NVIDIA GeForce G 103M vs NVIDIA GeForce G 102M vs NVIDIA GeForce G 110M

NVIDIA GeForce G 103M

The NVidia GeForce G 103M is an entry level graphics card for laptops and should be similar to the GeForce G 105M (see for more information).

NVIDIA GeForce G 102M

The Nvidia GeForce G 102M is an integrated (onboard) graphics card for laptops with dedicated graphics memory. Instead of GDDR memory, cheap DDR2 or DDR3 main memory modules can be used. Therefore, the performance lies beyond  the Geforce G 105M. The core of the G102 M is based on the 9400M G core.

The performance of the G 102M should be slightly above the old 9400M G and compareable to other entry level GPUs like the  GeForce 9300M GS. Therefore, the graphics adapater is able to display older games (like Doom3) in high details fluently and new (not too demanding games) in low details fluently.

The current consumption of the mGPU should be a bit higher than the 9400M because of the used descrete DDR2 or DDR3 memory (9400M has a 12 Watt TDP for the whole chipset.

The chipset supports Hybrid-SLI (HybridPower) in conjunction with some GeForce 9x00M cards like the 9600M GT. HybridPower is a technique to choose between the integrated and dedicated graphics core, if performance or battery runtime is needed. Up to now the user has to use a tool to switch between the GPUs. (in Windows Vista, XP is not supported and MacOs needs a reboot according to Nvidia - at time of announcement). GeForceBoost to boost the performance (using SLI) is not supported in the MacBook Pro.

As the 9500M G, the Geforce G102M features 16 stream processors that do the work of the former dedicated pixel- and vertex-shaders. The unified shaders of Nvidia are 1-dimensional (AMD has 5-dimensional shaders which leads to the higher number of shaders).

The 102M can help the CPU in decoding HD videos. It features the PureVideo HD engine (VP3 video processor). Furthermore, the chip can be programmed using CUDA and can accellerate some operations in Photoshop CS4.

NVIDIA GeForce G 110M

The Nvidia GeForce G110M is a DirectX 10 capable entry-level graphics adapter for small and thin notebooks.

Compared to the G 105M / 9300M GS, the GeForce G 110M features the double amount of shader cores - 16 versus 8. Therefore, the performance is a bit better. It still stays beyond the 9600M GS which features 32 shaders. Furthermore, it integrates the new VP3 video processor (like the 9300M GS) with more video features and better hd-video decoding support.

In conjunction with the Nvidia 9100M G / 9400M integrated graphics, the G 110M supports Hybrid-SLI (HybridPower and GeForceBoost). HybridPower is a technique to choose between the integrated and dedicated graphics core, if performance or battery runtime is needed. This works only in Windows Vista. Up to now the user has to use a tool to switch between the GPUs. Later Nvidia wants to switch automatically in the drivers. GeForceBoost uses the integrated graphics core of the 9100M G and the dedicated of the G 110M in SLI mode to achieve better frame rates. Currently it is not sure if GeForceBoost is supported (could show no performance).

As the 8400M GT, the 110M G features 16 stream processors that do the work of the former dedicated pixel- and vertex-shaders. The unified shaders of Nvidia are 1-dimensional (AMD has 5-dimensional shaders which leads to the higher number of shaders).

Modern DirectX 10 games will run only in low details and resolutions. Older DirectX 9 games, like HalfLife 2 or Far Cry run fluently in medium to high details.

Compared to desktop graphics cards, the 8500 GS should be similar, altought usually the desktop cards are clocked higher than mobile GPUs (because of heat and current consumption issues).