NVIDIA Quadro FX 370M vs NVIDIA Quadro FX 3800M

NVIDIA Quadro FX 370M

The NVIDIA Quadro FX 370M is an entry level graphics card for mobile workstations (laptops). It is based on the same core as the Quadro NVS 160M and the GeForce 9200M / 9300M GS. The drivers are optimized for OpenGL applications and professional 3D applications like CAD, DCC, and visualization applications. Furthermore, the drivers are certified to work with the most popular apps without problems.

The gaming performance is a bit below the similar 9200M / 9300M chip because of the professional drivers and therefore the GPU is only capable of displaying low end games fluently. Modern intensive 3D games wont run fluently or only with very low detail settings.

As the 9300M series, the Quadro FX 370M supports PureVideo HD to decode (HD) videos in the GPU.

The performance of the chip also depends on the used graphics memory. Either fast GDDR3 memory (clocked at 700 MHz) or slow GDDR2 (with 400MHz) can be used by the laptop manufacturer.

In the Dell Precision M2400, only GDDR2 graphics memory is used, leading to a slow performance (e.g. Doom3 - ultra 40fps). According to Dell the graphics card needs 20 Watt.

NVIDIA Quadro FX 3800M

The NVIDIA Quadro FX 3800M is a mobile workstation graphics card for high end laptops. It is based on the Geforce GTX 280M core (G92 core) and features 128 CUDA cores (unified shaders).

Compared to the Quadro FX 3700M, the Quadro FX 3800M features a higher clock speed and is manufacturered in 55nm (compared to 65nm of the 3700M). In fact, the FX3800M is clocked even higher than the consumer GeForce GTX 280M and performs notably better as a result.

The Quadro FX series of cards are optimized for professional applications like CAD or DCC. Notably, OpenGL performance should be much improved compared to  consumer GeForce cards of similar specifications.

At the time its announcement (December 2009), the FX 3800M was the fastest workstation graphics card for laptops.