14 DAY TRIAL // NVIDIA has formally released five new graphics processing units for laptops, but has not released the actual specifications. It did unveil some key details though, even if they weren't the ones that everyone expected.
First off, the GeForce GT 830M and 840M are powered by the Maxwell architecture, like the GeForce GTX 750 / GTX 750 Ti desktop cards.
They should be 35% faster than their predecessors, and four times better than the HD graphics 4400 inside Intel's Core i5-4200U CPU, all the while using the same amount of power.
Meanwhile, the GTX 850M, 860M, 870M, and 880M should be 15-60% better than their 700-series counterparts. The Maxwell-based 850M and 860M are the bets, with 60% and 40%, respectively (compared to the GTX 750M and 760M).
They are followed by the GTX 870M and GTX 880M, with 30% and 15%. It is arguably enough to make one pout over the deliberate withholding of technical information.
As it stands, we will probably have to wait for actual notebooks equipped with these things before we know exactly what their specs are.
That said, NVIDIA did provide some information, the one it thought most relevant, such as the existence of the Battery Boost technology.
In a nutshell, it allows gaming notebooks to last a lot longer on a single battery charge. Of course, that much could be guessed just from the name, so the question becomes: why the fuss?
Apparently, the battery life gains can be of 100%. Double as it were. The gaming laptops could last twice as much as before.
Average gaming laptops can only last for an hour or two of heavy gaming (several more during normal web browsing and such, since the CPU’s integrated GPU is used instead during those times).
Now, though, the Battery Boost technology will activate when heavyweight programs are launched. It can dynamically adjust GPU performance, providing just enough power to render a scene at whatever target frame rate is chosen.
Basically, the performance of the GPU is forcefully limited in order to save energy, which makes sense. Previously, the discrete GPUs worked at full power as soon as the dynamic switching technology deemed their use necessary.
On a related note, ShadowPlay and GameStream have been enabled on all GTX 700M-series GPUs, plus the GTC 680M, 675MX, 670MX, and GTX 660M. From now on, you can capture in-game footage and stream games to Twitch.tv (ShadowPlay) or stream them over Wi-Fi to things like NVIDIA Shield game consoles (GameStream).