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Watch out - Nvidia is pulling some shady shit with 30-series gaming laptops

Cyanity

Cyanity

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,345
Nvidia is making buying a laptop more confusing

We discovered something strange: an RTX 3070 can now be faster than an RTX 3080 in some cases. We saw this first-hand in a few benchmark runs, where the RTX 3070 in the GP77 Leopard slightly surpassed the RTX 3080 in the GS66 Stealth. It wasn't a blowout, just a few odd frames per second more in the benchmarks built into games like Horizon: Zero Dawn, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider. But this shouldn't be happening, right?
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This sounds like a huge controversy, but the explanation is nothing new. It's just become something shadier than it ever needed to be. Nvidia is no longer adding "Max-Q" labels to the weaker, more power-efficient variants of its laptop-grade GPUs, and so you can no longer easily tell if you're getting a full-fat GPU.
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Why would Nvidia make this change, knowing most average consumers will fall for it? When I asked, a spokesperson told The Verge that it "strongly encourages OEMs to list clocks and other technologies a laptop supports, including Advanced Optimus, Dynamic Boost 2, and more." Judging by manufacturer websites so far, that "encouragement" doesn't seem to be working.

Nvidia also says the Nvidia Control Panel app, which is accessible only after you've paid for and set up one of these laptops, now provides more spec info than before. Not very helpful.
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TL;DR: Nvidia no longer requires manufacturers to indicate when they install weaker "Max-Q" variants of their GPUs on laptops, which is going to make it extremely difficult to know how powerful new 30-series gaming laptops are until outlets review them. BUYER BEWARE
 
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chandoog

chandoog

Member
Oct 27, 2017
20,071
That's really scummy ... why would they pull off a move which will inevitably draw lawsuits for false advertisement.
 
Jonnax

Jonnax

Member
Oct 26, 2017
4,921
" , including Advanced Optimus, Dynamic Boost 2, and more."

Why does a consumer need to know this bullshit?
 
Zen

Zen

The Wise Ones
Member
Nov 1, 2017
9,658
I wonder how much clout they have that they think they can get away with this. The company's execs are all scumbags
 
Radec

Radec

Member
Oct 26, 2017
4,406
They're already the market leader in the gpu space by a long shot and still doing shit like this.
 
number8888

number8888

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,015
Yeah it's bad. It's even possible that a full power 3060 can outperform a low power 3080.

videocardz.com

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...
videocardz.com videocardz.com
 
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