Nvidia RTX 4000 gaming laptops are finally something you can buy, but the RTX 4090 models apparently only pack the same punch as an RTX 4070 Ti. Perhaps unsurprising given that the model doesn’t use the same AD102 GPU as the desktop board, but it might challenge Team Green’s naming conventions.
The best gaming laptop options, whether armed with an RTX 4090 or not, can trade blows with full desktop setups, there’s only so much power you can cram into a small box. Temperature, battery life, and general congestion are important factors to consider when building a portable power station, and performance trade-offs are necessary to strike the perfect balance. That said, the gap seems a little wider this time around with the mobile RTX 4090, with results on par with a card two denomination tiers below.
As Wccftech pointed out, ITHome’s Nvidia RTX 4090 benchmark tests suggest the GPU is as fast as the RTX 4070 Ti or RTX 3090. The comparison is based on 3DMark results for the Asus ROG Strix Scar 17, with the model scoring 13% higher than the 2023 Raytheon Zero tested by MyDrivers.
Additionally, the AD104 GPU powering the new RTX 4080 laptops appears to run 25% faster than an RTX 3080 Ti at 4K (via Jarrod’sTech). Not bad considering the portable setup uses a scaled-down version of the chip, but if you’re unfamiliar with how mobile GPUs work, the Nvidia model names might put you off.
Again, we’re not surprised by the performance differences between the RTX 4000 desktop and mobile graphics cards, but Nvidia may confuse its consumer base with the slightly wider gap. In the past, the green team used an “m” to indicate that a laptop uses a reduced GPU, but naming convention currently makes that fact less obvious.
The situation also creates a headache related to the recommended PC specs, since the graphics card for your platform is not necessarily the same as the one suggested by the developers. For example, if you plan to buy an RTX 4000 laptop that meets Forspoken system requirements, you won’t be able to match the ultra configuration even with an RTX 4090 machine. That’s not to say that this same problem didn’t exist. not during the lifecycle of the RTX 3000 line, but it looks like it will get worse with Lovelace.
Nvidia’s RTX 4000 line of laptops is still impressive and will provide anyone jumping from Ampere with a nifty performance boost. Nvidia DLSS 3 support also sweetens the deal, helping you get ten times the fps in some games that use Frame Generation. Just keep in mind that the RTX 4090 that lives inside the upcoming mobile machines is not in the same league as its desktop counterpart, and the same will likely be true for future releases like the RTX 4060. and the RTX 4070 when they finally hit the mainstream.