On the notebook itself, I could max out games at 1080p, and connected to a monitor, throttling down the settings a smidgen allowed me to achieve 60 FPS at 1440p in modern games. Nvidia itself claims that the GTX 980 gives its laptops around a 30 percent performance boost over its older flagship GPU, the GTX 980M.
Advertisement
You should effectively get performance on a par with a GTX 980-equipped desktop gaming machine, which is not to be sniffed at – using Nvidia’s battery-friendly Maxwell architecture, the GTX 980 has 2048 CUDA cores and 4GB of video RAM with a base clock speed of 1.1GHz.
Well, mobile graphics products like the GTX 980M are typically cut-down versions of desktop parts meant to fit into much smaller power envelopes. But anyone that has done research in this field would tell you that though they were named similarly, the mobile GPUs from both AMD and NVIDIA had a tendency to be noticeably slower than their desktop counterparts.
Even crazier, Nvidia has also managed to convince OEMs to let users overclock the GTX 980 too. This will all be accessible in their notebook overclocking tool.
The notebooks that this GPU will be going in, NVIDIA says, will have 4-8 phase power supplies. This changes today, as NVIDIA has announced partnership with the likes of Asus and MSI to bring the GTX 980 in their gaming laptop line-up. Numerous systems should include multiple outputs for external displays, making it possible for a notebook to drive a triple-display surround gaming setup. Further, the mobile CPU parts will also be overclockable through the BIOS.
Advertisement
When discussing the new initiative, NVIDIA was very quick to point that they are not binning chips to put in the notebook either, although the GPUs are put through extra verification to ensure that they meet higher requirements for performance and efficiency to ensure there will be enough headroom for use in a notebook, as well as some extra for overclocking. The systems will also be built with overclocking in mind, offering full fan control and extreme cooling solutions. More may come in the future, but right now the only ones confirmed are the AORUS X7 DT, Clevo P870DM, Clevo P775DM, MSI GT80, the previously mentioned ASUS GX700VO, and the MSI GT72. Laptops with the new desktop 980 card will be the first mobile PCs that support the upcoming Oculus Rift virtual reality headset. One model in particular, the ASUS GX700V0, will even be water cooled to keep from burning your lap or melting a hole through your desk.
