Nvidia Pascal for Notebooks: In-depth Benchmarks for the Geforce GTX 1080 (SLI), GTX 1070, and GTX 1060

Apart from a few details, the mobile graphics chips match their already available desktop counterparts from a technical point of view. Only the GTX 1070 features more shaders and a lower clock rate. In-depth information about architecture and technology of the new Nvidia Pascal GPUs is available in this article.

Similar to the bigger siblings, the mobile chips 1080, 1070, and 1060 are VR certified in mains operation, i.e. they deliver sufficient performance for the two VR glasses from HTC and Oculus. In addition, Nvidia emphasizes that the GTX 1080 is even supposed to reach smooth frame rates of above 50 fps at 4K (3840x2160 pixels) resolution. In Full HD, more than 120 fps are possible in several games (Mirror's Edge, Overwatch, Doom, Tomb Raider, Metro, ...) at maximum graphics details, which make optimal usage of 120 Hz panels possible.

G-SYNC

G-SYNC also is an important topic for Nvidia, although it still can only be implemented without Optimus (automatic graphics switch from internal to dedicated graphics card). Significantly more G-SYNC panels are supposed to be used in notebooks, even with 120 Hz or 2560x1440 pixels. According to Nvidia, external devices are supposed to be directly connected to the Pascal graphic cards in order to allow G-SYNC, HDMI 2.0b, DisplayPort 1.4 and HDR via external displays. However, this renders Optimus use with external displays impossible.

Using the following benchmarks we want to work out two key questions: How do the new mobile graphic chips from Nvidia, which will share the same name from now on, perform compared to their desktop counterparts? In addition: How big is the performance gain of the new GPUs compared to their predecessors? For each benchmark, we have selected those laptops with predecessor GPUs from our database with best performance. Please note: Due to the early state and already announced driver updates, the performance of the mobile Pascal GPUs might further improve.

Let us start with 3DMark 11 (GPU Performance Score), which is still considered industry standard. The new GeForce GTX 1080 SLI graphics solution performs about 32% better than the GTX 980 SLI predecessor. A single GeForce GTX 1080 only falls 5% behind the previously fastest GPU configuration. In addition, the performance of our GeForce 1080 is only 3% behind and, thus, almost on par with the desktop card with the same name. It is impressive that a single GTX 980 (Notebook) performs as much as 39% worse, which corresponds to a performance gain of 63% (GTX 1080 Notebook vs. GTX 980 Notebook).

Nvidia's GeForce 1070 (Notebook) also is only 7% behind the desktop GPU with the same name, i.e. it also roughly reaches the same performance level. It is noteworthy that the predecessor, the GeForce GTX 980M, is outperformed by about 42%. Even the GeForce GTX 980 (Notebook), which was the most powerful GPU a short while ago, is outpaced by an impressive 27%.

As the entry-level version to high-performance gaming, the GTX 1060 performs just worse than its desktop counterpart, but performs significantly better than the GTX 980M and its GTX 970M predecessor.

The results are similar to the 3D Mark 11's in 3D Mark Fire Strike Ultra (Graphics Score), which tests with a resolution of 3840x2160 pixels, i.e. 4K. However, the new GeForce GTX 1080 SLI performs even better here. The GTX 980 SLI solution falls behind the new winning team, the 1080 SLI, by 47%. The performance of a single GTX 1080 and 1070 only differs from their desktop counterparts by a few percent. According to 3DMark, the 1080 SLI is about 102% faster than a single GTX 1080 and about 160% faster than a GTX 1070.

We have already tested many games with the new Pascal graphics cards for notebooks and will only provide results of selected games here for the time being. The full information is available in our gaming list of notebook and desktop graphic cards. The results differ depending on the selected games since SLI support by a game or even coming game and GPU driver updates might have an impact. The results of the new GeForce GTX 1060 will be completed soon.

We look at a selection of current games in our standard settings Ultra (1080p ultra presets) and 4K (2160p ultra presets). As could already be observed in the synthetic benchmarks, the GeForce GTX 1080 in SLI connection can clearly set itself apart, especially in 4K. While its performance gain is about 41-53% compared to a single GTX 1080 in games such as Mirror's Edge, Far Cry Primal, The Division and Witcher 3, other games such as Overwatch and Star Wars Battlefront excellently support SLI and bring an increase of 97-107% compared to a single GTX 1080 GPU. The performance gain of the powerful GPUs decreases compared to their predecessors with reduced graphics details.

Depending on the game, a single Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 achieves the level of its desktop counterpart with a delta of only a few percent percentage points. The GeForce GTX 1070 falls behind the GTX 1080 by about 20 to 25%. The GeForce GTX 980 performs about 30-35% worse.

The Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 also reaches performance on desktop level, which only differs by a few percent from its desktop counterpart in the selected games. It is impressive that the GTX 980M remains 40-45% behind its GTX 1070 successor, which corresponds to a performance gain of about 70%.

The wise saying that those who really want gaming on the highest level should use a desktop is obsolete following the arrival of the Pascal GPU generation from Nvidia. The high-end graphic chips used in notebooks with the same name perform about the same as their desktop counterparts apart from the smallest differences. In addition, Nvidia defines the ceiling of what is currently possible with the GTX 1080 SLI graphic solution. This includes smooth frame rates throughout in the latest games in 4K resolution (3840x2160 pixels) and, therefore the best possible experience in VR applications. Compared to the predecessor generation (Maxwell), i.e. GTX 970M, 980M, and GTX 980, the performance gain gets fully apparent: the +50-80% performance gain speaks for itself.

With +25% compared to the GTX 980M, even the weakest solution of the new Pascal generation brings top-level performance. In addition, it can be used in slim and compact gaming notebooks thanks to a TDP on GTX 970M level.

For the time being, no competition from AMD is in sight for high-end notebooks. While a mobile version of the Radeon RX 480 might be able to reach the performance of the GTX 1060, its cooling requirements might be higher.