Nvidia levels up GeForce gaming laptops: RTX Super GPUs, Max-Q advancements, and price drops

After months of speculation and leaks, Nvidia’s long-awaited GeForce RTX 2070 Super and 2080 Super GPUs are coming to laptops, launching Thursday in unison with Intel’s “Comet Lake-H” 10th-gen Core processors for mobile gaming.

That’s great! But believe it or not, it may be Nvidia’s least enticing announcement today. The company also announced cheaper prices for gaming laptops across the board, and some massive upgrades to its energy-efficient Max-Q technology to let GeForce GPUs soar even higher when they’re paired with Intel and AMD’s latest notebook processors.

Let’s look at the new GPUs and Nvidia’s pricing changes first, then dive into the Max-Q tweaks, since they’re worth deeper explanation.

The Super-fied laptop incarnations revolve around the same underlying hardware as desktop GeForce RTX 2070 Super and RTX 2080 Super, but tuned for lower clocks and power draw, per usual for Nvidia’s modern laptop lineup. That should make the GeForce RTX 2070 Super ideal for laptops with 1440p or high refresh-rate 1080p displays, and the RTX 2080 Super great for 4K or ultra-fast 1440p gaming. And yes, they’re capable of real-time ray tracing in games that support the cutting-edge tech.

Pricing-wise, Nvidia says that laptops with the new GPUs will cost the same as the non-Super versions of these graphics did originally. We’d expect GeForce RTX 2070 Super laptops to cost $1,500 and up, and gaming notebooks with a GeForce RTX 2080 Super inside to go for north of $2,000.

The rest of the mobile GeForce laptop is getting cheaper, though.

rtx 2060 999 Nvidia

Starting at the bottom, Nvidia says we’ll start to see laptops with the entry-level GeForce GTX 1650 starting at $699. (As a “GTX” GPU rather than an “RTX” GPU, this chip lacks real-time ray tracing.) We’ve seen GTX 1650 laptops selling for this price before—even laptops with a more potent GTX 1660 Ti inside—but only on sale.

Moving another rung up the ladder, Nvidia didn’t mention expected GTX 1660 Ti laptop pricing. It must be getting cheaper, though, because notebooks with the vaunted GeForce RTX 2060 inside will start at $999, bringing real-time ray tracing to the pricing “sweet spot” for mobile gaming. Before, you could expect to spend $1,200 or more on an RTX 2060 laptop unless you found a particularly juicy deal. Virtually all the top notebook makers already offer RTX 2060-equipped laptops, and Nvidia expects the GPU to become even more popular at this lower price point.

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