Nvidia Will Now Force Laptop Makers To Disclose GPU Performance Metrics

Nvidia has changed its policy surrounding information that manufacturers must supply to consumers when selling any laptops with any of its new RTX 30-series chips.

The change comes amid growing concerns over the differences in performance from laptops using the same hardware, which comes down to how the laptop has been designed to cope with the chip's thermal capabilities. There are many laptops that feature new RTX 3080 and 3070 mobile GPUs, but their performance hasn't been easy to discern outside of the model specification.

Nvidia understand that this, coupled with the fact that it's reworked its Max-Q specification to refer to features instead of performance, has caused confusion. To remedy this, Nvidia is now requiring laptop makers to explicitly list specifications such as core and boost clocks for the GPUs on the product pages, letting consumers better inform themselves before a purchase.

"We're requiring OEMs to update their product pages to the Max-Q technology features for each GeForce laptop, as well as clocks and power--which communicates the expected GPU performance in that system," Nvidia stated to The Verge.

These changes will need to be rolled out by laptop manufacturers, and so far, few have rushed to update their websites. Currently only Gigabyte's Aorus 15G and Asus' ROG Zephyrus G15 have these details listed on their respective pages, but that's just two products in a field of dozens more.