NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Max-Q vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti (Desktop) vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti (Desktop)

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 with Max-Q design is the power saving variant of the mobile GeForce RTX 2060. Therefore it is a high end gaming graphics card for thin laptops. It is based on the same chip as the RTX 2060 but with reduced clock speeds and a lower power consumption. It was released in 2020 with the Zephyrus G14 gaming laptop.

With the refresh, Nvidia also reworked the Max-Q technologies for more efficiency. Low Voltage GDDR6 (lower clocked but more headroom for the GPU) and improved regulator efficiency should improve the performance per Watt. Two new optional features can also be implemented by the OEM. Max-Q Dynamic Boost is able to shift power from the CPU to the GPU on a per frame basis to increase overall performance. Furthermore, the laptop manufacturer can also implement Advanced Optimus with a dynamic display switch (hardware) to enable Optimus, G-SYNC and high refresh rate displays (up to 4K 120 Hz).

The clock is not the only difference compared to the regular GTX 2060 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).

The performance should be only slightly below the normal RTX 2060 due to the decreased clock rates. It should be most suited for 1080p gaming at maximum detail level. Raytracing features however may reduce framerates a lot, so using raytracing will be limited to some games.

The chip is specified at a TGP of around 65 Watt and therefore clearly lower than the 80 - 90 Watt of the regular RTX 2060 Mobile.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti is the fastest consumer desktop graphics card in 2018 and the fastest Turing RTX card at launch. It offers 4,352 shaders, 11 GB GDDR6 with a 352 bit interface (14 GHz, 616 GB/s for the Founders Edition). Furthermore, the 2080Ti includes 544 Tensor cores and 68 raytracing cores.

Features

NVIDIA manufacturers the TU102 chip on a 12 nm FinFET process and includes features like Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) and Real-Time Ray Tracing (RTRT), which should combine to create more realistic lighting effects than older GPUs based on the company's Pascal architecture (if the games supports it). The RTX 2080 Ti is also DisplayPort 1.4 ready, while there is also support for HDMI 2.0b, HDR, Simultaneous Multi-Projection (SMP) and H.265 video en/decoding (PlayReady 3.0).

Performance

The gaming performance of the 2080 Ti is around 27% faster than a RTX 2080 in 4K and around 35% faster than a GTX 1080 Ti. Therefore, the 2080 Ti is capable of max settings in 4K for all current AAA games. Adding raytracing may however reduce the performance below 60 fps.

Power Requirements

NVIDIA estimates that the RTX 2080 Ti should consume a maximum of 250 W or 260 W for the Founders Edition, which is  on a level with the GTX 1080 Ti (250 Watt).