Less than six months after introducing its RTX 3000 series GPUs for desktop PCs, Nvidia is bringing the RTX 3060, RTX 3070, and RTX 3080 to gaming laptops. Nvidia is promising big energy efficiency gains here, thanks to its new Ampere architecture, alongside the obvious performance improvements over the previous RTX 2000 series laptops.
More than 70 gaming laptops will be available with the new RTX 3070 and RTX 3080 mobile GPUs on January 26th, with the RTX 3060 laptops to follow on February 2nd. Prices start aat $999 for the RTX 3060 models.
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RTX 3060 laptops, which Nvidia says are 1.3 times faster than the PS5, start at $999. RTX 3070 laptops will start at $1,299, and Nvidia says they’re up to 1.5 times faster than previous RTX 2070 systems, and they deliver 90fps at 1440p.
RTX 3080 laptops begin at $1,999 and can include up to 16GB of GDDR6 memory — more than what’s available on the RTX 3080 desktop GPU side. Nvidia claims these laptops will deliver over 100fps at 1440p.
These laptops are using the third generation of Nvidia’s Max-Q. Designed for thinner and lighter gaming laptops, the Max-Q variants are engineered to squeeze most of the GPU power from an RTX 3000-series card into a more thermally constrained chassis. Nvidia and laptop manufacturers tweak drivers and thermal and electrical components to make this a reality.
Nvidia says this latest generation of Max-Q laptops will deliver twice the performance of the previous generation. Nvidia is using a new Dynamic Boost 2.0 technology in these laptops that utilizes artificial intelligence to balance power between the CPU, GPU, and GPU memory. It works on a per-frame basis, meaning a laptop can balance its power needs in real time.
Nvidia is also introducing WhisperMode 2.0 with these RTX 3000 series laptops. You’ll be able to choose different acoustic levels, and AI will manage the fan speeds and game settings to stay at a desired sound level.
We expect to hear a lot more from manufacturers shortly about new updates to gaming laptops at CES 2021. Stay tuned to The Verge for all the latest gaming laptop announcements.
