NVIDIA releases the GeForce GT 700M family

NVIDIA unveils their Kepler-based mobile GPUs in the form of the GeForce GT 700M series.

NVIDIA revolutionized gaming on the desktop with the release of its 600-series Kepler-based graphics cards in March 2012. With the release of the GeForce GT 700M series, Kepler enters the mobile arena to power laptops, ultrabooks, and all-in-one systems.

Today, NVIDIA introduces four new members to its mobile line: the GeForce GT 750M, the GeForce GT 740M, the GeForce GT 735M, and the GeForce GT 720M. These four new mobile graphics processors join the previously-released members of the GeForce GT 700m series: the GeForce GT 730M and the GeForce GT 710M. With the exception of the Fermi-based GeForce GT 720M, all of the newly-released mobile cores are based on NVIDIA's 28nm Kepler architecture.

Notebooks based on the GeForce GT 700M series will offer in-built support for the following new technologies:

Automatic Battery Savings through NVIDIA Optimus Technology

Automatic Game Configuration through the GeForce Experience

Automatic Performance Optimization through NVIDIA GPU Boost 2.0

NVIDIA GeForce Experience

The NVIDIA GeForce Experience gives mobile users easy access to NVIDIA-optimized configurations based on their mobile device setup and discrete GPU. Automated configurations are available for most games, and new games are added to NVIDIA's repository every day. Not only does this save users from the hassle of navigating through in-game graphics options to find optimal settings, but it gives the user a best-fit configuration (best quality settings at playable frame rates) for the game with the simple click of a button.

In their own testing, NVIDIA found that the top 10 games of 2012 could be played with GeForce Experience-optimized configurations using a minimum of a GeForce GT 720M at a minimum of 30 FPS with no visual impairments. 

NVIDIA GPU Boost 2.0

NVIDIA GPU Boost was designed to maximize performance and power savings when using a discrete GPU in a mobile device. With the 2.0 revision of this technology, NVIDIA has taken started optimizing for GPU thermal and power use on a per-application basis.

The enhanced GPU Boost 2.0 technology attempts to conserve as much power as possible by using optimized power settings configured and controlled through the driver on a per-application basis. So instead of the GPU being turned on or off when called from any application, the GPU Boost 2.0 technology customizes the physical GPU use for the application through preset configurations in the driver.

NVIDIA GeForce 700M Discreet GPU specs

The newest members of the GeForce 700M family will be released with the following specifications:

 

GeForce GT 750M

GeForce GT 740M

GeForce GT 735M

GeForce GT 720M

Processor Cores

384 384 384 96

Features

GPU Boost 2.0, Optimus, GeForce Experience, PhysX, GeForce Drivers, CUDA, 3D Vision, 3DTV Play GPU Boost 2.0, Optimus, GeForce Experience, PhysX, GeForce Drivers, CUDA, 3D Vision, 3DTV Play GPU Boost 2.0, Optimus, GeForce Experience, PhysX, GeForce Drivers, CUDA, 3D Vision, 3DTV Play GPU Boost 2.0, Optimus, GeForce Experience, PhysX, GeForce Drivers, CUDA

Processor Clock

Up to 967 MHz + Boost Up to 980 MHz + Boost Up to 889 MHz + Boost Up to 938 MHz w/ Boost

Memory Clock

Up to 2500 MHz Up to 2500 MHz Up to 1000 MHz Up to 1000 MHz

Memory Interface

Up to 2GB DDR3 or GDDR5 Up to 2GB DDR3 or GDDR5 Up to 2GB DDR3 Up to 2GB DDR3

Memory Width

Up to 128-bit Up to 128-bit Up to 64-bit Up to 64-bit

In their own testing against an Intel HD 4000-based integrated GPU, NVIDIA found the GeForce 700M series to exceed its performance by a minimum of 2x.

The new NVIDIA GeForce 700M family holds a lot of promise for bringing GPU horse power to the mobile gaming arena with power optimizations to ensure the best balance between performance and battery life. Keeping in mind that these chips have yet to be independetnly reviewed, the Kepler-based GeForce GT 700M cards are shaping up to be a decent upgrade over previous-generation Fermi-based products. With the application-specific power boost and optimization technology inherent in GPU Boost 2.0, and the available gaming optimizations from the GeForce Experience, these new mobile GPUs will be a force to be reckoned with.

Stay tuned to PC Perspective as new laptops with the GT 700M mobile graphics cards are released! It will be interesting to see what kind of power efficiency and performance gains the company has managed to achieve on the mobile side of things with Kepler.