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NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER Max Q

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER Max Q: Review and Capability Analysis in 2025

Introduction

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER Max Q is a mobile GPU designed to balance performance and energy efficiency. Despite the dominance of the RTX 40 series graphics cards in the market by 2025, this model remains relevant for users seeking affordable solutions for gaming and professional tasks. In this article, we will examine its architecture, performance, and operational features.

1. Architecture and Key Features

Turing Architecture: The foundation of the RTX 2080 SUPER Max Q is the TU104 chip, built on TSMC's 12nm process. This allows NVIDIA to implement ray tracing support (RTX) and tensor cores for AI acceleration.

Technologies:

- RTX (Real-Time Ray Tracing): Provides realistic lighting, shadows, and reflections. For example, in Cyberpunk 2077, enabling RTX increases detail but drops FPS by 25-30%.

- DLSS 2.0: AI increases image resolution with lower resource demands. In Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0, DLSS boosts FPS by 40% at 4K.

- FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR): Support for AMD's technology via DirectX 12, useful for games that are not optimized for DLSS.

Max Q Features: Energy optimization (TDP 80-90 W) and compact cooling solutions, which are critical for thin laptops.

2. Memory: Type, Size, and Impact on Performance

- GDDR6: 8 GB of memory with a 256-bit bus.

- Bandwidth: 448 GB/s (14 Gbps × 256 bits ÷ 8).

- For Gaming: This is sufficient for 1440p and moderate 4K gaming. For example, in Red Dead Redemption 2 at 1440p Ultra, the graphics card yields 55-60 FPS, but in 4K it drops to 35-40 FPS.

- Professional Tasks: 8 GB is enough for 4K video editing in DaVinci Resolve, but more VRAM may be needed for heavy 3D scenes in Blender.

3. Gaming Performance

FPS Examples (Ultra Settings, No DLSS/FSR):

- 1080p: Elden Ring — 75 FPS, Apex Legends — 120 FPS.

- 1440p: Hogwarts Legacy — 50 FPS, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 — 45 FPS.

- 4K: Fortnite — 60 FPS (with DLSS Quality), Assassin’s Creed Valhalla — 30 FPS.

Ray Tracing:

- Enabling RTX reduces FPS by 25-40%. For instance, in Control at 1440p with RTX, the performance drops from 40 FPS to 28 FPS. DLSS helps recover performance to around 35-40 FPS.

4. Professional Tasks

- Video Editing: Rendering acceleration in Premiere Pro thanks to CUDA cores. Exporting a 10-minute 4K video takes about 8 minutes.

- 3D Modeling: In Blender, rendering a scene of a BMW takes 12 minutes (compared to 8 minutes on the RTX 3060 Mobile).

- Scientific Calculations: CUDA and OpenCL support is beneficial for simulations in MATLAB or machine learning with small datasets.

Limitations: The maximum GPU frequency in the Max Q version is reduced to 1.5 GHz (compared to 1.8 GHz for the desktop RTX 2080 SUPER), which affects task execution speed.

5. Power Consumption and Thermal Output

- TDP: 90 W — lower than standard mobile versions (150-200 W).

- Temperatures: Under load, it can reach up to 85°C. Poor cooling may result in throttling.

- Recommendations:

- Use laptops with cooling systems based on three heat pipes (e.g., ASUS ROG Zephyrus S).

- Avoid prolonged workloads in enclosed spaces.

6. Comparison with Competitors

- AMD Radeon RX 6700M (10 GB GDDR6): Performs better in 4K without RTX (e.g., Horizon Forbidden West — 45 FPS vs. 38 FPS for the RTX 2080 SUPER Max Q), but falls short in DLSS support.

- NVIDIA RTX 3060 Mobile: Newer, but comparable in performance. The RTX 3060 wins in energy efficiency (TDP 85 W) and price ($700 versus $800 for laptops with RTX 2080 SUPER Max Q).

Conclusion: The RTX 2080 SUPER Max Q is a choice for those who prioritize a balance between RTX capabilities and mobility.

7. Practical Tips

- Power Supply: Laptops require adapters rated between 180-230 W.

- Compatibility:

- Supports PCIe 3.0 x16.

- Thunderbolt 3/4 for connecting external monitors.

- Drivers: Regularly update through GeForce Experience. For professional tasks, use Studio Drivers.

8. Pros and Cons

Pros:

- Supports DLSS and RTX.

- Optimized for thin laptops.

- Sufficient performance for 1440p.

Cons:

- Limited VRAM for modern gaming and 3D rendering.

- Price: laptops with this card cost $800-1200, which is close to models with RTX 3060.

9. Final Conclusion

Who would benefit from the RTX 2080 SUPER Max Q in 2025?

- Gamers: For 1440p gaming at high settings and moderate RTX usage.

- Professionals: Video editing and 3D modeling on the go.

- Enthusiasts: As a budget option for upgrading an old laptop (if new devices are not available).

Despite its age, this graphics card remains a worthy choice where portability and support for modern technologies are important. However, it is advisable to compare it with new models in a similar price segment before making a purchase.

