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Nvidia now requiring laptop vendors to list GPU power

QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,483
https://www.theverge.com/2021/2/5/22266921/nvidia-requiring-companies-share-clock-speed-power-gaming-laptop-rtx-30-series-gpu-specs

In some previous generations, Nvidia introduced their Max-Q laptop GPUs.  The idea is that if you take a high end laptop GPU and clock it a lot lower, then it will burn less power, allowing it to fit into a thinner and lighter laptop.  Of course, it will also offer a lot less performance.  Even so, if it was branded Max-Q, you knew that, while the GPU silicon was the same as the normal version, the performance would be much less.

Then Nvidia decided to drop the Max-Q branding for the new RTX 3000 series laptop parts.  This made some amount of sense, as instead of having only two possible power levels, they could allow laptop vendors to pick from a lot more intermediate options.  The problem is that it meant that two different laptops that both had an RTX 3080 might offer very different levels of performance.  For that matter, a laptop with an RTX 3060 and a 115 W TGP will often feature more GPU performance than a laptop with an RTX 3080 and an 80 W TGP.

Nvidia "encouraged" laptop vendors to list the TGP of the GPUs that they used.  Most didn't.  So now Nvidia is changing it to require laptop vendors to list the TGP in the laptop specs.  This is a good thing, as it means that now instead of having to take a wild guess as to how fast an Nvidia laptop GPU will be, it will be right there in the specs.  You just have to remember that performance scales both with higher model number (within a generation) and also with higher TGP.

That said, it isn't automatic that you want the highest possible TGP, nor that the higher end cards like the RTX 3080 are a waste.  Higher power usage means more heat, which requires a more robust cooler, and that makes the laptop thicker and heavier.  Higher end cards can scale well to higher power usage than lower end cards.  And more shaders clocked lower can beat fewer clocked higher in the same TGP, so an RTX 3080 with a TGP of 80 W will tend to be meaningfully faster than an RTX 3060 with the same TGP of 80 W.  Giving consumers information about what they're buying so that you can make an intelligent decision is a good thing.

Comments

  • SandmanjwSandmanjw Member RarePosts: 531
    Kind of surprised. 

    Most big vendors do not usually worry about the consumers getting shafted by these type tricks, of selling stuff with misleading info.

    Nice job Nvidia.



    Kyleran
  • WizardryWizardry Member LegendaryPosts: 19,332
    edited February 2021
    We could just chalk it down to typical marketing tactics,give the consumer the illusion they are buying an equal product but are actually receiving less for their buck.

    If Nvidia is trying to make sure the consumer is not mislead by lame marketing tactics then kudos to them but I somehow doubt that is their true agenda.

    Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.

  • VrikaVrika Member LegendaryPosts: 7,973
    Wizardry said:
    We could just chalk it down to typical marketing tactics,give the consumer the illusion they are buying an equal product but are actually receiving less for their buck.

    If Nvidia is trying to make sure the consumer is not mislead by lame marketing tactics then kudos to them but I somehow doubt that is their true agenda.
    I think it is their true agenda. This confusion was causing a situation potential RTX 3080 buyers for laptop weren't sure if it's better than RTX 3070. Businesses sometimes want us confused, but not in a way where we think that their more expensive product doesn't give any benefit over the cheaper one.
    Kyleran
     
  • RidelynnRidelynn Member EpicPosts: 7,383
    This will not really change anything.

    I would say, outside of forums like these (and here, I use that loosely) - most people only know that a bigger number is probably better. And they are going to buy whatever either the salesperson at Best Buy pushes on them, what their favorite Twitch streamer uses, or what some good review on a random internet site says is good.

    And then they will complain the laptop is hot, doesn't last long on battery, etc. 

    It will be just another random number on the side of the box that they don't really know what it means.

    I don't dispute that more information is better than less. But this doesn't really give the consumer useful information in a way most people will understand.
    [Deleted User]Iselin
  • VrikaVrika Member LegendaryPosts: 7,973
    Ridelynn said:
    This will not really change anything.

    I would say, outside of forums like these (and here, I use that loosely) - most people only know that a bigger number is probably better. And they are going to buy whatever either the salesperson at Best Buy pushes on them, what their favorite Twitch streamer uses, or what some good review on a random internet site says is good.

    And then they will complain the laptop is hot, doesn't last long on battery, etc. 

    It will be just another random number on the side of the box that they don't really know what it means.

    I don't dispute that more information is better than less. But this doesn't really give the consumer useful information in a way most people will understand.
    If even 10% of people understand, it still matters a lot, because those 10% are usually the professionals and experts who end up influencing others the most.
    Quizzical
     
  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,483
    Torval said:
    Ridelynn said:

    I'm not one to normally wish failure and doom on something, but I really wish Etherium would crash so hard it would never recover. I don't even care if everyone who sunk their lives in it were ruined. At this point, it's moved beyond ridiculous.
    It moved beyond ridiculous about three years ago.  It's still just getting back to the levels of ridiculousness that it had reached then.  
    [Deleted User]Ridelynn
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