Nvidia silently launches GeForce GTX 960M, GTX 950M and GeForce 940M
Click here to post a comment for Nvidia silently launches GeForce GTX 960M, GTX 950M and GeForce 940M on our message forum
icedman
Why is it that mobile versions get such an excessive amount of vram when the desktop models that actually need it dont get enuff.
Robbo9999
I've wondered that too. I think it could be that people keep their laptops longer than a desktop user might keep their GPU, and as we all know the VRAM requirement for games increases greatly over the years, so by having a silly amount of VRAM on laptop cards can increase their future proofing. Of course the GPU processing core doesn't have that same level of future proofing, but at least you can turn down the graphics settings and still play the game if you have enough VRAM - if you don't have enough VRAM you can forget it!
(It's also a marketing ploy to make people think they're getting something better than what they really are - at least for the uninformed!)
icedman
Looking at that chart again the numbers dont really make sense the 970 192bit has the same bandwidth as the 980 which has 256bit?
Ven0m
I think it's max supported amount.
I played with ASUS G751, which was powered by GTX 970M, and it had 3GB of RAM.
BadAssMusician
I'm hoping the 13.3" Clevo W230 Series will have an update from the GTX 860M to this one. That line has been very successful and I hope Clevo will continue to update this line as new GPU generations become available.
Neo Cyrus
Desktop version of a 970 that's ~$500 (including taxes) for a non-crap version in Canada nabs you 3.5GB guaranteed to work, meanwhile the mobile version has 6GB, nVidia gonna nVidia.
Ven0m
I'd rather bet that this spreadsheet is bad.
Pete J
Interesting!
I'm loving my 970M, but I wonder if a 960M could be put in a slimline 12" or less ultrabook?
stevevnicks
if not a miss print is the gpu powerful enough to use 6 gig vram? a few people on this forum saying the 970 gpu not powerful enuff to use 4gig of vram let alone 6 gig or are they just full of Sh!t ?
vbetts
Moderator
It's maxwell based but most likely it's not the same maxwell core that you see in the desktop variants. Very common practice both Nvidia and AMD do.
DLD
No wonder NVidia is that silent: the 4GB memory fiasco
is still causing lots of suspicion and negative feelings about the company's shining new products. In addition (and related) to this, every potential customer will ask themselves the same question: 960 with 4GB of memory? Oh, oh, will it REALLY be 4GB, or 3.49GB etc....
Robbo9999
I don't think it's as simple as the core being powerful enough to use a certain amount of VRAM. Some games just use ridiculous amounts of VRAM, like Shadow or Morder for instance. Increasing texture sizes can fill up VRAM without increasing the load on the GPU core, so I don't think it's accurate to equate amount of VRAM used vs amount of GPU core processing power required. Obviously increasing screen resolution will increase VRAM usage, and that parameter is 100% linked to GPU processing power required, but I think it's incorrect to think in terms of a GPU not being powerful enough to use all of it's VRAM.
Monchis
It must be nvcache again 🙂 Also it seems kinda useless because even if massive textures sit on vram filling it up, gpu still needs to read them every frame, but without massive memory bandwidth it wont happen. I know of some guy with 4gb gtx770s, he says he needs no less than three cards to really take advantage of the vram.
