14 DAY TRIAL // As early rumors pointed out, Nvidia is today refreshing its mobile GPU lineup with eight new graphics cards, most of them being part of the 500-series family and offering improved clock speeds compared to the solutions meant to replace.
However, before detailing the new chips, I have to mention these are actually rebranded versions of the previous 400M-series GPUs, none of them featuring the architectural improvements that made their way into the GF110 core.
Starting from top to bottom, Nvidia's new flagship mobile GPU is the GeForce GTX 485M that uses the full GF104 chip.
This means that users get 384 CUDA cores clocked at 575MHz and 750MHz GDDR5 (3.0GHz effective) memory that is run via a 256-bit bus interface.
In comparison, the older GTX 480 gets “only” 352 cores clocked at 425MHz and 600MHz memory, the new part ending up with 48% more computational power than the 480M and 25% more memory bandwidth.
Next in line is the first 500M chip, the GT 555M, that is based on the GF106 core and features a 192-bit memory interface, 144 CUDA cores clocked at 590MHz, 900MHz RAM and can be configured with either GDDR5 or DDR3 memory.
This is followed by another 500M part, the GT 550M, that can also support GDDR5 or DDR3 memory, features 96 CUDA cores run at 740MHz, a 128-bit bus interface and 900MHz memory.
Right below the GT 550M are the 540M and the 525M, both solutions coming in with the same specifications as their older brother, just the core operating frequency being changed as they run at 672MHz and 600MHz, respectively.
As before, only GTX parts get SLI support, so the 485M is the only graphics card in this lineup to support dual-GPU setups.
Together with the high-performance and mainstream mobile GPU lines, Nvidia has also refreshed its entry-level series with three new solutions, the GeForce GT 520M, the GeForce 410M and the GeForce 315M.
The first two are derived form the GF108 GPU and pack 48 CUDA cores, a 64-bit memory interface, the RAM clock being set at 800MHz while the core is run at 740MHz and 575MHz, respectively.
And finally, there's the GT218 based GeForce 315M that goes by with owning just 16 CUDA cores, DDR3 memory on a 64-bit bus and 606MHz/790MHz clock rates.
According to AnandTech, the GeForce 410M and GeForce 315M most likely perform worst than Sandy Bridge integrated graphics, concluding that “you’d really have to be desperate to want the 315M.”