NVIDIA Releases Quintet of 40nm GeForce GPUs

 

NVIDIA today added five new GeForce 200M series GPUs to its range, all based on TSMC’s 40nm process. The new GPUs bring two new features to the manufacturer’s product range in the form of support for DirectX 10.1 and GDDR5, in addition to being miserly in their power consumption.

 

Targeted at mainstream audiences, the new GeForce 200M series GPUs are of a higher range than their predecessors, which were based on the 55nm process. NVIDIA has reportedly made “adjustments in the micro-architecture to improve battery life and overall graphics performance compared to the previous generation.”

 

Though the highest model GTS 260M has fewer stream processors and a smaller bus width than the GeForce GTX 260M, NVIDIA claims that the new architecture puts the former in the same speed bracket as the latter, higher-end GPU. However, a lot of this speed can be attributed to the GDDR5 memory.

 

Starting with the GeForce 210M, the new product range includes the GT 230M, the GT240M, the GTS 250M and the GTS 260M. With just 16 stream processors running at 1,500MHz and a 64-bit memory interface, the GeForce 210M sits at the lower end of the range. A new thermal design gives the GPU a power consumption of just 14W. The GPU core is clocked at 625MHz while the 512MB GDDR3 memory runs at 1,600MHz.

 

Next in line are the GeForce GT 230M and the GT 240M, both of which come with 48 stream processors. While the GT 230M runs at 1,100 MHz with a core clock set at 500MHz, the GT 240M is clocked at 1,210MHz with its core clock at 550MHz. Both GPUs have a 23W TDP and feature 128-bit, 1GB of DDR3 memory that runs at 1,600MHz effective speed.

 

At the highest end of the spectrum are the GeForce GTS 250M and GTS260M GPUs. Both these units are again similar with 96 stream processors; these are also NVIDIA’s first GDDR5 compatible GPUs. The GTS 250M and GTS 260M cards carry 1GB of on-board GDDR5 memory connected via a 128-bit interface and clocked at 3,200MHz and 3,600MHz respectively.

 

Just like the GT 230M and the GT240M, these two GPUs also feature core clocks set at 500MHz and 550MHz respectively. However, the 1,250MHz GTS 250M is rated at 28W while the 1,375MHz GT 260M is rated at a higher 38W TDP.

 

NVIDIA has already started shipping these new parts and the same are expected to find their way into more than 100 notebook designs by the end of the year.

 

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