NVIDIA Tesla M6 Mobile

The NVIDIA Tesla M6 Mobile is a professional-grade graphics module built on the 28 nm Maxwell 2.0 architecture, featuring the GM204 chip with 5,200 million transistors on a 398 mm² die. With a 50th percentile ranking among all GPUs and a compute capability of 3.625 TFLOPS FP32, this end-of-life product offers a balanced, if dated, feature set for mobile workstations. Its performance profile is defined by a 930 MHz base clock and 1180 MHz boost clock, coupled with 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus. The following analysis details its comparative standing, power requirements, and suitability for specific workloads based exclusively on the provided data.

How It Compares

The FACT PACK provides no nearest rival data for the Tesla M6 Mobile, leaving its competitive landscape undefined by direct numerical comparison. However, the 50th percentile ranking across all GPUs establishes a clear baseline: this is a median performer, neither a flagship nor an entry-level part. Without rival scores or delta percentages, the M6's position must be inferred from its absolute specifications, which indicate a design aimed at professional mobile rendering rather than raw gaming throughput.

In the absence of named competitors, the Tesla M6 Mobile's closest conceptual comparison is to other mobile workstation GPUs of its era, though no specific data is available. The data shows a configuration of 1536 shading units, 96 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs, which produces a texture rate of 113.3 GTexel/s and a pixel rate of 75.52 GPixel/s. These figures suggest it was positioned to handle moderate professional workloads, but the lack of rival data prevents any quantitative verdict on its standing within its own market segment.

The production status is end-of-life, and the product's predecessor and successor are listed as Tesla Kepler and Tesla Pascal, respectively. This places the M6 within the Maxwell generation, a mid-point in NVIDIA's professional line that has since been superseded. Benchmark results, where available, would be necessary to establish exact deltas against successors, but the provided information confirms a generational step from Kepler and a clear transition toward the more efficient Pascal architecture.

Power and Cooling

The Tesla M6 Mobile has a thermal design power (TDP) of exactly 100 W, a figure that defines its cooling and power delivery requirements within a mobile chassis. The module uses an MXM form factor, which means it relies on the host laptop's cooling solution rather than an integrated cooler; the slot width is listed simply as "MXM Module." No dedicated power connectors are required, as the board draws power through the MXM interface, and the fact pack lists the power connector requirement as "None."

There is no suggested PSU wattage provided in the data, so any recommendation would be speculative. The absence of a PSU figure is typical for mobile modules, as power delivery is managed by the laptop's internal power system rather than an external supply. The 100 W TDP, however, indicates that the host system must be designed to dissipate this level of heat, making it suitable for larger mobile workstations with robust thermal solutions. The process node of 28 nm, produced by TSMC, contributes to this power envelope, and the transistor density of 13.1M per mm² reflects the manufacturing technology of the time.

Benchmark Performance

The benchmark section in the FACT PACK is empty, with no scores or average benchmark data provided. The only performance indicator available is the fp32 compute rating of 3.625 TFLOPS, which serves as a raw measure of single-precision floating-point throughput. This figure, combined with the 50th percentile ranking, suggests that the M6 delivers mid-tier computational performance in the broader GPU landscape.

The texture rate of 113.3 GTexel/s and pixel rate of 75.52 GPixel/s provide additional context for rendering workloads. These rates are direct results of the 96 TMUs and 64 ROPs operating at the boost clock of 1180 MHz. In the absence of rival comparisons, these numbers stand alone, but they indicate a capability for handling textures and pixels at a rate consistent with a professional mobile GPU of the Maxwell generation. The lack of benchmark scores means that no percentage deltas can be calculated, and any claim of being "30% faster" would be impossible to substantiate from the given data.

FAQ

Q: What is the memory bandwidth of the NVIDIA Tesla M6 Mobile?

A: The memory bandwidth is 160.4 GB/s, achieved through 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus with a memory clock of 1253 MHz, running at 5 Gbps effective.

