Riley Young/Digital Trends
If you’re waiting for Nvidia to make its flagship GeForce RTX 2080 series graphics card available on laptops, you may not have to wait much longer. While it was previously rumored that Nvidia may launch the card as early as November, a new report suggests that mobile RTX graphics won’t launch until early 2019. Nvidia may announce the mobile graphics cards around the same time as the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Hopefully, this means that we’ll see gaming laptop manufacturers showcase their designs at CES in January following Nvidia’s announcement.
“Our source has just informed us that the entire RTX mobility lineup will be released around CES along with the 2080 Max-Q following a bit later,” Wccftech reported.
In addition to the RTX 2080 Mobility and RTX 2080 Max-Q Mobility cards, a leaked document obtained by the publication suggests that Nvidia could also offer the RTX 2070, RTX 2070 Max-Q Mobility, RTX 2060 Ti Mobility, RTX 2060 Mobility, RTX 2050 Ti Mobility, and RTX 2050 Mobility configurations as part of its laptop graphics lineup. Currently, it appears that only the RTX 2080 and RTX 2070 Mobility cards will get also come with a Max-Q.
It’s also reported that Nvidia is working with its laptop partners to “standardize laptop thickness for its mobility lineups.” Hopefully, this will result in gaming laptops that aren’t unwieldy in the future. According to Wccftech, Nvidia has provided recommendations for minimum laptop thickness — referred to as Z height — for each RTX Mobility configuration. Documentation published by the outlet reveals that a few Max-Q designs for upcoming RTX-equipped laptops to come in at under 20mm thick.
Previously, it was reported that Nvidia was working with laptop manufacturers to maintain the same Z height with the RTX cards as on devices with the older GTX cards. If Nvidia can achieve this, then we shouldn’t see any increase in dimensions once RTX Mobility gaming systems are announced. An industry insider revealed to Wccftech that RTX laptops will maintain a similar design language as last year’s GTX systems. “We will put the 2080-Max Q into the current thin 15 and the 17 with Nvidia’s help,” the source said. “I don’t think the weight will increase significantly on this new card. Our ID/design will be pretty much the same as what you saw.”
Hopefully, by that time, we’ll see more ray tracing titles launch to take advantage of the capabilities of the RTX chips. But with CES being just a few months away, we’ll find out soon enough what Nvidia’s plans for mobile RTX gaming will be.
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