hybrid-graphics-linux team mailing list archive

[Eric Appleman <erappleman@xxxxxxxxx>]

There's nothing too special about the Y570 other than using a rather 
frankenstein GPU. There are almost a dozen 555M GPU variants available. 
Every single one uses a GF106 chip with DDR3 or GDDR5 except for the 
Y570 which has a GF108 chip with GDDR5.

The 500M series has been a chipset disaster for Nvidia. Sure, some Dell 
users found ways to BIOS mod their GF108 525M into a 550M, but the other 
lines have been depressing. The 555M series has been discussed to death, 
but other people got screwed too.

Take the Asus G53SW/G73SW and G53SX for example. The former has a GF106 
460M with a 192-bit bus and GDDR5. The supposed "successor", the G53SX, 
has a GF116 560M with a 128-bit bus and GDDR5. Yet at the same time, 
G74SX, the successor of the G73SW, has a GF116 560M with the expected 
192-bit GDDR5.

So, in the end, Nvidia's lack of coherent labelling has lead customers 
to buy crippled chips. All of this could've been avoided with labelling 
like the GT 520MX or bringing back Radeon-style labelling like Pro, XT, 
or Ultra.

Unfortunately, this madness isn't going to end with the 600M series. The 
lower end models as usual will debut first as relabelled or higher 
clocked versions of 500M series. The result so far hasn't been pretty. 
The 635M and 630M are going to be using both the GF106/GF116 and GF108 
chipsets. So, expect at least another 6 months of searching for the best 
version of the new GPUs and drivers supporting only one version at launch.

Eric
Bumblebee Project


References:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-Introduces-GeForce-600M-Series.66966.0.html
http://nouveau.freedesktop.org/wiki/FeatureMatrix
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Nvidia_graphics_processing_units#GeForce_500M_.285xxM.29_series