NVIDIA launches MXM laptop version of its GeForce GTX 980

The rumors were true, NVIDIA just made its GeForce GTX 980 available for the laptop market! This new flagship mobile video card uses the MXM form factor and is based on a fully-fledged GM204 GPU with 2048 CUDA cores. For comparison, the GeForce GTX 980M is also based on the GM204 but has just 1536 cores activated.

The new card not only has the same number as shaders as the desktop GTX 980 - it also has the same 1126MHz base clock and 1216MHz Boost frequency! The desktop version has a TDP of 165W so several tweaks here and there were necessary to cram this into a laptop. Overall, NVIDIA says performance of the mobile GTX 980 should be only 5 percent lower than that of the desktop GTX 980.

NVIDIA explains the mobile GTX 980 cards use select GPUs, they were binned for higher-than-average power efficiency. The board uses premium components, has 4 or 8-phase power delivery (this can be selected by the vendor) and comes with up to 8GB of 7Gbps GDDR5 memory.

There are also several other firsts, the mobile GeForce GTX 980 promises overclocking headroom and gives control over the fan so you can trade-off acoustics for performance. Here's some more info from NVIDIA:

Full Desktop Performance
The unrivaled efficiency of the Maxwell architecture combined with system innovations enables us to put the same GeForce GTX 980 2,048-core GPU into these notebooks. The result is glorious: For the first time, extreme desktop gaming — without any compromises — has come to notebooks.

The experiences are nothing short of incredible. Play the latest games — such as The Witcher III: Wild Hunt, Grand Theft Auto V, Mad Max, Metal Gear Solid: The Phantom Pain and The Killing Floor 2 — at maxed out graphics settings. Imagine gaming across three displays in full HD for a completely immersive gaming experience. Yep, with these notebooks you can do that, too.

Overclocker’s Delight
These notebooks are an overclocker’s delight. For the first time on notebooks, you can control the fan to trade-off acoustics for performance. With unlocked GPUs, there are no ceilings to turbocharging your performance. And extreme cooling solutions combined with meticulously designed power delivery systems give you the added headroom to push your clocks into uncharted territory.

World’s First Virtual Reality Notebooks
Packed with the graphics horsepower to surpass virtual reality’s steep demands of 90 FPS, low-latency gameplay, these are the world’s first notebooks that meet the recommended spec for Oculus Rift. Featuring support for the full set of GameWorks VR technologies, they deliver fast, responsive and immersive VR that you can put in your backpack.

Partners
These notebooks will come in all your favorite enthusiast brands and will be available with NVIDIA G-SYNC display technology for a smooth, tear-free gaming experience.

Along with Aorus, ASUS, MSI and Clevo, they’ll be available from a number of local gaming brands such as Origin PC, Maingear, Falcon NW, Digital Storm , Sager, XMG, PC Specialist, LDLC, Hyperbook, G-Tune, AfterShock, BossMonster, Metabox, ThunderRobot and Terrans Force.