Bringing out a new generation of products to replace others should be a clear performance leap. Especially if we talk about graphics cards where the important thing is that they draw the highest number of pixels on the screen and at the highest possible speed. Of course, the problem arises when external elements end up being limiting factors. Is it time for NVIDIA and AMD to start considering stopping downsizing their GPUs for laptop models?
The RTX 4070 Mobile is not the expected leap
On the “Jarrod’s Tech” YouTube channel, they decided to compare two practically identical laptops, but with the difference that one is equipped with an RTX 4070 Mobile and the other with the already veteran RTX 3070 Ti Mobile. The goal? Check the generational jump of NVIDIA graphics cards from one generation to another and it seems that the jump between the two is not what was expected. Also, the conclusion they came to after testing several games at different resolutions is that the two graphics cards are virtually identical in terms of the power they offer in games.
In fact, where the RTX 4070 Mobile takes advantage of this is by applying frame interpolation to generate new ones, a feature currently exclusive to the RTX 40, but from there we think if those of Jen Hsen Huang have decided to make it exclusive to the new generation. However, this is not the only limiting point we see, but being bandwidth limited in laptop VRAM is the biggest limiting factor.
Let’s not forget that NVIDIA can use GDDR6X memory in its GPUs for conventional PCs, in laptops, not because such video memory is impractical due to power consumption issues. In other words, we have a GDDR6 bottleneck that is preventing gaming laptops from growing any further.
Are they a bad buy for the end user?
On the contrary, they are an excellent purchase for gaming performance if you are going to play in Full HD and even in Quad HD, since the power of these graphics cards far exceeds what the games on the market today need to working properly and without performance issues. So the subject is not there.
The reality is that the RTX 3070 Ti Mobile is no longer being manufactured and any product with said card will cease to exist within a short period of time among the models available in the market. Rather, the problem comes from the upward trend in prices that is pervading the entire general sector and affecting our pockets as a side effect of the crisis. Since we see prices increasing, an increase in benefits is expected in accordance with said increase.
A harbinger of what NVIDIA’s RTX 40 mid-range will be?
It’s no secret that laptop graphics cards are power-limited, which means that different models have to reduce their clock speeds and that’s precisely the problem NVIDIA’s RTX 40 has for laptop computers. Let’s not forget that the desktop versions are based on exploiting the jump from 8nm to 4nm to be able to increase the clock speed and compensate for the fact that, with the exception of the AD102 chip which we will never see in laptops, cut the number of cores in order to have smaller chips.
And what is this due to? Al coste por oblea, es decir, NVIDIA has decided no sufferlo y de ahí a que si miramos el resto de los chips RTX 40, es decir, del AD103 en adelante, veremos que no tienen más núcleos que los RTX 30 y con un bus narrower. The way to mitigate it? Put in a huge L2 cache sink to reduce reliance on external memory. Despite the dropouts, using the new connector helps increase the clock speed and completely mitigate these dropouts. The problem arises when we evolve within the same generation to reduce the power consumption more and more and where the high GHz speeds can no longer be so high. That’s when you see the limits.
