Nvidia RTX 3080 and RTX 3070 Mobiles Are Here - What Can They Do?

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• Nvidia RTX 3080 and RTX 3070 Mobiles Are Here - What Can They Do?

At CES 2021, Nvidia announced its RTX 3000 laptop graphics processors, powering a whole new generation of the best gaming laptops. At first glance, this new lineup is easy enough to follow, as the three GPUs on offer are the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080, RTX 3070, and RTX 3060 – three desktop graphics cards that were discontinued in 2020. As always, however However, the limitations of a mobile form factor mean you don't get exactly the same graphics card as the name suggests. For the most part, that's no big deal: It's kind of silly to expect a laptop to be able to deliver the same amount of raw power that a full desktop system with unlimited power and cooling can deliver. But since the name remains consistent, even if the silicon itself changes, it can be a bit confusing for people who just want to know how powerful the laptop they're considering buying is. So we went ahead and put two RTX 3000 gaming laptops against each other with desktop graphics cards to see exactly where they line up.

(Image credit: Nvidia)

An imperfect setting

Alienware m17 (2021) test system specifications:
Processor: Intel Core i9-10980HK
RAM memory: 32 GB
SSD 1: 512GB
SSD 2: 2TB
Graphics Processor: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Asus TUF Dash F15:
Processor: Intel Core i7-11370H
RAM memory: 16 GB
SSD: 1TB
GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 with Max-Q Desktop test system:
Processor: Intel Core i5-10600K
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Masterliquid 360P Silver Edition
Motherboard: MSI MEG Z490 GODLIKE
RAM memory: 16 GB
SSD: ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 1TB
Case: Praxis Wetbench One thing we need to stress before getting to the heart of the matter is that there is no way to effectively test a mobile graphics card in a controlled environment. Mobile GPUs are tuned by laptop manufacturers, so this is by no means a definitive review of these GPUs. Instead, our goal is to offer a rough estimate of what these GPUs can do, so you know what to expect when you pick up that shiny new gaming laptop. We tested two gaming laptops for this purpose, the Asus TUF Dash F15 and the Alienware m17, whose specifications are listed in the box to the right. One thing to note is that these laptops are kind of polar opposites in the way they're set up, which helps illustrate the diversity in performance that gaming laptops offer. The Alienware system is all about pushing performance to the max, with the most powerful and simplest hardware on the market today. Next, the Asus TUF Dash is equipped with one of Intel's new Comet Lake-H35 processors. Instead of pushing performance above all else, these processors focus on portability. That means this system values ​​a thin and light form factor over raw performance, and the results speak for themselves. For comparison, we compared desktop graphics cards in a computer with an Intel Core i5-10600K processor and 16GB of RAM clocked at 3200MHz. The reason we went with this configuration is because the 5th Gen Core i6 processor cores and 12 threads is close enough to where Intel's mobile processors are currently. However, it's important to note that we cooled the processor with a 360mm AIO liquid cooler, which allowed it to rise higher and longer than you'd expect from a processor. Still, that didn't stop the RTX 3080 from being an extremely bottleneck at 1080p, which is likely another reason Nvidia went with a less powerful GPU for the portable version.

(Image credit: Asus)

What is the difference between them?

