Nvidia’s gone super –– GPU that is. The company recently announced that its Super series of graphic cards would be making the leap to gaming laptops. Available now, the new graphics cards bring the promise of better performance which should be music to the ears of mobile PC gamers.
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What is Nvidia Super?
But first things, first. What exactly is Nvidia Super? The new cards are the latest addition to Nvidia’s RTX 20-series lineup of desktop and mobile graphics cards. In addition to bringing ray tracing and variable rate shading, which delivers improved, more lifelike graphics, Super brings improved performance. Super GPUs have more CUDA cores and are faster than the regular RTX chips.
How much faster? Well, that depends on the laptop’s specs and operating conditions. Think thermals, power caps and the like. But if the desktop results are any indication, we could potentially expect upwards of a 25% boost.
What’s coming to laptops?
While the Super series starts at 2060, for laptops, Nvidia is targeting the top tier with Super 2070 and 2080. That means we’re expecting to see either of these chips in the heavy duty systems like the Alienware Area-51 and the MSI GT76 Titan if they get that well-deserved refresh.
Here’s how the Super GPUs stack up against RTX chips:
| Header Cell - Column 0 | GeForce RTX 2080 Super | GeForce RTX 2070 Super | GeForce RTX 2080 | GeForce RTX 2070 | GeForce RTX 2060 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nvidia CUDA Cores | 3072 | 2560 | 2944 | 2304 | 1920 |
| Boost Clock (MHz) | 1080 – 1560 MHz | 1155 – 1380 MHz | 1380 -1590 MHz | 1125 – 1455 MHz | 1185 – 1560 MHz |
| Memory | 8GB GDDR6 | 8GB GDDR6 | 8GB GDDR6 | 8GB GDDR6 | 6GB GDDR6 |
| Memory Interface Width | 256-bit | 256-bit | 256-bit | 256-bit | 192-bit |
| Memory Bandwidth (GB/sec) | Up to 448 GB/s | Up to 448 GB/s | Up to 448 GB/s | Up to 448 GB/s | Up to 336 GB/s |
| Total Graphics Power (TGP, W) | 80 – 150+ W | 80 – 150+ W | 80 – 150+ W | 80 – 150+ W | 288 GB/s |
How much better is the performance?
For right now, we can say that Super GPUs...are faster. Until we start getting the systems in, we can’t say exactly how much better. However, we’re eager to start this testing with earnest so stay tuned to Laptop Mag for that subsequent testing.
Outline
Gaming laptops are about to get a significant boost, courtesy of Nvidia. The company’s supercharged Super chips bring all the ray tracing goodness of regular RTX series GPUs, but with even more performance –– just how much remains to be seen. But rest assured, it’s going to be an exciting time for mobile PC gamers.
