NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 & RTX 4080 Laptop GPUs Tested: 4090 On Par With 4070 Ti Desktop

Gaming laptops featuring NVIDIA's fastest GeForce RTX 4090 & RTX 4080 GPUs are now available and the first tests show some incredible gains in performance.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 & RTX 4080 GPUs are the fastest chips you can find on gaming laptops. They offer the biggest leap in performance gen-over-gen and also deliver the highest amounts of efficiency. Furthermore, these laptop chips pack new and advanced features such as the DLSS 3 which enables up to 4x boost in performance versus native resolution. With that said, let's see what these chips are all about.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 16 GB Laptop GPU - Extreme Performance, Extreme Power

The flagship GeForce RTX 4090 features the NVIDIA AD103 GPU core with a total of 76 SMs or 9728 CUDA cores which is the same core configuration as the desktop-class RTX 4080 and comes with TGP options in the 150W and up to 175W (+25W Dynamic Boost) range. The 150W TGP target will be configured with a 1590 MHz Base and 2040 MHz Boost clock range. Furthermore, there's an additional 25W Dynamic Boost that allows for even higher boost clocks.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 12 GB Laptop GPU - High-End For The Masses

Next up, we have the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 16 GB option which features a total of 58 SMs of 7424 cores & a memory configuration that includes a 12 GB GDDR6 capacity running across a 192-bit interface. The GPU is the Ada AD104 design which is the same chip used by the  GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Desktop graphics card but a cut-down version of it. In fact, the GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop GPU comes with almost 24% lower cores than the desktop RTX 4080 graphics card.

The GPU ships with a similar TGP range but adopts the AD104 GPU core. The GPU will get a 150W and up to 175W TGP range with a Base clock of 1.86 GHz and a Boost clock of 2.28 GHz for the 150W target. The RTX 4080 will also get an additional 25W Dynamic Boost range.

Looking at the performance of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU first, the mobile chip was featured on a Zero Thunderobot machine tested by MyDrivers and can hit up to 170W of power during the benchmarks while maintaining GPU core temperatures under 80C throughout the benchmarks. The memory is seen running at a slightly warmer 85C temperature but it's still well below its thermal threshold.

It can be seen that the GPU scores 19,387 points in 3DMark Time Spy and 10,203 points in 3DMark Time Spy Extreme. The same GPU scores 26,100 points in 3DMark Fire Strike Extreme and 13,371 points in 3DMark Fire Strike Ultra. This marks up to a 60% performance increase versus the 3080 Ti Laptop GPU which was the flagship offering in the previous gen.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU Benchmarks on ASUS ROG STRIX SCAR 17 (Image Credits: ITHome):

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU Benchmarks on Zero Thunderobot (Image Credits: Mydrivers):

However, the GPU can score much higher with better designs such as the ASUS ROG STRIX SCAR 17 that was tested by ITHome. The GPU on the SCAR 17 runs at the same 175W power limit but allows for much lower temperatures of just 70C in the Furmark stress test. Here, the GPU scored 22,044 in 3DMark Time Spy and 26,526 points in 3DMark Fire Strike Extreme which is a gain of up to 13% vs the 4090 on the other laptop. This puts the performance on par with a desktop RTX 4070 Ti or an RTX 3090 graphics card.

PCWorld also showcased their own gaming tests along with content creation benchmarks which witness a massive performance bump versus the previous generation. HardwareUnboxed notes that the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 (150-175W) can offer 58% higher performance at 4K resolution versus the RTX 3080 Ti Laptop GPU. This is a massive increase as seen with the desktop-class RTX 4090 graphics card itself. Meanwhile, Jarrod'sTech took a look at a Lenovo machine with the RTX 4080 laptop and noticed an average of >25% gain in performance versus the RTX 3080 Ti laptop at 4K resolution.

The only downside is that you will have to pay several thousand dollars to acquire one of these beastly machines. But Jarrod'sTech has this interesting graph comparing the cost per frame and looks like the new RTX 40 Ada laptop actually offers slightly better value for its performance. For example, the cheapest RTX 4090 laptop that one can find at Newegg costs $3,499 US (AORUS 17X). while the cheapest RTX 4080 laptop at Newegg costs $2,299 US (AORUS 17H). Following is a list of RTX 4090 & RTX 4080 laptops available at Newegg:

RTX 4090 Laptops:

RTX 4080 Laptops: