Nvidia's RTX 4000 gaming laptops are now available, but the RTX 4090 models seem to only offer the same power as the RTX 4070 Ti. That's probably unsurprising considering the model doesn't use the same AD102 GPU as the desktop card, but it puts the green team's name conventions to the test.
The finest gaming laptop choices, whether equipped with an RTX 4090 or not, can slap blows against fully-fledged desktop systems, but there's only so much power you can cram into a dinky shell. This time around, the gap feels a bit wider with the mobile RTX 4090, with performance levels on par with a card two naming tiers below.
Nvidia RTX 4090 benchmarks conducted by ITHome show the GPU is as fast as the RTX 4070 Ti or RTX 3090. The Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 scored 13% higher than the Raytheon Zero 2023 tested by MyDrivers.
The AD104 GPU supporting new RTX 4080 laptops appears to perform 25% faster than an RTX 3080 Ti at 4K (via Jarrod'sTech). Not too shabby considering the portable setup employs a scaled-back version of the chip, but Nvidia's model names might leave you confused.
Again, we're not surprised by the performance differences between the RTX 4000 mobile and desktop graphics cards, but Nvidia may confuse its consumer base with the slightly larger gap. In the past, the green team used an'm' to indicate that a laptop uses a reduced GPU, but the naming convention today makes that observation less clear.
The situation creates a PC specs issue of some sort, as the graphics card in your system isn't necessarily the same as the one recommended by developers. For example, you won't be able to match ultra settings with even an RTX 4090 laptop that does the job of Forspoken system requirements by the end of the lifecycle of the RTX 3000 lineup.
Nvidia's RTX 4000 laptop lineup is still impressive, providing an excellent performance boost for anyone making the switch to Ampere. Nvidia's DLSS 3 support is another bonus, as it will help you increase your frame rates by tenfold in some games with Frame Generation. Just keep in mind that the RTX 4090 will not be in the same league as its desktop counterpart when they arrive.