NBR Exclusive: First-hand review of Intel Ivy Bridge and NVIDIA Geforce GT 640M Discussion

Which will last exactly a year. Because when the new wave of games hit the market "optimized" for better cards suddenly the GT 640M does not play Battlefield 4 at medium settings anymore. And since in the notebook world you are stuck with your internal GFX card...

This is the reason why I am tempted to build a gaming desktop and carry around a light notebook with a good cpu, integrated gfx, and good battery life.

 

Battlefield 4 won't be out for several years. As long as the next gen consoles don't come out, notebooks with the 640m won't have a problem playing new games, especially at the native 768p res.

 

Game Tech is on a bell-curve. You will always have 10% of the titles on the market that stress the top-end hardware. The Bottom 10% will run on a smartphone. The middle, are just that, run on average hardware like the 640M just fine, with varying degrees of performance.

Even though i have a really high end (for now) GPU setup, i see HUGE value in the 640M (and AMDs 7690M) as perfectly balanced graphics that meet the requirements of 75-90% of the games out there for play-ability.

You will always have that niche of software that is the Brass ring.. And every year the ring gets a little bit higher. But it doesn't necessarily belittle the value solutions.

 

640M will not be outdated anytime soon.

 

id say, as soon as the new consoles will be released there will be higher graphic requirements for pc games as well

 

Quite debatable topic. Not that most people can play the game with such requirements. Not mainstream in a sense.

 

New consoles won't appear for another 12-18 months anyways, so its not a big deal for now.

Yes, when the new consoles hit, the ports will likely require a bit more hardware. But i don't think it will be such a radical shift.

 

The evidence also suggests that the new consoles will be more akin to a PC in their relative merits compared to the current generation, so hopefully CPU load shouldn't be as much of a problem as it was with console ports a few years ago.

 

I don't believe the 640M will be outdated. And I was only iterating BF because that was the game it was playing at medium @ 40fps. But that kind of performance does not give you much wiggle room for the wave of 2013 games.

 

Those buying GT 640M are not so serious gamers. In fact most don't even play the latest games or are willing to tune the settings down.

 

What does "serious gamer" mean? It is not that the people that buy a GT 640M do not play games frequently and want good performance, it is in some cases a laptop with a GTX 660M does not fit what they are looking for.

Some people are "serious gamers" but have to strike a balance between gaming and portability. Because a laptop still is a portable device and some people need good battery life and portability.

 

I figure most people that spring the extra for a machine with the GT640M are Looking for a entry level gaming capability, as you suggest.

There will be a few "serious gamers", they will buy the machine as the best option on an 11" game model.

 

Well said.
The definition of a 'serious gamer' will vary from person to person.
And people who are getting a laptop with gaming in mind might actually implement some common sense and explore what's out there... along with price/performance ratio (not everyone's needs in games will be the same after all... as some people are content at playing at say 800p, while others at 1080p - bottom line is... it varies).

 

GT640m will be great for 720p gaming for virtually any game but a gtx660m is required at least for 1080p gaming. My 5930g with nvidia 9600m gt has allowed me to play most games as its more powerful then a ps3 graphics card. Anyway someone who plays on a gt 640m maybe more a gamer then a gtx660m. Most cannot afford or don't see the point in gaming on a laptop or paying a high price. Anyway are you trying to say those people who use gt555m in there l702x are not serious gamers as the gt640m is a lot more powerful.

My laptop is the same model as deks and it copes with everything well. I completed dirt 3 on it and used fraps. Played hot pursuit, fifa 12, trackmania nations forever, sega all stars racing tdu2, batman arkhum asylum and it easily handles them. GT 640m is 2.5x more powerful then mine and my laptop is slightly powerful gpu wise then the ps3.

I know some people that have high end laptops but use there desktop instead. If you are a serious gamer you will play games at least at 30fps or more. Trackmania nations forever on high run at 70-100 fps and fifa runs at 60 fps and dirt 3 on high at 1280x800 with shadows on low runs at 35-40fps in car view and 50 fps outside car view and 50fps+ without any car view virtually maxed.

My p7350 probably lets me down as most games are 90% cpu usage apart from games like fifa and trackmania.

