NVIDIA Just Made It Easier To Buy The Right RTX 30-Series Laptop

During CES 2021 last month, we received a flood of announcements for laptops that feature NVIDIA's RTX 30-series GPUs. Like the RTX 20-series before it, the 30-series will likely make for some particularly formidable gaming laptops, but with every manufacturer under the sun seemingly announcing at least one laptop for this year (and oftentimes many more), it can be difficult to make an informed choice about which is the best laptop for the money.

Thankfully, it's going to get at least a little bit easier thanks to new rules NVIDIA is imposing on its manufacturing partners. Speaking to The Verge, NVIDIA confirmed that companies making laptops with RTX 30-series GPUs will now have to reveal more specifications about the GPU on each laptop's product page.

Specifically, manufacturers will have to list clock speed and power stats on their product pages. Not only will this help users better understand the capabilities of each laptop's GPU, but it's also much more useful now that NVIDIA is changing the way it uses Max-Q branding. NVIDIA confirmed to The Verge that Max-Q branding will no longer be part of the GPU's name, and will instead be used to indicate when a 30-series GPU offers efficiency features like Whisper Mode 2 and Dynamic Boost 2.

When you consider that many consumers may turn to pre-made gaming laptops in the coming months to get their hands on an RTX 30-series GPU, this change is even more welcome. Standalone RTX 30-series cards for desktops have been excessively hard to find since they launched last year, and the stock shortages don't seem to be getting any better.

When these new laptops launch later this year, they might not just be the best way to get a machine with one of these GPUs – they could be the only way. With that in mind, NVIDIA instructing manufacturers to be more transparent with GPU specifications on product listings is a big win for consumers.