Nvidia introduces laptop variants of GeForce RTX 3080, 3070 and 3060
Nvidia comes with RTX 30 video cards for laptops. The company introduces laptop variants of the GeForce RTX 3080, RTX 3070 and RTX 3060. The first laptops with such GPUs will be released on January 26. Laptops with RTX 3060 have a suggested retail price starting at $999.
Nvidia equips its GeForce RTX 3080, RTX 3070 and RTX 3060 laptop graphics cards with “third generation” Max-Q optimizations. Nvidia optimizes its Max-Q video cards for use in laptops, with the chips getting lower clock speeds and lower power compared to regular GeForce GPUs.
The GPU manufacturer reports that the RTX 3080 laptop variant has 6144 CUDA cores and 8GB or 16GB GDDR6 memory. The RTX 3070 gets 5120 of such cores and 8GB of memory, while the RTX 3060 for laptops gets 6GB of video memory and 3840 CUDA cores. The RTX 3070 and 3080 get a 256bit memory bus, but that of the RTX 3060 is 192bit.
Nvidia introduces RTX 3060, RTX 3070 and RTX 3080 laptop GPUs
Upcoming laptop GPUs will all use the Ampere architecture, which is also used in the RTX 30 desktop graphics cards. This means that the chips are equipped with second generation ray tracing cores and third generation Tensor cores. Nvidia does not disclose how many such cores its upcoming laptop GPUs will have.
Nvidia also provides the chips with some other functions, including Dynamic Boost 2.0. This function optimizes the power consumption of a laptop between the CPU, GPU and video memory. Whisper Mode 2.0 is also introduced. This feature lets users select a desired volume and then manage the cpu, gpu, fan speeds and game settings to achieve that sound level.
The laptop GPUs will also receive support for Resizable BAR, just like the RTX 30 GPUs for desktops. Resizable BAR is also known as Smart Access Memory, AMD’s marketing term for this. With Resizable BAR, the processor can access the full amount of video memory of a GPU at once. Normally this is only possible with a maximum of 256MB at a time.
Nvidia reports that RTX 3060 laptops will be available starting at $ 1000. Laptops with RTX 3070 graphics are available starting at $1300, while RTX 3080 laptops start at a suggested retail price of $2000. Several manufacturers are working on laptops with RTX 30 video cards; Nvidia claims that ‘every OEM’ comes with RTX 30 laptops. These include Alienware, ASUS, Gigabyte, HP, Lenovo, MSI and Razer.
Ampere | Ampere | Ampere |
6144 | 5120 | 3840 |
1245 – 1710MHz | 1290 – 1620MHz | 1283 – 1703MHz |
8GB or 16GB GDDR6 | 8GB GDDR6 | 6GB GDDR6 |
256bit | 256bit | 192bit |
80-150W+ | 80-125W | 60-115W |
RTX 3080 | RTX 3070 | RTX 3060 |
Ampere | Ampere | Ampere |
8704 | 5888 | 3584 |
1710MHz | 1730MHz | 1780MHz |
10GB GDDR6x | 8GB GDDR6 | 12GB GDDR6 |
320bit | 256bit | 192bit |
320W | 220W | 170W |