NBR Exclusive: First-hand review of Intel Ivy Bridge and NVIDIA Geforce GT 640M Discussion

[yknyong1]

Updated 24 March 2012

No worries, I'm not under NDA.

In this review, we had the chance to tinker around with the new unreleased Acer Aspire V3 4710G 14.0" notebook.

Specifications:
3rd Generation Intel Core i7-3612QM processor (2.100GHz with Turbo Boost up to 3.100GHz, 6MB L3 cache)
NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 640M with NVIDIA® Optimus™ technology (2 GB of dedicated DDR3 VRAM)
6 GB DDR3 RAM
320 GB HDD
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit
DVD-Super Multi Double-Layer Drive (DVD+/-RW)
14” HD Acer CineCrystal™ LED-backlit TFT LCD
Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n
Integrated Bluetooth® 3.0+EDR
Dolby Home Theatre® audio enhancement





To begin, this is the complete picture of all major components using available diagnostic software.

GPU-Z recognised the NVIDIA Geforce GT 640M with high accuracy due to preliminary support for NVIDIA Kepler already added by the developers. The GT 640M is shown here with idle clocks of 135/270/405MHz, with an idle Core voltage of 0.8120V. An unprecedented chilly idle core temperature of 32C is seen; the NVIDIA Geforce GT 640M is indeed a cool-running card.






The NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M has been speculated and rumored to be a rehashed Fermi core by many, but HWiNFO reveals and clarifies the truth; the GPU codename is GK107/N13P-GS, and GT 640M supports the new PCI-E 3.0 x16 standard. The GPU ID of 0FD2 confirms GT 640M is a new Kepler core.

The presence of 384 shaders and 16 ROP, along with core frequency of 405MHz and shader clock of 810MHz, paired with DDR3 on a 128-bit bus likely means that the GT 640M surpasses the performance of its predecessor, the GT 540M greatly.

The core: shader ratio remains at 1:2, which is unchanged from Fermi.







HWiNFO supports Ivy Bridge, from here we can see that core frequency is at 2.1GHz, E0 stepping, Ivy Bridge-MB Standard Voltage, TDP 35W, CPU/GPU Power Current 112A/50A, Power Limits of 43.75W and 56W, and rPGA988B(Socket G2).












Captured at another moment, one of the 4 cores of the Intel Core i7-3612QM is Turbo Boosted to 2.8GHz, while the other three remains idle at 1.2GHz.







In this picture the GPU is changed to display the NVIDIA Kepler GK107 based Geforce GT 640M specifications.



HWiNFO System Summary page: Intel Ivy Bridge Core i7-3612QM has 4×256KB L2 Cache and 6MB L3 Cache. Core i7-3612QM default core frequency is 2.1GHz, with idle frequency of 1.2GHz, and highest Turbo Boost frequency of 3.1GHz. HWiNFO can support individual core speed reading, in this picture the four cores are clocked at 1.2/1.2/1.9/1.9GHz respectively.

On the top right the specifications of Intel GT2 HD Graphics 4000 is displayed, while we can view the base GPU clock of 350MHz, we do not know the number of GT cores HD4000 possesses.

The Acer Aspire V3 uses Intel next generation HM77 chipset, Hynix 6GB DDR3-1333 CL 9-9-9-24-1T, 1.5V.










NVIDIA Kepler was said to have hot clocks or Turbo clocks earlier, and the Kepler based GK107 supports this functionality. Do note that this hot clock concept is similar to Intel Turbo Boost, where clock speeds are bumped to extract more performance when the chip still stays within TDP.




Windows Device Manager：Intel Core i7-3612QM 4 Core 8 Thread, Intel HD Graphics 4000, NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M 2GB DDR3 Discrete and Western Digital WD3200BPVT 320GB HDD.






Windows 7 WEI from new Acer Aspire V3 4710G, 6GB of RAM.




GPU-Z reading of Intel HD4000. Little is known for now.

Benchmarks below.

Album:
http://photobucket.com/kelperwivybridge

[yknyong1]

Reserve one post for commentary.

Okay, time to reveal more: One titbit of information - Ivy Bridge notebooks will be released by April 29, 2012.

The Acer Aspire V3 14.0" is the notebook tested above with a definite release date of April 29, 2012. (V3 launched is confirmed with a physical brochure from Singnet)

Intel Core i7-3612QM 35W

The Lenovo Y480/ 580 will also be launched on the same day.

Brought to you by yknyong1
I hope you guys will be thankful. (It wasn't easy to get hold of 20+ pictures BTW)

Now for the bench!

Benchmark 1 - 3DMark06
for Acer Aspire V3
Intel Core i7-3612QM 35W 2.10GHz
NVIDIA Geforce GT 640M 2GB DDR3
Default settings at 1280x768 - The screen is only 1366x768 BTW



Okay, now another picture of 3DMark06 programme information:




3DMark06 does not even recognise Kepler chips, so anything online with 3DMark mentioning a new name is fake for sure.



Now for Benchmark 2 - Fritz Chess Benchmark 11
for Acer Aspire V3
Intel Core i7-3612QM 35W 2.10GHz
NVIDIA Geforce GT 640M 2GB DDR3



Also, try guessing what the NVIDIA Geforce GT 640M with the Intel Core i7-3612QM scores in 3DMark11. 3DMark11 benchmark will be released when someone guesses the correct score (Performance mode).



Now for Benchmark 3 - 3DMark11
for Acer Aspire V3
Intel Core i7-3612QM 35W 2.10GHz
NVIDIA Geforce GT 640M 2GB DDR3

Score: P1898

Teaser


Score


Final picture


What I feel is that finally GPU performance levels above GT 555M possible in Ultrabook form factor. That alone is a good reason to celebrate if you are looking for good graphics performance in 14" and below.



Benchmark 4 - Cinebench R11.5
for Acer Aspire V3
Intel Core i7-3612QM 35W 2.10GHz 22nm Ivy Bridge
NVIDIA Geforce GT 640M 2GB DDR3 GK107 Kepler
Default Settings for all.

Scores with GPU comparison


Scores with CPU


As we can see, Ivy Bridge provides only an incremental jump in performance over Sandy Bridge.

However, the GT 640M is actually almost 30-50% faster than its predecessor, the GT 540M.

This is the end of all benchmarks, hope you all enjoyed yourself having a first hand look at newly cooked, but not yet released hardware!

NVIDIA Kepler GK107
NVIDIA Geforce GT 640M

1. Hot clocks (like Turbo Boost).
2. Low idle core temp.

Intel Core i7-3612QM 2.1GHz

[Ryan]

Nice!

Look forward to some benchmarks!

[raymondjchin]

sorry to be the noob but can you add a summary below the pics? I don't know much about how to read those images lol. I see the name of what's being tested but no clue of the details.

but whatever you posted looks cool

[ivan_cro]

no way, 384sp and ddr3 connected to a 128bit mem interface?! now that's just ridiculous.

Do like the combo, though

[Saltius]

What I can confirm from these pics is DeviceID:
GT640M: 0FD2

And from another pic leaked before
GT650M: 0FD1

[too456]

Finally, some pictures that are legit

[yknyong1]

Benchmarks possible, guess I've have to return to the show to get them. But depends on whether the Acer personnel manning the display sets allow me to do so.

If you all want benchmarks, reply and give me some thanks through the left scales!

[MPIXAPP]

According to WEI , It seems to be on the same level with GT 555M/HD6770M.
Thank you +rep

[gamba66]

Thank you so much! Try to run 3dmark vantage and 3dmark 11 though!!

And which card do you mean MPIXAPP?