MSI details tgp of RTX 30 GPUs in its new gaming laptops

MSI has provided details on the consumption of the RTX 30 graphics cards in its new gaming laptops. The manufacturer did that in a weekly live stream for fans. These details are not available on the product pages of the laptops.

In the MSI Insider program on YouTube, MSI discusses the total graphics power values ​​of its recently announced gaming laptops with RTX 3060, 3070 and 3080. The manufacturer does this after an internet discussion arose about the exact specifications of the new laptop GPUs. Nvidia has divided the new series into three models, but there are 28 different configurations with different consumption and different clock speeds. It is virtually impossible for consumers to find out which GPU configuration is used in a laptop on the basis of specified specifications.

Nvidia says it encourages manufacturers to provide details about the applied configuration, but there is little response. In communication to consumers, such as official product pages and in press releases, the details are missing in the vast majority of cases. In it, manufacturers only mention ‘RTX 3060’, while there are eleven different configurations of that one GPU.

Total graphics power of RTX 30 cards in new MSI laptops

MSI’s release of the details is a step in the right direction, but not a solution to the problem. When comparing laptops on the MSI website, the extensive details are not included. For example, if you compare the RTX 3060 versions of the GE76, GE66, GS66, GF65, then the specification list only shows the name of the GPU and the available video memory. It is not apparent that there are significant differences in the GPUs. MSI also does not use the Max-Q designation, while the tgps indicate that MSI does use it in some models.

MSI only mentions the consumption of the cards in the stream. The associated turbo frequency and memory bandwidth are derived from the list of available RTX 30 configurations.

MSI employees say in the live stream that giving exact specifications is difficult because the product pages on the website show the general ‘basic specifications’ and not the exact specifications of a laptop. This is because laptops can differ per country, region or retailer. According to MSI, the tgp data is therefore not on the product page.

Although that is partly a valid argument, MSI could clarify its product pages by indicating in the basic specifications which variants of video cards can be used in the relevant series. In addition, MSI could mention at least the thin GF65 and GF76 that they are Max-Q versions of the RTX 3060. So far, MSI has only shown the tgp details in the YouTube video.

It is not new that there are configurations of laptop GPUs with different uses. Laptop manufacturers need that flexibility, so that they can adapt the behavior of a GPU to the cooling capacity of laptops. With the new RTX 30 generation, however, there is a lot of difference between the fastest and slowest configurations and now that various laptop manufacturers no longer explicitly mention the Max-Q variants, the distinction cannot be made for consumers.