NVIDIA Quadro M600M vs NVIDIA Quadro M500M

NVIDIA Quadro M600M

The 28nm NVIDIA Quadro M600M is an entry-level DirectX 12 (FL 11_0) and OpenGL 4.5-compatible graphics card for mobile workstations. It is a 1st generation Maxwell GPU that is most likely built on the GM107 architecture with 384 of the 640 shader cores activated. Compared to the older Quadro K620M and consumer GeForce 940M, the GPU offers a 128-Bit memory bus that separates it from the GM108-based K620M. The M600M typically comes with 2 GB GDDR5 VRAM clocked at 1250 MHz (5000 MHz effective at 80 GB/s instead of 16 GB/s on the K620M). 

In the Lenovo Thinkpad P70 the M600M is clocked at 837 - 876 MHz (Boost) for the shaders, and 1253 MHz (5012 MHz effektive) for the 2 GB GDDR5 from Samsung (thanks to our reader John for the GPU-Z screenshot).

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 compared to GeForce graphics cards of similar specifications.

Performance

The Quadro M600M is about 20% faster than the previous Quadro K620M thanks to the wider 128-bit memory interface and pretty much right between the siblings Quadro M500M & Quadro M1000M. The consumer GPU GeForce 940MX is beaten by ~10-15%, while the GeForce GTX 950M is another 20% faster.

Using CUDA (Compute Capability 5.0) or OpenCL 1.2, the cores of the Quadro M600M can be used for general calculations.

Power Consumption

The power consumption of the Quadro M600M is rated at the same 30 Watt TGP as the K620M including the board and memory components. Therefore, the card is also suited for thin and light notebooks.

NVIDIA Quadro M500M

The Nvidia Quadro M500M is a DirectX 12 (FL 11_0) and OpenGL 4.5-compatible graphics card for mobile workstations. It is a Maxwell-based GPU built on the GM108 chip with 384 shader cores and manufactured in 28 nm by TSMC. The Quadro M500M is the successor to the Quadro K620M which is also based on the Maxwell GM108 but lists a higher memory bandwidth of 16 vs. 14.4 GB/s. Therefore, it is also similar to the consumer GeForce 930M.

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

Compared to Kepler, Maxwell has been optimized in several details to increase power efficiency. Smaller Streaming Multiprocessors (SMM) with only 128 ALUs (Kepler: 192) and an optimized scheduler should lead to better utilization of the shaders. Nvidia promises that a Maxwell SMM with 128 ALUs can offer 90% of the performance of a Kepler SMX with 192 ALUs. GM108 features 3 SMMs and thus 384 shader cores, 24 TMUs and 8 ROPs (64-bit interface).

Another optimization is the massively enlarged L2 cache. The larger size can reduce some of the memory traffic to allow for a relatively narrow memory interface without significantly hurting performance.

GM108 supports DirectX 11.2 (feature level 11.0 only) as well as DirectX 12.

Performance

The performance should be slightly below the Quadro K620M (same chip, but slightly more memory bandwidth) and therefore positioned in the entry-level of dedicated graphics chips. For 3D games the Quadro M500M should be similar to the GeForce 930M. Therefore, only low-demanding games should run fluently.

Features

The feature set should include support for up to four active displays. High-resolution monitors of up to 3840x2160 pixels can be connected using DisplayPort 1.2 or HDMI 1.4a (HDMI 2.0 not supported). 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, the cores of the Quadro M500M can be used for general calculations.

GM108 integrates the sixth generation of the PureVideo HD video engine (VP6), offering a better decoding performance for H.264 and MPEG-2 videos. Of course, VP6 supports all features of previous generations (4K support, PIP, video encoding via NVENC API).

Power Consumption

The power consumption of the Quadro M500M (and M600M, K620M) is rated at 30 W. Therefore, the GPU is best suited for laptops 13 - 14-inches in size and above. The M500M also supports Optimus to automatically switch between an integrated graphics card and the Nvidia GPU.