VideoCardz: "There are 28 variants of GeForce RTX 30 Laptop GPUs"

[Dakhil]

There are 28 variants of GeForce RTX 30 Laptop GPUs - VideoCardz.com

NVIDIA made 28 variants of GeForce RTX 30 mobile graphics cards, yet OEMs do list which they are selling ComputerBase managed to find a list of all Max-Q and Max-P variants of RTX 30 graphics cards. We have been covering the disappearance of Max-Q branding on GeForce RTX 30 SKUs ever since the...

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ComputerBase managed to find a list of all Max-Q and Max-P variants of RTX 30 graphics cards.

We have been covering the disappearance of Max-Q branding on GeForce RTX 30 SKUs ever since the news broke. It appears that NVIDIA's decision to drop Max-Q branding caused a lot of confusion around the already confusing naming of the laptop GPUs.

NVIDIA claims that Max-Q no longer defines the SKU, but rather it describes a technology that notebook manufacturers may or may not use. As a result, they do not list anything that could help determine which GeForce RTX 30 variant the laptop has.

Today the embargo on GeForce RTX 30 Mobile series has expired, and many sites have published their reviews. Most reviews have done a really good job explaining which TGP variant the laptops now have. However, this information is not listed by most notebook manufacturers, but there are a few exceptions.

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Laptop makers have ignored NVIDIA's request to list TGP values on their websites. As a result, consumers are faced with a lottery of 28 different SKU, from which low-power variants of higher SKU are often slower than high-power models of much cheaper GeForce RTX 30 cards.

The specifications posted by NVIDIA on the official website are simply put: useless. Now thanks to the ComputerBase article we have a full list of RTX 30 variants. Which one will be used by notebook manufacturers is completely up to them, however, as shown above, they simply chose not to. For this reason, you may find a laptop with GeForce RTX 3080 Max-Q which is slower than RTX 3060 Laptop GPU.

Please note that the list compiled by ComputerBase does not list TGP values affected by Dynamic Boost. This technology may add 5 to 20W to the GPU power (which as you might have guessed, makes this list even more confusing).

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[artsi]

There are 28 variants units of GeForce RTX 30 Laptop GPUs

 

[Garrison]

I heard about this from Dave 2d some days ago.

Pure Fuckery.

 

[MinerArcaniner]

That's a very expensive dice roll they're making buyers play. -_-

 

[Caz]

NVIDIA hates you and thinks your hair looks stupid.

I really hate that the laptop market doesn't have much in the way of competition when it comes to graphics, not that the desktop GPU market wasn't non-competitive until last year. This nonsense is almost as bad as Intel's naming scheme and is just going to confuse low-information customers.

Ah shit, I was looking to buy one of these laptops. Which ones are the ones to avoid? Im pretty confused honestly.

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Called it!

 

[ThereAreFourNaan]

Is that different models or different configurations that the manufacturer chooses? Stuff like board power and clock speed is presumably configurable but is identical silicon?

 

[Pancracio17]

Ah shit, I was looking to buy one of these laptops. Which ones are the ones to avoid? Im pretty confused honestly.

 

[Diablos]

Are they competing with COVID or what?

 

[hyouko]

Jeebus. So the 3080 variants could go from 9.6 to 16.6 TFLOPs depending on which model you get, and it's not going to be clear from the outset?

(Well, I imagine the 16.6TFLOPs one drawing 150W is going to be in a giant slab of a desktop replacement laptop, but even so.)

 

[dgrdsv]

Is that different models or different configurations that the manufacturer chooses?

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It's configurations of course and it's done to allow the laptop makers to be more flexible in their designs.

Also anyone who still buy stuff based on its name alone should suffer.

 

[ThereAreFourNaan]

It's configurations of course and it's done to allow the laptop makers to be more flexible in their designs.

Also anyone who still buy stuff based on its name alone should suffer.

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I do want more transparency, but it has always been the case that every laptop differed in performance based on manufacturer tweaks and efficacy of the cooling solutions. I can't tell if this is more or less disparity than we usually see, with the exception that Max-Q stuff at least gave you a general idea.

 

[GMM]

It makes sense that there will be a ton of variation between the different configurations and their TDP targets, so the GPU being clocked according to cooling performance makes sense as GPU's often hits sustained loads over longer time.

