Alleged GeForce RTX 30 Series Mobile Ampere GPU Specs Leak Prior To CES 2021 Debut
I will readily admit that I am excited about the next round of gaming laptops that loom right around the corner. There are some enticing models on the market already, ones that pair fast AMD Ryzen 4000H and Intel Comet Lake-H CPUs with dedicated GPUs. But the pending launch of mobile GeForce RTX 30 series GPUs has the potential to dramatically bump up gaming performance in laptops, especially with ray tracing turned on. What exactly can we expect?
At this point, everything amounts to a leak or rumor. NVIDIA has not yet released, announced, or even hinted at porting Ampere to mobile, but we all know it's coming. What we do not know, however, is what specific mobile SKUs NVIDIA has planned and what the specifications will be. Not officially, anyway. Unofficially, there is some interesting information out there.
GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile Specs
The folks at NotebookCheck say there is a GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile chip inbound, that is based on the GA104-775-A1 Ampere GPU and will wield 6,144 CUDA cores. According to the site, it will arrive in 8GB and 16GB GDDR6 configurations, with a 256-bit memory bus, support for PCI Express 4.0, and clockspeeds of up to 1.7GHz. There will also be different variants ranging in TGP from 115W to 150W.
Additionally, NVIDIA is planning a Max-Q version of the GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile for thin and light laptops. This will feature a TGP range of 80-90W, and lower clockspeeds. Otherwise, it will share the same memory arrangement and 256-bit bus width, if the information is accurate.
GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile Specs
Moving down the list, NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile part is said to be based on the GA104-770-A1 Ampere GPU, with 5,120 CUDA cores. This will ship with 8GB of GDDR6 memory linked to a 256-bit memory bus, and also support PCI Express 4.0, for whatever that is worth (I wouldn't expect this to have a major impact on actual performance).
The site says there will be two versions—one with a 115W TGP and another with a higher 125W TGP. Expect clockspeeds to reach somewhere around 1.62GHz on the high end, presumably for the 125W variant. Meanwhile, this one will also get the Max-Q treatment, with the same 80-90W configuration as the GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile Max-Q, and of course lower clocks to boot.
GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile Specs
Lastly (sort of—more on this in a moment), the GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile is said to be based on the GA106 Ampere GPU, but with 3,072 CUDA cores (instead of 4,096 CUDA cores). It will feature 6GB of GDDR6 memory paired with a 192-bit memory bus, and like the rest of the lineup, it will have support the PCI Express 4.0 bus.
The regular version of the GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile will ship in different configurations ranging in TGP from 80W to 115W. Likewise, there will be a Max-Q variant with a 60-70W TGP and lower clockspeeds.
Looking beyond these parts, there has also been chatter about a GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile SKU, though there is not much in the way of leaked specifications right now. Nevertheless, the entire lineup is pretty intriguing, assuming we see the same kind of performance per dollar jump in mobile as NVIDIA demonstrated on the desktop with Ampere.
As for when we might see new laptops sporting mobile Ampere GPUs, probably within the next few months. To that end, yesterday we wrote about an overseas retailer jumping the gun and listing mobile GeForce RTX 30 series laptop preorders, with delivery expected as early as January or February. If that is the case, it is likely we will see an announce during or around CES next month.
