RTX 2080 Max-Q vs RTX 2070

[Mulligan]

Hi, perhaps a slightly hypothetical question until the cards are released. But what would provide between performance between the RTX 2080 Max-Q and the RTX 2070 (NON-Max-Q)?

I'm torn between the 17.3" DEFIANCE V RTX (with 2080 Max-Q) and the 17.3" OCTANE VI (with 2070), unfortunately I don't think my budget will stretch to the Octane with RTX 2080 (NON-Max-Q).

Thanks!

 

[Oussebon]

I'm afraid you're 100% right. We need to wait for benchmarks.

We don't know what the performance will be with the varying frequencies, and whether there will be any thermal/power issues that effect performance. For the cards and the chassis. Even in max-Q form, a 2080 is some hefty hardware to put into a mobile chassis, when you consider that the old 1080 only made its way into a 17.3" Octane (and the 2080 = a 1080 ti performance wise)

My money would be on the 2080 Max-Q as being the better performer as while the clock speeds are lower it has a lot more cores and also for RTX I believe will keep the 2080's RT and tensor core advantages over the 2070 too.

But wait and see.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Given the choice and based on the last gen chassis, I would choose the octane with 2070 for peace of mind. It’s streets ahead of the defiance in terms of cooling and if going for a 1080p screen the 2070 is overkill anyway even with RTX ramped up (with some reservations).

 

[Mulligan]

Thanks for your quick responses!

Is cooling a major issue on the Definance models? I really like the slimmer form factor but not if it sacrifices cooling/performance, mobility isn't too major an issue for me.

And yes will likely go with 1080p, as discussed in another thread, the 1440p would be ideal as it sounds like the power still isn't quite there yet for full-on 4K.

 

[Oussebon]

I'd say there have been an above-average level of complaints on the forums about the Defiance's temps, though mostly from the CPU side. But clearly plenty of people have been fine with theirs.

But yes, this is one reason why I suggest waiting for benchmarks of the GPUs. Hopefully there'll be some reviews of the same Clevo chassis PCS use for their Defiance online so you can check temps and performance.

 

[Mulligan]

Love the process of researching a new machine but oh boy does it require a lot of patience!

How well does the i7-8750H in the Defiance compare up against the i5-8600 or i7-8700 in the Octane? The machine is primarily used for gaming.

 

[Oussebon]

Performance wise you're not going to see a great deal of difference between any of the CPUs for straight gaming. You can see some benchmarks of those CPUs on notebookcheck.net.

i5 CPUs can run cooler than i7s due to the lack of HT, and the Octane has usually had a beefier cooling system (due to the S series CPUs and the higher end GPUs like the 1080). But I think it's worth waiting to see how these clevo chassis behave before making decisions.

You're probably about as hungry for the benchmarks of these GPUs/laptops as I am for Radeon VII - i.e. the suppressed energy of waiting is enough to launch you into orbit

 

[Mulligan]

Hah yeh that's about right.

Do you think I should be looking beyond Nvidia at the new Radeon cards for laptop? I can't fault my AMD Radeon HD 6990M which has managed to (barely) hang in there for about 7 years now (admittedly dropping game settings lower than low the last couple years).

 

[SpyderTracks]

Hah yeh that's about right.

Do you think I should be looking beyond Nvidia at the new Radeon cards for laptop? I can't fault my AMD Radeon HD 6990M which has managed to (barely) hang in there for about 7 years now (admittedly dropping game settings lower than low the last couple years).

I think price vs performance is going to be with AMD this year, unless you're going for absolute all out RTX capability then obviously go with nVidia, but AMD will be one to watch out for this year.

 

[Oussebon]

I don;'t think we'll see much competition from AMD in the mobile space until navi later this year, and that's a fair wait quite possibly. They showed a bit of leg for Zen 2, but Lisa Su barely mentioned Navi - though that might always have been to avoid undercutting the new GPU they just launched. Nvidia may also do non-RTX GPUs I guess.

Navi and GTX GPUs may offer better performance per £ than the RTX series, but are unlikely to exceed its performance (not counting Vulkan etc). If you get an RTX laptop, you might find yourself saying "I could have got this cheaper and more power efficient after 6+ months" but I'm not sure you'd be saying "Oh, my RTX GPU now sucks". Although I suppose it depends what performance vs the desktop cards they offer.