NVIDIA Quietly Releases GeForce GTX 670MX and GTX 675MX for Notebooks
by Dustin Sklavos on October 1, 2012 8:12 PM EST- Posted in
- NVIDIA
- Mobile Workstation
- Kepler
- Laptops
Testing the Alienware notebooks with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680Ms while seeing reviews for the GK104-based GeForce GTX 660 Ti and GK106-based GeForce GTX 660 go up has been interesting because it seemed as though NVIDIA's branding had painted themselves into a corner with the GTX 670M and 675M. Both of those chips are re-brands of last generation's Fermi-based GTX 570M and 580M, respectively. So while the GK106 would be seemingly ideal for notebooks, where was NVIDIA going to put it? The GTX 660M is based on GK107 with GDDR5, and then it's a jump to Fermi for the 670M.
As it turns out, NVIDIA's branding team is as creative as they've always been, although this launch is an unusually quiet one. No press releases or fanfare, but certainly worthy of attention. NVIDIA is updating their mobile line with the GTX 670MX and GTX 675MX, both of which are based on Kepler silicon.
The GTX 675MX, essentially replacing the GTX 675M, seems to be a full GK104 chip, with 960 CUDA cores and up to 4GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit memory bus. Assuming the performance difference between the desktop GTX 660 and GTX 560 Ti (the two chips powering the GTX 675MX and GTX 675M/580M respectively) scales down, the 675MX should be about 20% faster than its predecessor. It's clocked at 600MHz on the cores and an effective 3.6GHz on the GDDR5. I'm not 100% sure on the GPU on this one, though; it'd have to be GK104 cut down to five SMX clusters, which would be accurate to the GK106 except for the 256-bit memory bus (GK106 only supports 192-bit).
Meanwhile, the GTX 670MX appears to be using a full GK106, as it too has 960 CUDA cores but only tops out at 3GB of GDDR5 on a 192-bit memory bus. It's clocked at 600MHz on the CUDA cores and 2.8GHz effective on the GDDR5. Again this should be a fairly handsome performance improvement over the Fermi-based GeForce GTX 670M.
As an added sidebar, NVIDIA has also launched their first Kepler-based Quadro mobile GPU, the Quadro K3000M. This appears to be a heavily cut down GK106, with 576 CUDA cores and up to 2GB of GDDR5, presumably on a 128-bit memory bus.
Origin PC was the first to get into our mailbox announcing immediate availability of these GPUs, but undoubtedly they will gradually become available from other vendors as well.
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Byte - Tuesday, October 2, 2012 - link
Whats up with nvidias mobile department, it seems to be run by a bag of gerbals. Their 7900 was one of the last decent mobile chips. Then we got the lawsuits. I got 2 POS compaqs with single cores from $1500 17" HP Entertainment laptops. Thanks. At least kepler is finally wielding its head and its pretty decent too, enough to drive most pathetic laptop resolutions (i'm still using my Dell 17" with 1920x1200 reso, it had a 7900 but got replaced twice, finally replaced again with a radeon x1400, which doesnt die at least.) And what is this 3GB/4GB memory stuff. Its twice as much as my desktop 670s that might actually use that much memory if I get some of those awesome LG 27" screens. Makes not sense at all.Spunjji - Tuesday, October 2, 2012 - link
The memory is entirely a marketing exercise, to make sure the consumer knows these cards are "better" than the 7970M. Funny thing is, if you care about battery life and simple driver updates in your notebook, they really are better. Very odd.blanarahul - Tuesday, October 2, 2012 - link
They could have atleast released the GTX 675MX as the GTX 670M in the first place. But Companies really like to joke with the consumers these days. :/TheJian - Wednesday, October 3, 2012 - link
Do you expect them to throw away a ton of perfectly good older 670M's(580's whatever)? You like the prices? They'd go WAY up if they didn't clear out old stock in some way shape or form. I don't believe they are trying to screw customers, rather trying to clear old product. The fact they're marketing the higher end with gobs of memory lets any buyer know what they're getting. Get over it. This is called smart business. The memory may be a waste but it makes it easy for the buyer to figure out what's going on without knowing silly nomenclature in most cases.CeriseCogburn - Thursday, October 11, 2012 - link
The gaming laptop freak, or his mommie, certainly cannot judge by price, nor by asking the vendor, nor by a quick internet check in a few minutes, when they go to spend 2 grand on the new toy.I think you're all correct, everyone is so stupid that 2 grand comes and goes while the crybaby duped consumer finds out they've been had... since they "just knew" the "performance factor" of the "name" of the "gpu" so well and found out they were such an idiot after being such and expert on DESKTOP GPU's.... (believe that one and they'll tell us another)
Right, this whole discussi0on does NOTHING for any consumer - all it does it stroke the hate filled egos of the idiots in the comments section.
At the vendor, PRICE dictates a guideline, not the pretty numbers and names.
OH NOES IT COULDN'T BE!
How much you wanna bet these crybabies have a penny pinching mental amd fanboy type obsession...
I wouldn't mind one bit if the crybabies went to the Origin site and informed the dumbed down public here what a terrible deal this or that price was on the various GPU upgrades....
Of course anyone buying won't have that price cue... they will be IDIOTS under the plague of the evil conspiring naming PR team....
" I feel sorry for them".....(rolls eyes)
The crybabies here are probably also bat crazy jealous anyone else gets the 2 grand gaming laptop, so they have to tell themselves and us that "that lucky person got fooled! and got a piece of crap! " - as their green jealousy burns their soul to the core.
xTRICKYxx - Tuesday, October 2, 2012 - link
I feel bad for people who actually bought the 675M when first released.CeriseCogburn - Thursday, October 11, 2012 - link
Yeah because their 2 thousand dollar monster gaming laptop that you don't have is so crap.Tweak155 - Wednesday, November 7, 2012 - link
You sound pretty uninformed. You write these long posts with the delusion you're making some grand point, but in the end you're spouting ignorance.Spunjji - Monday, November 12, 2012 - link
That's Cerise for you. Can't stand anybody pointing out any of the stupid shit nVidia do. Happy to do the same for AMD, though. Funny that.robcwalker - Wednesday, October 3, 2012 - link
The article states:"Origin PC was the first to get into our mailbox announcing immediate availability of these GPUs, but undoubtedly they will gradually become available from other vendors as well."
This is wrong, but not blaming anandtech as the Origin press release says "Origin PC's newest additions to their EON gaming laptops are available now".
Origin PC DO NOT have immediate availability, they are getting stock the same time as everyone else. If you spec up on their website the eta says 10/31 so its pretty misleading of Origin to say that, blatant attempt to jump the competition without being able to back it up:-(