4 ms·

Are there any laptops that actually have a desktop GPU built in?

by yccs27 1y ago

lmm 1y ago
Yes (at least there used to be), but obviously that has a certain effect on their battery life and cooling requirements.
- dahcryn 1y ago
  at that point, it's about portability, not battery life
  - Nicook 1y ago
    you can pretty easily carry around a small form factor PC at that point. even a tower, where my LAN guys at.
    - Our_Benefactors 1y ago
      Laptop is still integrated with all the peripherals though (screen, trackpad, keyboard, speakers) Are Sager laptops still a thing? I used to lust after those many moons ago.
cma 1y ago
I don't think they do it anymore, but for a while nvidia laptop GPUs of the same model number had more cuda cores to match the desktop model of same number, with the laptop's lower clock.
- dragonwriter 1y ago
  The 3080 Ti laptop card has fewer CUDA cores but more VRAM than the desktop version.
  - cma 1y ago
    I think it was on the 2000 and maybe 1000 series.
mschuster91 1y ago
I've come across a few in the past, these 18 inch giant-ass "desktop replacement" / gamer things that had insanely large power bricks. Been a few years but I think they all had desktop GPU chips from NV. But I think it's not possible to do any more, not with any high-power card that is... the RTX 5090 has a TDP of 600-ish watts, you can neither get in that kind of power into a laptop, even at 24 volt that's still 25 amps of current just for the GPU, and most importantly you can't get rid of 600 watts of heat, no matter what, without making the user uncomfortable.
- welferkj 1y ago
  That's not the case. A 5060 has a 145W TDP, which is borderline feasible. A 5090 is 575W, which is approaching furnace territory.
  - mschuster91 1y ago
    Thanks, fixed. I intended the 5090 indeed but haven't had a coffee. Anyway, even the 145W of a 5060 are... an ugly challenge to meet. The 2019 16-inch MacBook Pro for example can happily guzzle 90W when you max out the i9 CPU and the dGPU and gets uncomfortably warm after a few minutes once the aluminium case goes into thermal equilibrium. Add in even just a 60W CPU to match with a 5060 and you're looking at double that heat to be dissipated!
    - vladvasiliu 1y ago
      Weren't those MacBooks relatively thin – the same as the OG retinas of 2012-2013? A friend of mine has an Asus with some Nvidia GPU (3070? not sure), a 5th gen ryzen 9 and a 200+W power brick. That thing is twice as thick as my 2013 MBP and the case is plastic. It also has more vents than my mbp, each of which has more surface area than all those on the mbp combined. I also suspect the fans are bigger. He actually bought it to play games on it and never complained about performance dropping after a while. So I suppose it manages to move the 200 W of heat somehow.
      - 1y ago
bandrami 1y ago
Yes, and their battery life was usually a full one half of ten minutes

Are there any laptops that actually have a desktop GPU built in?

by yccs27 1y ago

Are there any laptops that actually have a desktop GPU built in?

lmm 1y ago

Yes (at least there used to be), but obviously that has a certain effect on their battery life and cooling requirements.

dahcryn 1y ago
at that point, it's about portability, not battery life
- Nicook 1y ago
  you can pretty easily carry around a small form factor PC at that point. even a tower, where my LAN guys at.
  - Our_Benefactors 1y ago
    Laptop is still integrated with all the peripherals though (screen, trackpad, keyboard, speakers) Are Sager laptops still a thing? I used to lust after those many moons ago.

cma 1y ago

I don't think they do it anymore, but for a while nvidia laptop GPUs of the same model number had more cuda cores to match the desktop model of same number, with the laptop's lower clock.

dragonwriter 1y ago
The 3080 Ti laptop card has fewer CUDA cores but more VRAM than the desktop version.
- cma 1y ago
  I think it was on the 2000 and maybe 1000 series.

mschuster91 1y ago

I've come across a few in the past, these 18 inch giant-ass "desktop replacement" / gamer things that had insanely large power bricks. Been a few years but I think they all had desktop GPU chips from NV. But I think it's not possible to do any more, not with any high-power card that is... the RTX 5090 has a TDP of 600-ish watts, you can neither get in that kind of power into a laptop, even at 24 volt that's still 25 amps of current just for the GPU, and most importantly you can't get rid of 600 watts of heat, no matter what, without making the user uncomfortable.

welferkj 1y ago
That's not the case. A 5060 has a 145W TDP, which is borderline feasible. A 5090 is 575W, which is approaching furnace territory.
- mschuster91 1y ago
  Thanks, fixed. I intended the 5090 indeed but haven't had a coffee. Anyway, even the 145W of a 5060 are... an ugly challenge to meet. The 2019 16-inch MacBook Pro for example can happily guzzle 90W when you max out the i9 CPU and the dGPU and gets uncomfortably warm after a few minutes once the aluminium case goes into thermal equilibrium. Add in even just a 60W CPU to match with a 5060 and you're looking at double that heat to be dissipated!
  - vladvasiliu 1y ago
    Weren't those MacBooks relatively thin – the same as the OG retinas of 2012-2013? A friend of mine has an Asus with some Nvidia GPU (3070? not sure), a 5th gen ryzen 9 and a 200+W power brick. That thing is twice as thick as my 2013 MBP and the case is plastic. It also has more vents than my mbp, each of which has more surface area than all those on the mbp combined. I also suspect the fans are bigger. He actually bought it to play games on it and never complained about performance dropping after a while. So I suppose it manages to move the 200 W of heat somehow.
    - 1y ago

bandrami 1y ago

Yes, and their battery life was usually a full one half of ten minutes