NVIDIA Quadro M4000M vs NVIDIA Quadro M500M vs NVIDIA Quadro M620

NVIDIA Quadro M4000M

The Nvidia Quadro M4000M is a high-end, DirectX 12 (FL_12_1) and OpenGL 4.5-compatible graphics card for mobile workstations. It is a Maxwell-based GPU built on the GM204 chip with all 1280 of the 1536 shader cores activated and is manufactured in 28 nm at TSMC. Therefore, the GPU is similar to the consumer Nvidia GeForce GTX 970M. The Quadro M4000M is built for the Intel Skylake generation and is a successor to the Quadro K4100M (Kepler-based). The M4000M usually comes with 4 GB GDDR5 VRAM clocked at 1250 MHz (5000 MHz effective, 160 GB/s opposed to 102.4 GB/s of the K4100M). 

The Quadro series offers certified drivers that are optimized for stability and performance in professional applications like CAD or DCC. OpenGL performance, for example, should be significantly better compared to GeForce graphics cards of similar specifications.

Performance

The clock speeds of the Quadro M4000M are very similar to the GTX 970M based on the same chip. The base clock is slightly higher with 975 versus 924 MHz but the Boost speed is lower at 1013 versus 1038 MHz. Therefore, with good cooling the GTX 970M should be slightly faster. Compared to the Quadro line-up, it is the second fastest Quadro card in 2015 and therefore clearly faster than the old Quadro K4100M.

Using CUDA (Compute Capability 5.2) or OpenCL 1.2, the cores of the Quadro M4000M can be used for general calculations.

Power Consumption

The power consumption of the Quadro M4000M is rated at the same TGP of 100 Watt as the M5000M and older K5100M/K4100M (including the board and memory components). Therefore, the card is suited for large notebooks with 17-inch displays or greater.

NVIDIA Quadro M500M

The Nvidia Quadro M500M is a DirectX 12 (FL 11_0) and OpenGL 4.5-compatible graphics card for mobile workstations. It is a Maxwell-based GPU built on the GM108 chip with 384 shader cores and manufactured in 28 nm by TSMC. The Quadro M500M is the successor to the Quadro K620M which is also based on the Maxwell GM108 but lists a higher memory bandwidth of 16 vs. 14.4 GB/s. Therefore, it is also similar to the consumer GeForce 930M.

The Quadro series offers certified drivers that are optimized for stability and performance in professional applications like CAD or DCC. OpenGL performance, for example, should be significantly better than with GeForce graphics cards of similar specifications.

Architecture

Compared to Kepler, Maxwell has been optimized in several details to increase power efficiency. Smaller Streaming Multiprocessors (SMM) with only 128 ALUs (Kepler: 192) and an optimized scheduler should lead to better utilization of the shaders. Nvidia promises that a Maxwell SMM with 128 ALUs can offer 90% of the performance of a Kepler SMX with 192 ALUs. GM108 features 3 SMMs and thus 384 shader cores, 24 TMUs and 8 ROPs (64-bit interface).

Another optimization is the massively enlarged L2 cache. The larger size can reduce some of the memory traffic to allow for a relatively narrow memory interface without significantly hurting performance.

GM108 supports DirectX 11.2 (feature level 11.0 only) as well as DirectX 12.

Performance

The performance should be slightly below the Quadro K620M (same chip, but slightly more memory bandwidth) and therefore positioned in the entry-level of dedicated graphics chips. For 3D games the Quadro M500M should be similar to the GeForce 930M. Therefore, only low-demanding games should run fluently.

Features

The feature set should include support for up to four active displays. High-resolution monitors of up to 3840x2160 pixels can be connected using DisplayPort 1.2 or HDMI 1.4a (HDMI 2.0 not supported). HD-Audio codecs, such as Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD, can be transmitted via bitstream mode through the HDMI port. However, as most laptops will feature Optimus, the integrated GPU will likely have direct control over the display ports and may limit the feature set available by the Nvidia Kepler cards.

Using CUDA or OpenCL, the cores of the Quadro M500M can be used for general calculations.

GM108 integrates the sixth generation of the PureVideo HD video engine (VP6), offering a better decoding performance for H.264 and MPEG-2 videos. Of course, VP6 supports all features of previous generations (4K support, PIP, video encoding via NVENC API).

Power Consumption

The power consumption of the Quadro M500M (and M600M, K620M) is rated at 30 W. Therefore, the GPU is best suited for laptops 13 - 14-inches in size and above. The M500M also supports Optimus to automatically switch between an integrated graphics card and the Nvidia GPU.

NVIDIA Quadro M620

The 28nm NVIDIA Quadro M620 is a mid-range DirectX 12 (FL 11_0) and OpenGL 4.5-compatible graphics card for mobile workstations. It is a 1st generation Maxwell-based GPU built on the GM107 architecture with 512 of the 640 shader cores activated. Therefore, the GPU is not similar to any current consumer card. The Geforce GTX 950M, for example, uses the full 640 shader cores. The older Quadro M1000M offers very similar specs (same amount of shader cores and also based on the same chip but more graphics memory), but was intended for the Skylake generation. The M620 is intended for the Kaby Lake generation.

The Quadro series offers certified drivers that are optimized for stability and performance in professional applications like CAD or DCC. OpenGL performance, for example, should be significantly better compared to GeForce graphics cards of similar specifications.

Performance

Due to the smaller amount of memory, the Quadro M620 should be slightly slower than the older Quadro M1000M. However, the exact clock speeds are not known up to now. In early benchmarks we have, the M1000M is about 9 % faster than the M620 in SPECviewperf 12.

Using CUDA (Compute Capability 5.0) or OpenCL 1.2, the cores of the Quadro M620 can be used for general calculations.

Power Consumption

The power consumption of the Quadro M620 is rated for a 30 Watt TGP including the board and memory components (21.2 Watt TDP), which is 10 Watt lower than the M1000M (which offers more memory). Therefore, the card is suited for 15-inch notebooks and greater.