What you need to know
- NVIDIA announces new GeForce 30 series GPUs for laptops with vast performance and efficiency improvements.
- The new range of portable graphics cards include the RTX 3060, RTX 3070, and RTX 3080.
- Laptops with the new RTX 30 series GPUs will start launching on January 26 from $999.
NVIDIA announced more than 70 new laptops will be powered by GeForce 30 series graphics processing. The company is bringing the 30 series from the desktop-class family to the portable range of hardware, replacing older RTX 20 series mobile GPUs.
These new RTX 30 series GPUs for laptops come rocking up to twice the efficiency (and better performance) compared to older generation GPUs, as well as 3rd Gen Max-Q tech. Announced for CES 2021, new laptops with the next-gen GPUs will start from $999.
Availability of these new GPUs in laptops will commence later this month with RTX 3080 and RTX 3070 graphics processing. Later, NVIDIA will work with laptop vendors to roll out notebooks with the RTX 3060. Leading the charge is — of course — the range-topping RTX 3080, delivering plenty of frames per second at super-high settings on 1080p laptops.
The $999 price tag will cover more value-orientated laptops with RTX 3060 GPUs, but this GPU will be faster than the outgoing flagship mobile GPU, NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER, which shows just how much of an improvement this series will bring to portable PC gaming.
NVIDIA's RTX 3070 is the next step up for laptop gaming, delivering approximately 90 frames per second at 1440p with ultra settings enabled in select PC titles. If you need even more frames each second, the RTX 3080 will be the choice to go for with 16GB of G6 memory. It's also better for those who work with design on the go. Laptops with the range-topping RTX 3080 will start from $1,999.
How NVIDIA has managed to work in these improvements is thanks to the advancements made to the architecture, as well as the 3rd Gen Max-Q design with AI and new system optimizations. Laptops will be smarter, allowing for boosting to be dynamically optimized for CPU, GPU, and memory for both. All of the GPU memory can be accessed by the CPU at once, reportedly providing a performance boost.
Throw in DLSS and you've got one compelling gaming machine that'll punch way above its weight. The new Ampere architecture, also found in desktop-class RTX 30 cards, provide much-needed performance gains for those with new laptops to truly enjoy modern games at high settings, without sacrificing too much smoothness.
As well as the advancements made to hardware, gamers and creators will be able to take advantage of NVIDIA Broadcast, NVIDIA Reflex, and NVIDIA Studio. NVIDIA promises that more than half of new laptops expected to launch with GeForce 30 series graphics will come with 240Hz displays or higher.
Availability for laptops from partners will commence on January 26. You can expect to see GeForce 30 laptops from leading vendors like ASUS, Alienware, Dell, GP, Razer, and MSI.
