NVIDIA GeForce 8M Series Preview

by Michael Lin — Wednesday, May 09, 2007, 09:00 AM EDT

Introduction & Specifications

If you want high-performance PC gaming action in a portable package, a laptop equipped with a GeForce Go 7 series chip has been your best bet for the last year or so. From the modest GeForce Go 7600 to the monstrous GeForce Go 7950 GTX, NVIDIA has most mobile gaming needs covered. If you were really serious, you could even get SLI in a (barely) mobile platform. However, with several highly anticipated DirectX 10 titles right around the corner, many mobile gamers have been eagerly awaiting DX10 capable GPUs for notebooks, a luxury that desktop gamers have enjoyed since November '06 with the release of the GeForce 8800 series. Today marks an industry first of sorts, for mobile DX10 capable graphics, with NVIDIA's new mobile graphics line-up, the GeForce 8M Series.

The GeForce 8M Series offers many of the same features as NVIDIA's desktop GeForce 8 series. The initial line-up of GeForce 8M series GPUs contain 289 million transistors and just like its desktop counterparts, the GeForce 8M will offer full DX10 support, hardware HD video decoding courtesy of NVIDIA's 2nd generation PureVideo technology, and a fully unified shader architecture. We've already talked at great length about the GeForce 8 series' architectural features and benefits in the past, so we won't go into detail again here.

Below we have summarized some of the GeForce 8M series' key features for your convenience.

	NVIDIA GeForce 8M Series
	Features & Specifications

NVIDIA unified architecture:
Fully unified shader core dynamically allocates processing power to geometry, vertex, physics, or pixel shading operations, delivering up to 2x the gaming performance of prior generation GPUs.

GigaThread Technology:
Massively multi-threaded architecture supports thousands of independent, simultaneous threads, providing extreme processing efficiency in advanced, next generation shader programs.

Full Microsoft DirectX 10 Support:
World's first DirectX 10 GPU with full Shader Model 4.0 support delivers unparalleled levels of graphics realism and film-quality effects.

NVIDIA Lumenex Engine:
Delivers stunning image quality and floating point accuracy at ultra-fast frame rates.
16x Anti-aliasing: Lightning fast, high-quality anti-aliasing at up to 16x sample rates obliterates jagged edges.

128-bit floating point High Dynamic-Range (HDR):
Twice the precision of prior generations for incredibly realistic lighting effects - now with support for anti-aliasing.

NVIDIA Quantum Effects Technology:
Advanced shader processors architected for physics computation enable a new level of physics effects to be simulated and rendered on the GPU - all while freeing the CPU to run the game engine and AI.

NVIDIA ForceWare Unified Driver Architecture (UDA):
Delivers a proven record of compatibility, reliability, and stability with the widest range of games and applications. ForceWare provides the best out-of-box experience and delivers continuous performance and feature updates over the life of NVIDIA GeForce GPUs.

OpenGL 2.0 Optimizations and Support:
Ensures top-notch compatibility and performance for OpenGL applications.

NVIDIA nView Multi-Display Technology:
Advanced technology provides the ultimate in viewing flexibility and control for multiple monitors.

PCI Express Support:
Designed to run perfectly with the PCI Express bus architecture, which doubles the bandwidth of AGP 8X to deliver over 4 GB/sec. in both upstream and downstream data transfers.

Dual 400MHz RAMDACs:
Blazing-fast RAMDACs support dual QXGA displays with ultra-high, ergonomic refresh rates - up to 2048x1536@85Hz.

Dual Dual-link DVI Support:
Able to drive the industry's largest and highest resolution flat-panel displays up to 2560x1600.

Built for Microsoft Windows Vista:
NVIDIA's fourth-generation GPU architecture built for Windows Vista gives users the best possible experience with the Windows Aero 3D graphical user interface.

NVIDIA PureVideo HD Technology:
The combination of high-definition video decode acceleration and post-processing that delivers unprecedented picture clarity, smooth video, accurate color, and precise image scaling for movies and video.

Discrete, Programmable Video Processor:
NVIDIA PureVideo HD is a discrete programmable processing core in NVIDIA GPUs that provides superb picture quality and ultra-smooth movies with low CPU utilization and power.

HDCP Capable:
Designed to meet the output protection management (HDCP) and security specifications of the Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD formats, allowing the playback of encrypted movie content on PCs when connected to HDCP-compliant displays.

Spatial-Temporal De-Interlacing:
Sharpens HD and standard definition interlaced content on progressive displays, delivering a crisp, clear picture that rivals high-end home-theater systems.

Hardware Decode Acceleration:
Provides ultra-smooth playback of H.264, VC-1, WMV and MPEG-2 HD and SD movies.

High-Quality Scaling:
Enlarges lower resolution movies and videos to HDTV resolutions, up to 1080i, while maintaining a clear, clean image. Also provides downscaling of videos, including high-definition, while preserving image detail.

Inverse Telecine (3:2 & 2:2 Pulldown Correction):
Recovers original film images from films-converted-to-video (DVDs, 1080i HD content), providing more accurate movie playback and superior picture quality.

Bad Edit Correction:
When videos are edited after they have been converted from 24 to 25 or 30 frames, the edits can disrupt the normal 3:2 or 2:2 pulldown cadences. PureVideo HD uses advanced processing techniques to detect poor edits, recover the original content, and display perfect picture detail frame after frame for smooth, natural looking video.

Video Color Correction:
NVIDIA's Color Correction Controls, such as Brightness, Contrast and Gamma Correction let you compensate for the different color characteristics of various RGB monitors and TVs ensuring movies are not too dark, overly bright, or washed out regardless of the video format or display type.

Integrated SD and HD TV Output:
Provides world-class TV-out functionality via Composite, S-Video, Component, or DVI connections. Supports resolutions up to 1080p depending on connection type and TV capability.

Video Post-Processing:
Improves movie image quality by removing noise and increasing the contrast at edges.

The GeForce 8600M GT GPU

The GeForce 8400M GT GPU

The GeForce 8M GPUs differ from their desktop-bound 8800 series brethren in one significant way, the per-clock shader performance has been tweaked and greatly improved. In the GeForce 8800, each stream processor can calculate four texture addresses and perform eight filtering operations per clock while each stream processor in GeForce 8M series GPUs can calculate eight texture addresses and perform eight filtering operations per clock. This allows a greater number of unique texture locations to be sampled.

As it is a mobile part, the GeForce 8M employs significantly more sophisticated power management features than its desktop counterparts. To realize this, the GeForce 8M series is equipped with NVIDIA's seventh generation PowerMizer power management technology. One of PowerMizer's more interesting features is the ability to allow the user to control system performance and battery consumption based on their needs. New in the seventh generation is support for Vista's power management features, like activity-based switching and adaptive clocking which dynamically adjusts GPU power and active features based on current operational needs, without any user intervention. PowerMizer 7.0 also implements SmartDimmer 2.0, which dynamically modulates backlight lamp power. The second generation of SmartDimmer offers more efficient power usage and smoother transitions than before.