Let's talk about NVIDIA's GeForce MX150 for a minute

[D13H4RD]

I'm quite surprised that the GeForce MX150 GPU hasn't got much of a mention. Because while it's no GeForce GTX 1060, the MX150 I feel is actually not a bad option for those who want a laptop that can do some gaming without splashing a heap of dough on ones that pack in a full-blown GeForce GTX GPU that can handle 1080p at maxed-out settings like the aforementioned 1060 but for some reason, can't bring themselves to buy a laptop with a 1050.

 

To put into perspective, the MX150 is a laptop variant of the GT 1030, and like its GeForce GTX cousins, the MX150 uses the exact same GP108 silicon as its desktop brethren, but unlike its GTX cousins, it is fabricated on a 14nm FinFET process by Samsung, compared to the 16nm process used by TSMC, and unlike those GPUs, which are clocked slightly lower than their desktop equivalents, the MX150 actually clocks higher than the GT 1030.

 

Make no mistake, this is no gaming beast. You won't max out any demanding title released in recent times, but for light games, the MX150 should be capable. It's perhaps more useful for GPU-accelerated tasks though, like editing in Premiere Pro.

 

Do I think people should rush out and get one with an MX150 if they want a solid gaming-capable laptop on a budget? Well, that depends on the price. If it's cheap like around $600, then it's actually not a bad deal, and as a bonus, it actually performs better than the Maxwell-based GTX 950M (then again, the 950M was never known for being beefy). However, if a laptop with a GTX 1050 is within spitting distance, let alone those with a 1050 Ti, then those will give you more bang for the buck, so I would suggest saving up for those unless you're really penny pinching or other reasons.

[Angusticlavii]

i like the MX150 because its Ultrabook compatible

 

https://www.cnet.com/products/xiaomi-mi-notebook-pro/preview/

[3rrant]

I didn't even know it existed. Nice coverage they did for that one lol

[D13H4RD]

Just now, ErrantNyles said:

I didn't even know it existed. Nice coverage they did for that one lol

Probably because it was never meant to be a gaming-focused GPU, more as a graphics accelerator for tasks like Premiere.

 

That said, for budget laptops or even slim ones, the MX150 is actually not bad for some gaming, especially in casual titles along with the popular e-sports ones. You won't max out the settings on all of them, but you should get good performance with moderate settings.

[Misanthrope]

Is better than integrated for ultra lights but outside of that there's little to no reason not to go with a 1050 instead: not sure why you think it's such a huge deal 1050 laptops are quite reasonably sized, not ultrabooks but portable enough.

[Jurrunio]

Sadly it's not popular because of its position in the market. In marketing perspective it's right between the light gaming 1050 and "marketing-only"  920M, 940MX (they are there because that makes them laptop with dedicated GPU). It's neither good enough as a budget gaming laptop or laptop with dedicated graphics (I call that scam since most dont know dedicated is not equal to good).

 

I'm sure it will be more popular once large brands empty their stock on terrible Maxwell mobile chips.

[Droidbot]

2 minutes ago, Misanthrope said:

Is better than integrated for ultra lights but outside of that there's little to no reason not to go with a 1050 instead: not sure why you think it's such a huge deal 1050 laptops are quite reasonably sized, not ultrabooks but portable enough.

Price and TDP. 

 

MX150 laptops even on release are under $600USD. When they hit refurb markets it'll be under $450USD, and that's a STEAL. Some 1050 laptops hover around the $550 price, however. 

[Misanthrope]

Just now, Droidbot said:

Price and TDP. 

 

MX150 laptops even on release are under $600USD. When they hit refurb markets it'll be under $450USD, and that's a STEAL. Some 1050 laptops hover around the $550 price, however. 

AMD could possibly beat them on all fronts (Price, performance and specially TPD) with Zen APUs later.

[Droidbot]

Just now, Misanthrope said:

AMD could possibly beat them on all fronts (Price, performance and specially TPD) with Zen APUs later.

For sure, but that's to be seen. Apparently Zen11 is in the works, meant to be like Polaris on steroids. Hopefully the steroids don't include a power consumption bump as well.

[minibois]

I saw that GPU In a 14" Acer laptop few weeks ago and was like "huh, did they go back in time??" And than looked up a review on it and saw it has very adequate performance for medium 1080p for example. It was like double the performance of a 940MX.

[Morgan Everett]

I've got the desktop equivalent, the GT 1030. 

 

It's an absolute beast. 

[KenjiUmino]

what's the point here? 

 

"gaming on laptop" and "budget" sadly never worked together. ever.

"gaming on laptop" and "slim & light" sadly also never worked together. ever.

 

both could work just fine if manufacturers would stop being greedy and also stop cutting the WRONG corners all the time. 

[System Error Message]

1 minute ago, KenjiUmino said:

what's the point here? 

 

"gaming on laptop" and "budget" sadly never worked together. ever.

"gaming on laptop" and "slim & light" sadly also never worked together. ever.

 

both could work just fine if manufacturers would stop being greedy and also stop cutting the WRONG corners all the time. 

refurbished/used

geforce 1080 max-q.

[KenjiUmino]

Just now, System Error Message said:

refurbished/used

geforce 1080 max-q.

