NVIDIA gets official with GeForce 9400M GPU

Not like NVIDIA really needed to waste the ink here, but it has decided to hover under the spotlight a bit more by officially introducing its GeForce 9400M GPU. Yeah, the same one Apple made official on its behalf yesterday. The single-chip design features 16 parallel processing cores, 54GFLOPs of processing power and promises 5x the graphics power over Intel's Centrino 2. In other words, this thing will come a lot closer to handling Crysis in a satisfactory manner than that lowly integrated set you're probably working with now. But you already knew that, now didn't you?

[Via Physorg]

[Tom Robertson @ Oct 16th 2008 5:46AM]

Yes, we did already know that :)

[TMM @ Oct 16th 2008 7:49AM]

But we didn't know that it has a 128bit memory interface, instead of the 64bit on the 9300M.

Also, the rumors about Hybrid SLI can now be settlet:

Hybrid SLI is supported and running on the MacBook Pro.

That clearly shows that when you choose the "faster speed" option in the system prefs, the MacBook Pro runs both 9400M and 9600M in SLI. That explains the shorter battery life and how good the benchmarks are. The 9600M alone has 32 stream processor, but ad the 18 of the 9400M and the speed gains make a lot of sense.

[TMM @ Oct 16th 2008 7:50AM]

Make that 16 stream processors for the 9400M in my post. Typo. ;)

[thethirdmoose @ Oct 16th 2008 8:09AM]

No, it doesn't run in hybrid SLI. Nvidia has confirmed this.
http://nvidia.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/nvidia.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=2243

[TMM @ Oct 16th 2008 8:53AM]

I'm an ass.

Totally got it wrong.

But it's such a stupid decision. Why did they do it like this?

[Bender Bending Rodriguez @ Oct 16th 2008 10:39AM]

@ TMM,

You're not an ass. Your assumption made perfect sense in a world of tech, but with Apple you have to remember the marketing aspect. Hybrid SLI introduces some potential technical issues so Apple's method is to start simple and then get more complex. The speed bump is large enough over Intel that the additional bump isn't' really going to sell more machine at this point in time, but can add the "hybrid actively later" for more marketing affect, which Apple is working on with OpenCL for a higher level parallel computing. Not just across multiple GPUs, but with the CPU being thrown in there... but that is coming with Snow Leopard in 2009. I'm guessing we'll see a major demo and the first 'real' beta of the OS come Macworld in early January.

[Andy TGD @ Oct 16th 2008 6:01AM]

I don't know about you guys, but does anyone actually care if this thing *can* run Crysis? (Which would probably be at 10fps). I just want to know if it can run TF2 well - now * that's* a fun game! :P

[cranz @ Oct 16th 2008 7:29AM]

Am wondering the same thing - will find out on Monday :D

[David @ Oct 16th 2008 8:26AM]

it should easily run TF2 on high settings, my laptop runs a 9600M GS, and it runs TF2 on high easy.

[Tony @ Oct 16th 2008 2:19PM]

the 9400M got 2344 points on 3dmark06
so it should be about to get around 20 fps playing crysis on low settings
20fps is very playable in crysis

[Tony @ Oct 16th 2008 2:20PM]

should be able to*

[Tony @ Oct 16th 2008 2:20PM]

should be able to*

[Ethan @ Oct 23rd 2008 2:15AM]

I have an 8400M which runs it just fine on medium-high at 1280x800

[Dave Chappelle @ Oct 16th 2008 6:03AM]

FIRST!!!!!




to say too late...



.. come on, give me the high rank!!

[Andy TGD @ Oct 16th 2008 6:12AM]

".. come on, give me the high rank!!"

Um.

No. Just for that - Low Rank! ;-)

[Dave Chappelle @ Oct 16th 2008 6:20AM]

ye i know i was in a different mindset 15 mins ago. i s'pose.

[clueless @ Oct 16th 2008 6:04AM]

What? there's a new mac? and what is this crysis you speak of?

[Josh Ladella @ Oct 16th 2008 7:29AM]

you are definitely new here

[heffeque @ Oct 16th 2008 9:20AM]

You definitely didn't read the guy's name.

[Zane @ Oct 16th 2008 6:06AM]

How does its performance stack up against discrete graphics cards (Radeon X3470, for example) found in mainstream 13/14" notebooks such as Thinkpads and Inspirons?

[Ian @ Oct 16th 2008 6:17AM]

You must have missed every one of Engadget's stories about the new Macs. That's a lot of stories.

[Kurtz @ Oct 16th 2008 6:08AM]

Actually, no.

If "satisfactory" means 13 fps at 1024x768 on a year old game....

[Shinigami @ Oct 16th 2008 6:41AM]

Its not about the game being old, its about the code being not optimized at all. And yeah, they stopped making patches so you can write it down as dead and buried.

[ED @ Oct 16th 2008 6:14AM]

OK, but...
Will it blend?

[Andy TGD @ Oct 16th 2008 6:16AM]

Dude, what is this - retro cliché day?

[matt @ Oct 16th 2008 7:25AM]

yes it is indeed.

Does it play doom?

