GeForce GTX 880M, 870M, And 860M: Mobile GPUs, Tested

[jrharbort]

I'm confused. Can someone help me identify whether or not my chip is Maxwell or Kepler based? I bought the MSI GE60 Apache Pro, and it comes with an 860M graphics card. I've read conflicting comments on whether or not it is Maxwell or Kepler. Looking at GPU-Z, it states the Memory size of my graphics card is 2GB. Does this mean it is Maxwell-based? Thanks

I have the same notebook, and it's Maxwell-based. You can tell by checking GPU-Z. It still doesn't read some of the specs correctly (like shader clock), but it does read the shader count right: 640 shaders for Maxwell, and 1152 for Kelper. Dont let the lower shader count fool you, the Maxwell chip is much faster and uses a more efficient architecture.

 

[thatonedude1]

I'm confused. Can someone help me identify whether or not my chip is Maxwell or Kepler based? I bought the MSI GE60 Apache Pro, and it comes with an 860M graphics card. I've read conflicting comments on whether or not it is Maxwell or Kepler. Looking at GPU-Z, it states the Memory size of my graphics card is 2GB. Does this mean it is Maxwell-based? Thanks

I have the same notebook, and it's Maxwell-based. You can tell by checking GPU-Z. It still doesn't read some of the specs correctly (like shader clock), but it does read the shader count right: 640 shaders for Maxwell, and 1152 for Kelper. Dont let the lower shader count fool you, the Maxwell chip is much faster and uses a more efficient architecture.

Got it. Thanks! I'm new to the gaming community, so I wasn't exactly sure what i got. I thought "860" would have been better than any of the 6xx, or 7xx models just because 8 is higher than 6 and 7 LOL. I didn't know that the last two digits of each one were that significant. I should have done more research and built a desktop instead I guess haha. I really hope this laptop can handle Dragon Age: Inquisition and Watch Dogs on at least High 1080p when they are released.

By any chance, do you know how this 860M compares to PS4 and Xbox One graphics?

 

[jlwtech]

It's nice to see that mobile graphics are really gaining traction. To get GTX 680 levels of performance from a laptop GPU, is pretty amazing.

The 2nd chart on page one incorrectly lists the GTX 770 as having a memory clock of 1502Mhz with memory bandwidth of 192GB/s. It should read: 1753Mhz and 224GB/s.

 

[crisan_tiberiu]

For me, a casual gamer, a desktop PC is in reach, price speaking. With a decent video card (i.e radeon r7260x or gtx 750ti) you can game very well @ 1080p. On the other hand, a laptop with a GTX 660m is WAY OFF price wise ^^, really... I was thinking (when i have built my second PC) to purchase a laptop or a desktop. The highest i could go was a laptop with a GTX 740m (or gtx 750m, but with a crippled i3) or a radeon 8850m... I would want to see benchmarks from cards with a more afordable price. (a gtx 660m laptop costs over 1000E here in Europe....)

 

[dovah-chan]

nice to see them optimizing their current hardware but 2 refreshes is pushing it quite a bit. Besides I don't mind lots of mobile power but from a business standpoint not many people buy a gaming laptop from all the people I know because they're too expensive and low upgrade options. (while companies like lenovo have came up with great innovative ideas like the ultrabay but you're still limited to lenovo only products)

 

[John Wittenberg]

Rumor has it that late this year another refresh of the top end cards will be Maxwell based. Purely rumor, but it would be welcome.

 

[youssef 2010]

I think I'll wait until Maxwell dominates the scene. Because it's power efficiency is just incredible. And that's what we need in a mobile environment

 

[dovah-chan]

I think I'll wait until Maxwell dominates the scene. Because it's power efficiency is just incredible. And that's what we need in a mobile environment

Maxwell isn't the hero [strike]Gotham[/strike] laptops deserve, but its the hero they need.

 

[CrazyMan_DK]

Nice articel.
But what about the GTX 675MX ??
I´m using one my self in my XNB notebook.
It says it´s using a 256bit memory bus with 4GB GDDR5

 

[shogunofharlom]

WOULD HAVE LIKED TO SEE THE A10-7850K IN THE COMPARISON.

 

[MaeClark0318]

i m going to kill my laptop and buy one of those, with ssd though....then play my dialo 3 to test how good is it..lol