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[NC] Review Nvidia GeForce GTX 860M Maxwell vs. Kepler

14K views 21 replies 20 participants last post by  Cyro999 
#1 ·

Quote:
The unequal duel. Nvidia offers two different versions of its latest high-end GPU GeForce GTX 860M. Besides a version based on the Maxwell architecture, there is also a GPU from the old Kepler generation. We compared the performance of the two DirectX 11 chips and found a winner.
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Same memory bandwidth, same ROPs, Kepler has 140% more TMUs and 80% more Cuda cores. Maxwell is clocked higher. Interesting comparison, I think being able to beat a kepler part with 80% more cuda cores shows the strengths of maxwell.
 
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#2 ·
Bodes well for Maxwell on the desktop, Please big Maxwell GTX 880 Nvidia.

Edit: This is quite interesting in more ways, think of this, Nvidia would not need to go to 20nm with Maxwell for sufficient performance increase e.g. A gtx 880 with either the same core count as the GTX 780 (Ti or non Ti) but with the Maxwell architecture would supply the neccesary performance increase.
 
#3 ·
You cant directly compare their cuda cores. Less more powerfull cores vs more less powerful cores
 
#5 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by sugarhell View Post

You cant directly compare their cuda cores. Less more powerfull cores vs more less powerful cores
The entire point of the comparison is that the architecture/cores are different... Comparing chips like this highlights the differences.

The size of the cores btw should be similar. Each Maxwell SMM is supposed to give 90% of the performance of a Kepler SMX but at a much smaller size. We don't actually know if the cores themselves have any changes, just that the architectural changes to the SMX ( -> SMM) caused each maxwell core to perform 35% better than each kepler core.

And since that's not enough to account for the performance differences we see here it might be maxwell's L2 cache helping out with that memory bandwidth.
 
#6 ·
The problem i see is that Memory bandwidth is holding back the Kepler core. Essentially the gab will be close in memory intensive games.
 
#7 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by ZealotKi11er View Post

The problem i see is that Memory bandwidth is holding back the Kepler core. Essentially the gab will be close in memory intensive games.
But that's the thing here, it's not Maxwell being close to kepler, and kepler running away in shader heavy games with the gap closing in memory bandwidth heavy scenarios.

The situation you have is that maxwell is actually winning. Almost across the board.
 
#14 ·
No difference in temperatures between kepler and maxwell?
I'm surprised that they missed that detail... I know laptops can be quite variable in temperatures but I wonder if there is a running difference between the two....

Also, no mention of overclocking potential.... thats kinda lame... I mean I can get my 400MHz 420m GPU upto 740MHz core and its just fine...lol lets see those numbers.... Especially memory overclocking!
 
#15 ·
I was wondering if the big die Maxwell will be releasing with more or less then GK 110 since each of these cores are more powerful or even surpass the sm/core count making it a killer card. Cause they could just do what they did with the 860m and release a card barely faster but with much less muscle making it just more efficient.

I mean 1152 vs only 640 even considering the 15% faster clock is impressive gain on old lithographie. I just think the 880 are going to be what the 680 was being not a full blown die on 28nm and the 980 will be full die with 20nm and we will have to play the waiting game again.
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#16 ·
And now the desktop enthusiasts see the power of the laptop enthusiasts.

Not so far behind anymore are we?
wink.gif
 
#17 ·
A big 28nm Maxwell? You do realize that that would only postpone 20nm big Maxwell so Nvidia could keep selling 28nm Maxwell to recover R&D costs.

Designing a big die, selling it for 6 months, and then giving it a die shrink is not a very good use of R&D money. I don't know why I step into Nvidia threads. It's always overly optimistic conjecture while ignoring things that make sense with someone like a***r cheerleading and making fluffy posts that don't really mean much but sound very good (and the occasional decent post when someone gets on him).

I don't see anyone mentioning the fact that Nvidia probably pushed out Maxwell on 28nm for laptops because Iris Pro is giving 750m a hard time (at least ignoring broken Intel GPU drivers) and Nvidia has been fighting off Intel and AMD attacking them from the bottom (and losing ground there) for a long time. Releasing a new GPU way before everyone else does and bragging about how it beats the last generation is basically how Nvidia marketing works anyways (specially with Tegra), so none of this is surprising.
 
#18 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Imglidinhere View Post

And now the desktop enthusiasts see the power of the laptop enthusiasts.

Not so far behind anymore are we?
wink.gif
Still far behind... The 880m is the performance of a GTX 580. For a mobile GPU, it's pretty impressive considering it's power consumption, but compared to desktop GPU's... bleh
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On topic:

I can't wait for the big dogs to roll out. It would be awesome to play around with some 880's in SLI
smile.gif
 
#20 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Yungbenny911 View Post

Still far behind... The 880m is the performance of a GTX 580. For a mobile GPU, it's pretty impressive considering it's power consumption, but compared to desktop GPU's... bleh
tongue.gif


On topic:

I can't wait for the big dogs to roll out. It would be awesome to play around with some 880's in SLI
smile.gif
Heck I only have a 765m in my laptop overclocked right now to a desktop GTX 650 Ti specs
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...even if its considered low-end on desktop I'm still very happy with the performance my laptop has given me over this deployment and plan to keep the laptop for years to come for "out of town gaming" when I can't be next to the desktop with current high end gpu
tongue.gif


On a side note I'm definately looking forward to the next big chips from both manufacturers to upgrade to.
 
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