[ED @ Oct 16th 2008 7:32AM]

In Soviet Russia, cliché retro you!!

[Jakob @ Oct 16th 2008 6:16AM]

Now Apple owe Nvidia big time. Believe me, next year Nvidia is gonna introduce the MacBook (of course with a new graphics card) a couple of days before Apple.

[bob @ Oct 16th 2008 7:25AM]

apple owe nvidia for buying their chipsets for the 2 biggest selling laptops? rethink that comment haha.

[UnixSystemsEngineer @ Oct 16th 2008 11:12AM]

I'm pretty sure Nvidia knew that Apple was going to 'out' their new chipset yesterday...

[mhc @ Oct 16th 2008 6:17AM]

This is the worst branding ever:

According to intel 'Geforce 9400M' is a brand that refers to a motherboard GPU (GeForce 9100M G) combined with a discrete GPU (either GeForce 9300M GS or GeForce 9200M GS). See: http://www.nvidia.com/object/geforce_9100m_g_mgpu.html

But this new 'GeForce 9400M G' refers to a single motherboard GPU (only the MacBooks pro's have both discrete and integrated GPUs).

To top it off, Apple refers to this new single motherboard GPU on the MacBook (non-pro's) as a 'GeForce 9400M' (without the 'G'). (Actually mentioned on Intels site: "Please note that for Apple products, this goes by the name GeForce 9400M.)

[thethirdmoose @ Oct 16th 2008 8:13AM]

/facepalm
Someone tell Nvidia that you can't add chip numbers to make a better chip...

[Jakob @ Oct 16th 2008 6:22AM]

I don't know about you guys, but wouldn't it be cool if the new MacBooks shipped without an asterik key (*Andy TGD* take the hint)

[Andy TGD @ Oct 16th 2008 6:23AM]

*thank you* :)

[Robot @ Oct 16th 2008 12:49PM]

You mean the *8* key?

[ace1000_x @ Oct 16th 2008 6:36AM]

Intel really need to sort themselves out. When Larrabee does come out, it's going to be a desktop thing, and Intel will still be lagging behind with their x4xxx or something. By the time a mobile Larrabee comes out. Nvidia will have a 260 or 280 Mobile chip.

[Shinigami @ Oct 16th 2008 6:40AM]

By the time mobile larrabee comes out, Nvidia will dominate mobile chipsets by something faster than GTX280 (40nm chips coming next year, mobile larrabee not).

[Shinigami @ Oct 16th 2008 6:39AM]

Forget about crysis, it can play any-HD video without slowing down your system enough to make you old from waiting. Nice thing. But I'd prefer 9700M or GTX280M :)

[bongsoo @ Oct 16th 2008 6:41AM]

how would the performance of this new integrated graphics chip compare to the AMD/ATI integrated graphics chip. Since AMD said the HD 3200 would be 3X more powerful than the intel graphics chip, would the NVIDIA chip be 5/3X more powerful than the AMD?

[Ian @ Oct 16th 2008 6:48AM]

Bongsoo, are you just really shit at maths?

[heffeque @ Oct 16th 2008 9:23AM]

Anandtech has some benchies. Read them.

[pabloooo @ Oct 16th 2008 7:16AM]

I'm wondering how does the 9400m compare with older, dedicated gpu-units? E.g. could it maybe be as "fast" as the couple years old gf 6600 gt?

[xeon @ Oct 16th 2008 7:24AM]

I hope Nvidia makes a comeback.

[urandom @ Oct 16th 2008 7:46AM]

So will this bitch overheat, like the 8400M?

[Boards of Canada @ Oct 16th 2008 7:52AM]

probably...

[rawhead @ Oct 16th 2008 8:49AM]

"...than that lowly integrated set you're probably working with now"

Except, I'm working on the new MacBook with the 9400M right now ;-)

Seriously, guys, I fully admit this is a little overpriced (I went for the 2.4GHz one) and I'm guilty of falling for it, but the feel of this thing in you hands is un-frickin'-believably good. Not since the 12" PowerBook has there been such a sexy lower end Apple laptop, and as a former diehard fan of said PowerBook G4, this is, folks, the second coming. Regarding Crisis... I haven't tried that yet ;-)

[Slav @ Oct 16th 2008 9:38AM]

The problem I hope to come across in the near future is the price difference between 2.4ghz MacBook and the entry MacBookPro. I mean at $400 dollars more, would I want to go Pro or not?

[Technex @ Oct 16th 2008 8:55AM]

Go Nvidia! Only the best!!!

[RogueSpear @ Oct 16th 2008 10:40AM]

So my 8600M GT gets up to 167F when I'm not even doing anything 3D related. I wonder if this one will surpass 200F. They may as well introduce a closed loop water system and let the steam generated extend your battery life.

[Bad Cyborg @ Oct 17th 2008 5:49AM]

Sorry to hear that, but on other notebooks fitted with 8600M GS such as the super-cheap BenQ S41, the Nvidia GPU idles at 134. The same is true of 8400M GS found on Dell's and HP's notebooks. Perhaps it's a problem with assembly, such as too much slather of thermal paste.