NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 series Laptop GPUs — GeForce RTX 3080 performance at 33% the power

NVIDIA has finally taken the wraps off the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 Series Laptop GPUs, with a rather full lineup ranging from the GeForce RTX 4090 to the GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU. It’s worth mentioning that NVIDIA is only announcing them: the GeForce RTX 4080 and RTX 4090 will be available starting 8th February, while the GeForce RTX 4070, 4060 and 4050, will be be available starting 22nd February, with prices starting from $999.

20X Performance in Thinner and Lighter Laptops

I guess there’s not much left to talk about the Ada Lovelace architecture. Almost everyone knows all there is to know about it, and if you are new, head on over to our article about the GeForce RTX 40 series. You get faster performance across the board, improved efficiency and also faster video encoding over last-gen. NVIDIA is claiming that Ada Lovelace draws just 33% the power for the same performance as Ampere, which is a massive leap in performance.

Speaking of which, worth mentioning is that the 2X faster video encoding offered by Ada Lovelace’s dual 8th Gen NVENCs is only available for the flagship GeForce RTX 4090 and RTX 4080 Laptop GPUs. The GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPUs and lower will come with a single 8th Gen NVENC encoder, which will support AV1, but you won’t get the significant improvement in export times like you would with the dual NVENC config of the higher end offerings.

In any case, NVIDIA is set to deliver much better performance to thin and light laptops with the GeForce RTX 40 series. Instead of boasting about raw performance, NVIDIA seems to be focusing on the 14-inch gaming laptop segment, one which I am also personally very interested in. With the GeForce RTX 40 series Laptop GPUs and 5th Gen Max-Q Technologies, NVIDIA is claiming up to 20X performance versus last-gen models.

5th Gen Max-Q Technologies

DLSS 3 is a major part of the 5th Gen Max-Q suite, but it doesn’t end there. NVIDIA is focusing their attention on lowering memory power consumption, with a trio of solutions to reduce the memory consumption. Firstly is Ada High Efficiency On-Chip Memory, which is just NVIDIA being funky with the way they call cache. It’s up to 16X larger, 2X the bandwidth of Ampere, and features enhanced clock gating for lower power draw. A larger cache means that the GPU will have to access the VRAM less, which can save a significant chunk of power.

Further saving power is the Tri-Speed Memory Control, which allows the GPU to clock down when it doesn’t need to be running at maximum speed, which is usually the case in laptops. Then we have, Ultra Low Voltage GDDR6 to further boost efficiency by implementing the lowest voltage graphics memory yet. All of these combined delivers higher efficiency, which results in not just better battery life, but also cooler temperatures that can in turn be taken advantage of to run the GPU faster.

Overall, NVIDIA claims that Max-Q has enhanced laptop efficiency by 22X over the past 6 years. These advancements in efficiency are what enabled NVIDIA partners to deliver powerful 14-inch ultraportables like the yet-to-be announced ASUS Zenbook Pro 14, which can render content faster than many larger laptops of yore.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 Series Laptop GPU Specs

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 Series Laptops: coming 8th February from $999

The first wave of Ada Lovelace-powered laptops will be available starting 8th February. The GeForce RTX 4090 and RTX 4080 laptops will start from $1,999, while the GeForce RTX 4070, 4060 and 4050 laptops will come later by 22nd February, priced from $999.