Nvidia is the leader in producing graphics based chipsets for laptop users and desktop users alike. They also create graphics chips for servers, and their biggest competitor is AMD. But this time, Intel has entered the graphics market with their Xe DG1 GPU. So Nvidia devised a strategy to counter AMD and Intel by launching their latest GPU, GeForce MX 450. They are now assembling a replacement to their MX 300 series laptop graphics chipsets, which will be coupled with the new Turing architecture.
MX 450 was made to rival Intel’s Xe DG1 & AMD’s 7nm Vega Integrated GPUs
Back in Q4 2018 to Q1 2019, Nvidia had released their Turing GPU architecture in the Nvidia Titan RTX, GeForce 2080ti, GeForce 2080, GeForce 2070, and GeForce 2060. But they soon realised that AMD was releasing their Rx 5000 series graphics cards, and in order to counter those, they assembled a refresh line-up right away. Their refresh is on both desktop and notebook front. They dominate the midrange, high-end and mainstream markets, but they’re sorely lacking in the integrated GPU market. This is where the MX 450 shines.
Intel and AMD’s counter attack
Intel has coupled their 11th generation ice lake CPUs with embedded AMD GPUs, and this has enabled notebook manufacturers to skip out on Nvidia GPUs. Thus Nvidia is losing out a big amount on iGPUs (integrated GPUs). So they’re releasing the MX450 to get the notebook manufacturer’s attention. Most of their older chips have been on the Pascal architecture, and used a larger process node(12nm). Intel and AMD have been updating their processors. AMD released their Ryzen 4000 line-up, in which their integrated GPUs are 95% the performance of the GeForce MX 350 and that has ignited a solid competition between them. Intel too is competing with Nvidia’s chips by producing their Tiger Lake U with their Xe graphics integrated.
Nvidia’s comeback
According to a leak by ROGame, the new GPU(called TU117) has a base clock of 540MHz and is coupled with (up to)2GB GDDR6 RAM, clocked at 10Gbps. The chip has a TDP of 25w which is similar to the MX350, while offering double the performance. Notebookcheck has revealed that the latest gen GPUs are made primarily for taking on Intel’s Xe DG1 GPUs. Currently, the entry level notebooks with integrated GPUs are a huge market, and Nvidia is trying their best to bank on that. Consumers prefer a budget laptop with Nvidia GPUs, and Intel CPUs, but now that Intel has started making GPUs, Nvidia’s MX 450 has some serious competition.
MX 450 variants
The MX 450 series has 2 variants based on the TU117 GPU. One uses the TU117-655-KA/B/A1 SKU, and the other is based on the TU117-650-A1 SKU. Both variants are fabricated on the 12nm process node, and will feature the latest PCIe Gen 4 interface. The faster one will feature GDDR6 64 bit, while the second, slower variant will feature GDDR5 and GDDR6 configs. These GPUs start mass production by May to June 2020, and will probably be launched in the second half of this year, or probably next year.
MX 450 Performance
It’s predicted that the performance will be anywhere between 80-90% of the GTX 1650 which is great for an entry level laptop. It would be interesting to see the comparison between the MX 450 and Intel’s Xe DG1, along with Ryzen 4800U, or even Ryzen 4900H.. It would be a real bloodbath watching them compete as all three will have their graphics in entry level notebook designs.
Source: Wccftech
