Another mobile representative of the Pascal family the GeForce MX350. Recall that the graphic architecture of Pascal appeared in the distant 2016. At the time of its release, this architecture was a significant evolutionary step forward in the world of video cards, which allowed NVIDIA to stay ahead of its main competitor AMD for a long time.
In 2019, NVIDIA revealed to the world its new development – the Ampere graphic architecture. And if gaming video cards for laptops received video chips of a new architecture, then budget models still continue the Pascal tradition. The novelty in question is no exception.
The video card for the GeForce MX350 laptops can be attributed to the mid-budget class, and it is the direct successor to the GeForce MX250 . Interestingly, the MX250 card, released in February 2019, was essentially “overclocked” in the frequency range of the GeForce MX150 . And now, looking at the characteristics of the new product, you can understand that the MX350 model is actually a “stripped down” mobile video card GeForce GTX 1050 . And in this case the memory bus is “cut down” twice – from 128 to 64 bits. Let’s look at and compare the characteristics of the new video card and its predecessor, as well as the mentioned GTX 1050.
Nvidia Geforce Mx350 SPECIFICATIONS
| Model | GeForce MX350 | GeForce GTX 1050 | GeForce MX250 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chip codename | GP107 | GP107 | GP108 |
| Process technology | 14 nm | 14 nm | 14 nm |
| Architecture | Pascal | Pascal | Pascal |
| Number of shaders | 640 | 640 | 384 |
| Base Clock, MHz | 1354 | 1354 | 1519 |
| Clock frequency boost, MHz | 1468 | 1493 | 1582 |
| Memory type | Gddr5 | Gddr5 | Gddr5 |
| Bit width of the memory bus, bit | 64 | 128 | 64 |
| The amount of video memory, MB | 2048 | 2048/4096 | 2048 |
| Announcement Date | 02/20/2020 | 01/03/2017 | 02/20/2019 |
* Please note that the characteristics of the GeForceMX350 (such as clock speed) may vary between laptop models.
Testing The Nvidia Geforce Mx350 Gaming
The GeForce MX series of video cards is not positioned by NVIDIA as a gaming company. Rather, these are video adapters for expanding the graphic capabilities of your laptop in comparison with built-in solutions. Therefore, you should not expect good performance from GeForce MX350 in demanding gaming projects.
In principle, running at FullHD screen resolution will turn out almost everything, but it is far from always comfortable to play. So in modern “heavy” games, the settings will usually be minimal, and sometimes you will have to reduce the screen resolution. As for the old or not very demanding games like FIFA or DOTA 2, here the video card copes well. Below you can see the test results with the average value of the obtained FPS.
| Games / Settings | Ultra 1920×1080 | High 1920×1080 | Medium 1920×1080 | Low 1920×1080 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Red dead redemption 2 | 8 fps | 14 fps | 20 fps | 24 fps |
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare | 20 fps | 24 fps | 30 fps | 38 fps |
| Metro: Exodus | 18 fps | 23 fps | 26 fps | 31 fps |
| Farcry new dawn | 22 fps | 27 fps | 31 fps | 36 fps |
| Battlefield v | 25 fps | 32 fps | 38 fps | 50 fps |
| Rage 2 | 18 fps | 20 fps | 24 fps | 31 fps |
| FIFA 20 | 45 fps | 59 fps | 72 fps | 94 fps |
| Assassin’s creed odyssey | 9 fps | 15 fps | 21 fps | 29 fps |
| Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 | 11 fps | 20 fps | 27 fps | 36 fps |
| Dota 2 | 74 fps | 83 fps | 106 fps | 128 fps |
| Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds | 21 fps | 30 fps | 37 fps | 42 fps |
| Shadow of the tomb raider | 11 fps | 16 fps | 21 fps | 27 fps |
| Kingdom Come: Deliverance | 16 fps | 22 fps | 26 fps | 33 fps |
| GTA V | 17 fps | 34 fps | 59 fps | 75 fps |
| The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt | 14 fps | 28 fps | 36 fps | 41 fps |
* Testing was carried out on a laptop with an Intel Core i7-10710U processor and 8 GB of RAM. Installed operating system Windows 10 64-bit.
CONCLUSION
Regarding gaming performance, the GeForce MX350 looks a little better than its predecessor MX250. However, in comparison with the mobile GeForce GTX 1050 , the adapter in question loses noticeably. It affects the “narrowness” of the memory bus and, as a result, the bandwidth limit. Yes, and the amount of video memory 2 GB in modern games is already seriously small.
Thus, a laptop with a GeForce MX350 graphics card will be enough for multimedia and office tasks. And if you play mainly not particularly demanding games, it is quite logical that this video adapter will be your best choice. The graphics card is working out its budget.
