Both GPU manufacturers have just announced their new ranges at CES. AMD has the Radeon HD 4000 series, available in the Mobility version. The Radeon HD 4870, HD 4850, HD 4670, HD 4650, HD 4570, HD 4530 and HD 4330 have appeared for the first time and are similar to the desktop versions although with slightly lower frequencies.
There are significant improvements across the whole range, with significantly increased processing power, as we saw previously with the up to the classic Radeon HD 4000s and 3000s.
Nvidia has only boosted its entry level range with the GeForce GT 130M, G110M and G105M. NVIDIA is using the new naming system it brought in with the desktop GeForce GTX 200. Unfortunately, there aren?t really any new products, but simply a renaming of the old range with a boost in frequencies. The GeForce 9M which were already just a renamed GeForce 8M and which had misleading names compared to their desktop equivalents.
At the bottom of the range, the GeForce GT 130M is similar to the GeForce 9700M GT and the GeForce 9650M GT/S and 9600M GT/GS. More specifically, it now comes between the GeForce 9700M GT and the GeForce 9650M GT in terms of the core frequency and has identical memory, at least in its GDDR3 version. There is really nothing new here as the GeForce 8700M GT was already similar. To recap then, in terms of desktops these cards are similar to the GeForce 9500 GT, Nvidia not afraid of making out they are much better performing and changing their name.
Right at the bottom of the range, the GeForce G110M is placed between the GeForce 9500M G and 9300M G. It is between the two in terms of processing power. In reality it is just a GeForce 9300M G with a higher GPU frequency. Note that the GeForce 9500M G has a 128 bit memory bus in contrast to the other options in this category. Whether in its GDDR3 or DDR2 version the GeForce G110M has a slightly superior or inferior bandwidth to the GeForce 9300M.
Right at the bottom of the range, Nvidia has the GeForce G105M which should be seen simply as a video accelerator, it having less of an impact than an integrated chipset. It is similar to the GeForce 9300M GS and 9200M GS with only the core frequency varying a little. The GeForce 8400M G was already similar with a larger frequency difference however.
In the end, although AMD has announced a truly new range from top to bottom, rolling out all its Radeon HD 4000s as portables, Nvidia has done little more than simulate new entry level products by renaming them, which is a rather disappointing tactic.
Note that although we do appreciate that Nvidia has announced 2 types of memory for its GPUs, we still find it misleading that 2 products that are different in terms of memory configuration can have the same name, as this does have an impact on GPU performance. Portable manufacturers are moreover left more or less free to use whatever memory they want, either to reduce power consumption or reduce costs. This is why it is often a lottery when choosing a portable computer because manufacturers never state other details than the commercial name of the GPU. Not a very clear situation for the consumer, facilitated by AMD and Nvidia as we often point out.
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