Test Settings And Benchmarks
You're probably wondering if we're going to go off, yet again, on the naming conventions used by graphics vendors to describe their mobile GPUs. Have AMD and Nvidia finally decided to stick with branding that reflects performance relative to existing desktop hardware?
| Desktop vs Mobile GeForce Graphics | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Desktop GeForce GTX 650 | GeForce GT 650M | Desktop GeForce GT 640 | |
| Architecture | Kepler (GK107) | Kepler (GK107) | Kepler (GK107) |
| Transistors | 1.3 billion | 1.3 billion | 1.3 billion |
| Engine Clock | 1058 MHz | 850 MHz | 900 MHz |
| Cuda Cores | 384 | 384 | 384 |
| Texture Units | 32 | 32 | 32 |
| ROP Units | 16 | 16 | 16 |
| Compute Performance | 812.5 GFLOPS | 652.8 GFLOPS | 691 GFLOPS |
| DRAM Type | GDDR5-5000 | DDR3-1800 | GDDR5-1782 |
| DRAM Interface | 128-bit | 128-bit | 128-bit |
| Memory Bandwidth | 80 GB/s | 28.8 GB/s | 28.5 GB/s |
| TDP | 64 W | 45 W | 65 W |
Well, Nvidia is still guilty of over-ambitiously naming a desktop GeForce GT 640 as a slower GeForce GT 650M. But notice that it doesn't try nudging the mobile part up to a GTX-branded solution. That makes the GeForce GT 650M the most honest attempt at drawing a parallel between mobile and desktop hardware we've seen since ATI first renamed its Radeon 9600 XT to the Mobility 9700.
| Test System Configuration | ||
|---|---|---|
| Origin PC Eon11-S | Eurocom Racer 2.0 | |
| CPU | Intel Core i7-3720QM 2.6 - 3.6 GHz, Four Cores, Eight Threads, 6 MB Shared L3 Cache | Intel Core i7-3820QM 2.7 - 3.7 GHz, Four Cores, Eight Threads, 8 MB Shared L3 Cache |
| Chipset | Intel HM76 Express PCH | Intel HM77 Express PCH |
| RAM | 2 x Kingston KVR1333D3S9/4G 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR3-1333 CL9 | Samsung M473B5273DH0-YK0, 12 GB (3 x 4 GB) DDR3-1600 C11 |
| Graphics | Nvidia GeForce GT 650M: 850 MHz, 2 GB DDR3-1800: | Nvidia GeForce GTX 660M: 835 MHz, 2 GB GDDR5-4000 |
| Graphics 2 | Nvidia GeForce GTX 675M: 620 MHz, 2 GB GDDR5-3000 | |
| Hard Drive | Samsung 830-series MZ-7PC256D, 256 GB, SATA 6Gb/s SSD | Intel SSD 520 SSDSC2CW120A3, 120 GB, SATA 6Gb/s SSD |
| Sound | Integrated HD Audio | Integrated HD Audio |
| Network | Integrated Gigabit Networking | Integrated Gigabit Networking |
| Power | EDAC 20 V, 6 A Adapter | FSP 19 V, 9.47 A Adapter |
| Software | ||
| Operating System | Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium x64 | Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate x64 |
| Graphics | Nvidia GeForce 306.23 | Nvidia GeForce 302.71 |
It's always difficult to create fair comparisons between machines when we only get a few weeks with each notebook at a time. As an example, we don’t yet have enough DiRT Showdown data to use the game in a comparison, but we're already in the process of switching from that title to F1 2012. At least you can look forward to Metro 2033, a very old game, getting retired in the near future.
| Benchmark Configuration | |
|---|---|
| 3D Games | |
| Battlefield 3 | Campaign Mode, "Going Hunting" 90-Seconds Fraps Test Set 1: Medium Quality Defaults (No AA, 4x AF) Test Set 2: Ultra Quality Defaults (4x AA, 16x AF) |
| DiRT 3 | V1.01, Run with -benchmark example_benchmark.xml Test Set 1: High Quality Preset, No AA Test Set 2: Ultra Quality Preset, 8x AA |
| Metro 2033 | Full Game, Built-In Benchmark, "Frontline" Scene Test Set 1: DX11, High, AAA, 4x AF, No PhysX, No DoF Test Set 2: DX11, Very High, 4x AA, 16x AF, No PhysX, DoF On |
| Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim | Update 1.5.26, Celedon Aethirborn Level 6, 25 Seconds Fraps Test Set 1: High Detail Defaults (8x AA, 8x AF) Test Set 2: Ultra Detail Defaults (8x AA, 16x AF) |
| StarCraft II | Version 1.5.3, Tom's Hardware custom map Test Set 1: High Texture, High Quality Test Set 2: Ultra Textures, Extreme Quality |
| Audio/Video Encoding | |
| iTunes | Version 10.4.1.10 x64: Audio CD (Terminator II SE), 53 minutes, default AAC format |
| Lame MP3 | Version 3.98.3: Audio CD "Terminator II SE", 53 min, convert WAV to MP3 audio format, Command: -b 160 --nores (160 Kb/s) |
| HandBrake CLI | Version 0.9.5: "Big Buck Bunny" (720x480, 23.972 FPS) 5 Minutes, Audio: Dolby Digital, 48 000 Hz, Six-Channel, English, to Video: AVC Audio: AC3 Audio2: AAC (High Profile) |
| MainConcept Reference | Version: 2.2.0.5440: MPEG-2 to H.264, MainConcept H.264/AVC Codec, 28 sec HDTV 1920x1080 (MPEG-2), Audio: MPEG-2 (44.1 kHz, Two-Channel, 16-Bit, 224 Kb/s), Codec: H.264 Pro, Mode: PAL 50i (25 FPS), Profile: H.264 BD HDMV |
| Productivity | |
| Adobe Photoshop CS5 | Version 12.1 x64: Filter 15.7 MB TIF Image: Radial Blur, Shape Blur, Median, Polar Coordinates |
| Autodesk 3ds Max 2012 | Version 14.0 x64: Space Flyby Mentalray, 248 Frames, 1440x1080 |
| WinZip | Version 15.5 Pro: THG-Workload (464 MB) to ZIP, command line switches "-a -ez -p -r" |
| WinRAR | Version 4.01: THG-Workload (464 MB) to RAR, command line switches "winrar a -r -m3" |
| 7-Zip | Version 9.22: THG-Workload (464 MB) to .7z, command line switches "a -t7z -r -m0=LZMA2 -mx=5" |
| ABBYY FineReader | Version 10.0.102.82: Read PDF save to Doc, Source: Political Economy (J. Broadhurst 1842) 111 Pages |