Nvidia Quietly Debuts MX150 Mobile Graphics

Nvidia quietly unveiled its new Pascal-based low-budget mobile GPU, the GeForce MX150. It’s slated to replace the aging Maxwell-based 940MX, and the company claims it offers up to three times the performance per watt than its predecessor.

The official specifications of the new GeForce MX150 mobile GPU offer no information about CUDA core count, memory capacities, or clockspeeds. This is because actual implementation of the mobile GPU may vary by OEM model, and these specs will largely depend on the size (thickness, screen), cooling, and MSRP of the laptop. Nvidia seems to want consumers to think of the MX150 as more of a performance class than a set of varying mobile GPUs, and the company claimed that you can attain 60 FPS gaming in popular games such as DOTA 2, CS: GO, League of Legends, and World of Tanks.

Despite the absence of these specifications, all of the GeForce MX150 GPUs feature GDDR5 memory, in addition to the same API technologies as its Pascal-based bretheren (DX12, Vulkan, OpenGL 4.5). Nvidia Optimus, GPU Boost, and compatibility with GeForce Experience also come standard with the new mobile graphics.

Pricing and availability of new GeForce MX150-equipped laptops is currently unknown, with the only official word being that we can expect to see these notebooks start appearing in June from vendors such as Acer, Asus, Clevo, HP, and MSI. Perhaps this is a sign of things to come from Computex in Taipei next week.

Derek Forrest
Derek Forrest is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He writes hardware news and reviews gaming desktops and laptops.
  • alextheblue
    19740147 said:
    actual implementation of the mobile GPU may vary by OEM model, and these specs will largely depend on the size (thickness, screen), cooling, and MSRP of the laptop. Nvidia seems to want consumers to think of the MX150 as more of a performance class than a set of varying mobile GPUs
    This sort of thing drives me crazy. I know it's not new, especially in the mobile dGPU arena, but some generations it was more absurd than others. It sounds like this is going to be one of the messier labels. Sigh.
    Reply
  • ubicray
    I am using a 550$ 940MX (GDDR5) notebook and can't be happier for the price. It plays most of the AAA games decently in low settings in 1080P, and for the price of the laptop I bought I can't be happier (It's acer e5-575g-53vg). So if nvidia is replacing it with a better model, I am excited for the budget gaming/student notebook segment
    Reply
  • 10tacle
    19740866 said:
    This sort of thing drives me crazy. I know it's not new, especially in the mobile dGPU arena, but some generations it was more absurd than others. It sounds like this is going to be one of the messier labels. Sigh.

    Nvidia has a hard time with marketing decisions sometimes. They confused everyone moving from the 7-series desktop GPUs to the 9-series and then using the 8-series for mGPUs. We all like to keep up with the latest hardware and information as it's our hobby, but sometimes the amount of research required to keep confusion minimized is ridiculous.
    Reply
  • photonboy
    Can't wait for an AMD Ryzen APU in a laptop to see what kind of value we can get for gaming. (the only issue might be gimping with insufficient memory bandwidth)
    Reply
  • alextheblue
    19746807 said:
    Can't wait for an AMD Ryzen APU in a laptop to see what kind of value we can get for gaming. (the only issue might be gimping with insufficient memory bandwidth)
    I am hoping that (unlike last generation) all boards that support Raven Ridge will support dual-channel, regardless of whether they ship in dual-channel or single-channel configs. That way you can upgrade them yourself if necessary. Of course, it's more annoying to do these days given the lack of access panels.
    Reply
  • nexus_5
    So how does the Geforce MX150 stack up against the Geforce 2 MX200? Benchmarks incoming? ;)
    Reply