NVIDIA GeForce 8700M GT vs NVIDIA GeForce 8700M GT SLI

NVIDIA GeForce 8700M GT

NVIDIA GeForce 8700M GT is a video card and capable of DirectX 10. Technically, it has 32 Stream Processors like the 8600M GT, but the core-, shader- and memory clock is higher. Therefore the performance is somewhat above the 8600M GT (according advertisements of NVidia clearly better) and should be sufficient for all current games.

The particularity of this video card are the "Unified Shaders". Pixel- and vertex-shaders do not exist any more but 32 of the so called Stream processors do the graphic work (which up to now pixel- and vertex shaders did).

3DMark benchmarks show a promising performance on the level of a 7900 GTX. Because of the small 128 Bit memory bus, the performance looks worse in games (especially in high resolutions). Modern DirectX 10 games like Crysis can not be played in the highest resolutions.

The PureVideo video processor enables the chip to help decode HD videos in H.264, VC-1, MPEG-2, and WMV9.

Some drivers called the 8700M GT NB8E-SE (880M GS).

NVIDIA GeForce 8700M GT SLI

The NVIDIA GeForce 8700M GT SLI are 2 DirectX 10 capable graphic cards, which are combined by SLI. Technically, each card contains 32 Stream processors like the 8600M GT but the core -m Shader- and memory clock is higher. Therefore the performance of each single card is somewhat higher than the 8600M GT (due to NVIDIA press releases much higher) and therefore should be sufficient for all current games in high resolutions. The SLI combination does not bring double performance and depends on the support in the game.

The 3d Mark values are very good (like with all graphic cards of the 8000 series). Nonetheless, the 128 bit Bus of each single graphic card reduces the gaming performance in high resolutions (and with activated Antialiasing). For example, the SLI combination does not achieve the values of a single 7950 GTX in F.E.A.R.. However, it is the fastest graphic solution for laptops with DirectX 10 support and allows to play all newest DirectX 10 games fluently (altough not in high details).

A particularity of the video card are the "Unified Shaders". There don't exist any more so called Stream processors but 32 so called Stream processors make the upcoming graphic work (which was done by pixel and vertex Shaders, up to now).

Drivers tell that the 8700M GT is called NB8E-SE (8800M GS) internally.