NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Ti (Desktop) vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Max-Q vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 SLI (Laptop)

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Ti (Desktop)

The Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 Ti is the second fastest Pascal based graphics card in November 2017. It is a high-end desktop graphics card based on a cut down GP104 chip as the GTX 1080 and manufactured in 16 nm FinFET at TSMC. Compared to the GTX 1080, it uses the more available GDDR5 graphics memory, and compared to the GTX 1070 it offers more shaders (2432 versus 1920). More details on the Pascal architecture including all features and comparisons to Maxwell, can be found here.

The performance of the GTX 1070 Ti was in our tests right between the GTX 1070 and GTX 1080. However, the powerefficiency was worse than the GTX 1070 and near the GTX 1080. Nvidia also specifies the 1070 Ti and 1080 at 180W.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Max-Q

The Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 with Max-Q design is a mainstream GPU based on the Pascal architecture and was announced in January 2018. Contrary to the faster models, the GTX 1050 uses the GP107 chip, which is manufactured in a 14 nm process at Samsung.

The clock is not the only difference compared to the regular GTX 1050 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).

Features

The GP107 chip is manufactured in a 14 nm FinFET process at Samsung and offers a number of new features, including support for DisplayPort 1.4 (ready), HDMI 2.0b, HDR, Simultaneous Multi-Projection (SMP) as well as improved H.265 video de- and encoding (PlayReady 3.0). A full list of improvements and the new Pascal desktop GPUs is available in our dedicated Pascal architecture article.

Performance

The performance of the GeForce GTX 1050 Max-Q should be around 10-15 % below a regular GTX 1050 for laptops. This means the GPU is most suited for full HD gaming at high settings (not maximum).

Power Consumption

The power consumption of the GeForce GTX 1050 Max-Q is rated at 34 to 40 Watt and therefore significantly lower than the normal laptop GTX 1050 (53 Watt). Therefore, the Max-Q variant is also suited for thin and light laptops.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 SLI (Laptop)

The Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 SLI for laptops is a combination of two GTX 1070 graphics cards in SLI mode. Each card renders one frame at a time (AFR mode) but depends for most games on a good profile in the driver. Therefore, the performance can range from no gains over a single GTX 1070 to up to 90% faster performance. In most games with SLI support, the GTX 1070 SLI is therefore faster than a single GTX 1080. However, sometimes the combination also suffers from micro-stuttering.

The technical details of the card are identical to a single GTX 1070 (see for more information) and the power consumption is doubled. Therefore, the 1070 SLI combination is only found in huge clunky laptops.