NVIDIA GeForce GT 720M. NVIDIA GeForce GT 720M graphics card

Budget video adapter for mobile devices onthe base of the NVIDIA GeForce GT 720M chip has become so legendary that many users can not decide when choosing laptops. Some sources claim that the mobile video card uses a cut-down core of the representative of the game class, while others impose their own opinion on renaming the chip of the previous generation.

From this article, the reader will learn that at the veryit is a mobile graphics accelerator GeForce GT 720M and whether it is worth it to give preference when buying a laptop. The technical characteristics of the chip, testing and feedback from the owners will clarify the topic.

Unreasonable excitement

The reason for the inferences of many users aboutusing the old graphics cores to create a chip NVIDIA GeForce GT 720M was the recognition of the manufacturer. Representatives of the company on the official website indicated that the new video adapter, or rather its crystal labeled GK208, was created in the likeness of the graphic core GF117. This statement was the reason for creating rumors that the manufacturer took up the use of the products written off the accounts.

That's just the availability of GPU Boost 2 technology.0, which is supported by the GeForce GT 720M chip, is for some reason overlooked by many theorists. Yes, and support for PhysX, CUDA, Optimus, DirectX 11 is not discussed by anyone. As the professionals note in their reviews, unreasonable excitement spawned within the walls of the company NVIDIA. Apparently, in this way the manufacturer decided to attract buyers to its inexpensive solutions.

Performance metrics

For the video adapter on the NVIDIA GeForce GT 720M chipit is difficult to call high-performance characteristics. First, the whole picture spoils the memory of GDDR3, which runs on a 64-bit bus. The limitation of bandwidth on the hardware level can not be avoided either by the high frequency of the graphics core operation or the overclocking of the memory chips. Whatever one may say, there is a limit beyond which it is impossible to accelerate.

Fermi architecture supports work 96stream processors in NVIDIA GeForce GT 720M. The crystal operates at a frequency of 938 MHz, and the memory supports a speed of 1000 MHz. The maximum amount of video memory is limited to 2048 megabytes. The listed technical characteristics of a discrete video card are uniquely more effective than an integrated solution, however it is very difficult to name them.

Lifebuoy for a demanding buyer

And yet, on a mobile video card on a chipNVIDIA GeForce GT 720M reviews are positive. Support for graphics DirectX11 and Shader 5.0 allow the laptop owner to play modern toys, however, at the lowest performance settings. CUDA technology allows resource-intensive applications to use the power of the graphics core in calculations (an additional processor in the system). Hardware processing of video streams in high quality, decoding and output of images on TV will certainly appeal to fans of multimedia.

Do not forget about energy-saving featuresgraphics accelerator. In Optimus mode, the graphics card can either turn off, transfer control to the integrated device, or reduce the frequency of the crystal to a minimum. This function is in demand in ultrabook, where the main criterion in the work is the battery life on one charge. The Boost 2.0 mode, on the contrary, increases the frequency of the kernel at high loads, raising the overall performance of the mobile device.

Software Effectiveness

In high performance video adapter,based on the NVIDIA GeForce GT 720M chip, the driver plays an important role. All notebook owners who want to use the device for entertainment, professionals recommend watching the latest updates of the corporation NVIDIA and timely update the driver for the mobile video adapter. In most cases, new software from the official website of the manufacturer contains optimized sets of commands that improve the performance of applications and modern games.

There is a lot of media in the mediainstructions for updating the BIOS of the mobile video adapter. Yes, firmware storage of a graphics accelerator can raise performance in games, but there are a lot of problems that can appear as a result of inept user actions. For example, the failure of the video card. The replacement of the crystal soldered into the motherboard is problematic.

Old sample analogs

Many users try to compare the game chipinitial level GeForce GT 540M with mobile accelerator NVIDIA GeForce GT 720M. Their characteristics are almost identical, and in tests they demonstrate the same performance, but in fact they are two completely different devices. First, the comparison takes place in specialized programs that work directly with the graphics core of the device. Naturally, the result will depend on the frequency - the higher it is, the better the indicator. An important factor is the bit capacity (in the GT 540M it is twice as large).

When it comes to testing, it's betterUse honest comparison in real games or resource-intensive programs. After all, it is the software that makes the graphics card open its full potential and use technology at the hardware level. According to the results of the conducted experiments, we can safely say that the GeForce GT 540M can not compete with the modern GeForce GT 720M video adapter, and all reviews in the media are a fiction.

Marketing progress of the manufacturer

As practice shows, when choosing a laptop withchip NVIDIA GeForce GT 720M price is an important factor (cost gadget - within 22-35 thousand rubles). Almost identical mobile devices from the same manufacturer with video cards created by the same technology, but having different cores, can have a huge difference in cost. An exemplary example is a graphics accelerator based on the GeForce GT 740M. It differs from the video card in question only by improved memory chips that run on a 128-bit bus using GDDR5 technology.

While testing in games, it can be noted thatthe performance gain is 12-15%, but the cost of identical laptops with different video adapters is different by 50-60%. Professionals claim that the problem was created by the corporation Apple, which looked after its products for a video game accelerator with an updated memory bus. It turns out that the video card NVIDIA GeForce GT 720M because of the manufacturer's marketing games fell into the budget niche, so it is overlooked by many buyers when choosing laptops.

Reviews of notebook owners

Recommendations of professionals in the field of IT andmany potential buyers ignore the sellers. Most users are interested in feedback from owners. It is in them you can find the truth. Among the office users who use laptops with NVIDIA GeForce GT 720M graphics accelerator, the reviews are only positive. Most software requires a large amount of memory and the presence of modern technology, and with this the video adapter has full order.

But the fans of computer games broke into twocamp. People who prefer to play resource-intensive dynamic applications (Crysis 3, Call of Duty 4, Deus Ex 3, and the like) claim that the performance of the GT 720M is not enough - it's inconvenient to look at pictures with 14 frames per second. This video adapter will only have to appeal to fans of online games World of Tanks, DOTA 2, StarCraft 2 and other less resource-intensive applications.

Finally

Summing up, we can make an unambiguous conclusion,that the mobile graphics accelerator based on the NVIDIA GeForce GT 720M chip is the representative of the initial game class. Placement of the device in the budget segment is an error of many sellers. Also, there is no mention of any renaming of the chip of the last generation - it is an independent graphics accelerator that supports all modern technologies, but is limited (for some unknown reason) by the manufacturer in terms of data transfer rate between the crystal and the motherboard.