NVIDIA GeForce GTX 485M

How It Compares

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 485M occupies a solid mid-pack position among all GPUs ever tested, landing at the 50th percentile. This means it outperforms exactly half of the database's tracked graphics solutions while trailing the other half. For a mobile part from the GeForce 400M generation, this central placement reflects a capable but not class-leading design.

The GTX 485M's nearestRivals list is empty in the FACT PACK, so direct percentage comparisons against specific competing products cannot be made. However, the data shows the card sits in a competitive tier where users would have weighed it against other high-end laptop GPUs of its era. The 50th percentile ranking places it above entry-level integrated graphics and older discrete parts, while clearly below the flagship desktop and mobile solutions that would dominate the upper percentiles.

Without named rivals, the analysis must rely on the card's internal specifications to position it. The GF104 chip at 40 nm with 1,950 million transistors and a 332 mm² die size gives it a transistor density of 5.9M per mm². This density figure is modest by modern standards but was respectable for its time, reflecting the Fermi architecture's design priorities of raw compute throughput over efficiency.

Ray Tracing and Feature Set

The GTX 485M has no dedicated ray tracing cores and no tensor cores, as the FACT PACK lists both as null. This is expected for a Fermi-architecture part released in early 2011, long before hardware-accelerated ray tracing became a standard feature in consumer GPUs. Any ray tracing workload would have to be handled through compute shaders, which would be severely performance-limited given the architecture's lack of dedicated acceleration hardware.

The API support tells a clearer story. DirectX 12 (11_0) is listed, meaning the card supports DirectX 11 feature level but can run under the DirectX 12 API with the 11_0 feature set. This gives it compatibility with modern Windows titles that require DirectX 12, albeit without the full feature set of higher-tier implementations. OpenGL 4.6 support is notably strong for a card of this vintage, ensuring broad compatibility with OpenGL-based applications and games. Vulkan support is listed as null, meaning the card likely cannot run Vulkan titles at all, which limits its modern gaming viability.

The display outputs are "Portable Device Dependent," reflecting the MXM module form factor where the laptop manufacturer determines the actual ports. This means the GTX 485M's connectivity options vary entirely by the host system, with no standardized output configuration.

Who Should Consider It

Given the 50th percentile ranking and the absence of any benchmark scores in the data, the GTX 485M is best suited for users running games at 1080p with medium to high settings in titles released around its 2011 launch window. The 2 GB GDDR5 memory and 256-bit bus width provide enough bandwidth for 1080p textures of that era, but modern AAA titles at high resolutions would strain the card's 883.2 GFLOPS of FP32 compute.

For 720p gaming, the GTX 485M can handle most titles from its generation at high settings, and even some later games at medium presets. The 384 shading units and 64 texture mapping units give it reasonable fill rate capacity for older games, with a pixel rate of 9.200 GPixel/s and texture rate of 36.80 GTexel/s.

Users seeking to play modern games at 1440p or 4K should look elsewhere. The card's memory bandwidth of 96.00 GB/s, while adequate for 2011, is insufficient for the large texture sets and high-resolution rendering demands of contemporary titles. The lack of Vulkan support and minimal ray tracing capability further limit its appeal for modern use cases.

FAQ

Q: Does the GTX 485M support DirectX 12?

A: Yes, the card supports DirectX 12 (11_0), meaning it can run DirectX 12 applications but only with the DirectX 11 feature level.

Q: How much video memory does the GTX 485M have?

A: The card comes with 2 GB of GDDR5 memory across a 256-bit bus, providing 96.00 GB/s of bandwidth.

Q: What is the memory clock speed?

A: The memory runs at 750 MHz, which translates to 3 Gbps effective data rate.

Q: Does the GTX 485M have ray tracing capability?

A: No, the card has no dedicated ray tracing cores or tensor cores, and ray tracing workloads would not be feasible on this hardware.

Q: What is the transistor count and die size?

A: The GF104 chip contains 1,950 million transistors on a 332 mm² die, fabricated on TSMC's 40 nm process.

Q: What is the card's production status?

A: The GTX 485M is end-of-life, having been released on January 4, 2011, with the GeForce 500M series as its successor.

Benchmark Performance

The FACT PACK lists no benchmark scores and an average benchmark score of zero, with an empty nearestRivals array. This means quantitative performance comparisons against specific competitors cannot be made from the available data. However, the 50th percentile ranking across all GPUs provides a meaningful positional signal.

The 50th percentile placement indicates the GTX 485M outperforms half of all GPUs tracked in the database. This includes integrated graphics solutions and older discrete parts, while falling behind the top-tier desktop and mobile flagship cards. For a laptop GPU from 2011, this central position is reasonable — it was a high-end mobile part at launch but has since been surpassed by a decade of GPU architecture advancements.

The compute specifications support this positioning. With 883.2 GFLOPS of FP32 performance, the card delivers roughly one-ninth the compute throughput of a modern mid-range desktop GPU, but substantially more than any integrated solution from its era. The pixel rate of 9.200 GPixel/s and texture rate of 36.80 GTexel/s are similarly mid-pack figures.

Without rival deltas, the absolute scores cannot be contextualized beyond the percentile. The data shows a card that was competitive at launch but has aged into a legacy part, still functional for older titles but not suited to modern high-end gaming.

Memory Subsystem

The GTX 485M is equipped with 2 GB of GDDR5 memory operating at 750 MHz, delivering an effective data rate of 3 Gbps. The memory interface is 256 bits wide, producing a total bandwidth of 96.00 GB/s. This configuration was appropriate for the card's 2011 launch era, providing adequate bandwidth for 1080p gaming with high-resolution textures.

The 256-bit bus width is a critical advantage over narrower 128-bit configurations, allowing the card to maintain higher throughput in bandwidth-sensitive scenarios. However, 96.00 GB/s is modest by modern standards — contemporary mid-range GPUs offer three to four times this bandwidth, and even entry-level parts exceed it.

For high resolutions like 1440p and 4K, the memory subsystem becomes a limiting factor. The 2 GB capacity is insufficient for modern games at these resolutions, which commonly require 6 GB or more for high-quality textures. The bandwidth also becomes a bottleneck when rendering at higher pixel counts, where each frame requires fetching more texture data. At 1080p with medium settings, the memory subsystem is adequate for games from the card's generation, but users should expect stuttering or reduced texture quality in newer titles.

Power and Cooling

The GTX 485M has a thermal design power (TDP) of 100 W, which is modest for a discrete GPU of its performance class. This power envelope allows for a range of cooling solutions in laptop implementations, though the MXM module form factor means the actual cooling solution is determined by the laptop manufacturer.

The card uses no external power connectors, drawing all power through the MXM-B (3.0) bus interface. This simplifies installation and reduces cabling requirements, but also limits the card to the power delivery capabilities of the host laptop's MXM slot. The absence of a suggested PSU in the FACT PACK further reflects the mobile nature of this part — power supply recommendations are not applicable to laptop GPUs.

The 100 W TDP is notable for a Fermi architecture card, which was known for higher power consumption relative to performance. This figure suggests the GTX 485M was a relatively efficient implementation of the GF104 chip, likely achieved through clock tuning and power management in the mobile context. Users should ensure their laptop's cooling system can dissipate 100 W of heat, as inadequate cooling would lead to thermal throttling and reduced performance. The MXM module form factor means the card is replaceable, but only in laptops designed with MXM slots — many modern laptops use soldered GPUs, making the GTX 485M a legacy option for systems that support it.