The 28nm NVIDIA Quadro M620 is a mid-range DirectX 12 (FL 11_0) and OpenGL 4.5-compatible graphics card for mobile workstations. It is a 1st generation Maxwell-based GPU built on the GM107 architecture with 512 of the 640 shader cores activated. Therefore, the GPU is not similar to any current consumer card. The Geforce GTX 950M, for example, uses the full 640 shader cores. The older Quadro M1000M offers very similar specs (same amount of shader cores and also based on the same chip but more graphics memory), but was intended for the Skylake generation. The M620 is intended for the Kaby Lake generation.
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
Due to the smaller amount of memory, the Quadro M620 should be slightly slower than the older Quadro M1000M. However, the exact clock speeds are not known up to now. In early benchmarks we have, the M1000M is about 9 % faster than the M620 in SPECviewperf 12.
Using CUDA (Compute Capability 5.0) or OpenCL 1.2, the cores of the Quadro M620 can be used for general calculations.
Power Consumption
The power consumption of the Quadro M620 is rated for a 30 Watt TGP including the board and memory components (21.2 Watt TDP), which is 10 Watt lower than the M1000M (which offers more memory). Therefore, the card is suited for 15-inch notebooks and greater.
The Nvidia Quadro M5500 is a high-end, DirectX 12 (FL_12_1) and OpenGL 4.5-compatible graphics card for mobile workstations. It is a Maxwell-based GPU built on the GM204 chip with all 2048 shader cores activated and is manufactured in 28 nm at TSMC. Therefore, the GPU is similar to the consumer Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 (Notebook). Compared to the slower and less power hungry Quadro M5000M, the M5500 offers 512 more shaders which should result in 30-40% more performance according to Nvidia.
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.
Using CUDA (Compute Capability 5.2) or OpenCL 1.2, the cores of the Quadro M5000M can be used for general calculations.
The power consumption of the Quadro M5000M is rated at the same TGP of 150 Watt. Therefore, the card is suited for very large notebooks with 17-inch displays or greater.
The first laptop with the M5500 in it is the MSI WT72 Workstation.
The Nvidia Quadro M520 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. That means its similar to the Quadro M500M (DDR3) but uses faster GDDR5 memory. The GeForce 940MX with GDDR5 memory is the consumer variant of the Quadro M520.
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
Currently the clock speeds are not known of the M520 variant. They should be similar to the consumer 940 MX with GDDR5. Therefore, the performance should be similar to the Quadro K620M.
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 M520 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 M520 is rated at 25 Watt TGP (max power consumption including memory and board). That is slightly below the M500M that is rated at 30 Watt. 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.
- 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.