First Tests: Are Nvidia's GeForce RTX Super Laptop Chips a Big Step Up?

In April, Nvidia announced it would be shipping mobile versions of its GeForce RTX 2070 Super and RTX 2080 Super GPUs on laptops. We did some early first-hand testing to see how they stack up against existing GeForce laptop GPUs.

- MATTHEW BUZZI

We were able to get hold of and start testing two laptops that carried the GeForce RTX 2070 Super and the RTX 2080 Super (both of them in dialed back Max-Q configurations). The former is in the Gigabyte Aero 15 OLED XB, while the latter is installed in the MSI GS66 Stealth—both part of a 2020 wave of gaming laptops that boast Nvidia GeForce RTX Super GPUs and Intel’s 10th Generation Core H-Series processors.

We were able to do this testing with early versions of the soon-to-be-available public drivers, and have only these two samples to go on so far. So although our tests may be representative of what these components can do, please bear that in mind.

AN ‘RTX SUPER’ REFRESHER

These top-end graphics chips will, in theory, push the higher end of Nvidia’s laptop-GPU offerings even further for laptops. On the desktop, the GeForce RTX Super series delivered better performance than the original graphics cards at a lower price. In practice, Super-izing the GeForce RTX 2070, for example, turned it nearly into an RTX 2080, at a lower price than the original stock model.

Like with the desktop cards, the laptop versions of these GPUs should give hardcore gamers even higher frame rates in AAA games, make it more likely you can use Nvidia’s advanced ray-tracing technology without tanking frame rates, and serve as a boon for high-refresh-rate gaming (as long as the laptop’s display panel allows it).