With these new mobile GPUs, it's not like Nvidia is just taking existing silicon, stuffing it into a laptop, and cutting the power. The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 and GeForce RTX 3070 are completely different GPUs on mobile, and that's not a minor difference. For starters, on mobile, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 swaps 6.144 CUDA cores to 48 Streaming Multiprocessors (SM), 16GB of GDDR6 VRAM on a 256-bit bus, and a clock boost of up to 1,7GHz. Desktop, on the other hand, has 68 SM with 8,704 CUDA cores, 10 GB of GDDR6X VRAM on a 320-bit bus, and a clock boost of up to 1,71 GHz. CUDA cores aren't everything, but that's one 42% difference, so naturally the desktop version of the RTX 3080 is much more powerful than the laptop's GPU. Likewise, the RTX 3070 for laptops scans 5,120 CUDA cores and 8GB of GDDR6 VRAM on a 256-bit bus, where as the desktop version of the GPU has 5,888 CUDA cores and 8GB of VRAM on a 256-bit bus. It's only a 15% difference to the desktop version, but at least on the RTX 3070-powered laptop we tested, the difference is still substantial. The most drastic difference is in the RTX 3080, and we think that's where a lot of the confusion will come from. Yes, the mobile RTX 3080 has 16 GB of VRAM, while the desktop version has 10 GB, and yes, the desktop RTX 3080 is much faster regardless. It's a bit obvious though that Nvidia has gone with 16GB of RAM with the mobile GPU, and it all comes down to the memory bus. The mobile version of the GPU is limited to a 256-bit bus, instead of the 320-bit bus found in the desktop-class RTX 3080. This meant that Nvidia had the option of making the notebook-class GPU 8 GB of VRAM or 16 GB of VRAM. From a brand perspective, it's easy to see why they went with the latter, and it's always nice to get more, rather than less. Perhaps that adds some credence to the myriad of rumors that continue to point to a 20GB variant of the desktop RTX 3080, but that's for another day. When you consider that most gaming laptops still have 1080p displays, with more emphasis on refresh rate than resolution, it's no surprise that Nvidia builds a GPU with that resolution. After all, on a desktop the RTX 3080 makes absolutely no sense on a 1080p display, so why would Team Green release a laptop graphics card that would go to waste in the vast majority of laptops for games? Image 1 of 8

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Okay, but how fast are they going?

It probably shouldn't be too surprising that the new Nvidia RTX 3000 mobile GPUs are significantly slower than their desktop counterparts. However, it is a bit more complicated than you think. Again, because the two laptops we tested approach the design in very different ways, we get both extremes of laptop graphics performance. The most extreme example is the Asus TUF Dash F15, which is powered by the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070. Now on paper, it shouldn't look much different from the desktop version of the card, with no more than a 15% difference in color. terms of the number of CUDA cores. However, since the laptop is a portable device, Asus has reduced the power so you don't have to include such a rugged cooler. Ultimately, this results in the laptop running around 60% slower than the desktop version of the RTX 3070, which sounds like a lot, but is really a perfect fit for the laptop's 1080p display and its weakest processor. It's also a laptop that offers around 10 hours of battery life, which is a compromise many people will happily make. On the other side of the spectrum, we have the Alienware m17. Now this laptop isn't quite on par with the beastly Area 51m, but Alienware configures it to squeeze a ton of performance out of its GPU. As such, despite the severe reduction in CUDA cores on the mobile variant of the 3080, it's only around 20-30% slower than the desktop variant. What gets spicy here though is that there are some cases where the Alienware m17 is actually the desktop version of the RTX 3080 at 1080p. The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 is comically overkill for 1080p, as games at that resolution simply can't take advantage of the amount of power on offer. However, the mobile RTX 3080 is perfect for this and lags a bit behind the desktop RTX 3070 in most games. So, for the most part, it seems like every mobile GPU Nvidia has released is a little more than a notch behind its desktop counterpart. The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 mobile is almost as fast as the desktop RTX 3070, and while the RTX 3070 mobile is far behind in our tests today, this is likely down to Asus' tweak, rather than the glitch of the GPU itself. You would expect a fully powered mobile RTX 3070 to come very close to the RTX 3060 Ti.

Don't worry, these laptops will have no problem with Cyberpunk 2077 (Image credit: CD Projekt Red)

What does it mean?

It's no secret that 4K gaming laptops aren't exactly mainstream in the industry, which could be a good thing, so there's no reason to put all the power of a PC game out on a device that's meant to be. laptop. Hell, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition weighs almost as much as the Asus TUF Dash F15. Still, it might be time for Nvidia to think about a different naming convention for its mobile graphics processors. While it makes perfect sense that a gaming laptop might not have the same level of performance as a towering tower on a gaming PC you built yourself, there are definitely people out there who may not be familiar enough with the intricacies of the best graphics cards. . - especially if they empty their piggy banks to get a 4K device. At least these new gaming laptops are more than capable of handling the best PC games on the go, which the PS5 and Xbox Series X, with their lack of internal batteries and built-in displays, simply can't. And you know what? It's the little things that really matter.