The trend of laptops becoming more powerful and portable has been on the rise in recent years. As a result, many people are happy to make the tradeoff between power and portability. However, it's not expected to continue indefinitely. Laptops and desktops are sharing more and more components, which could lead to the development of laptops with eight-core CPUs before too long.

But do you need eight cores in a laptop's CPU? Probably not. The question is whether you want one. And that's where the graphics card comes into play. For years, NVIDIA made separate versions of their graphics cards for desktops and laptops. However, in recent years, they've started producing a single graphics card that works across both platforms.

The Acer Triton 2019 is a great example of this trend. With an RTX 2080 GPU inside, it can deliver the same level of performance as a full-sized gaming PC, but in a much thinner and lighter package. The graphics card is not a separate entity, but rather a part of the laptop's overall design.

What does this mean for gamers? In short, it means that the wait for cool features like ray tracing to come to laptops is over. You can now get all the benefits of an RTX 2080 without having to compromise on performance. And with most games supporting ray tracing, you can expect even better visuals and performance.

But what about power consumption? The Acer Triton 2019's RTX 2080 GPU has a relatively high TDP of around 220 watts. However, the laptop itself is designed to be power-efficient, using around 100-120 watts to achieve the same level of performance as the desktop version.

This trend towards laptops matching the performance of desktops is not new. With advancements in technology, it's now possible for laptops to deliver the same level of performance as a high-end gaming PC, but with less noise and heat. And while there are still some limitations to consider, such as power consumption and cooling systems, the Acer Triton 2019 demonstrates just how far this trend has come.

In fact, when you look at the Max-Q design used in the Acer Triton 2019, it's not that different from what Intel does on their high-end mobile CPUs. The difference is mainly in the level of power efficiency and cooling systems. However, with advancements in technology, laptops are now able to deliver the same level of performance as desktops, but without compromising on portability.

