How can NVIDIA's new GPU technology "MAX - Q" move GTX 1080 on a vastly thin notebook PC? I asked NVIDIA

NVIDIA will launch the new platform for gaming notebook PC on the opening day of COMPUTEX TAIPEI 2017MAX-QWe announced. According to MAX-Q technology, it is possible to play 4K games crisply with a high-performance GPU "GeForce GTX 1080" loaded on an extremely thin notebook PC of 18 mm or less. I have asked NVIDIA about the mechanism of MAX-Q, which reversed the concept of a heavy and gutsy high-performance gaming notebook PC from the ground up.

GeForce GTX Max-Q Laptops | GeForce
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/products/10series/laptops/max-q/

You can understand how the world of gaming PC changes completely by MAX - Q by seeing the following movie.

Introducing the All-New GeForce GTX 10-Series Laptops with Max-Q Design - YouTube


Traditional high-end gaming notebook PCs are essential for heavy and heavy enclosures to handle the heat generated by high-performance GPUs. Inevitably to the image that "gaming PC = Gotsu".


MAX-Q DESIGN is a technology that transforms this situation completely.


The gaming notebook PC born in the MAX - Q standard has a thickness of 18 mm or less and weighs less than 5 pounds (about 2.27 kg). Among notebook PCs that you might mistake as a business PC,NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080High-performance graphics like "can be built in. Because Apple's MacBook Air's thickness is 17 mm, you should be able to imagine the approximate thinness of the MAX-Q adopted notebook PC.


The technology "MAX-Q" that overturned this conventional gaming notebook concept was announced at Keynote speech by CEO Jenson Huan on the first day of COMPUTEX TAIPEI 2017 and shocked it.


COMPUTEX TAIPEI 2017At the venue booth of MAX-Q, MAX-Q recruitment laptops are on display and are receiving great reactions. ASUS ROG ZEPHYRUS attracted attention as much as it is necessary to wait in order to touch the main body.

Extremely thin GTX 1080 equipped gaming notebook PC "ASUS ROG ZEPHYRUS" to make us feel the arrival of the new era - GIGAZINE


How was the MAX-Q born? I asked Gaurav Agarwal, who is responsible for marketing GeForce GPU products, how to integrate the GTX 1080 into a thin notebook PC.


First of all, gaming notebook PC with built-in GPU of GeForce GTX exceeded 20 million units on installed base. It is 9 times faster in the past 5 years, and in 2016 it surpassed Microsoft's game console Xbox One. Among the growing gaming PC market, the genre called gaming notebook PC gathers certain support.


So NVIDIA thought about "What would you design if you designed" ideal gaming notebook PC "? There are three essential elements. "Thinness" "(high resolution 4K game correspondence)) high performance" "silence" was said. However, real high-performance laptops did not satisfy these elements, they could not reach the performance of a thick, full-size graphic board, and fans for waste heat went around with explosive sounds.


The big cause is the relationship between the performance and heat inherent in the graphic board. For high-performance GPUs, as the performance increases, the amount of heat generation increases exponentially. Therefore, if pursuing performance it is necessary to enhance the cooling performance for waste heat, inevitably the thickness of the case of the notebook PC is obliged to be thick. In other words, there are two possible choices: "Thin, quiet, but poor performance" or "High performance, but thick and noisy". There seems to be a dilemma that one of performance and thinness must be taken.

GeForce GTX 1080 has a TDP of 180 W. On the other hand, the power consumption of the entire system of the gaming note PC is 90 W. It is impossible to even follow GPU alone, and it is not difficult to imagine how difficult it is to build a high-performance GPU in a laptop.


"MAX-Q" was developed to create an ideal gaming notebook that is "thin, quiet but high performance" to change it. MAX-Q is the aerospace engineering term that refers to the point of maximum load on a rocket such as space shuttle. It is MAX - Q that realized the philosophy of a design that can endure a severe load with a notebook PC.


Comparison between GTX 880M equipped gaming notebook PC (left) and MAX-Q compatible gaming notebook PC. Compared to the 880M notebook PC, the MAX-Q compatible gaming notebook computer has achieved a dramatic evolution of "three times the performance, a half of the thinness by a third". It is exactly the evolution of a different dimension.


