PP Mguire
Build Guru
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Depends on what you want to know?Hey you seem to really know your stuff... If like to learn some information on graphics cards in general. Like I said I have the 980m with 8 gigs of gpu ram. I haven't gotten the computer yet (waiting on shipping) but I feel like I'll be good for a good while. My concern is I was reading a thread and they were talking about gm204 and Cuda cores. I can follow but I truly don't know what those actually are. In turns of performance and what's old style to new standards. Would love to hear all about what you know on this topic.
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Shader units or "CUDA Cores" to a GPU is sort of like how a CPU core is to a processor. With each changing architecture comes difference performance numbers per "core". For instance, Kepler (GK110, 104, GTX 680, 780, ect) has a higher CUDA core count, but less performance per core vs Fermi (GTX 580 ect).
Naturally, these are only comparable to that of the same family of GPUs and can't be compared to a competitor like AMD as the architectures are wildly different.
Core count isn't the only defining performance factor though, as clock speeds vary greatly as well. In previous generations a mobile contender had a lower core count and GPU clock to compensate for the lack of cooling in the mobile space. So the performance lacked greatly compared to the desktop cards. Today a 980m is more comparable to that of a GTX 970 on the desktop depending on how the card boosts or gets throttled by heat. It should last you a good while, but always remember that the best performance will always be on a desktop due to cooling alone because they can pack more performance in the package.