The future of mobile graphics (integrated and discrete)

[Ice_Dragon]

I want to discuss the future of mobile graphics both integrated and discrete and the middle and high-end markets.

In 2014, we can look forward to (assuming it will be) Iris 6100 and Iris Pro 6200 which should be decent at minimum.

On the discrete side, nVidia's Maxwell and AMD's Volcanic Islands. What is the standard for video memory at this point in time? Will it still be 2 GB for the 840M and up except for maybe the 880M which will be 4 GB?

What about Volcanic Islands/Hawaii? Where does that stand?

Thoughts?

 

[Stuka87]

Iris will remain a high end laptop option. At this point Apple is using it, and some higher end ultra-books are using it. I actually think Apple is the only reason Iris exists. Apple demanded more video performance, so Intel developed it.

For video memory, yeah 2GB will be come the new lower-mid end. 3-4GB will be the mid-upper end (Depending on memory bus). Doubt we will see 1GB discrete cards. At that point you may as well use integrated, but it Intel or AMD.

Still looking like 20nm wont be a reality for video cards until 2h 2014. With the exception of maybe a high end, very expensive card for desktops.

 

[TreVader]

Do laptops have upgradable graphics now?


I just ordered a 15" rMBP with a Geforce GT750M 2GB GDRR5 and that all sounds great but in the past i've noticed the mobile versions of GPUs tend to be crippled. The last PC/Mac I owned with discreet graphics was an Old P4 3.2Ghz I had clocked to 4Ghz and a Geforce 6800 Ultra. Will this GPU (which i had in 2005) compare to the 750M well? Better/worse?

 

[Stuka87]

Do laptops have upgradable graphics now?


I just ordered a 15" rMBP with a Geforce GT750M 2GB GDRR5 and that all sounds great but in the past i've noticed the mobile versions of GPUs tend to be crippled. The last PC/Mac I owned with discreet graphics was an Old P4 3.2Ghz I had clocked to 4Ghz and a Geforce 6800 Ultra. Will this GPU (which i had in 2005) compare to the 750M well? Better/worse?

Its not that they are crippled, its that they do not line up with desktop cards. For instance a GTX680M falls between a GTX660 and a GTX670 as I recall (Would have to look it up to be sure). This is because mobile has much tighter tolerances on power consumption. Where as a single desktop GPU can pull more power than your whole laptop.

 

[Enigmoid]

Do laptops have upgradable graphics now?


I just ordered a 15" rMBP with a Geforce GT750M 2GB GDRR5 and that all sounds great but in the past i've noticed the mobile versions of GPUs tend to be crippled. The last PC/Mac I owned with discreet graphics was an Old P4 3.2Ghz I had clocked to 4Ghz and a Geforce 6800 Ultra. Will this GPU (which i had in 2005) compare to the 750M well? Better/worse?

Apple seems to have disabled boost on the 750m so it will run only marginally faster than the 650m in the rmbp. As far as clocks go, a GDDR5 750m + boost (pretty much every pc 750m) will equal a desktop 650.

650m rmbp - 900/1250
660m - 950/1250
750m rmbp - 967/1250
750m pc - 967/1250 + boost 1085/1250 = desktop 650

 

[Ice_Dragon]

You would think at $2,599 they would have the boost available for the rMBP. I know they did overclock the 650M last year but they didn't include VRAM so it caused issues for the model last year.

 

[tviceman]

Basically look at the fastest ungimped low-end discrete option from either Nvidia or AMD (not sure what AMD's is, Nvidia it's the gt 750m) and you can bet that it will be doubled in performance with Maxwell's 1st generation parts. 2gb will probably still be standard.

 

[tviceman]

Do laptops have upgradable graphics now?


I just ordered a 15" rMBP with a Geforce GT750M 2GB GDRR5 and that all sounds great but in the past i've noticed the mobile versions of GPUs tend to be crippled. The last PC/Mac I owned with discreet graphics was an Old P4 3.2Ghz I had clocked to 4Ghz and a Geforce 6800 Ultra. Will this GPU (which i had in 2005) compare to the 750M well? Better/worse?

750m is faster. So long as the vram that comes with it is clocked appropriately, it is equal to the gtx650 desktop video card across the board in performance.