Nvidia launches Geforce GTX 1080, GTX 1070 and GTX 1060 for laptops

The graphics giant Nvidia kicked off the summer with the launch of the Geforce GTX 1080 and GTX 1070, which in July were joined by the GTX 1060. Now it’s time for the trio to make a comeback in laptops, where the performance should be sufficient for virtual reality and lie a lot closer to stationary than previous generations.

The Maxwell generation was rounded off for laptops with the Geforce GTX 980, as the first mobile graphics card without the suffix M. This is to indicate that it was a graphics card with similar performance as for desktops. For the same reason, the naming scheme is used throughout when Pascal is introduced for laptops.

Specifications: Nvidia Geforce “Pascal” for laptops

Values ​​in parentheses are specifications for each graphics card in stationary design.

Nvidia’s claim is reflected in the specifications, which are broadly reminiscent of the desktop counterparts. The differences are lower base frequency and the same or similar at boost. Memory amount and bandwidth remain the same, except for the GTX 1060 which should also be available with only 3 GB of GDDR5.

The biggest difference is the GTX 1070, which with an extra SM cluster has more CUDA cores and texture units than its stationary counterpart. The reason for this is that it is more energy efficient to run more cores at a lower frequency, something Nvidia needed to achieve its set goal in performance and power consumption.

Test: Rise of the Tomb Raider

* The tests were run on the laptops Clevo P775 (Geforce GTX 1080) and MSI GT62 (Geforce GTX 1070) in the resolution 1,920 x 1,080 pixels with the same settings as SweClocker’s regular test suite, from which other comparative figures are taken.

In terms of performance, the trio must be in round slings 5–10 per cent below the stationary equivalents, with a few exceptions where they must be a few per cent higher. Compared to the previous generation, all will perform on average 76 percent better at the same power consumption. Geforce GTX 1080 replaces GTX 980, GTX 1070 replaces GTX 980M and finally GTX 1060 is a direct replacement for GTX 970M.

Nvidia also strikes a blow for overclocking, where margins have more than doubled compared to the previous generation. A large part of this is the architecture and another is that the company worked on optimizing the circuit board’s power supply. Most graphics cards should be able to overclock at 200-250 MHz, while individual copies should be able to go all the way to 300 MHz. It is worth mentioning that Nvidia does not provide any support for raising either power limit or voltage to reach higher.

Part of this is that not only end users can overclock the graphics cards, but that Nvidia gives partners free rein with all three. At first, however, only the Geforce GTX 1080 is allowed to be released in an overclocked version, while Nvidia promises to open up for this with the GTX 1070 and GTX 1060 a few months later.

The other side of the coin is longer operating time when playing compared to Maxwell. Here we are talking about 30 percent longer battery life when using Battery Boost, which locks the frame rate in games to a set value to keep power consumption down. Battery Boost should also work considerably more stably than before. It is also worth noting that the performance of battery operation is not enough for virtual reality.

Finally, Nvidia strikes a blow because they, in collaboration with panel manufacturers, have developed new screens for portable, more suitable gaming. This of course includes the adaptive synchronization technology G-Sync, which with laptops with the Pascal generation is accompanied by features such as 120 Hz refresh rate and the resolution 2,560 x 1,440 pixels.

In terms of availability, Nvidia says that all major computer manufacturers are on the train and have laptops running with Geforce GTX 1080, GTX 1070 and GTX 1060. The first models will be available in stores today for immediate delivery to the end customer.