Nvidia opens mobile GPU kimono

THE GREEN GOBLIN revealed five shiny new mobile GPUs built on TSMC’s 40nm process yesterday, trumpeting lower power consumption and higher performance.

The mobile GPUs go by the names GTS 260M, GTS 250M, GT 240M, GT 230M and G210M. These are all built on the TSMC 40nm process (the same one used by ATI, ironically), and – at least on paper – this has reduced power consumption, die size and allowed Nvidia to add a few bits and bobs like DirectX 10.1 support. We're guessing a move to DX11 isn't a stretch for these GPUs, because the proximity to the Windows 7 launch in October won't leave room for a new iteration of GPUs.

The GTS 260M is the higher-end part with just 38W TDP but enough performance to chase down its high-end ancestors. SLI these and you get something very powerful.

The GeForce GTS 250M and 240M seem to us like the best proposals in the new family of GPUs. Not only do they provide high-end and mainstream performance, but – if the numbers are true (again, “leaky process”) - the 250M easily beats all the others in the performance-for-Watt department. A GeForce GTS 260M SLI set-up should easily smash the higher-end GTX 280M, and still save you on power. The GeForce GT 240M, while having half the processors of the 250M, still outputs a respectable performance for the power constraints. Note that Nvidia's plan leapfrogs the 55nm GTS 160M that sits in between the 250M and 240M.

The GT 230M will be for the price-sensitive multimedia notebook segment, we're sure. It won't produce the performance of its brethren and doesn't save you much on power, but the hardware decode support is there and you'll be able to game on the cheap.

Lastly, the G 210M, which we can't really put the finger on, looks like anything but a G200M-series GPU. It's a cut-down Physx-less kit that's very thrifty on power - just 14W - which could be a blueprint for the next generation of "mGPUs".

According to the company, the new mobile hierarchy will look somewhat like this:

• GeForce GTX 280M
• GeForce GTX 260M
• GeForce GTS 260M
• GeForce GTS 250M
• GeForce GTS 160M
• GeForce GT 240M
• GeForce GT 230M
• GeForce GT 130M
• GeForce G 210M

For reference, the old stuff looks like this:

... and the new stuff looks like this. We threw in a 9400 mGPU for reference, mind you.

As you can imagine from those numbers at the bottom of each table, the performance-per-watt ratio improves wildly (compared to previous NV offers), in particular if we compare the GT 250m to the GTS 260M, although we wouldn't go as far as saying (like Nvidia) that the performance doubles and the power consumption drops to half its previous levels. You just can't go down that road when all the products will co-exist and (at least for now) notebook makers will predominantly exhaust the 55nm stock. Again, the naming scheme isn't helping, but if you work your way down the list above, it should work for you.

Design wins and Nvidia technology were tooted to exhaustion, but the fact remains: until September, the mobile GPU market will remain in a sort of stalemate, none of the fault residing in the ATI or Nvidia camps but rather on the tricky TSMC juggling act that needs to output enough GPUs on the leaky 40nm process to satisfy both its customers. Now let’s see the slideware becoming hardware, shall we? µ