(CUDA Cores)
GeForce GT 720M Game Requirement Analysis
Overview
GeForce GT 720M is a entry-level Mobile Graphics Card based on the second revision of the Fermi Architecture.
Architecture
The Fermi Architecture is manufactured with a 40nm Technology and uses a technique known as Hot Clocking: The Shaders are clocked twice as fast as the Central Unit. While this leads to a reasonable performance boost, it causes enormous amounts of energy dissipation, leading, ultimately, to a significantly higher operating temperature.
Fermi is also the first GPU architecture with fully cached memory access which increases memory performance.
GPU
It equips a GPU Codenamed GF117-N14M-GE which has 2 Stream Multiprocessors activated and thus offers 96 Shader Processing Units, 16 TMUs and 8 ROPs. The Central Unit is initially clocked at 625MHz and may reach up to 938MHz, in Turbo Mode.
Additionally, GF117 is built using a 28nm technology.
Memory
The GPU accesses a 1GB frame buffer of DDR3, through a 64-bit memory interface. The size of the frame buffer is exaggerated and no way benefits the GPU. The Memory Clock Operates at 900MHz.
Features
DirectX 11.0 Support (11.0 Hardware Default) and support for Optimus, 3D Vision Surround, PhysX, Realtime Raytracing and other technologies
Power Consumption
With a rated board TDP of 33W, it is suited for average sized laptops.
Performance
GeForce GT 720M is essentially a fast GeForce GT 620M with the option for the Boost Clock which depends on the laptop's cooler.
Gaming benchmarks indicate its performance is slightly below the older GeForce GT 635M.
System Suggestions
We recommend a modest processor (Intel Core i3 Mobile) and 4GB of RAM for a system with GeForce GT 720M.