I need to complete batman arkham asylum on steam and test drive unlimited 2. Completed dirt 3 and won a few online races. I also have all the gta games on steam but will play this on my new 3612qm gt 650m laptop I am waiting to get in a few months. If notebookcheck shows the gtx660m not taking much power and its cheap I might get that as well.

 

Your 5930G was one of its kind during its time. Many owners replaced that MXM GPU to a Radeon HD4650/4670M. And it is still not too outdated yet considering the requirements of so many mainstream games now.

 

Hehe...
Indeed.
I just wish it was able to accept the Q9000 or Q9100 (alas, I tried it but it didn't work - so I had to settle for the X9100).

Oh well... the 9600m GT in my laptop is uv-ed and has about 20% oc in place.
.
Works just fine for the games I play to be honest (and contemporary ones no less).
But granted, I would like a nice quad core cpu for my 3d Studio Max.

 

Deks, I reckon you wasted quite a lot of money for not much reason on your 5930g. My 5930g cost something like £320 and I bought a 320gb hdd for £32 and bought a windows 7 upgrade which I don't know how much it cost but something like £10. Not bad I say considering I got it in january 2009.

How much was your laptop standard and then how much more on top for upgrades. You might as well just got a 5942g if you wanted more performance instead of spending that much to upgrade your laptop.

You should get a 3612qm and gt650m for your next laptop.

 

If he wants to pursue performance then let him.

Why did you recommend that i7 quad and GT 650M? Why not i7+660M?

 

This is simply not true.

The 640m is rated much higher than the 5830m according to notebookcheck.net It's rated almost as high as the 460m, which is quite powerful.

The 5830m runs 99% of games just fine in 1080p, often with all settings completely maxed, even recent 2011-2012 games such as Mass Effect 3, Skyrim, RAGE, DXHR, DA2, Arkham City. The only games I've ever tried that get unplayable frame rate at 1080p are Crysis and Witcher 2.

Since the 5830m, which is a much weaker card, already runs most games at 1080p, it stands to reason that the 640m will be able to handle most games at 1080p resolution.

 

7738G was the last great acer to be able to accept pretty much anything, it could take a 1080p panel, 2 hard drives, quad core CPU (and overclock it) and it accepted any MXM-A cards like the 6770M.

 

What I am saying is gt640m wsill play easily 720p but 1080p you will need to run maybe medium to achieve playable frame rate. I am sure gt640m will play games without any aa or af at 30fps at 1080p with a couple of settings turned down. I reckon the gt650m gddr5 will be perfect for gaming at 1080p as it has 30-40% more performance gains then the gt640m. The gtx660m will be great as well. The reason why I say the gt640m won't be suited for 1080p gaming is that it will have to have a few settings turned down vs something like the gtx660m which will have most settings turned up playing games at same fps as gt640m.

Nvidia gefore website shows the gt650m and gtx660m with a decent lead in the graph. Amazingly the gt640m ddr3 version on notebookcheck scores 6946 on vantage vs the 7900ish on the graph for the gt640m most likely a gddr5 model that scores 1000 more.

If you want to be safe get a gt650m or gtx660m. I am hoping to get a gt650m as it tdp will be around 30-35w similar to a 540m and will be able to play most games at 1080p as the difference to a gtx660m is not much.

 

Makes me wonder if one can zhng that GT 640M and get near 650/660M performance

 

Google Translate

Does anyone know chinese and can translate what those images are saying will be great help.

http://translate.google.co.uk/trans...:en-GB:official&biw=1280&bih=612&prmd=imvnsfd

 

i believe yknyong1 can

 

I just take those parts that you may be interested in and translate.
First source.

3DMark Vantage seems to be run with GPU Physx on, so I skip that.

GT 650M scores P2178 under 3DMark11, 50% more than their GT 500M series equivalent.

In Heaven DX11 Benchmark, GT 650M leads the GT 555M by 40%.

In Resident Evil 5 DX10 Benchmark, 1366x768, all settings on High, GT 650M runs at 49.3 FPS while GT555M gives 40.6 FPS.