?????

[D13H4RD]

4 minutes ago, KenjiUmino said:

"gaming on laptop" and "budget" sadly never worked together. ever.

Depends.

 

The MX150 is actually not a bad GPU for playing even moderately-intensive titles. You won't max-out Rise of the Tomb Raider or GTA V obviously, but if most of your gaming is on LoL, Overwatch, CS:GO, TF2 or the like, it's actually more than capable.

[System Error Message]

Just now, KenjiUmino said:

?????

gaming on a laptop + budget - used or refurbished and outlets. Also some like acer and dell inspiron have budget gaming laptops that sport decent config and price like acer with an i7-7700hq + gtx 1060 6GB for $1000, same with dell inspiron.

gaming on a laptop + slim and light - nvidia max-q such as the asus zephyrus which is thin and light with nvidia max-q

[3rrant]

1 hour ago, D13H4RD2L1V3 said:

Probably because it was never meant to be a gaming-focused GPU, more as a graphics accelerator for tasks like Premiere.

 

That said, for budget laptops or even slim ones, the MX150 is actually not bad for some gaming, especially in casual titles along with the popular e-sports ones. You won't max out the settings on all of them, but you should get good performance with moderate settings.

I'm much more into professional laptops. I have never seen a point into gaming laptops at all, and never met someone who actually wanted to buy/was interested into one of those.

[D13H4RD]

Just now, ErrantNyles said:

I'm much more into professional laptops. I have never seen a point into gaming laptops at all, and never met someone who actually wanted to buy/was interested into one of those.

Kinda depends on the person.

 

I'm a sucker for professional laptops due to their design. I love the power current-generation gaming laptops have, but dislike the increasingly gaudy design. It's an attention screamer for all the wrong reasons.

[Droidbot]

18 minutes ago, System Error Message said:

 

gaming on a laptop + slim and light - nvidia max-q such as the asus zephyrus which is thin and light with nvidia max-q

1080 Max-Q is beaten by 1070 OC and it throttles out of the box.  

 

The Zephyrus is a shit design backed up by NVIDIA Scam-Q 

[D13H4RD]

9 minutes ago, Droidbot said:

1080 Max-Q is beaten by 1070 OC and it throttles out of the box.  

You won't be overclocking a 1070 on a thin laptop though.

 

On an Alienware 15, most definitely. 

[dragonhart6505]

Not sure why you're comparing a mobile focused GPU meant for lightweight production oriented laptops to a desktop GPU built for lightweight gaming on full-sized laptops. Sure, it clocks higher than a 1030, but you're throwing out there comparisons to 1060s and 1050s like the 1030 is supposed to compete with either of those. I'm sure the MX150 is capable of gaming but it's not anywhere near as powerful or focused towards the marketed mobile gaming machine as you're suggesting. It's not meant for it

[IKnight]

2 hours ago, CaptainKieseI said:

i like the MX150 because its Ultrabook compatible

 

https://www.cnet.com/products/xiaomi-mi-notebook-pro/preview/

1

Hmm. Haven't heard about their notebook before. I've got their Redmi Note 4x and I love it, so if the laptop is anywhere near as good, I'll be tempted... 

[D13H4RD]

26 minutes ago, dragonhart6505 said:

Not sure why you're comparing a mobile focused GPU meant for lightweight production oriented laptops to a desktop GPU built for lightweight gaming on full-sized laptops. Sure, it clocks higher than a 1030, but you're throwing out there comparisons to 1060s and 1050s like the 1030 is supposed to compete with either of those. I'm sure the MX150 is capable of gaming but it's not anywhere near as powerful or focused towards the marketed mobile gaming machine as you're suggesting. It's not meant for it

Well, I did say that it was never meant for gaming, moreso for GPU acceleration.

 

That said, it's actually not bad for casual gaming.

[dragonhart6505]

6 minutes ago, D13H4RD2L1V3 said:

Well, I did say that it was never meant for gaming, moreso for GPU acceleration.

 

That said, it's actually not bad for casual gaming.

Right, but your comparisons is what I'm calling out. Even if the clocks may be higher than a 1030, doesn't mean it's necessarily a better option for budget gaming. Clocks don't make all the difference. Why compare it at all to a 1060/1050 laptop? It's apples to oranges. Still not entirely sure what your point of the thread was...it's a little all over the place

[D13H4RD]

9 minutes ago, dragonhart6505 said:

Right, but your comparisons is what I'm calling out. Even if the clocks may be higher than a 1030, doesn't mean it's necessarily a better option for budget gaming. Clocks don't make all the difference. Why compare it at all to a 1060/1050 laptop? It's apples to oranges. Still not entirely sure what your point of the thread was...it's a little all over the place

Well, I didn’t state that the MX150 was better due to the higher clocks. I just said that because it was interesting as the other Pascal laptop GPUs have lower clocks compared to their desktop counterpart, with the only other interesting GPU being the GTX 1070, of which the laptop version has more CUDA cores than the desktop version.

 

As for comparing it with a 1050, I did that because some 1050 laptops can be obtained for a reasonable price. They’re obviously a different animal, and people who want to game will look past the MX anyways. Just thought I’d mention it.