Review and rating of video cards for laptops for 2018-2019

One of the most important characteristics of a laptop is the quality of the “picture”. The so-called graphic core is responsible for it. Its main component is a video card. It can be integrated (integrated graphics chip) or discrete.

The list of tasks controlled by the video card includes calculation of the graphics displayed on the screen of the device, texturing, rasterization. It also performs non-graphical mathematical calculations, offloading the central processor. The performance of the laptop as a whole depends on its power.

A powerful graphics card is an integral part of a modern gaming laptop

Video card rating for laptops performance / price

Developers give Hi-End graphics chips the ability to perform a huge number of different tasks. The most important are:

• editing photo materials;
• 3D modeling;
• mathematical calculations.

Laptops allow graphics processing

In the ranking - 11 of the best devices of 2018, designed to connect to laptops and work with graphics:

Almost all of the video cards listed in the table belong to the highest (rarely to the middle) class. The super popular just a couple of years ago, the GTX 980 “lost” its leading position, and closes the rating in terms of price and performance. Comparison of the financial costs per unit of productivity for the year before last cards RX 570 and RX580 (less than $ 5) shows that they are slightly ahead of competitors. Highest in terms of the 3DMark 11 test level (1280x720) is the 2016 GeForce GTX 1080 video card.

When the first test results of the device in 2018 (RTX 2070 and RTX 2080) are received, they will undoubtedly rise in the ranking. But on one condition - if the price of them drops to at least $ 400.

Powerful laptop graphics cards

Notebooks become devices of the highest category for working with graphics after connecting desktop (external) video cards to them. In this list, NVidia and AMD cards that entered the market in 2015-2016 are out of competition. Many ratings put the new RTX 2080 cards (laptop and maxQ) at the highest levels. They have excellent memory frequency indicators (14000 and 12000 MHz, respectively). But to consider them together with proven GeForce samples is hardly possible due to the lack of a set of different technical tests.

1. GeForce RTX 2080

On August 20, 2018, NVidia introduced a new generation device with Turing architecture. The RTX 2080 product, according to the developers, produces 60 fps in games with 4K resolution.

The basis of the structure is a six-cluster processor TU104. Each cluster contains eight multiprocessor SM blocks. The number of active CUDA stream processors in the processor core is 2944.

New Turing Series RTX Graphics Card

The new architecture is equipped with three latest rasterization acceleration technologies:

• Rate shading
• Mesh Shading,
• Texture Space Shading.

And one more “breakthrough”, which in the future can be used for game rendering: the video card is made using hardware ray tracing in real time.

2. GeForce GTX 1080 SLI

The most modern card in the GTX series is a combination of two portable cards operating in SLI mode.The chip code is GP 104. Frame sequential display doubles performance.

The performance of the 1080 card is higher, the more modern the game drivers installed on the laptop. With its help, the graphics of the most modern video cards (2016-2017) are reproduced in 4K mode.

GTX 1080 SLI - dual “miracle” from NVidia

In addition to performance, the SLI graphics card has twice as much power consumption. Its peak flow rate reaches 360 watts. Despite the build quality and popularity among gamers, such cards are not included in ultrabooks. They are ideal for massive and fairly heavy devices.

3. GeForce GTX 1070 SLI

Another dual-GPU of the top series from NVidia. The Pascal graphics card is designed specifically for use on laptops. It supports Direct X 12. The dual video memory bus has a capacity of 256 + 256 bits. The total number of computing cores is 4096 units. The type of memory is GDDR5.

The principle of connecting a 1070 SLI video card to the system

The maximum memory capacity is 2x8 GB. But it does not double, since each processor performs exclusively its own range of tasks. Just like the 1080 series cards, these devices are designed to fit large laptops.

Mid-range gaming graphics cards

The rating of video cards designed for middle-class laptops is very wide. Such chips calmly cope with a low frame rate. But the most modern "toys" equipped with such video adapters, laptops will be pulled only with medium detail. The 3DMark 11 test level is good, but rarely exceeds 10,000 points. They have one definite plus: they can be used in laptops of the middle price category.

1. NVIDIA Quadro P2000

Best Mid-Range Graphics Cards - Quadro P2000. The device runs on a GP107 chip. The number of computing units is 768. A feature of the video card is a certified driver package optimized for working with CAD.

P2000 - the leader of the "middle" class

In terms of performance, the P2000 is similar to the GeForce GTX 1050Ti consumer card. The memory frequency of the GDDR5 type is 6008 MHz, the maximum capacity is 4 GB. The 3DMark 11 (8201) test is not the best for cards in this category. The device supports Direct X 12.1.

2. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Max-Q

Cover of one of the most popular video cards for gaming laptops of the last three years. The Pascal architecture device was introduced at the very beginning of 2017. For work, the Samsung GP107 chip based on 14 nm transistors is used. The hallmarks of the Max-Q version are:

• energy efficient drivers;
• low voltage power supply;
• noise level below 40 dB.

GTX 1050 Ti - one of the quietest video cards

Compared to a standard 1050 graphics card, power consumption is reduced by 7-10 watts (40-46 watts average). The “plus” of the card is the possibility of its use in gaming laptops of light versions.

3. NVIDIA Quadro M3000M

The device has a Fermi architecture without supporting ECC type memory (with error correction function). CUDA processor cores are used with support for Direct X 11. In this video card, there is the possibility of using NVidia's know-how - 3D Vision Pro technology.

M3000M - Advanced Mid-Range Graphics Chip

The switching sequence between the integrated and discrete cards is based on NVidia Optimus technology. However, not every laptop supports it. Power consumption of 75 watts allows you to use the video card in laptops with a screen diagonal of 17-19 inches.

Budget graphics cards for laptops

Benchmark 3DMark 11 for video cards of the lower range usually rarely exceeds 3000. Their main distinguishing features:

• low level of detail;
• low power consumption;
• Great battery life for a laptop.

Basically, these are mobile video cards with small indicators of maximum clock speed.

1.NVIDIA GeForce 930MX

Integrated architecture map of Maxwell, 2016 release, with a not very high performance indicator. Supports Direct X 12. Electronic base - GM108 chip. In order to reach the level of mobile 930M and 940M, the developers installed on the card GDDR 5 with support for DDR 3.

Integrated 930MX Budget Card

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It features an extremely low power consumption indicator of only 15-25 watts.In the 3DMark 11 test, the video card showed a low 2201. But the overall balance of settings brought it to one of the highest places in the list of chips for standard laptops.

2.AMD Radeon 530

Low-performance mobile card with GCN architecture from the Radeon 500 series. Contains 384 shader units in the premium version. The clock threshold is 1024 MHz. The memory bus has a capacity of 64 bits. The card supports Direct X 12. The 3DMark 11 level is not bad - 2327 points.

Mobile map for games at medium settings

Demanding on games like Call of Duty or XCOM 2 to run on a laptop with such a chip is useless. But in the less "moody" FIFA 17 and Overwatch with average settings for the frame rate, you can play quite satisfactorily.

3. AMD Radeon R9 M375

Another representative of the "mobile" AMD family (Tonga generation). Despite the very average clock speed (1015 MHz) 3, the R9 M375 card has the best 3DMark 11 test threshold of 3,314 points among budget employees. A natural speed limiter is the type of memory (DDR 3 128 bit). But it can be improved by installing GDDR5.

The video card that showed the best test 3Dmark 11

Among the interesting solutions applied by the developers is the availability of FreeSync technology (adaptive change in the image scanning frequency). The chip is capable of decoding a high-resolution video image in hardware mode. The device can be successfully used for the production of complex hardware computing OpenCL.