FEBRUARY 2021 PCWorld 29bolstered by a beefy 16GB of onboard
memory.
Interestingly, the CUDA cores counts for
these mobile models don’t mirror the
desktop versions, breaking the standard
that’s been set over the previous few
generations. The laptop RTX 3080 wields
6,144 CUDA cores versus nearly 9,000 in the
desktop model; the RTX 3070 mobile chip
packs 768 fewer cores than its desktop
cousin; and believe it or not, the mobile RTX
3060 actually has more CUDA cores than the
just-announced laptop version, with 3,840
versus 3,584.
That means the notebook version of the
RTX 3080 only offers a few hundred more
cores than the desktop 3070, which
provides insight into the type of
performance levels to expect. Ampere uses
big dies cranked to the max on the
desktop, but that full-fledged performance
seemingly can’t translate wholly over to the
world of notebooks, where energy
efficiency is paramount.
Nvidia says the third-gen
implementation of its Max-Q technology in
these new GPUs offer twice the efficiency of
past iterations. Note that some of those
claims are tied into the DLSS feature that’s
available only in select games, making the
comparison not as straightforward as it
seems. The other Max-Q improvements
look very compelling, however, with a
second-gen Dynamic Boost thatDynamic Boost 2.0 now manages the GPU VRAM power levels as well.