Elements that realized this evolution are "efficiency", "optimization of GFE (game driver)", "high performance waste heat mechanism", "optimization of regulator"


Below is a graph showing the relationship between GPU performance (vertical axis) and required power (horizontal axis). The performance rise rate drops sharply with respect to power. This is reversed that there is a region where performance degradation is small even if the power is greatly lowered. The green part shows that you can save 40% power in exchange for 10% performance reduction.


Below is a graph showing the rate of performance rise as power is raised, performance will rise if you raise the power to the right shoulder to a certain peak point, but the performance improvement rate sharply decreases with the peak. In other words, the peak is the "most delicious place". In order to keep using this most delicious place, MAX - Q has decided the optimization of software and regulator division.


By the way, I pointed Mr. Agarwal to the location of MAX - Q. In order to realize the MAX-Q of 1/3 power consumption of the original 180 W of GTX 1080, we use the "delicious place" to the left of this point.


How much performance the MAX-Q has is as shown in the graph below comparing the performance in each game. MAX - Q (green) with GTX 1080 will launch performance that overwhelm "ordinary" high - end gaming notebook PC (gray) equipped with GeForce GTX 1060.


MAX-Q sticks to not only performance but also "sound". The MAX-Q imposes strict quiet performance of 40 dBA or less. When it falls from 40 dBA to 32 dBA, it seems to be felt as "a sound of half size" with the human ear. Quietness of 40 dBA or less is guaranteed for all notebook PCs receiving MAX - Q certification, and such authentication is the first attempt at gaming notebook PC. Users do not know how loud a gaming notebook is before purchasing, but quietness is guaranteed if it is compatible with MAX - Q, which is a big merit. Incidentally, the total output is also set to 90 W or less.


NVIDIA sticking to sound adopts silence technology "WhisperMode" for MAX-Q. WhisperModeGFE (GeForce Experience)It reduces the noise that you feel while playing with a new setting incorporated in the game.


The graph below shows the game "OverwatchShowing the relationship between the frame rate during playing and the output. Most games know that there is a point (green) that makes it impossible to earn a frame rate as compared to an increase in output, and it is said to lower the sound while earning a frame rate by setting this delicious place. It seems that the game which optimized by WhisperMode has already exceeded 400 titles, and it seems that you can shut down unpleasant sounds in many games.


The world's first gaming notebook "ASUS ROG ZEPHYRUS" with GTX 1080 on MAX-Q compatible gaming PC also supports G-SYNC. The 17.9 mm enclosure looks like a business notebook.


It seems that commercialization of MAX-Q compatible laptop PCs has already been considered by about 19 PC makers.


◆ Q & A
GIGAZINE:
Although MAX-Q is said to have been subjected to various optimizations, the contents themselves are the same as the full-size graphic board GTX 10 series? Is not it like with "M" which was once used as a GPU for notebook PCs?

Agarwal:
Yes. The contents are the same.

GIGAZINE:
So can you use NVSYNC or CUDA?

Agarwal:
Of course you can use it.

GIGAZINE:
Can I use the optimization setting with Pascal generation GPU only in the old generation GPU such as Maxwell generation?

Agarwal:
It corresponds to GTX 1080/1070/1060 only in Pascal generation. It can not be used in Maxwell generation.

GIGAZINE:
Is it possible to power the GTX 1080 of the desktop PC by using GFE of MAX-Q?

Agarwal:
MAX-Q has severe restrictions not only in software aspects such as drivers but also in regulators. The noise of the fans is also so. Therefore, it can not be used on the desktop graphic board. The concept of MAX - Q is to create an ideal gaming notebook computer that is thin, quiet and high performance to the last.

GIGAZINE:
With MAX-Q, it seems that the model with "M" once is unnecessary?

Agarwal:
Yes, model with M will be abolished. From "GTX 10 Series" models with "M" are not released.

◆ Demo
So, I got a game play demonstrated with "ASUS ROG ZEPHYRUS" equipped with GTX 1080 with MAX-Q adoption.

Playing 3D game with ASUS ROG ZEPHYRUS on GTX 1080, NVIDIA MAX-Q DESIGN is literally GAME CHANGER !! - YouTube


ROG ZEPHYRUS compatible with G-SYNC can play games at 120 Hz. Surprisingly I can hardly feel the noise during play. It is thin and light, so portability is also outstanding, the LAN party seems to be making a big progress, it made me feel the arrival of the new era of gaming notebook PC.

MAX-Q compatible gaming notebook PCs will appear one after another. It is expected to be released in Japan.