Nvidia GeForce GTX 960M graphics card for the Surface Book - right choice?

[randykouhai]

This is a perfect device for decent gaming and perfectly suits my needs as I wanted a pen screen with decent pressure sensitivity. 1024 is pretty enough for a hobbyist like me. I play games like Hearthstone and League of Legends (which he mentioned that is the ultimate laptop for ). I have an Asus laptop with 710M, even it is enough for these games. It lags on Photoshop though, but I don't think Surface Book with dGPU will ever lag given the intense demos they showcased. And this is cheaper than any of the Cintiq+MBP combo I was considering and even has better specs! Definitely getting one ^^


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[oljo01]

Geforce 960m is perfect i am using a laptop now with that card, it runs GTA V extremly good on 1920x1200 and no lag. it can actually run almost all serious 3d games on high. just check out youtube videos. i am considering this laptop if its a 960m or higher

 

[cxily]

Hmm, I guess they had to find a balance between size and power of the graphic card.

 

[Krystianpants]

I really truly hope that it will be better than 960m.

Sure, 960m is way better than Intel chips, but yet I'm afraid it won't be enough to handle any serious 3D games at Surface Book's native resolution.

At least there should be an option for 980m, after all it's supposed to be the most powerful laptop on any planet.

I was about to instant pre-order, but the lack of 1TB version and the uncertainty regarding GPU model, I'll hold my breath...

I don't think my desktop GTX 670 OC'd card could do that native. Most games will be played at 1080. And 960m does well with 1080 games even with anti-aliasing on. Most games it benchmarked 30-60fps at high settings. Ultra some games it can maintain 30 others drop.

 

[ClixT]

Everyone is thinking about Geforce GPU.. It could be an entirely new GPU or a Quadro (which i think is more plausible. I think the Book is meant for professionals..)

 

[Krystianpants]

BTW nvidia has commented and that this GPU was designed for Microsoft specifically and is not available anywhere else.

Nvidia quote:
Nvidia does say that the GPU is new, and as yet unannounced, suggesting that it might be a semi-custom chip developed specifically for the Surface Book and sitting in between models in the existing line-up.

MS quote:
"The DirectX 12 Multiadapter feature allows the computer to utilize the integrated GPU on CPU’s alongside the discrete GPU for performance boosts."

 

[Byungdon Min]

Everyone is thinking about Geforce GPU.. It could be an entirely new GPU or a Quadro (which i think is more plausible. I think the Book is meant for professionals..)

In the releasing video and spec, MS clearly mentioned geforce.

 

[ClixT]

In the releasing video and spec, MS clearly mentioned geforce.

I didn't catch that, but oh well. There goes my hope for Quadro dreams lol

 

[dukrem]

We cannot tell which GPU it runs by the fact it has GDDR5 memory. It is a custom graphics chip, so NVidia may have used a 940 gpu with GDDR5 memory, or any other similar combination, or even an entirely new GPU. They likely chose GDDR 5 memory as it will have a big impact on performance (especially in professional type usage scenarios) with minimal impact on power usage. The GPU itself was likely also designed/chosen for the maximum performance meeting a certain power limit.

Remember, nVidias lineup currently is based partially on cost, so lower power devices like 940/950 also have to be very cheap, thus DDR 3 memory. I imagine what Microsoft's brief was more along the lines of 'what can we achieve if we ignore the cost and go for maximum performance within a low power design.

 

[9001020]

I read that it is a custom GPU and NVIDIA stated that it cannot be compared to a 900 series card because it is custom made. I just wish they would say the equivalent performance or something. At least give it a name. You can't show off the machine running a game then omit the specs of the GPU.

 

[Byungdon Min]

I read that it is a custom GPU and NVIDIA stated that it cannot be compared to a 900 series card because it is custom made. I just wish they would say the equivalent performance or something. At least give it a name. You can't show off the machine running a game then omit the specs of the GPU.

I heard it is custom made, but it is Maxwell based chip.
That means it is pretty safe to compare with GTX 900~800 series, more likely comparing with 900 series.

After reading adapter wattage, I am pretty sure it should be around 950M~960M. 940M with GDDR5 is my minimum assumption, but I doubt it, because GT 940M has DDR3. I do not think nvidia changed a lot of things just for surface book. With high resolution, I think surface book needs some decent graphics as well. GT 940M with GDDR 5 sounds little too awkward.

Though if it uses GTX 960M as a base, I believe it is likely downclocked, lower capacity of VRAM(revealed as 1GB), because 65W adapter cannot handle full GTX 960M. So somewhere around GTX 950M is safe assumption IMO.

 

[enixon]

Just so everyone knows, this is not a 960m. It is nothing that is on the market now. The GPU is listed as "NVIDIA GPU" in device manager. CPUz does not see it as anything.

CS:GO plays at 1080P at around 150ish FPS. 720P will get around 170-180 FPS. 3000x2000 gets 50-70 FPS. I don't have any other games I can test on it, but that is what I got. Remember, the internals and drivers/software that is used on the demo versions is not final. It crashed a lot, but when it is fully released, I am sure it will function much better.

 

[Alandros]

All the early benchmarks suggest a 940m like card, maybe faster in some cases due to the highly increased memory bandwith. To think it could be a 960m is ludicrous... the 960m has a TDP of 75w... the 940m 33w. From Anandtech

The performance increase of the discrete GPU is a sizable jump over the integrated graphics of Skylake, and by moving the GPU into the base away from the processor, Microsoft is able to put the GPU in its own thermal zone. We don’t have exact TDP numbers from NVIDIA, but the GPU should be somewhere under 30 Watts. There is no way to fit that kind of TDP into a normal Ultrabook.

They were actually able to pack more power into the dedicated GPU based on the laptop design than a typical ultrabook, having so many components and some battery in the top, as well as thermal separation between it and the CPU.

Basically them doing a customized 940m is already pushing the limits of what the highly designed piece of hardware can achieve (and above and beyond nearly any other comparable in this form factor), anything above that, such as a 75w mobile GPU is basically just impossible... they would've had to make it bigger, run hotter, more (or more powerful fans which means noise). Even half a pound more of weight and a little bit bigger size can make a huge difference, but it also makes it drastically less portable which was the point.