - 30 watts). As a result, the Nvidia GPU is best suited for multimedia notebooks 14-inches in size or greater.