NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070, RTX 4060, RTX 4050 Mainstream Laptop GPUs Tested, Small Performance Gains But Higher Efficiency

NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 4070, RTX 4060, and RTX 4050 mainstream laptop GPUs tests have arrived a day earlier before their launch. While Ada brings some big performance improvements on desktop, it looks like the mainstream laptop chips are bottlenecked by their reliance on entry-level dies with limited core count and memory configurations.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 & RTX 4060 Laptop GPUs Fail To Impress In First Tests, RTX 4050 A Decent Budget Contender

Compared to the previous generation, each Ada mainstream GPU seems to be one SKU tier below its predecessor. The RTX 4070 has been downgraded to AD106 from the GA104 GPU on the 4070 Ti, the RTX 4060 has been downgraded to AD107 from the GA106 GPU on the RTX 3060 and while the RTX 4050 features the same die SKU, it comes with an even more cut-down AD107 die. What this is going to result in are fewer cores for each SKU and an even more cut-down memory design.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 & RTX 4060 Laptop GPUs - 8 GB Targeting The Mainstream

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 and RTX 4060 will feature 8 GB GDDR6 memory. Both GPUs will get a standard 35W profile and up to 115W TGP along with the 25W Dynamic Boost Range. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 will come with 4608 Cores, 8 GB memory, up to 2175 MHz boost clocks, and a 128-bit bus while the RTX 4060 will feature 3072 Cores, 8 GB memory, up to 2370 MHz boost clocks, and a 128-bit bus.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 6 GB Laptop GPU - Entry-Level Ada For Mobility

Lastly, we have the entry-level GeForce RTX 4050 6 GB which will also get a 35W-115W TGP option (25W Dynamic Boost profile too). The GPU will get a boost clock of up to 2370 MHz at its 115W TGP range. The GPU can clock down to 1605 MHz and will feature a 96-bit bus interface.

According to the information available, the mainstream NVIDIA RTX 40 Laptop GPUs utilize a very conservative and cost-effective package design. All three chips come in a standard 29x29 package which is codenamed as "PCB2" and features a 5+1 phase design with 140W max power. The PCB2 design is configured for the higher-end RTX 4090 and RTX 4080 GPUs which feature a 40x40 SKU with a 7+2 phase power design.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 Mainstream Laptop GPU Configurations (Credits: Golden Pig Upgrade):

2 of 9

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 Mainstream Laptop GPU Die Shots (Image Credits: Golden Pig Upgrade:

2 of 9

The first performance benchmarks carried out by Golden Pig Upgrade show four laptop configs that were tested. The NVIDIA RTX 40 series GPUs were tested on a Lenovo Reference platform in 13th Gen Raptor Lake-HX flavors with the GPUs configured at their maximum 140W TGP & a 225 Watt Total Platform Power or TPP.  These were compared with an RTX 3070 Ti GPU featured on the Lenovo Y9000P with a 150W TGP and a 205W TPP.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 Mainstream Laptop GPU Synthetic (Image Credits: Golden Pig Upgrade:

2 of 9

Starting with the synthetic performance figures, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 offered a 37.3% improvement over the RTX 3050 Ti, the RTX 4060 offered a 19.3% improvement over the RTX 3060 while the RTX 4070 ended up 4% slower than the RTX 3070 Ti across the averages in the 3DMark benchmark.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 Mainstream Laptop GPU Gaming 1080p (Image Credits: Golden Pig Upgrade:

2 of 9

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 Mainstream Laptop GPU Gaming 1440p  (Image Credits: Golden Pig Upgrade:

2 of 9

In actual gaming performance, the RTX 4070 ended up slower in both 1080p & 1440p tests across various AAA and eSports titles. The RTX 4060 and RTX 4050 being slower was to be expected since they have a lower price target too along with lower specs. Only with DLSS 3 can the RTX 40 series GPUs provide a bigger performance uplift against their older RTX 30 series parts otherwise you are looking at a nominal 5-25% performance increase in gaming on average.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 Mainstream Laptop GPU Power / TGP (Image Credits: Golden Pig Upgrade):

2 of 9

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 Mainstream Laptop GPU Frequencies (Image Credits: Golden Pig Upgrade):

An interesting power metric shared by Golden Pig Upgrade shows that the RTX 4070 and RTX 4060 cap out around 110W in terms of performance while the RTX 4050 caps out around 90W. There's no reason to have these GeForce RTX 40 Laptop GPUs running at 140W when their performance more or fewer bottoms out at 90-100W.

Overall, the performance here would've been decent but NVIDIA is not only charging more for a lower-tier die but also cutting it down so aggressively that it doesn't feel like much of an upgrade over the past generation, especially the RTX 4070 laptops. If you are interested in getting a new RTX 40 laptop, you can head over here where we list down a range of laptops starting at $999 US and going as high as $3299 US.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 Ada Laptop GPUs 'Official':

GPU Name	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050
Process Node	TSMC 4N	TSMC 4N	TSMC 4N	TSMC 4N	TSMC 4N
GPU Core	AD103	AD104	AD106	AD107	AD107
GPU SKU	GN21-X11	GN21-X9	GN21-X6	GN21-X4	GN21-X2
CUDA Cores	9728	7424	4608	3072	2560
VRAM	16 GB	12 GB	8 GB	8 GB	6 GB
Memory Bus	256-bit	192-bit	128-bit	128-bit	96-bit
Boost Clock	1455 - 2040 MHz	1350 - 2280 MHz	1230 - 2175 MHz	1470 - 2370 MHz	1605 - 2370 MHz
TBP	80 - 150 W (+25W DB)	60 - 150 W (+25W DB)	35 - 115 W (+25W DB)	35 - 115 W (+25W DB)	35 - 115 W (+25W DB)

The post NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070, RTX 4060, RTX 4050 Mainstream Laptop GPUs Tested, Small Performance Gains But Higher Efficiency by Hassan Mujtaba appeared first on Wccftech.