In an embarrassment for Nvidia, the cheaper GeForce RTX 2070 Max-Q can outperform some GeForce RTX 2080 Super Max-Q laptops

A couple of months ago prior to the launch of the mobile GeForce Super Max-Q series, we warned that the performance gaps between mobile GeForce GPUs and GeForce Max-Q GPUs were already so minor that the GeForce Super Max-Q series would risk overlapping with existing SKUs. Sure enough, now that we've tested a handful of Super Max-Q laptops, some are already performing slower than their older non-Super counterparts.

The most recent example is the 2020 Razer Blade Pro 17 which can be configured with either the RTX 2070 Max-Q or RTX 2080 Super Max-Q. Even the base RTX 2070 Max-Q, however, is able to marginally outperform most RTX 2070 Super Max-Q and RTX 2080 Super Max-Q laptops currently available including the Aorus 17G, Gigabyte Aero 17, or MSI GS66. The only exception thus far is the Acer Predator Triton 500 and its RTX 2080 Super Max-Q GPU, but the performance advantage is still merely a few percentage points over our RTX 2070 Max-Q according to 3DMark.

If laptops with the older RTX 2070 Max-Q or RTX 2080 Max-Q have the potential to outperform their newer Super Max-Q variants, then it calls into question if the Super Max-Q series was ever needed in the first place. It's becoming clearer that the Super Max-Q series was designed to be Nvidia's stopgap before eventually launching the much more powerful Ampere family of GPUs.