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NVIDIA Quadro K2100M

NVIDIA Quadro K2100M

The NVIDIA Quadro K2100M is a DirectX 11 and OpenGL 4.3 compatible graphics card for mobile workstations. It is a Kepler-based GPU built on the GK106 chip with 576 out of 960 shader cores activated and is manufactured in 28nm at TSMC. The Quadro K2100M is built for the Intel Shark Bay generation (Haswell) and is a successor to the Quadro K2000M (Chief River platform). As a new feature, PCIe 3.0 is supported for the first time. The K2100M usually comes with 2 GB GDDR5 VRAM clocked at 750 MHz (3000 MHz effective, 48.0 GB/s). 

The Quadro series offers certified drivers that are optimized for stability and performance in professional applications like CAD or DCC. OpenGL performance, for example, should be significantly better than with GeForce graphics cards of similar specifications.

Architecture

The Kepler architecture is the successor to the Fermi architecture that first appeared in laptops with the GeForce 400M series. The GK106 Kepler core offers five shader blocks, called SMX, that are clocked at the same speed as the central core. In the K2100M, 3 of 5 blocks are active leading to the 576 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 offer similar performance to just one shader of a Fermi chip (as the latter is clocked twice as fast).

Performance

The performance is clearly above the old Quadro K2000M, but slightly below the Quadro K3000M. This places the K2100M near the consumer GT 750M GPU. Therefore, most demanding games of 2013 will run fluently with medium or high details.

Features

The improved feature set now includes support for up to 4 active displays. Furthermore, high resolution monitors of up to 3840 x 2160 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.

Using CUDA or OpenCL 1.2, the cores of the Quadro K2100M can be used for general calculations.

The 5th generation PureVideo HD video processor (VP5) is also integrated in the GK106 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 Quadro K2100M is rated at a TGP of 55 W including the board and memory components. Therefore, the card is suited for medium-sized notebooks with 15-inch displays or greater.

Quadro K Series

Quadro K5100M compare 1536 @ 0.77 GHz256 Bit @ 3600 MHz
Quadro K5000M compare 1344 @ 0.71 GHz256 Bit @ 3000 MHz
Quadro K4100M compare 1152 @ 0.71 GHz256 Bit @ 3200 MHz
Quadro K4000M compare 960 @ 0.6 GHz256 Bit @ 2800 MHz
Quadro K3100M compare 768 @ 0.71 GHz256 Bit @ 3200 MHz
Quadro K3000M compare 576 @ 0.65 GHz256 Bit @ 2800 MHz
Quadro K2100M 576 @ 0.67 GHz128 Bit @ 3000 MHz
Quadro K1100M compare 384 @ 0.71 GHz128 Bit @ 2800 MHz
Quadro K620M compare 384 @ 1.03 - 1.12 GHz64 Bit @ 2000 MHz
Quadro K2000M compare 384 @ 0.75 GHz128 Bit @ 1800 MHz
Quadro K1000M compare 192 @ 0.85 GHz128 Bit @ 1800 MHz
Quadro K610M compare 192 @ 0.95 GHz64 Bit @ 2600 MHz
Quadro K510M compare 192 @ 0.85 GHz64 Bit @ 2400 MHz
Quadro K500M compare 192 @ 0.85 GHz64 Bit @ 1800 MHz
ArchitectureKepler
Pipelines576 - unified
Core Speed667 MHz
Memory Speed3000 MHz
Memory Bus Width128 Bit
Memory TypeGDDR5
Max. Amount of Memory2048 MB
Shared Memoryno
APIDirectX 11, Shader 5.0, OpenGL 4.3
Power Consumption55 Watt
Transistor Count2.5 Billion
technology28 nm
FeaturesOptimus, PhysX, Verde Drivers, CUDA, OpenCL 1.2, 3D Vision, 3DTV Play
Notebook Sizemedium sized
Date of Announcement23.07.2013
Link to Manufacturer Pagewww.nvidia.com

