They could be based on the GM206 Maxwell GPU

Dec 4, 2014 08:40 GMT  ·  By

The GeForce 344.77 drivers from NVIDIA may not have been released just yet, but they, or at least the changelog accompanying them, landed in the hands of certain people that were able to use them to uncover some valuable information.

That information pertains to a pair of mobile graphics processing units that we may or may not see in laptops by early next year (2015).

They are the GeForce GTX 960M and GTX 965M. Until now, some believed that the GTX 960M would be skipped completely, and that NVIDIA would only release the GTX 965M.

Now, it's implied that both will be launched, to fill the gap between the GTX 800M and GTX 900M series. Currently, only the GeForce GTX 980M and GTX 970M are available.

The GeForce 344.77 drivers show five new entries, three of which clearly state the codename of the new card, and two listing something called NVIDIA N16P-GX.

The new cards in the driver support list

NVIDIA_DEV.139B.1555.1458 = ‘NVIDIA N16P-GX’ NVIDIA_DEV.139B.674B.1A58 = ‘NVIDIA N16P-GX’ NVIDIA_DEV.13D9.1756.1458 = ‘NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M’ NVIDIA_DEV.13D9.3756.1458 = ‘NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M’ NVIDIA_DEV.13D9.A456.1458 = ‘NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M’ NVIDIA_DEV.13D9.B556.1458 = ‘NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M’

The N16P-GX is probably the GeForce GTX 960M, based on the fact that the GeForce GTX 860M processor was codenamed N15P-GX and Maxwell GPU-based 900M series discrete cards are using an N16 naming scheme.

We can't really guess why NVIDIA didn't just post the exact product name like it did for the GTX 965M, and the GTX 970M too for that matter.

What the GeForce GTX 960M will bring

In truth, we cannot be outright certain, but some reasonably safe assumptions can be made. Like the use of the Maxwell GPU micro-architecture, specifically the GM206 GPU.

The GTX 960M, if it does come out, could feature the same chip, albeit perhaps nerfed a bit. Such was the case for the GeForce GTX 980 and 970 desktop cards, which use GM204-400 and GM204-200 chips, respectively. It makes sense that the Santa Clara, California-based company could do the same on the laptop front.

In any event, the graphics processing units will be released in a few weeks, which to us means that laptops designed with their use in mind will be released during the Consumer Electronics Show, 2015 Edition (January next year).

We will, of course, follow up on this topic whenever the company does launch the products, or if another important leak occurs. Considering that we've been hearing about AMD preparing some sort of information release in the near future, NVIDIA may just be holding the driver and associated mobile GPU data in reserve for that.

Upcoming NVIDIA drivers reveal mobile GPUs (4 Images)

New NVIDIA GeForce GTX M-series GPUs coming
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860MNVIDIA readies new drivers
+1more