Days have gone when there was a huge performance penalty for going with a laptop PC versus a desktop setup with the latter offering more horsepower and better specifications. As of late, Intel, AMD, and NVIDIA have been working really hard to keep specification parity between the hardware offered on both platforms and looks like we will soon be getting the most powerful laptop released to date.
Intel 10th Generation Core i9-10980HK & NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER Max-Q Is As Good As Gaming Notebooks Can Get in 2020
We knew it for a while that both Intel and NVIDIA are refreshing their CPU and GPU lineups with faster specifications. Intel is soon going to release its 10th Generation Comet Lake-H mobility line while NVIDIA will be refreshing its GeForce RTX lineup to GeForce RTX SUPER in the coming weeks.
We haven't yet seen any notebook announcements featuring the said specifications since neither NVIDIA or Intel have officially launched the said families yet but one high-end configuration has been spotted by _Rogame which boasts some really impressive specifications.
The said gaming notebook configuration rocks the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER Max-Q GPU and an Intel Core i9-10980HK CPU. Just before I proceed with more information on this config, let's take a look at the specifications of the CPU and GPU in detail.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER Max-Q Mobility GPU Specs
The specific variant is in a Max-Q design which runs at lower clock speeds than the standard variant but offers better performance per watt for longer battery life and cooler/quieter operation in gaming laptops. The RTX 2080 SUPER Max-Q is configured with 48 SMs which equals 3072 CUDA cores and 8 GB of GDDR6 memory. The Max-Q solution is listed with a maximum frequency of 1230 MHz but as told earlier, Max-Q variants operate at lower clock speeds than standard mobile GPUs. The Max-Q variant has a lower TGP of 80W compared to the 150W+ TGP of the standard RTX 2080 SUPER mobility GPU.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX SUPER Mobility GPU Lineup Specs:
| Graphics Card Name | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Ti Notebook | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Refresh | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Refresh | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Codename | N18P-G62 | N18E-G1-B | N18E-G1R | N18E-G2R | N18E-G3R |
| Architecture | Turing TU116 | Turing TU106 | Turing TU104 | Turing TU104 | Turing TU104 |
| Process Node | 12nm FinFET NVIDIA | 12nm FinFET NVIDIA | 12nm FinFET NVIDIA | 12nm FinFET NVIDIA | 12nm FinFET NVIDIA |
| SMs | 16 | 30 | 36 | 40 | 48 |
| CUDA Cores | 1024 | 1920 | 2304 | 2560 | 3072 |
| Standard Max Boost Clock | 1485 MHz | 1285 MHz | 1485 MHz | 1380 MHz | 1560 MHz |
| Max-Q Max Boost Clock | 1200 MHz | TBC | TBC | 1155 MHz | 1080 MHz |
| VRAM | 4 GB GDDR6 | 6 GB GDDR6 | 8 GB GDDR6 | 8 GB GDDR6 | 8 GB GDDR6 |
| Memory Bus | 128-bit | 192-bit | 256-bit | 256-bit | 256-bit |
| Memory Clock | 12 Gbps | 14 Gbps | 14 Gbps | 14 Gbps | 14 Gbps |
| Memory Bandwdith | 192 GB/s | 336 GB/s | 448 GB/s | 448 GB/s | 448 GB/s |
| TGP (Total Graphics Power) | 35W (Standard) 55W (Max-Q) | 115W (Standard) | 115W (Standard) | 115W (Standard) 80 (Max-Q) | 150W+ (Standard) 80 (Max-Q) |
Intel Core i9-10980HK Comet Lake-H Mobility CPU Specs
The flagship Core i9-10980HK boasts 8 cores and 16 threads. The Core i9-10980HK comes with a 45W TDP and features a base clock of 3.10 GHz which is much higher than the 2.40 GHz base clock of the Core i9-9980HK. The boost clock for this chip is said to exceed 5.0 GHz but in the benchmark, being reported at 5.00 GHz, which could be the more sustained boost frequency. The chip will feature 16 MB of L3 cache, a UHD 630 graphics chip and will support DDR4 memory.
Intel 10th Gen Comet Lake-H Mobility CPU Family:
| CPU Name | Cores/Threads | Base Clock | Boost Clock | Cache | TDP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intel Core i9-10980HK | 8/16 | 2.3 | 5.3 GHz | 16 MB | 45W |
| Intel Core i9-10880H (TBA) | 8/16 | 2.3 GHz | 5.0 GHz? | 16 MB | 45W |
| Intel Core i7-10875H | 8/16 | 2.3 GHz | 5.1 GHz | 16 MB | 45W |
| Intel Core i7-10850H | 6/12 | 2.7 GHz | 5.1 GHz | 12 MB | 45W |
| Intel Core i7-10750H | 6/12 | 2.6 GHz | 5.0 GHz | 12 MB | 45W |
| Intel Core i5-10550H (TBA) | 6/12 | 2.5 GHz | 4.5 GHz | 12 MB | 45W |
| Intel Core i5-10500H (TBA) | 6/12 | 2.5 GHz | 4.2 GHz | 12 MB | 45W |
| Intel Core i5-10400H | 4/8 | 2.6 GHz | 4.6 GHz | 8 MB | 45W |
| Intel Core i5-10300H | 4/8 | 2.5 GHz | 4.5 GHz | 8 MB | 45W |
| Intel Xeon W-10885M | 8/16 | 2.4 GHz | 5.3 GHz | 16 MB | 45W |
| Intel Xeon W-10855M | 6/12 | 2.7 GHz | 5.1 GHz | 12 MB | 45W |
As you can tell by the specifications, this is as high-end as gaming notebooks can get in 2020. The Intel & NVIDIA combo reigns supreme until either AMD gets more powerful GPUs down in the note book segment or Intel's discrete GPUs start tackling NVIDIA on the high-end which doesn't seem likely, at least in this year.
Now there are a few concerns which many consumers raise about high-end gaming notebooks such as their bulky design and the need to carry an external power brick to keep these power-hungry machines up and running, even for regular workloads. This sort of hardware requires extra power and the whole purpose of high-end gaming notebooks is to have a portable PC that you can carry around whenever you want.
Modern advancements have dropped down the weight of these high-end gaming notebooks down to just 2 kgs which although is a lot heavier than standard PC laptops but if you want the extra power and don't want to carry your desktop around with you in a cafe or workplace than this is the way to go.
NVIDIA's CEO already showcased how their current GeForce RTX mobility lineup is faster than even the next-generation console lineup which puts the refreshed SUPER series in a league of its own. It would be the ultimate combo for users who want powerful performance on-the-go and it looks like this is the niche where Intel & NVIDIA would continue to dominate for a while until AIBs start using RTX 2080 SUPER GPUs in AMD's Ryzen 4000 'Renoir' based notebooks.