20% lead in DX10 games for GT 650M

Real world games testing
In Dirt 3, 4xMSAA, 1366x768, Ultra settings, GT 650M gives 24.17 FPS while GT 555M plays at a choppy 12.79 FPS

Second source, Q470 review.

Of interest.
Temperatures are high for Kepler chips, unfortunately.

 

how much is the resolution gonna affect the performance? im planning on gaming at 1080p lol if ur getting barely 25 fps in dirt 3 at 728, what will it be like for 1080p... how much of the settings do u guys think we will gotta turn it down??

 

Make the settings mid-high to high and you should get 30+ FPS already.

 

thats good enough for me lol

 

But it depends on individual games as the requirements still vary.

 

http://img001.photo.21cn.com/photos/album/20120329/o/DA7C5BCAA7936C6426F8B867EE8627BE.jpg

I am interested in what the 1280x720 settings are for these games as well as what the bottom side of the picture means. I will be grateful if you can translate this picture yknyong1.

 

First picture, 3DMark Vantage with Anti-liaising off, 1280x720, score E29855.

Second part, is a graph. y-axis is 3DMark score, x-axis is playability.
Games shown are split into 3 categories, Entry, Mainstream, and Enthusiast.
Basically a graph to judge game requirements.

Hope this answers your query.

 

Looks like it requires top end cards to play crysis 2 and mid range cards like the gt 640m-650m should play dirt 3 well. TY

 

That is just a rough guide. You can play Crysis 2 on a GT 640M if you sacrifice some eye candy.

 

Eww, why would they run Entry level Vantage test? That's for netbooks, and runs at 1024x600 resolution.

 

Really? I read that they ran at 1280x720. But Kepler is too powerful for that bus anyway.

 

Running Crysis 2 on High settings is already maxing the game's details as it is.
Going beyond those is just a waste of resources... other options can be enabled for better depth and detail without going to 'ultra' - and performance will still be less affected than going to beyond 'high'.

 

Eurocom squeezes four GPUs into Panther 5.0 - Tans Computer News

With this even with gtx660m's you would run anything for fun and it only weighs 6.5kg and has a res of 3840x2160.

 

Even if it packs only GT 640M x4, it will be fun to have. April fool

 

yeah, I new 99% it was most likey not real <laugh> but when I posted it and read it had 130w power adaptor it gives it away. I thought it was more fantasy. Anyway I can still this type of technology cominig in 2020.

 

Doh! The Article was April 2nd..

You would have to have a 550-600W power adapter.. (Or 2 of them, like Clevo lides to do on the 18).. And only the 18" has room for 2 cards.

 

Aspire Timeline Ultra M3 Series now available - Notebookcheck.net News

Looks like acer are getting old gen cpu's and kepler combination to get early sales for it being kepler. Hopefully we will see youtube videos soon from users.

 

At the same time clearing SB inventory, quite genius. Build quality for the M3 is very good as it is metal.

 

If i was in the market for an Ultrabook/Slim NB, that would be top of the list.

 

lol it has a low res display turns me off

 

Still most ultrabooks I've seen are low res...

 

well i guess for right now most of them are. but its a 15 in laptop for crying out loud. they could have put a 1600x900 in there atleast. Well the zenbooks are getting 1080p ips screens even at 11 inches, the gigabyte ultrabooks are also going to be high res. and I believe there are a few more that I forgotz about

 

i dont understand why a 15.6 inch can not have 1920X1200

 

This is because they axed the 16:10 screens for 16:9 screens which means 1200p goes down to 1080p as that is 10% less by 120 pixels.

Google Translate

3612qm with old gen 40nm 670m graphics bench

Google Translate

This with 3610qm

looks like the 3612qm is perfect for business users or people who like ultraportable and the 3610qm scores 6059 cpu score vs 5554.

Strangely the 3612qm scores higher on 3dmark06 with the gtx670m. Maybe because the power consumption is less the gpu can overclock unless it doesn't and its all about luck on 3dmark06.

 

Maybe the GPU part is idle and allows higher turbo for the CPU part???

 

Review Schenker XMG P502 PRO (Clevo P150EM) Notebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

Old gen cpu and gpu but new hm77 panther point motherboard.