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.
The NVIDIA Quadro FX 880M is a professional middle class graphics card for mobile workstations (about 15"). It is based on the GeForce GT 330M graphics card with slower clock rates and therefore is a DirectX 10.1 chip that is produced in 40nm.
Due to a special BIOS and professional drivers, the FX 880M should perform noticeably better than a 330M in professional applications (like CAD, DCC, Rendering). Another advantage for professional users are the certified drivers that should ensure a bug free experience with the most common professional applications. Futhermore, the Quadro FX drivers contain profiles for these applications to ensure the best settings (similar to the game profiles in GeForce cards).
The Quadro FX 880M is also based on the GT216 core in 40nm. The shaders are based on the desktop GTX 200 architecture and therefore a bit improved compared to the previous generation cards.
Without load, the Quadro FX 880M is able to downclock to 135 / 270 / 135 MHz (chip / shader / memory clock).
The gaming performance of the FX 880M should be beyond the GT 330M, because of the different drivers. Gamers should choose a GeForce card because of the better game support.
The chip supports Optimus for automatic switching between dedicated and integrated graphics card (e.g. in the new Core i5 CPUs). Still Optimus was for example not integrated in the Lenovo Thinkpad W510.
The Nvidia Quadro FX 1700M is a professional graphics adapter for CAD and 3D applications. It is based on the G96 core (GeForce 9650M e.g.) but with different drivers, that are optimized for OpenGL and professional applications. The drivers are zertified to work flawlessly with different applications.
Compared to the Quadro FX 1600M, the FX 1700M GPU supports Powermizer 8.0.
CG shading language, 32 Bit floating point precision, 12 Bit subpixel precision, 128 Bit precision of the graphics pipeline, FSAA with rotated raster, nView Mutlidisplay Support, High-Precision-Dynamic-Range (HPDR), Hardware 3D Clipping on window recognision, full screen AA
Average Benchmarks NVIDIA Quadro FX 370M → 100%n=4
Average Benchmarks NVIDIA Quadro FX 880M → 287%n=4
Average Benchmarks NVIDIA Quadro FX 1700M → 286%n=4
- Range of benchmark values for this graphics card - Average benchmark values for this graphics card * Smaller numbers mean a higher performance 1 This benchmark is not used for the average calculation
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.