The fuckery here however is the branding on these things, the performance levels of the highest end RTX 3080's seems to be hitting below a desktop RTX 3070 Founders Edition, so it might as well have been called that to avoid more confusion.

There needs to be a classification on the real world performance you are getting on the configuration of the GPU in the laptop you are buying, through a set of tests the laptop should be placed in a performance tier based on the highest reference configuration from NVIDIA, so you could have something like an RTX 3080 Mobile A-Tier.

 

[bevishead]

Binning chips into 28 different performance level = Nvidia doesn't have to throw anything away :). More money for them.

 

[dgrdsv]

I can't tell if this is more or less disparity than we usually see

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I would say that it's basically the same.
Max-Q vs Max-P labels would give you a general hint on where that particular model is aiming at - bottom or top of a GPU's model performance range - but it still could differ pretty seriously between similarly named models so you still should've done your research before purchasing.
A bigger issue this time around is the disparity between similarly named desktop and mobile 30 series GPUs.
In what reviews I've read/seen today a 3070 Mobile with a 80W PT performed between a 2060 and 2070S Max-Q - which isn't something that we get from the desktop 30 series obviously.
People need to pay attention to that.

Performance Test: GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop & RTX 3080 Laptop

We benchmark Nvidia's mobile Ampere GPUs GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop and GeForce RTX 3080 Laptop in a first performance check.

www.notebookcheck.net

 

[Lagamorph]

I don't care how many variants there are of the mobile ones, just get them out already!
My 970m just can't cut it anymore, and GeForce Now is only getting me so far!

 

[DanielG123]

Yep, Dave 2D covered this a couple days ago. It's a jumbled mess.

 

[Hasney]

They have a whole extra number there. At least group them up into something resembling 3080 to 3089

 

[Caz]

 

[delete12345]

Laptop makers have ignored NVIDIA's request to list TGP values on their websites. As a result, consumers are faced with a lottery of 28 different SKU, from which low-power variants of higher SKU are often slower than high-power models of much cheaper GeForce RTX 30 cards.

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I don't get this. Why are the laptop manufacturers ignoring this request?

 

[TronLight]

I don't get this. Why are the laptop manufacturers ignoring this request?

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Buy a cheap 3070 chip and sell it as the top sku I guess.

 

[delete12345]

Buy a cheap 3070 chip and sell it as the top sku I guess.

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I would be annoyed and disappointed if this is the case. It also makes me feel Nvidia isn't to blame for this mess. I don't have the vocabulary to describe my anguish. :(

 

[dgrdsv]

I don't get this. Why are the laptop manufacturers ignoring this request?

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They hope that you would see the model name and go buy the laptop without checking how that laptop actually perform.
Specifying a TDP limit/range would give you a pretty good indication on how that laptop's GPU perform compared to other options.

 

[Ada]

That 3080 max Q is a scam. As someone earlier said, it looks like Nvidia is binning every chip off the line as long as it can display something on the screen. An 85W 3080 shouldn't even exist.

 

[asmith906]

That's kind of Bullshit.

You can walk into a store and see two laptops with the same specs and not realize the power difference between them.

 

[Ra]

I don't get this. Why are the laptop manufacturers ignoring this request?

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Nvidia removed the requirement to list a GPU as Max-Q, to the cheering of the manufacturers who no longer had to don the "constrained TGP" badge, then came back days later and said "oh but please, we recommend that you continue to inform your customers if your GPU is constrained".

Manufacturers reaction: LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL sure thing.

 

[RAWRferal]

Reviews and benchmarks are more important than ever.

What a horrible mess this is from Nvidia.

 

[MXG]

This is pure scam. What's the actual use of a 80 watt RTX 3080? The performance is at desktop RTX 3060 level. In the name of "flexibility" they are just scamming. This kind of stuff should be illegal. Actually anything named RTX 3080 is not feasible for laptop space, yet they released about 10 variants of that.

 

[Haint]

Surprise eggs with $2000 laptops.

 

[texhnolyze]

The power of monopoly.

 

[Imitatio]

Good thing I decided to wait out on the new laptop generation with 30xx cards. I'll wait for this mess to clear itself out a bit more or us having more info on who delivers what before even considering upgrading to a new laptop.

 

[Phinor]

Reviews and benchmarks are more important than ever.

What a horrible mess this is from Nvidia.

