Nvidia’s Max-Q Will Make Your Gaming Laptops Incredibly Slim

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By Andrew E. Freedman
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Most gaming laptops are bulky beasts, but soon that may no longer be the case. Today at its press conference at Computex, Nvidia announced its new design approach, Max-Q, which is meant to make gaming laptops thinner, faster, and quieter. You’ll be able to find Max-Q designed laptops with Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1080, 1070 and 1060 GPUs from major vendors, starting on June 27.

The goal was to make gaming notebooks that are up to 3x thinner with 3x more performance than existing laptops. Now, they can be as slim as 0.7-inches, Nvidia says, with up to 70% more performance than before. These laptops will come from manufacturers including Acer, Alienware, Asus, Clevo, Gigabyte, HP, Lenovo, Maingear, MSI, Origin, and more.

This is all still based on Nvidia’s Pascal architecture, also known as the 10-series GPUs. But now, it’s all precision engineered from the laptop down to the electrical components to make sure everything is as efficient as possible.

Those optimizations include low-voltage clock curves for cards like the GTX 1080 to squeeze out performance while reducing power and better Game Ready drivers to increase efficiency and thermal solutions for laptops to keep them cooler, allowing for higher gaming performance. Gaming laptops designed for Max-Q are are ready for anything GeForce-related from G-Sync screens to VR and 4K gaming.

Additionally, Nvidia announced its new WhisperMode tech, which lets laptops run more quietly while you're playing games. It configures graphics settings and frame rates to favor power efficiency, which should make laptops, well, whisper quiet. All Pascal-based laptops will get this update soon via a software update in GeForce Experience.

Andrew E. Freedman

Andrew E. Freedman is a senior editor at Tom's Hardware focusing on laptops, desktops and gaming. He also keeps up with the latest news. A lover of all things gaming and tech, his previous work has shown up in Tom's Guide, Laptop Mag, Kotaku, PCMag and Complex, among others. Follow him on Threads @FreedmanAE and Mastodon @FreedmanAE.mastodon.social.

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10 Comments Comment from the forums
  • teamninja
    ehhhh ok.... doesn't really change much I was already much expecting this to happen with Volta came a generation early I will guess that those with 1060s in them that are thin like razer blade will just throw in a 1080 instead.... I mean it would of happen sooner or later with Volta
    Reply
  • bit_user
    Okay, so this will squeeze out more performance/W, but your peak performance will still be lower than laptops with better cooling. Eye-popping claims like "3x more performance than existing laptops" must be comparing them to the integrated GPUs in laptops the same size. And I'm guessing "up to 70% more performance than before" is referring to a laptop with a 1080 that used to have a 1060.

    There's no other way to deliver on those claims using the same GPU silicon. Just like top performing desktop GPUs will always be pushing 250 W, your top-performing gaming laptops will always be big, heavy, and power-hungry.

    What's nice about this news is that they're creating a half-decent middle-ground. The size & weight are the reasons I went with an integrated GPU in my current laptop, so it's good to see that addressed.
    Reply
  • cats_Paw
    And 10 times more cool factor. And 20 times better looking.... seriously. If you are gonna put ads, at least put them in the ads sections.
    Reply
  • AgentLozen
    I don't completely understand what Max-Q is. It sounds like all of the hardware is the same. So Max-Q is just some software that optimizes your laptop for efficiency and noise?
    Reply
  • redgarl
    Still, 2000$ for 18 cores? I mean, the price is still ridiculous.

    Question now is Napples going to be in that range of price?

    Anyway, it is really interesting and i hope AMD is going to provide another lick in the balls, however to Nvidia this time..
    Reply
  • bigdragon
    Does this mean we're going to get more gaming-capable 2-in-1 devices? The only product in that category is the Lenovo Yoga 720. That's literally the only quad-core, discrete Nvidia, Wacom stylus 2-in-1 out there. Curious lack of competition in that space.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    19753006 said:
    I don't completely understand what Max-Q is.
    That's because this was probably written directly from a Nvidia press release, without ever talking to a rep to clarify what it actually is. So, the author probably didn't have a much better idea of what it is than we do.
    Reply
  • alextheblue
    19754981 said:
    19753006 said:
    I don't completely understand what Max-Q is.
    That's because this was probably written directly from a Nvidia press release, without ever talking to a rep to clarify what it actually is. So, the author probably didn't have a much better idea of what it is than we do.
    The real reason is because MAX-Q!!11 isn't architecture... it's markitecture. Underclocking! Vague statistics!
    An off-the-record comment on MAX-Q!!11 by an Nvidia engineer would probably go something like "Yeah we're undervolting and throttling to reduce heat and power, so we can cram them in thinner laptops."

    19753731 said:
    Anyway, it is really interesting and i hope AMD is going to provide another lick in the balls, however to Nvidia this time..
    LMAO - hilarious typos aside, I'm really skeptical of their ability to bring a low-power variant to market in a timely fashion. I'm not saying they're incapable of doing so or the architecture isn't good, but they've got a LOT on their plate right now and I just don't think it will be the focus. I mean their incoming mobile APUs will cover substantial entry to mid level territory. I just don't see them dedicating the resources to a new mobile dGPU right now.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    19755534 said:
    they've got a LOT on their plate right now and I just don't think it will be the focus. I mean their incoming mobile APUs will cover substantial entry to mid level territory. I just don't see them dedicating the resources to a new mobile dGPU right now.
    Nvidia is using the same silicon for mobile, desktop, and cloud. Except for P100 - that's cloud-only, probably just because it'd be too expensive for other markets.

    They allegedly did the same with Maxwell. I honestly don't know if AMD has been doing this or not, but it's a little hard for me to believe that the discreet mobile GPU market is big enough to justify dedicated silicon.
    Reply
  • BulkZerker
    "LMAO - hilarious typos aside, I'm really skeptical of their ability to bring a low-power variant to market in a timely fashion. I'm not saying they're incapable of doing so or the architecture isn't good, but they've got a LOT on their plate right now and I just don't think it will be the focus. I mean their incoming mobile APUs will cover substantial entry to mid level territory. I just don't see them dedicating the resources to a new mobile dGPU right now."

    A quick peek on other reputable tech sites (unlike Ars, who seem to have the same stiffy Tom's has for Intel and nVidia) shows Asus has a thin n light with a 8core ryzen and a mobile 580, and a AMD powered ultrabook with undisclosed specs (it was playing League or Dota, doesn't matter really) as well. Those also got brought on stage for the AMD press conference last night as well.

    AMD has finally gotten a CEO thats stayed as tue CEO long enough to release an actual, new architecture and this has thrown Intel and nVidia into full panic, forcing them to announce products they weren't going to early
    (A year or more early by my guess, there was no announced parts or leaks for these monster sky/kaby lake or Xenon parts till after thread ripper / epyc was announced. Volta has gone full hype train, now nVidia does this. AMDs release is about as disruptive to the industry as a napalm strike on a paper factory.
    Reply