NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Max-Q vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 SLI (Laptop) vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Mobile

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 with Max-Q design is the power saving variant of the mobile RTX 2070 graphics card with reduced clock speeds and power consumption. Therefore, it is suitable for thin gaming laptops. It is based on the same TU106 chip with 2,304 shaders and 8 GB GDDR6 memory connected by a 256 bit interface (12 GHz).

Currently it looks like there will be two variants, a low power 80 Watt variant with 885 - 1185 MHz core clock and a faster 90 Watt variant with 1080 - 1305 MHz core clock). Both clock the memory at 6 GHz versus 7 GHz of the normal RTX 2070 (115 Watt TDP).

The clock is not the only difference compared to the regular GTX 1080 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

NVIDIA manufacturers the TU106 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 20870 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 Max-Q version of the RTX 2070 should perform a bit slower than the mobile RTX 2070. Therefore, it should be able to run all demanding games in 2560x1440 with maximum details. Raytracing features however may reduce framerates a lot.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 for laptops is the fastest mobile graphics card for notebooks in early 2019. It is based on the desktop RTX 2080 but with reduced core speeds (-7% Boost, -9% Base). The memory appears to be similar clocked and sized. Therefore, the RTX2080 offers 2,944 shaders and 8 GB GDDR6 memory connected by a 256 bit interface (14 GHz, 448 GB/s).

A more power efficient "Max-Q" version is also planned with further reduced clock rates.

Features

NVIDIA manufacturers the TU104 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 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 mobile RTX 2080 should perform a bit slower than the desktop RTX 2080 and therefore definitely faster than the old GTX 1080 for laptops. Therefore, it should be able to run all demanding games in 4k with maximum details. Raytracing features however may reduce framerates a lot.

The power consumption of the card was reduced from 215 Watt for the desktop RTX 2080 to 150 Watt. However, it is still only suited for thick and heavy gaming laptops. For thinner and lighter designs, the Max-Q variant of the RTX 2080 is intended that can be configured at 80 or 90 Watt (at much lower clock speeds).