Alienware M14x: 2.3GHz Intel Core i7-2820QM, 8GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce GT555M, 1.5GB VRAM, 750GB, 7200-rpm hard drive, 1600 x 900p display.Let's compare the Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3, which has a 1.7-GHZ Intel Core i7-2637M, 4GB of RAM, Nvidia GeForce 640M GPU, and a 256GB SSD, with some heavy hitters: Kepler GPUs have a new hardware-based H.264 decoding engine, called NVENC, which is almost four times faster than the CUDA-based controller, but consumes less power.Īs with the previous generation, Kepler GPUs will also support DirectX 11, Optimus graphics-switching, PhysX, Verde, CUDA, 3D Vision, and 3DTV Play. Unlike the GTX 680 desktop GPU, the mobile processors won't have Nvidia GPU Boost, which can dynamically overclock the GPU as needed. Games and developers who have committed to offering TXAA support include 'MechWarrior Online,' 'Secret World,' 'Eve Online,' 'Borderlands 2,' Unreal 4 Engine, BitSquid, Slant Six Games, and Crytek. According to Nvidia, TXAA1 will be visually equal to 8xMSAA, but only use as much resources as 2xMSAA. The Kepler-based 600M GPUs will be able to do one better, supporting TXAA, which combines anti-aliasing along with other technologies to achieve even smoother lines.

However, don't expect discrete GPUs in Ultrabooks as thin as the MacBook Air - that's a little bit beyond the laws of physics for now.Īnother feature that will be available to all GeForce 600M GPUs is support for FXAA, Nvidia's new anti-aliasing technology, which, according to Nvidia, can provide frame rates twice as high as when using 4xMSAA.

That means notebook makers will be able to fit this GPU into systems with thinner profiles, such as the Acer Aspire Ultrabook M3, and still keep all the parts cool. The Kepler GPUs will have roughly twice the performance per watt as Fermi GPUs-for example, the a 600M GPU has a TDP (Thermal Design Profile) of about 25 watts, where the 500M has a TDP of about 50 watts. Polymorph Engine 2.0 improves the GPU's performance on DX11 tessellation, enabling it to deliver double the per-clock performance of the engine in Fermi GPUs.Īccording to Nvidia, the GT640M GPU is more than twice as efficient as the GT 540M, and ten times faster than integrated graphics. However, Nvidia realized this was redundant, and was able to remove it. In Fermi, the scheduler included a hardware-based step to ensure that the data being sent through was valid. One way that Nvidia has increased power efficiency is by streamlining the scheduling process.

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