NVIDIA T500 Laptop GPU vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Max-Q vs NVIDIA Quadro T2000 Max-Q

The Nvidia T500 Mobile (formerly known as Quadro T500) for laptops is a professional mobile graphics card that is based on the Turing architecture (TU117 chip). It is based on the consumer GeForce MX450 and features the same 896 cores and a 64 Bit memory bus. Currently it is available with 2 or 4 GB graphics RAM (GDDR5 or GDDR6). The TDP ranges between 18 - 25 Watt depending on the variant. As the MX450, the T500 also supports PCIe 4.0. The chip is manufactured in 12nm FinFET at TSMC. 

The Turing generation did not only introduce raytracing for the RTX cards, but also optimized the architecture of the cores and caches. According to Nvidia the CUDA cores offer now a concurrent execution of floating point and integer operations for increased performance in compute-heavy workloads of modern games. Furthermore, the caches were reworked (new unified memory architecture with twice the cache compared to Pascal). This leads to up to 50% more instructions per clock and a 40% more power efficient usage compared to Pascal. In contrary to the faster Quadro RTX cards, the T500 does not feature raytracing and Tensor cores.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 with Max-Q design is the power saving variant of the mobile GeForce RTX 2060. Therefore it is a high end gaming graphics card for thin laptops. It is based on the same chip as the RTX 2060 but with reduced clock speeds and a lower power consumption. It was released in 2020 with the Zephyrus G14 gaming laptop.

With the refresh, Nvidia also reworked the Max-Q technologies for more efficiency. Low Voltage GDDR6 (lower clocked but more headroom for the GPU) and improved regulator efficiency should improve the performance per Watt. Two new optional features can also be implemented by the OEM. Max-Q Dynamic Boost is able to shift power from the CPU to the GPU on a per frame basis to increase overall performance. Furthermore, the laptop manufacturer can also implement Advanced Optimus with a dynamic display switch (hardware) to enable Optimus, G-SYNC and high refresh rate displays (up to 4K 120 Hz).

The clock is not the only difference compared to the regular GTX 2060 though. The drivers for the Max-Q version were optimized for efficiency (and not performance; only for Max-Q models), there are optimized voltage converters for 1V operation, high-end cooling methods, and a 40 dB limit for the fan noise (with clock adjustments to ensure this at all times).

The performance should be only slightly below the normal RTX 2060 due to the decreased clock rates. It should be most suited for 1080p gaming at maximum detail level. Raytracing features however may reduce framerates a lot, so using raytracing will be limited to some games.

The chip is specified at a TGP of around 65 Watt and therefore clearly lower than the 80 - 90 Watt of the regular RTX 2060 Mobile.

The Nvidia Quadro T2000 with Max-Q Design is a professional mobile graphics card that is based on the Turing architecture (TU117 chip). It is based on the consumer desktop GTX 1650 Ti therefore currently between a mobile GTX 1650 and GTX 1660 Ti. The chip is manufactured in 12nm FinFET at TSMC. Compared to the normal Quadro T2000, the Max-Q variants are clocked lower and work in a more efficient state. Currently, we know of two variants with different clock speeds and power consumptions (35 and 40 W).

The Turing generation did not only introduce raytracing for the RTX cards, but also optimized the architecture of the cores and caches. According to Nvidia the CUDA cores offer now a concurrent execution of floating point and integer operations for increased performance in compute-heavy workloads of modern games. Furthermore, the caches were reworked (new unified memory architecture with twice the cache compared to Pascal). This leads to up to 50% more instructions per clock and a 40% more power efficient usage compared to Pascal.

The performance in professional apps should be clearly lower than a normal (Max-P) Quadro T2000 due to the lower clock speeds, but still ahead the slower Quadro T1000 due to the higher shader count. Compared to consumer cards, the mobile GTX 1650 should be still slower.

Thanks to the relative low power consumption of the Quadro T2000 Max-Q, the GPU is suited for thin and light laptops. The used TU116 chip is manufactured in 12nm FFN at TSMC.