Overall, the Acer Triton 2019 shows that laptops have finally caught up with desktops when it comes to performance and features. And with more and more manufacturers following suit, it's likely that we'll see even better results in the future.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- Hey guys, this is Austin.Computers have beengetting smaller and smallerever since the days of mainframes.It just makes sense, right?As technology advances,you want to put it into moreand more portable form factors.So when Nvidia reachedout and wanted to sponsora video on the brand newAcer Predator Triton 500,it felt like the perfect time to ask,Are laptops killing desktops?And yeah, that's a big question.At only 18 millimeters thick,and just over two kilos in weight,this is a great exampleof how a laptop like thiscould not have existedeven a couple years ago.The entire chassis is made of metal,and it has a narrow-bezel display,which is not only brightand fairly vibrant,but importantly it does havea full 144hz refresh rate,over double what youwould find on most othernon-gaming laptops these days.Now this version ofthe Triton does have anRTX-2060 inside,so it will support GSYNCvia an external display.But if you are able to upgrade thisto the 2080 version of the Triton,it has GSYNC on the internal displayWhich keeps things looking even smoother.On board, you also haveKiller DoubleShot Pro.Essentially this can takeadvantage of both ethernetand WIFI at the same time,to route your trafficthrough whichever is faster.Something that's hard to get acrossis just the level ofpolish, fit and finishwith this laptop.I mean not only does it look cleanwith all the blue lighting,although of course it is RBG.But on top of that, you'vegot the little things whichare absolutely nailed.This is one of the besttouch pads I've ever usedon any Windows laptop.The keyboard is also great.And that screen really does sell the ideathat this is a super-fast gaming laptop,even when you're not even gaming, right?Stuff like web browsing isstill much, much smootherthan on pretty much any other laptop.And that is a big, big plus.So if we get back to the idea of laptopsbecoming close to replacing desktops,one of the very first thingsyou have to acknowledgeis that laptops have a lotless space to deal with.But it also fits in your backpack,so, you know, there's that.This might sound obviousbut there's some major advantages of goingwith a desktop tower.In the big ones, it's onthe power side of things.So not only does adesktop not have to worryabout things like battery life.As long as you've got mompaying the electricity billyou're totally fine.One of the bigger issuesis the actual cooling aspect of things.As you can see with a tower like this,you can load it up withfans, RGBs, liquid cooling,all that is no problem.So things can be run at much,much higher clock speeds.It just really not a big issue.But, we come over to a laptopwhich is less than an inch thin,certain sacrifices have to be made.But you know what?Those sacrifices are gettingsmaller and smaller every year.This delivers a verysimilar level of performanceto this giant tower right in front of me.If we come back to the Triton 500,you'll that a large part of this designis entirely dedicated tokeeping the laptop cool.Now that makes sense, right?With a 2060 inside, this canput off a hundred watts of heatjust from the GPU alone.So because they have allthese different heat sinksas well as the metal arrow-blade fansto keep all that heat moving,it means that there isactually very little throttlingeven though we are gaming onsuch a thin and light laptop.A big part of this isthanks to the software.So if we hit the Predator Sense buttonwhich is very helpfullylabeled right here,you have full controlover a lot of things,including the fans.So by default, this guy actually runswith the fans all disabled.But as soon as you startneeding any kind of extra power,they will start to kick up.Now for gaming, it'sactually fairly quiet.One of the cool partsis, that if I come overto the fan control sideand hit the turbo button,you'll see that thisthing can really crank up.So if you have headphoneson and you don't careabout a little bit of noise,you can get significantlybetter performanceout of the Predator.And the best part is, assoon as your done gaming,you can just hit the turbo button,and it will bring the clockspeeds back down to normal.And importantly, those fanswill kick right back off.It actually is nice tohave the performancewhen you need it, or thesilence when you want it.And I always want the silence.(laughs)I'll give up a few frames tohave a much quieter laptop.I feel like the morevideos we do like this,the more I just out myself assomeone who's like an old manand like, I don't care Ijust want it to be quiet.I want it to work well.Right now there are over onebillion PC gamers in the world.I think it's a pretty safe bet to assumethat a lot of those gamersare using desktops right now.But just look at theoverall trends, right?I mean it wasn't that longago that pretty much everyonehad a desktop in their homes.Now laptops have largely replaced themfor pretty much anythingbesides gaming tasks.Well, I think given how fargaming laptops have come,it's only a matter of timebefore gaming is also movingmore and more to thelaptop side of things.My real question is, exactlyhow close can a laptop getto a full gaming desktop?So we have come to GDChere in San Franciscowhich is the mecca of all things gamingand tech related to talkjust a little bit moreabout why the laptopactually makes so much sense in 2019.Also, we're were looking foran excuse to come to GDC.Now if you take a look inside the Triton,you'll see the secret saucethat makes all this work.The highly optimized CPUand GPU to really elevatethe laptop to an entirely different level.First up we have the CPU.This is the Intel Core I7-8750h,which is a full 6 4processor that can clockover 4 ghz when it's boosting.Now it's easy to forgetthat for a very long time,we were capped at around four coresnot only on the desktop side,but also the laptop side.The idea that we can getsix cores in somethingthat's this thin and light,is something that's easyto take for granted.But this is a big deal.You can do more than justgaming on something like this.With that much power,stuff like streaming,video editing, 3Drendering, all that stuffis totally possible.Inside, essentially what you're gettingis a more power-efficient versionof the eighth-gen core desktop processors.Now there's a lot of advantages to this.Not only is it a very similar layout,but because we're dealing with aboutless than half the power,somewhere in the neighborhoodof 45 watts versus 90plus on the desktop side,it means that while you're giving upa little bit of performance,that same basic corearchitecture is all here.As long as you have thecooling to back it up,which the Triton definitely does,you can actually still keepthose fairly high boost clockseven with all six cores loaded.Now the laws of physics do meanthat because we have lessthan an inch-thick laptop,it's never going to have quite that samelevel of performance as the desktop.But, it kinda doesn't need toas long as you're getting close enoughand you still deliver the portability.I think it's a tradeoff that a lot of peopleare happy to make.Don't expect this trendto go anywhere either.As laptops and desktopsshare more and moreof the same components, it is very likely,if the rumors are true,that we'll see laptopswith eight core CPUbefore too much longer,which would mean, to be fair,do you need eight coresin a CPU of a laptop?Probably not.Do you want one?I do.Maybe the more interesting comparisonis on the graphics side.Now for years, Nvidiamade a separate versionof all of their graphics cards.They wold make the desktopversion, and then a mobile.However, for the past couple years,they've straight up just made onethat works across the board.Now, no, it's not quite that simple.Nvidia and their OEMpartners such as Acer,do a lot of work to makesure that a full RTX cardcan fit in a thin,light chassis like this.But you might be surprisedat just how closethe graphics card from this laptop iscompared to a much thickerand much more expensive gaming PC.What this means is that you're gettingall of the performance you would expectas an RTX graphics card.Not only do you have thepower to play a lot of gameson ultra settings and high frame rates,but you can also get some ofthe cool bells and whistlesincluding ray tracingwhich we are just veryconveniently standingin front of a giant booth for.Really what this means is that the daysof waiting for the cool bells and whistlesfor the desktop to comedown to laptops are over.We really basically hit feature parity.And typically speaking,when something comes out forthe desktop side of things,it's gonna come out for thelaptop side very quickly.And generally speaking,you're really going to beloosing a lot in that process.This is something that's easyto kind of take for granted, right?But again, this is a muchthinner, much lighter,and much more difficult thing to engineer.It's easy to forgetthat not that long ago,there was a massive penaltyto get gaming on a laptop.You had to deal with far inferior specs,both on the CPU and the GPU side.And a lot of times youjust didn't even havethose same level of features.I mean I can imagine if raytracing came out five years ago,you would not have beenable to play it on a laptop.While it's great to have that same levelof performance with the2060 inside the Tritonas you would get in a desktop,you also have otheroptions as you go higher upin the product stack.So specifically on the Acer side,if you upgrade thisTriton with an RTX 2080,you then get a Max-Q design.Now the Max-Q design isactually not that differentfrom what Intel does ontheir high-end mobile CPUs.So they basically start fromthe same building block.In this case the RTX2080, it's the same GPUacross the laptop as well as the desktop.Now there are some slight differences.Usually the Max-Q design is alittle bit more highly benzedand a little morepower-efficient just naturally.On top of that, they do a much better jobof bringing out the power tokeep that level of performanceas high as possible.So for context, typically speaking,an RTX 2080 has a roughly 220 watt TDP.Now on the laptop side, it'susually about half of that,around 100 to 120 watts.Even though it's using half the power,often times you'regetting anywhere betweentwo thirds to three quartersof that same level of performance.Now if you excuse all thenerd talk for a second,what this means is thatlaptops and desktopsare so similar at this point.It really is just a scaled-up versionof what you're findingon the laptops side.You can go grab a desktopwith some giant coolerand a ton of heat sinks.Now of course, there's goingto be the laws of physicswhich mean that laptopscan never quite matchthat level of performance.But when we're talking about 70 to 80%of that same level,in something that'sless than an inch thickthat you can fit in your backpackand take with you all day,I think that's a super-compellingvalue proposition.I think a lot of peoplewould prefer to haveone single system.This here might not be ahundred percent as powerfulas the most crazy thing out there.But it can do basically very well,plenty of battery life,and most importantlyyou can take it with you all day,something that's notreally going to happenanytime soon with the desktop.