The year 2019 has dawned with several enthralling surprises for techies and gaming enthusiasts. Late last year, NVIDIA announced its latest line-up of GPUs—the NVIDIA RTX cards built according to Turing architecture and equipped with incredible features like real-time ray tracing and graphics enhanced by artificial intelligence. Not surprisingly, the announcement caused a massive stir, riveting anyone connected with gaming, multimedia creation and editing, or generally thrilled with superior A/V experiences. The newest line promises performance six times as fast as you have been used to, and that is one heck of a claim.
The NVIDIA RTX line is led by the fabulous RTX 2080 card, followed by RTX 2080i and RTX 2070. While RTX 2070 may only be the entry-point into this world of dazzle, it offers a LOT. Packed with 2304 cores (NVIDIA CUDA), this graphics card has a base clock frequency of 1410MHz and a boost frequency of 1710MHz. The imagery it succeeds in rendering is unbelievably lifelike and adds a whole new dimension to your favorite AAA games.
Most leading laptop makers have been quick off the mark in utilizing the splendor of NVIDIA’s most recent offering. The marketplace has already started to abound in multiple choices vis-à-vis laptops with NVIDIA RTX 2070, with ASUS, MSI, Dell, and GIGABYTE leading from the front. If you are planning to make your year spectacular with a new RTX gaming laptop or upgrade your old GTX 1070 laptop, how should you go about it? The Founders’ Edition of the RTX 2070 will set you back by about $599; laptops with this GPU are currently priced at $2199 and above.
So, which laptop should you pick to get the optimum blend of features, cost-effectiveness, and future readiness? We will help you find all the answers you need in this detailed review article.
GTX 1070 vs RTX 2070
For those of us besotted with the high-performing, eager-to-please GTX 1070, making a switch to a premium cousin can be dicey. Is a leap of faith essential?
Well, for starters, the RTX 2070 has a distinct edge on account of its path-breaking Turing architecture that allows real-time ray tracing and DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling). The resulting multimedia experience is infinitely more captivating. Also, the RTX 2070 card can smoothly let you play at an Ultra HD 4K resolution without loss of detail—something that the GTX 1070 will falter at. The RTX 2070 is also packed with more cores, offers greater memory bandwidth, and, mercifully, employs a superior cooling system to ensure silent but steady performance.
GTX 1070 | RTX 2070 | |
---|---|---|
Base Clock | 1506MHz | 1410MHz |
Boost Clock | 1683MHz | 1710MHz |
Cores | 1920 | 2304 |
Memory Bandwidth | 256GB/s | 448GB/s |
Power Consumption | 150W | 175W |
Real-time Ray Tracing | - | Yes |
Maximum Recommended Resolution | 2560 x 1600 | 3840 x 2160 |
The verdict is clear: RTX 2070 cards do deliver the moon, offering a palpable difference when you play at the highest resolutions on maximum settings. However, few games have been announced yet to tap their complete power (read ray tracing or NVIDIA’s favorite brainchild). Until then, your trusty old GTX 1070 card—whose prices may fall in light of recent proceedings—can serve you quite satisfactorily.
Must-Have Features in an RTX 2070 Gaming Laptop
When you get home an RTX 2070 laptop, you expect nothing but the best in visual splendor and gaming power. These powerful graphics cards promise to elevate your experience in everything to do with multimedia, thanks to their industry-leading design. However, to let you experience the full range of what an RTX 2070 can do, your laptop needs to rise to the occasion.
- CPU and Memory: Look for an Intel Core i7 and above to play the latest, most CPU-intensive games without any lags or delays. Most gaming laptops in this league offer at least 16GB RAM and 512GB of storage space. You need this kind of memory to house your heavy-duty game files smoothly.
- Display and Refresh Rate: A substandard display can take away everything from an RTX card. Scout for an FHD/4K UHD screen (Full High Definition/ Ultra-high-Definition), preferably with IPS (In-Plane Switching), anti-glare, and a wide viewing angle. Also, aspire for a refresh rate of 144Hz to let the RTX 2070 card deliver a smooth frame rate and excellent graphics. A lower metric, say 60Hz, will be wholly inadequate.
- Gaming Keyboard: The ideal facilitator will be an RGB-backlit keyboard with a wide plethora of colors, per-key lighting, and a comfortable key-travel distance. Some keyboards also offer automatic light sensors to adapt to ambient lighting.
- Portability: A high-power gaming laptop is limited in portability by essence, but you should hunt for a machine that is sturdily built, can travel well, and is stylish as opposed to bulky. Such a laptop will serve you well on outdoor gaming marathons/events. While you are at it, you should also check out the battery backup, device support, and internet connectivity. Some gaming laptops offer up to 10 hours of unplugged usage and up to four USB ports as well as HDMI and display ports.