Q: Does the Tesla M6 Mobile support hardware ray tracing?

A: No. The FACT PACK lists no RT cores for this GPU, and the architecture is Maxwell 2.0, which predates dedicated ray tracing hardware. Ray tracing, if supported, would rely on software methods rather than dedicated cores.

Q: What APIs does the Tesla M6 Mobile support?

A: The GPU supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, according to the provided data.

Q: What is the thermal design power (TDP) of this GPU?

A: The TDP is exactly 100 W. The module requires no external power connectors and draws power through its MXM interface.

Q: Is the Tesla M6 Mobile still in production?

A: No. The production status is listed as "End-of-life," and the release date was August 29, 2015.

Q: What is the pixel fill rate of the Tesla M6 Mobile?

A: The pixel rate is 75.52 GPixel/s, and the texture rate is 113.3 GTexel/s, based on the 64 ROPs and 96 TMUs running at the boost clock.

Ray Tracing and Feature Set

The Tesla M6 Mobile does not include dedicated ray tracing cores, as the FACT PACK lists no RT cores for this GPU. Similarly, no tensor cores are present, which means the card lacks the specialized hardware for AI-accelerated workloads found in later architectures. The feature set is defined by the Maxwell 2.0 architecture, which supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, covering the standard graphics APIs of its generation.

The absence of RT and tensor cores positions this GPU as a traditional rasterization-focused part. For professional applications, this means that any ray-traced rendering or machine learning inference would fall back to compute shaders or general-purpose FP32 operations, which are limited to 3.625 TFLOPS. The API support for Vulkan 1.4 and DirectX 12_1 ensures compatibility with modern graphics frameworks, but the hardware lacks the forward-looking features of the subsequent Pascal generation, which is listed as its successor.

Memory Subsystem

The memory subsystem of the Tesla M6 Mobile consists of 8 GB of GDDR5 memory connected via a 256-bit bus, producing a bandwidth of 160.4 GB/s. The memory clock is 1253 MHz, with an effective data rate of 5 Gbps. This configuration is substantial for a mobile professional GPU of its era, providing enough capacity for large datasets and textures commonly found in CAD, scientific visualization, and content creation workloads.

At high resolutions, the 8 GB capacity is a meaningful asset, as it allows for large frame buffers without spilling into system memory. The 160.4 GB/s bandwidth, however, is a limiting factor when compared to higher-end parts, as it constrains the speed at which textures and geometry data can be fed to the 1536 shading units. For 4K workloads, the capacity is sufficient, but the bandwidth may bottleneck performance in scenes with heavy texture streaming or high polygon counts. The 256-bit bus width is a balanced design choice, offering a middle ground between the narrower buses of entry-level cards and the wider configurations of flagship GPUs.

Who Should Consider It

The Tesla M6 Mobile is a 50th percentile performer with 3.625 TFLOPS of FP32 compute, making it a reasonable choice for users with moderate professional rendering needs at resolutions up to 1440p. The 8 GB VRAM is adequate for high-resolution textures, but the 160.4 GB/s bandwidth may struggle with the most demanding 4K workloads. Given its end-of-life status and 100 W TDP, it is best suited for legacy mobile workstations where a reliable, mid-range Maxwell GPU is required for CAD, 3D modeling, or GPU-accelerated compute tasks that do not require ray tracing.

Users considering this GPU for modern gaming should note the absence of RT cores and the dated architecture, which will limit performance in titles that leverage DirectX 12 Ultimate features. For professional applications that rely on OpenGL 4.6 or Vulkan 1.4, the M6 remains functional, but the lack of tensor cores makes it unsuitable for AI-accelerated workflows. The data indicates a card that was a competent mid-tier option in 2015, but its 50th percentile standing in the current GPU landscape confirms that it is now a legacy product, best deployed in systems that cannot accommodate newer, more power-hungry modules.