Nvidia is helping PC makers unleash a wave of budget gaming laptops that will run new GeForce GTX 1660 Ti and GTX 1650 graphics chips, which should offer more than double the graphics performance of the company's GeForce GTX 9-series cards.

Expect the new GPUs to arrive in more than 80 different laptop models over the coming months. GeForce GTX 1650-powered notebooks will start at $799, while GTX 1660 Ti-powered models will go for $999 and up.

For builders and upgraders of desktop PCs, the company is also releasing a desktop version of the GeForce GTX 1650 card for $149. This is a new low-end card using the same "Turing" architecture employed in late-model Nvidia gaming cards such as the GeForce GTX 1660 and GeForce RTX 2060, but on a different GPU core. "We are trying to hit a much more affordable price point with the 16-series GPUs," Mark Aevermann, an Nvidia product manager, told journalists in a conference call.

Aimed at Mainstream Performance

The company is playing up the new mobile GeForce GTX 16-series GPUs for gamers on laptops running the older GeForce GTX 960M and GTX 950M, which launched in 2015. According to Nvidia, the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti will offer up to four times the graphics performance of the GeForce GTX 960M, and 1.5 times the performance of a last-generation ("Pascal") GeForce GTX 1060. As a result, you should be able to run popular PC titles, including Fortnite and Apex Legends, in excess of 100 frames per seconds (fps).

The mobile GeForce GTX 1660 Ti is also VR-ready, meaning you'll be able to play the latest virtual reality games at acceptable frame rates. That makes it the lowest-end of the new Turing-based mobile GPUs to support VR.

The GeForce GTX 1650 is the lower-end of the two new mobile-GeForce options. It will offer up to 2.5 times the graphics performance of the the GeForce GTX 950M, and 1.7 times the performance of a GeForce GTX 1050 graphics solution. Games such as Fortnite should run at 60fps or better. However, this GPU is not rated for use with VR games.

Nvidia is hoping the new cards will entice gamers to upgrade their gaming laptops, given that many of the company's laptop customers are still using the older GTX 960M or lesser GPUs. The GeForce GTX 1660 Ti and GTX 1650 also promise to bring better battery life to gaming laptops, thanks to power-efficiency improvements.

Power Within Limits

It's important to note that both of the new mobile GPUs have been designed to display games at a resolution of 1080p, not 4K. For play at higher pixel resolutions, such as on a higher-res external monitor connected to a laptop's video output, you should invest in a laptop with a more powerful but pricier GeForce RTX "Turing" graphics solution, Aevermann said.

Another limitation is that neither card is optimized to run Nvidia's ray tracing technology. To take advantage of the more realistic lighting and shadow effects that ray tracing is bringing to a few new games, you're again better off opting for a GeForce RTX solution. Still, both the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti and the GTX 1650 can run a basic amount of ray tracing in applicable games, thanks to a recent Nvidia driver tweak. Just don't be surprised if the frame rate slows to a crawl.

Above you can find more detailed GPU specs for both cards, which use Nvidia's Turing architecture. According to Aevermann, you can expect the desktop version of the GTX 1650 card to largely resemble the laptop version. (PC Labs has several of these cards in-house and will be posting reviews of them in the coming days.)

The laptop-based GeForce GTX 1660 Ti and GTX 1650 cards will also come in Max-Q variants to enable thinner and lighter notebook designs at the expense of some graphics performance.

The new Nvidia chips roll out on the same day that the first Intel 9th Generation Core mobile CPUs for gaming and power laptops hit the market. Stay tuned for our full reviews of laptops built with these new CPUs and GPUs.

Further Reading

Graphics Card Reviews