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| Nvidia Max-Q Computex 2017 Announcement |
Nvidia announced it's new Max Q laptops which is basically putting high end gaming performance inside a Ultrabook like form factor. The components are basically the same except the power draw from these parts have been lowered substantially. These laptops have different cooling solutions than the regular laptop like the Asus Zephyrus which has a latch that opens up to provide airflow when you open up the laptop itself. Kind of creative thinking if you ask me however Asus didn't put much thought into the Zephyrus's keyboard ergonomics when it designed the laptop according to ArsTechnica that demoed it at this year's Computex 2017.
Laptops have to meet Max-Q standards of a thin form factor and a maxinum noise decibel rating (40dbA) to be eligible to get the Max-Q branding and marketing applied to their product anything higher than that would not pass. Nvidia is also implementing it's "whisper-quiet" technology which balances graphical settings with power draw which in turn keeps the fans from having to run at full speed and temperatures under control. Now with a pretty strict 40 dbA noise decibel rating it's going to be hard to keep even these low wattage chips under control because the smaller form factor leaves little room for cooling and heat to ventilate, it's definitely going to be a challenge for these manufacturers to come up with good solutions to master this but sometimes a challenge can be a good thing.
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| Asus Zephyrus (courtesy of Ars Technica) |
For guys like me that can't carry a lot of weight on my shoulders due to a low body mass and people that don't care for bulky laptops or dislike slim laptops that make extremely annoying air blower sounds due to 100% fan speeds (I'm looking your way Razer with your blade laptops) this looks up to a dream come true but my chief concern is heat around the keyboard area. GPUs require good cooling to keep them from throttling and with such a small form factor I'm unsure it will be enough to maintain it all. It's a big test and like all new tech it sometimes takes time for it to be refined to get to the point where it needs to be. I guess we'll be finding out pretty soon.
