Why does NVIDIA differentiate desktop and laptop drivers?

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For some generations now, NVIDIA uses the same desktop GPUs on laptops, although with some differences to reduce its consumption. In essence they are the same GPU, but NVIDIA drivers continue to differentiate those dedicated to dedicated graphics on PCs and laptops. Why do they do it and what are the differences? In this article we explain everything.
What is the difference between a laptop and desktop GPU?

First of all, it should be clarified that, some time ago, the GPUs of the laptop and those of the dedicated graphics of NVIDIA were completely different, and in fact those of the laptops had the distinctive "M" at the end of their name for better differentiation. However, for a long time the GPU is essentially the same, but with some reduced attributes in order to reduce its consumption.

Thus, for example, an RTX 2080 in its reference model for desktop, has 2,944 shader units, with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and a 256-bit interface that makes it work at 14 GHz effective, delivering a bandwidth of 448 GB / s. The RTX 2080 notebook is exactly the same, with the same parameters, but nevertheless its speed is slightly lower, around 9% slower in its base speed and 7% in its Boost speed. The performance is also slightly lower on the notebook model, but instead of consuming 215 watts, it consumes only 150W.

We do not speak, however, of the Max-Q variants, which are graphics with a much lower consumption (90 watts in this case) and with much lower operating speeds, so the performance also plummets.

If the GPU is the same, why are the NVIDIA drivers different?

When we go to the NVIDIA driver download website, when choosing the graphics model for which we want to download the drivers, the normal models are clearly different from those of the notebook (Notebooks).

But there is a difference that we can clearly see: size. The desktop drivers, to the right of the image, occupy 570.94 MB compared to 523.27 MB of the desktop graphics version. This difference in size is because the laptop drivers have a lower level of customization, although the firmware and the driver itself is exactly the same, as well as the same technologies because, remember, the GPU is the same.
Why if the driver is the same occupy different size?

If you have read this far, surely you are asking yourself precisely this question: why do they have a different level of personalization?

This is because, with the "NVIDIA Notebook Driver" program, the company ensures the correct functioning of the reference model - we speak in this case only of laptops. However, most laptop manufacturers modify these GPUs to offer higher performance, lower consumption or lower temperature, and therefore the operation may be different and not work perfectly with the NVIDIA driver.