It didn’t take long for NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 40 graphics to reach portable PCs. The company has introduced RTX 40 GPUs for laptops that promise large leaps in performance, even in lower-end systems. The flagship RTX 4080 and 4090 GPUs are reportedly powerful enough to play games across three 4K monitors at 60 frames per second — you might not need a desktop to immerse yourself in a flight or racing sim.
Even the mainstream GeForce RTX 4050, 4060 and 4070 chips are billed as faster than the outgoing RTX 3080. They’re quick enough to deliver 1440p gaming at up to 80FPS, and are supposedly up to twice as fast as a PlayStation 5. They also make it more practical to handle pro tasks like 3D modelling and AI-based media editing on 14-inch laptops, according to NVIDIA.
The RTX 40 architecture is notoriously power-hungry on desktops, but NVIDIA claims it’s keeping energy efficiency in check with the laptop variants. DLSS 3 AI upscaling is now optimized for mobile use, while finer-grained “tri-speed” memory control lets the GPU drop to lower-power RAM states. On-chip memory tweaks(such as doubled bandwidth) and low-voltage GDDR6 RAM also help wring the most out of the video hardware.
You’ll have to wait a little while to buy a laptop with GeForce RTX 40 tech. The first RTX 4080 and 4090 models will be available February 8th at a starting price of $1,999. If you want an RTX 4050 machine, you can buy them beginning February 22nd with an entry price of $999. NVIDIA didn’t provide a full list of laptops, but you can expect adoption from well-known brands like Acer, Alienware, ASUS, Dell, Gigabyte, HP, Lenovo, MSI, Razer and Samsung. It’s too soon to say if the GPUs live up to NVIDIA’s billing, but they’ll be welcome updates if you were already eying RTX 30-based computers.