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Unfortunately reviews won't always help unless you happen to stumble upon the exact same model in the same country it was reviewed in and hopefully not a lot of time has passed between the review and your purchase because laptop manufacturers love to make ever so small changes to product names that actually make a big difference. So a seemingly identical recently reviewed 3080 laptop, let's call it randomly A-525, could have an extended name like A-525 7720BC1520S, and you end up purchasing 3080 laptop named A-525 7720BD1520S which just happens to have 30% less GPU performance than the one reviewed.

With the past few mobile GPU generations these issues were not that bad because the GPUs were usually very close to each other with laptop thermals making most of the difference if any (and the mobile GPUs were pretty darn close to desktop GPUs as well, that was new). Maybe you ended up with a slightly slower different brand SSD for example by not realizing that one digit difference in the full product name, but now they can properly take advantage of this with GPUs again and considering the amount of laptop variants and region specific models, a lot of people will end up with a 3070/3080 laptop that perform worse than expected.

 

[Issen]

Did anyone do the math to find out which of these is the most efficient? As in, most performance per power?

EDIT: Checked a few myself and it seems that the most efficient one is the 90W 2080 Super Max-Q. Though in general it seems like the efficiency increase over laptop turing is +100%, which is honestly amazing. It's actually a little bit over 100% vs the power consumption of my RTX 2070 Max-Q (80W). We'll see about the pricing, though.

 

[Diogo Arez]

Fuck I was planning on getting one of these new laptops in the next month or so, with all this stuff happening, should I just wait?

 

[dgrdsv]

Fuck I was planning on getting one of these new laptops in the next month or so, with all this stuff happening, should I just wait?

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Why? The laptop's performance won't change if they'll add a power rating or a "Max whatever" to the name of the GPU it is using. Just read reviews of the laptop you're aiming to get.

 

[PinballRJ]

Wonder if their desktop GPUs will do the same thing eventually

 

[Vulcano's Assistant]

Fuck I was planning on getting one of these new laptops in the next month or so, with all this stuff happening, should I just wait?

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it's likely that at launch these brands will want to have models that perform better than their competitors, so it is not so much a matter of waiting to see when they release the products that perform better, but reading/watching the reviews of many of the launch models' to know which ones to get.

 

[Diogo Arez]

Why? The laptop's performance won't change if they'll add a power rating or a "Max whatever" to the name of the GPU it is using. Just read reviews of the laptop you're aiming to get.

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More of a clearing stuff up as time goes on, but yeah maybe I'll start looking for reviews.

 

[pswii60]

Are they competing with COVID or what?

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Also my first thought, sadly! The word "variant" will never be the same again.

 

[Dakhil]

So NotebookCheck compiled a list of laptops featuring GeForce RTX 30 laptop GPUs with corresponding TGPs. Keep in mind that the list is incomplete, but it should be a very helpful guide for anyone considering buying a laptop featuring GeForce RTX 30 laptop GPUs.

List of laptops featuring GeForce RTX 3060 laptop GPUs with corresponding TGPs

List of laptops featuring GeForce RTX 3070 laptop GPUs with corresponding TGPs

List of laptops featuring GeForce RTX 3080 laptop GPUs with corresponding TGPs

 

[xir]

So NotebookCheck compiled a list of laptops featuring GeForce RTX 30 laptop GPUs with corresponding TGPs. Keep in mind that the list is incomplete, but it should be a very helpful guide for anyone considering buying a laptop featuring GeForce RTX 30 laptop GPUs.

List of laptops featuring GeForce RTX 3060 laptop GPUs with corresponding TGPs

List of laptops featuring GeForce RTX 3070 laptop GPUs with corresponding TGPs

List of laptops featuring GeForce RTX 3080 laptop GPUs with corresponding TGPs

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wow thanks, everything is in euros lol. this is a weird time to be in a market for a new gaming laptop ugh

 

[dgrdsv]

NVIDIA now REQUIRES laptop makers to list clocks and TGP for GeForce RTX 30 Laptop GPUs - VideoCardz.com

NVIDIA is no longer encouraging laptop makers to list GeForce RTX 30 Laptop GPU specifications — it is now a requirement Consumers have won. Following NVIDIA’s ridiculous decision to drop Max-Q branding for Laptop GPUs, NVIDIA has made a third statement regarding the situation of the GeForce...

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