NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 SLI (Laptop) vs NVIDIA Quadro P5200 vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Max-Q

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 SLI (Laptop)

The Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 SLI for laptops is a combination of two GTX 1080 graphics cards in SLI mode. Each card renders one frame at a time (AFR mode) but depends for most games on a good profile in the driver. Therefore, the performance can range from no gains over a single GTX 1080 to up to 90% faster performance. Sometimes, the combination may also suffer from micro-stuttering. The technical details of the card are identical to a single GTX 1080 (see for more information) and the power consumption is doubled. Therefore, the 1080 SLI combination is only found in huge clunky laptops.

NVIDIA Quadro P5200

The Nvidia Quadro P5200 is a mobile high-end workstation graphics card for laptops. Similar to the consumer GeForce GTX 1080 (Laptop), it is based on a GP104 chip with 2560 shaders but uses a bit slower GDDR5 instead of GDDR5X of the GTX1080. The Quadro P5200 ist the successor to the Quadro P5000. There will be a normal (Max-P) and a slower but more efficient (Max-Q) variant of the card. For the Max-P variant, the clock speeds are specified from 1556 (base) to 1746 MHz (Boost), the power efficient Max-Q clocks from 1316 MHz (base) to 1569 (Boost) according to a GPU-Z screenshot from a reader (-15% / -10%). The 16 GB GDDR5 are clocked at 3,6 GHz leading to a memory bandwidth of 230 GB/s.

The Quadro GPUs offer certified drivers, which are optimized for stability and performance in professional applications (CAD, DCC, medical, prospection, and visualizing applications). The performance in these areas is therefore much better compared to corresponding consumer GPUs.

Performance

The theoretical performance should be a bit above the older Quadro P5000. Altough the clock speed increase is not yet known, the power consumption is rumored to be a lot higher, which should lead to a noticable improved performance. Nvidia specifies a theoretical peak performance of 8,9 GFLOPS (Single Precision).

Power Consumption

The power consumption of the Quadro P5200 is specified by Nvidia as 150 Watt (Max-P) and rumored to be 100 - 110 Watt for the Max-Q variant. Therefore, it is a lot higher than the Quadro P5000 versions (100 Watt and 80 Watt).

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Max-Q

The Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti with Max-Q design is a power efficient mainstream GPU for laptops based on the Pascal architecture and was announced in January 2017. Contrary to the faster models, the GTX 1050 uses the GP107 chip, which is manufactured in a 14 nm process at Samsung.

The clock is not the only difference compared to the regular GTX 1050 Ti though. The drivers for the Max-Q version were optimized for efficiency (and not performance; only for Max-Q models), there are optimized voltage converters for 1V operation, high-end cooling methods, and a 40 dB limit for the fan noise (with clock adjustments to ensure this at all times).

Features

The GP107 chip is manufactured in a 14 nm FinFET process at Samsung and offers a number of new features, including support for DisplayPort 1.4 (ready), HDMI 2.0b, HDR, Simultaneous Multi-Projection (SMP) as well as improved H.265 video de- and encoding (PlayReady 3.0). A full list of improvements and the new Pascal desktop GPUs is available in our dedicated Pascal architecture article.

Performance

The performance of the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti can vary quite a lot depending on the cooling performance of the laptop. Nvidia states that the Max-Q variant should be about 10 to 15% slower than a regular GTX 1050 Ti for laptops. Therefore, the GPU is most suited for Full HD and high quality settings for games of 2016.

Power Consumption

The power consumption of the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti with Max-Q design is rated at 40 to 46 Watt and therefore a lot lower than a regular GTX 1050 Ti for laptops (53 Watt). This means that the Max-Q GTX 1050 Ti is also suited for thin and light laptops.