Nvidia is launching its new high-end 3D graphics chip for gaming laptops today. The Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 graphics processing unit is targeted at laptop gamers, but it has the performance of traditional desktop gaming PCs, according to the company.
The new chip has features such as an ability to overclock it, or run it faster than manufacturing specifications.
Computer makers launching new computers in the coming weeks include Aorus, Clevo, MSI, and Asus, said Brian Choi, product manager at Santa Clara, Calif.-based Nvidia, in a press briefing. The laptops will arrive in the U.S. in the next few weeks.
“We want you to get desktop performance in a mobile form,” Choi said. “This is higher end than any GPU you’ve seen before.”
High-end graphics are required to run virtual reality apps, Choi said. As an example, a 1080 x 1920 PC game generates 2 million pixels on the screen at once, and it can generate 120 million pixels in a single second. But virtual reality apps generate as much as 5 million pixels at a time and as many as 450 million pixels in a second.