Basic

Label Name

NVIDIA

Platform

Mobile

Launch Date

April 2020

Model Name

GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER Max Q

Generation

GeForce 20 Mobile

Base Clock

735MHz

Boost Clock

975MHz

Bus Interface

PCIe 3.0 x16

Transistors

13,600 million

RT Cores

Tensor Cores

Tensor Cores are specialized processing units designed specifically for deep learning, providing higher training and inference performance compared to FP32 training. They enable rapid computations in areas such as computer vision, natural language processing, speech recognition, text-to-speech conversion, and personalized recommendations. The two most notable applications of Tensor Cores are DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) and AI Denoiser for noise reduction.

384

TMUs

Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) serve as components of the GPU, which are capable of rotating, scaling, and distorting binary images, and then placing them as textures onto any plane of a given 3D model. This process is called texture mapping.

192

Foundry

TSMC

Process Size

12 nm

Architecture

Turing

Memory Specifications

Memory Size

8GB

Memory Type

GDDR6

Memory Bus

The memory bus width refers to the number of bits of data that the video memory can transfer within a single clock cycle. The larger the bus width, the greater the amount of data that can be transmitted instantaneously, making it one of the crucial parameters of video memory. The memory bandwidth is calculated as: Memory Bandwidth = Memory Frequency x Memory Bus Width / 8. Therefore, when the memory frequencies are similar, the memory bus width will determine the size of the memory bandwidth.

256bit

Memory Clock

1375MHz

Bandwidth

Memory bandwidth refers to the data transfer rate between the graphics chip and the video memory. It is measured in bytes per second, and the formula to calculate it is: memory bandwidth = working frequency × memory bus width / 8 bits.

352.0 GB/s

Theoretical Performance

Pixel Rate

Pixel fill rate refers to the number of pixels a graphics processing unit (GPU) can render per second, measured in MPixels/s (million pixels per second) or GPixels/s (billion pixels per second). It is the most commonly used metric to evaluate the pixel processing performance of a graphics card.

62.40 GPixel/s

Texture Rate

Texture fill rate refers to the number of texture map elements (texels) that a GPU can map to pixels in a single second.

187.2 GTexel/s

FP16 (half)

An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable. Single-precision floating-point numbers (32-bit) are used for common multimedia and graphics processing tasks, while double-precision floating-point numbers (64-bit) are required for scientific computing that demands a wide numeric range and high accuracy.

11.98 TFLOPS

FP64 (double)

An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Double-precision floating-point numbers (64-bit) are required for scientific computing that demands a wide numeric range and high accuracy, while single-precision floating-point numbers (32-bit) are used for common multimedia and graphics processing tasks. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable.

187.2 GFLOPS

FP32 (float)

An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Single-precision floating-point numbers (32-bit) are used for common multimedia and graphics processing tasks, while double-precision floating-point numbers (64-bit) are required for scientific computing that demands a wide numeric range and high accuracy. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable.

6.11 TFLOPS

Miscellaneous

SM Count

Multiple Streaming Processors (SPs), along with other resources, form a Streaming Multiprocessor (SM), which is also referred to as a GPU's major core. These additional resources include components such as warp schedulers, registers, and shared memory. The SM can be considered the heart of the GPU, similar to a CPU core, with registers and shared memory being scarce resources within the SM.

Shading Units

The most fundamental processing unit is the Streaming Processor (SP), where specific instructions and tasks are executed. GPUs perform parallel computing, which means multiple SPs work simultaneously to process tasks.

3072

L1 Cache

64 KB (per SM)

L2 Cache

4MB

TDP

80W

Vulkan Version

Vulkan is a cross-platform graphics and compute API by Khronos Group, offering high performance and low CPU overhead. It lets developers control the GPU directly, reduces rendering overhead, and supports multi-threading and multi-core processors.

1.3

OpenCL Version

3.0

OpenGL

4.6

DirectX

12 Ultimate (12_2)

CUDA

7.5

Power Connectors

None

Shader Model

6.6

ROPs

The Raster Operations Pipeline (ROPs) is primarily responsible for handling lighting and reflection calculations in games, as well as managing effects like anti-aliasing (AA), high resolution, smoke, and fire. The more demanding the anti-aliasing and lighting effects in a game, the higher the performance requirements for the ROPs; otherwise, it may result in a sharp drop in frame rate.

Benchmarks

FP32 (float)

Score

6.11 TFLOPS

3DMark Time Spy

Score

8689

Blender

Score

2127

OctaneBench

Score

202

Compared to Other GPU

FP32 (float) / TFLOPS

GeForce GTX 1070 GDDR5X

6.592 +7.9%

Radeon RX 5600 OEM

6.518 +6.7%

GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER Max Q

6.11

Xbox One X GPU

5.881 -3.7%

Radeon RX 6500 XT

5.65 -7.5%

3DMark Time Spy

TITAN RTX

14643 +68.5%

GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile

10649 +22.6%

GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER Max Q

8689

GeForce GTX 1070 Ti

6669 -23.2%

Radeon R9 FURY

4682 -46.1%

Blender

GeForce RTX 5090

15026.3 +606.5%

RTX A4500

3514.46 +65.2%

GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER Max Q

2127

Radeon RX 6800S

1064 -50%

GeForce GTX 980 Ti

552 -74%

OctaneBench

GeForce RTX 4090

1328 +557.4%

GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile

349 +72.8%

GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER Max Q

202

Quadro P3200 Max Q

87 -56.9%

GeForce GTX 960

47 -76.7%