What are the differences between desktop graphics cards and laptops?

All users who have ever played on a PC know that the graphics card (GPU) is the component on which the most care must be taken when choosing a new computer. If we buy a computer with a graphics card that is not adequate for our needs, the experience will be terrible with very slow operation. The decision is especially difficult for laptops as the equivalent graphics cards on behalf of the desktop versions are often very different in their features and capabilities.

Laptop GPUs are often heavily clipped

The differences between laptop and desktop graphics cards are usually very large, it can go so far that the only thing in common between both versions is the name and little else. This often makes the user feel confused when purchasing a new computer and let the graphics card carry its name without delving into its specifications. To see the differences more clearly, we are going to compare the desktop Radeon R9 380 with its mobile version, the Radeon R9 380M. First, let's look at a table with its main specifications and characteristics.

Category	AMD Radeon R9 380	AMD Radeon R9 M380
Memory bandwidth	176GB / s	96GB / s
Clock speed	970MHz	900MHz
Shading units	1792	768
Texturing units	112	48
Video Composition	97.9 frames / s	47.87 frames / s
Pixel rate	31.04 GPixel / s	16 GPixel / s
Compute units	28	12
Raster units	32	16
PassMark score	5600	3047

In the previous table it can already be seen that both graphics cards have nothing in common beyond the name, well both serve to allow your computer to show you information on the screen: p If we look closely at the specifications of both cards we see that the Radeon R9 380M is just half that of its desktop version, the Radeon R9 380 so its performance should also be roughly half.

Let's see now what happens in the case of Nvidia and its GeForce GTX 980 and GeForce GTX 980M cards:

Category	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M
Memory bandwidth	224.4GB / s	160.4GB / s
Clock speed	1753MHz	1253MHz
Shading units	2048	1536
Texturing units	128	96
Texture rate	136.2 GTexel / s	99.6 GTexel / s
PassMark score	9712	5596

A very similar situation to the one seen before, in this case the specifications are not cut as much but the speed of the clock is lowered and much so the performance of the GeForce GTX 980M is little more than half of what the GeForce GTX 980 desktop.

What is the future of notebook GPUs?

The difference between the performance that a Mobile GPU can offer and its desktop version is fundamentally due to the limitation that exists in power and cooling in notebook computers, making it impossible or very complicated and expensive to offer the same performance in a notebook that on a desktop computer.

We recommend reading our guide to the best laptops on the market.

WE RECOMMEND YOU MSI brings its new gaming laptops to Computex 2018

Fortunately, both Nvidia and AMD are working to make their GPUs more and more energy efficient, so the difference between the desktop and laptop versions of their cards is reduced to each generation. In this sense, both Pascal and Polaris have been a great step forward, so the new generation laptops will offer much higher graphics performance. As we have already seen in our analyzes, the results obtained with MSI laptops (the only ones we have analyzed with these characteristics) are really remarkable:

As you can see in the MSI GT73VR review, the result is almost 10% less than that of a desktop computer. With this it helps us to play games with high resolutions, details and use virtual glasses like HTC Vive without any problem of incompatibility or lack of power.

Have you been as enthusiastic as we are about these new possibilities of the notebook gamer and its dedicated graphics cards? We want to know your opinion!