Benchmarks

Performance Rating - 3DMark 11 + Fire Strike + Time Spy
0.6 pt (2%)
3DMark - 3DMark Cloud Gate Graphics
min: 10654     avg: 11766     median: 11835 (3%)     max: 12292 Points
3DMark - 3DMark Fire Strike Standard Score
min: 1504     avg: 1580     median: 1553 (2%)     max: 1738 Points
3DMark - 3DMark Fire Strike Standard Graphics
min: 1554     avg: 1641     median: 1606 (1%)     max: 1843 Points
3DMark - 3DMark Ice Storm Graphics
min: 46451     avg: 77184     median: 72436 (8%)     max: 106617 Points
3DMark 11 - 3DM11 Performance Score
min: 2553     avg: 2616     median: 2626 (3%)     max: 2659 Points
3DMark Vantage
3DM Vant. Perf. total +
3DM Vant. Perf. GPU no PhysX +
3DMark 06 3DMark 06 - Standard 1280x1024 +
3DMark 06
min: 15481     avg: 15586     median: 15586 (20%)     max: 15690 Points
Unigine Heaven 3.0 - Unigine Heaven 3.0 DX 11
min: 22.5     avg: 23.1     median: 23.2 (8%)     max: 23.6 fps
Unigine Heaven 3.0 - Unigine Heaven 3.0 OpenGL
min: 20.4     avg: 21.5     median: 21.7 (10%)     max: 22.3 fps
SPECviewperf 11
specvp11 snx-01 +
SPECviewperf 11 - specvp11 snx-01
min: 30.39     avg: 30.9     median: 30.9 (18%)     max: 31.34 fps
specvp11 tcvis-02 +
SPECviewperf 11 - specvp11 tcvis-02
min: 33.86     avg: 34.7     median: 34.8 (20%)     max: 35.36 fps
specvp11 sw-02 +
SPECviewperf 11 - specvp11 sw-02
min: 41.64     avg: 43.7     median: 43.7 (33%)     max: 46 fps
specvp11 proe-05 +
SPECviewperf 11 - specvp11 proe-05
min: 15.53     avg: 17.3     median: 17.6 (21%)     max: 18.97 fps
specvp11 maya-03 +
SPECviewperf 11 - specvp11 maya-03
min: 51.6     avg: 52.5     median: 52.6 (40%)     max: 53.3 fps
specvp11 lightwave-01 +
SPECviewperf 11 - specvp11 lightwave-01
min: 47.6     avg: 49.5     median: 49.2 (53%)     max: 51 fps
specvp11 ensight-04 +
SPECviewperf 11 - specvp11 ensight-04
min: 23.89     avg: 26.4     median: 27.4 (13%)     max: 28.26 fps
specvp11 catia-03 +
SPECviewperf 11 - specvp11 catia-03
min: 39.12     avg: 41.5     median: 41.5 (22%)     max: 43 fps
SPECviewperf 12
specvp12 sw-03 +
specvp12 snx-02 +
specvp12 showcase-01 +
specvp12 mediacal-01 +
specvp12 maya-04 +
SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 maya-04
min: 15.82     avg: 17.2     median: 17.8 (5%)     max: 18.5 fps
specvp12 energy-01 +
specvp12 creo-01 +
specvp12 catia-04 +
Cinebench R10 Cinebench R10 Shading (32bit) +
Cinebench R11.5 Cinebench R11.5 OpenGL 64 Bit +
Cinebench R15
Cinebench R15 OpenGL 64 Bit +
Cinebench R15 OpenGL Ref. Match 64 Bit +
- Range of benchmark values for this graphics card
red legend - 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.

Anno 2205

Anno 2205

2015
low 1024x768
54  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
33  fps    + Compare
high 1920x1080
14  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
low 1024x768
26  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
18  fps    + Compare
high 1920x1080
9  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
low 1024x768
225  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
60  fps    + Compare
high 1920x1080
25  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings med..
low 1024x768
32  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
23  fps    + Compare
high 1920x1080
11  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
low 1280x720
67  fps    + Compare
med. 1344x756
34  fps    + Compare
high 1920x1080
17  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
16  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
low 1024x768
137 268 ~ 203 fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
75 102 ~ 89 fps    + Compare
high 1920x1080
40 43 ~ 42 fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
21 22 ~ 22 fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Thief

Thief

2014
low 1024x768
36  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
26.5  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
23.2  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
12.5  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
low 1024x768
68.2 108.5 ~ 88 fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
51.2 82.1 ~ 67 fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
41.3 63.9 ~ 53 fps    + Compare