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Nvidia says goodbye to heavyweight gaming notebooks with Max-Q initiative

Nvidia held its keynote address at Computex 2017 today, and it introduced a number of new initiatives that will drive its business forward over the next year. While artificial intelligence (AI) and other advanced technologies were also on stage, Nvidia’s core business of providing high-performance graphics was not ignored.

Mobile gaming is particularly important today, with a vast array of new gaming notebooks coming that will provide unsurpassed performance and support for virtual reality (VR) gaming. Nvidia introduced a new design specification, GeForce GTX with Max-Q Design, that is aimed at stuffing a massive amount of gaming performance into increasingly thin devices.

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GeForce GTX with Max-Q Design refers to a new set of specifications that will work together to achieve the highest possible performance at a notebook’s peak efficiency. Four elements are involved with the design specification, including the most powerful GPUs running at peak efficiency, optimal game settings based on specific PCs, advanced thermal solutions that maintain a GPU’s ability to run at peak efficiency, and next-generation voltage regulators.

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Via Max-Q Design, Nvidia is aiming at upcoming gaming notebooks that will provide significant performance improvements over earlier machines. The company is targeting notebooks that dramatically reduce thickness, from an average of 51mm thick to 18mm, and that are half the weight at five pounds versus 10 pounds. Compared to machines running the GeForce 880M GPU, GeForce GTX with Max-Q Design machines running GTX 1080 GPUs will perform three times as fast.

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Jensen Huang brought out a new Asus ROG notebook running a brand new game, Project Cars 2, that was shown off for the first time as a demonstration of the machine’s power. The game, which was designed using lasers that mapped tracks down to 1mm, showed off the machine’s power, which was touted at 60 percent faster than a Sony PlayStation 4 Pro.

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What the GeForce GTX with Max-Q Design technology means in essence is the advent of thinner, lighter machines that provide significantly more performance than previous gaming notebooks that were much thicker and heavier. By ensuring the best combination of high-performance GPUs, excellent thermal management and components, and system optimization, Nvidia is promising gamers even more powerful and mobile gaming.

Mark Coppock
Mark Coppock is a Freelance Writer at Digital Trends covering primarily laptop and other computing technologies. He has…
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