NVIDIA GeForce MX230

The NVIDIA GeForce MX230 is a 14 nm Pascal-based mobile GPU (GP108 chip) designed for thin-and-light laptops, where its 10 W TDP and integrated form factor prioritize efficiency over raw performance. It is a legacy, end-of-life part, but benchmark data still quantifies its capabilities relative to other entry-level and older mobile GPUs.

Benchmark Performance

The MX230's average benchmark score of 6445 places it in the 36th percentile of all GPUs, meaning it outperforms roughly a third of the database's tracked graphics processors. This is a modest standing, consistent with its positioning as a basic laptop companion chip rather than a gaming part. Its two recorded benchmark scores — 6558 in Geekbench OpenCL and 6332 in Geekbench Vulkan — show a slight advantage for the OpenCL compute workload, a gap of about 3.4% over its Vulkan result. That spread is minor, suggesting the GPU's compute performance is consistent across different API frameworks.

When measured against its nearest rivals, the MX230's performance is essentially a statistical tie. It trails the NVIDIA Quadro M5000M by a razor-thin 0.3% (6463 vs. 6445), and it also sits 0.5% behind the AMD Radeon Vega 10 Mobile (6476). Conversely, it edges out the Intel UHD Graphics 730 by 0.3% (6425) and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M by 0.9% (6389). These deltaPct values are all within a single percentage point, indicating that the MX230 belongs to a tightly clustered performance tier where no meaningful winner exists in aggregate compute benchmarks. For real-world usage, this means the MX230 offers no decisive advantage over its closest competitors; the choice between these GPUs would come down to other factors like driver maturity or system integration, not raw speed.

Ray Tracing and Feature Set

The MX230 does not include any dedicated RT cores or tensor cores, as those hardware units are absent from its specification. This is expected for a Pascal-generation chip, which predates NVIDIA's RTX lineup and its hardware-accelerated ray tracing. Consequently, the GPU has no hardware support for real-time ray tracing effects in games or professional applications. If ray tracing is a requirement, this card is not a viable option.

On the API front, the MX230 supports DirectX 12 with feature level 12_1, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The DirectX 12_1 support means it can handle modern game titles that require this API level, though its compute throughput will limit playable settings. Vulkan 1.4 support is notably current, allowing compatibility with recent Vulkan-based games and applications. The absence of tensor cores also means no hardware acceleration for AI-based features like DLSS; any such workloads would fall back to the GPU's general-purpose compute units, which are limited to 783.9 GFLOPS of FP32 performance. This is a low figure, so any AI or compute tasks will be slow.

Power and Cooling

The MX230 carries a 10 W TDP, which is exceptionally low and reflects its purpose as a power-efficient solution for compact laptops. This power envelope eliminates the need for any external power connectors — the card draws all its power from the motherboard's PCIe slot, and the specification explicitly lists "None" for power connectors. Because of this ultra-low power draw, a separate PSU recommendation is not provided in the data, and any standard laptop power adapter will suffice. The slot width is listed as "IGP," meaning it is integrated into the laptop's mainboard rather than being a removable MXM module. Cooling requirements are minimal; a basic heatpipe and fan arrangement typical of ultraportable designs will handle the thermal load without issue. The 14 nm process node from Samsung, with 1,800 million transistors on a 74 mm² die, contributes to this efficiency, yielding a transistor density of 24.3 million transistors per mm².

Who Should Consider It

Based on its benchmark scores, the MX230 is suitable only for light, non-demanding workloads. Its 36th percentile standing and near-parity with integrated graphics like the Intel UHD Graphics 730 (0.3% faster) indicate that it offers little more than a modern iGPU in many scenarios. For everyday productivity — web browsing, office applications, 1080p video playback — the MX230 is perfectly adequate, as these tasks do not stress the GPU's 256 shading units. At 1080p resolution with low settings, it can handle older or less demanding games, but users should expect frame rates well below what a dedicated gaming GPU would deliver. The 48.06 GB/s memory bandwidth is a bottleneck for higher resolutions, so 1440p or 4K gaming is not realistic. This GPU is best suited for users who need a discrete GPU for basic hardware acceleration in a thin laptop, but who do not intend to play modern AAA titles. It is not a gaming card, and its performance parity with iGPUs underscores that point.

How It Compares

NVIDIA Quadro M5000M: The M5000M scores 6463, a mere 0.3% higher than the MX230. Despite being a professional-grade mobile workstation GPU, its aggregate compute performance is statistically identical. This indicates that the MX230, despite its consumer positioning, delivers comparable raw throughput in synthetic benchmarks. However, the M5000M likely offers different driver optimizations and larger memory, though those are not reflected in the average score.

Intel UHD Graphics 730: The MX230 is 0.3% faster than this integrated Intel solution, which scores 6425. This is a striking result — a dedicated GPU barely outperforming an iGPU. For laptop buyers, this means choosing a system with the MX230 over one with the UHD 730 provides no meaningful performance benefit in compute-heavy tasks. The MX230's discrete nature may help with thermal stability, but the raw score difference is negligible.

AMD Radeon Vega 10 Mobile: The Vega 10 scores 6476, leading the MX230 by 0.5%. This is the largest gap among the rivals listed, but still under one percent. The AMD solution edges ahead, but again, the difference is within the noise of benchmark variance. For users, this translates to virtually identical real-world performance between the two.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M: The older GTX 580M scores 6389, which the MX230 beats by 0.9%. This is the only rival that the MX230 clearly outperforms, though the margin is still small. The GTX 580M is a much older, higher-power part, so the MX230's ability to surpass it while drawing a fraction of the power reflects architectural efficiency gains over generations.

Memory Subsystem

The MX230 is equipped with 2 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 64-bit bus, yielding a memory bandwidth of 48.06 GB/s. The memory clock runs at 1502 MHz, with an effective data rate of 6 Gbps. This bandwidth is a severe limiting factor for the GPU's overall performance. For context, the 64-bit bus width is half or a quarter of what modern gaming GPUs use, and the 2 GB capacity is insufficient for modern game textures at high detail settings. At 1080p, the 2 GB frame buffer will fill quickly in newer titles, causing texture streaming stutter or forcing the game to drop to lower quality presets. The 48.06 GB/s bandwidth also restricts the fill rates — the pixel rate is 24.50 GPixel/s and the texture rate is 24.50 GTexel/s — which are modest figures that limit resolution scaling. For day-to-day desktop use, this memory configuration is fine, but for any gaming beyond light esports titles, the memory subsystem will be the first bottleneck encountered. Users should keep resolutions at 1080p or lower and favor low texture quality settings to stay within the 2 GB limit.