NVIDIA Quadro K1100M vs NVIDIA Quadro K5000M

NVIDIA Quadro K1100M

The NVIDIA Quadro K1100M is a DirectX 11 and OpenGL 4.3 compatible graphics card for mobile workstations. It is a Kepler-based GPU built on the GK107 chip with all 384 shader cores activated and manufactured in 28nm at TSMC. The Quadro K1100M is built for the Intel Shark Bay generation (Haswell) and is a successor to the Quadro K1000M (Chief River platform). As a new feature, PCIe 3.0 is supported for the first time. The K1100M usually comes with 2 GB GDDR5 VRAM clocked at 700 MHz (2800 MHz effective, 44.8 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 GK107 Kepler core offers two shader blocks, called SMX, that are clocked at the same speed as the central core. In the K1100M, both blocks are active leading to the 384 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 similar to the old Quadro K2000M and clearly superior to the Quadro K1000M. This places the K1100M in range of the consumer GeForce GT 740M and GT 645M GPUs. Most demanding games of 2013 will run fluently with medium details and resolutions.

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 K1100M can be used for general calculations.

The 5th generation PureVideo HD video processor (VP5) is also integrated in the GK107 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 K1100M is rated at a TGP of 45 W including the board and memory components. Therefore, the card is suited for medium-sized notebooks with 15-inch displays or greater.

NVIDIA Quadro K5000M

The NVIDIA Quadro K5000M is a high-end, DirectX 11.1 compatible graphics card for mobile workstations. It is a Kepler-based GPU built on the GK104 chip (but using only 1344 shader cores) and is manufactured in 28nm by TSMC. The Quadro K5000M is built for the Intel Chief River generation (Ivy Bridge) and is the successor to the Fermi-based Quadro 5010M (Huron River platform). Usually 4 GB GDDR5 graphics memory clocked at 750 MHz (3000 MHz effective) are used.

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 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 GK104 Kepler core offers eight shader blocks, called SMX, that are clocked at the same speed as the central core. In the K5000M, 7 blocks are active leading to the 1366 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). 

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 performance is clearly above the level of the older Quadro 5010M. Compared to the GTX 680M, the clock rates are sligthly lower (depending on the manufacturer), placing the card between the 680M and the Fermi based GTX 675M. Nevertheless, most demanding games of 2012 will run fluently with maxed out details.

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.

Using CUDA or OpenCL 1.2, the cores of the Quadro K5000M can be used for general calculations.

The 5th generation PureVideo HD video processor (VP5) is also integrated in the GK107 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 K5000M is rated at 100 Watt (TGP according to Nvidia) and is therefore suited for large notebooks with 17-inch displays or greater.