Ladies and gentlemen, this is a Gigabyte 2080 notebook. 2080 RTX laptop. Yep you heard correctly,
Nvidia RTX laptops are here. At CES 2019 Nvidia announced that starting January 29th we'll
have laptops with RTX graphics inside, so let's discuss.
At the moment we're looking at RTX 2060, the desktop version of which is launching January
15th, RTX 2070 and 2080 graphics becoming available in laptops in about 3 weeks time.
From the 29th of January Nvidia said that there will be 40 different laptop models available
with RTX graphics, and that's not counting different configurations of the same model,
and 17 of these will make use of Max-Q, most likely the thinner machines. It wasn't stated
directly, but I can only assume that this means that there will also be non Max-Q versions
in the other 23 models, most likely available in thicker laptops with more power. Nvidia
mentioned that there appears to be a trend towards thinner and lighter laptops featuring
Max-Q graphics, with 2019 already having the most available per year despite only just
having started.
During the presentation Nvidia specifically listed three laptops which will be available
with RTX graphics, and these included the MSI GS65, Gigabyte Aero, and Acer's new Predator
Triton 500. I also found on Twitter that ASUS mentioned they will have an RTX version of
the Scar II, Hero II, and a new laptop called the ROG Mothership. Unfortunately my Australian
contacts weren’t able to hook me up with ASUS at CES so hopefully I can track them
down.
The Triton 500 was listed with 2060 graphics, while the GS65 and Aero were mentioned as
having 2080 graphics, I’m not sure what other options they’ll be available with
at this stage but most likely it will vary. The 2080 graphics seem pretty crazy given
in the 10 series we had 1070 Max-Q at the highest end in these models. While none of
Nvidia’s slides actually specified these thin laptops would have Max-Q I think it's
pretty safe to assume given their sizes, they're most likely three of those 17 new Max-Q laptops.
No actual raw specs were detailed either, so I can't speculate too much here. Given
that from my own testing, on the desktop side of things at least, the RTX 2080 performs
similarly to a 1080 Ti, so if we're able to get non Max-Q 2080 graphics in a laptop then
that should hopefully be a nice performance boost over what we've got available today
at the top end in a laptop, that being GTX 1080 laptops.
Then of course there’s ray tracing itself, the first hour or more of the presentation
at CES was RTX demos, and while a cool technology and they did demonstrate real time gameplay
on the new RTX 2060, which is apparently coming in at $349 USD by the way, I’m still pretty
skeptical based on what I’ve seen so far with the desktop cards, add Max-Q into the
mix and I’m not so sure, I’ll have to play it myself to believe it.
It will of course also be very interesting to test and compare these RTX models against
the older GTX 10 series versions to see how the cooling holds up, or if the heat pipes
have otherwise needed to be upgraded as a result. Again no specs were revealed for the
laptop graphics at this stage, so I'm not sure what TDP we're looking at, but definitely
expect some future videos on these topics.
I'm going to be checking out as many new laptops and other hardware as I can while here at
CES 2019, so get subscribed if you're not already so you don't miss anything. Specifically
tomorrow I've got appointments with both MSI and Gigabyte, so will be looking at the new
Aero, and hopefully the new GS65 and more models, let me know what you'd like to see
from those videos, keeping in mind I will probably be limited in what I can test for
in their suite.
The day after that I’ve got plans to meet with Dell too so should see what they’ve
got going on, and I found a Lenovo suite today while walking around so I’ll try and hassle
them about getting some review units too, everyone was just getting set up today so
I wasn’t filming anything.
Even without detailed testing, if you were considering buying a laptop now I’d at least
wait a few weeks so that we can see how these RTX laptops actually perform and find out
their prices relative to the 10 series models.
Full detailed performance will of course have to wait until I’ve got these new models
in my hands for testing, but don’t worry, I’ve already got confirmation that I’ll
be receiving some for testing, including Gigabyte’s new Aero, so get subscribed and get your body
ready for all sorts of laptop RTX testing to come.