GeForce RTX 30 Mobility Ampere GPU SKUs Allegedly Leak Ahead Of CES 2021 Launch
Having launched its first round of desktop Ampere GPUs to consumers, NVIDIA's next move is to do the same on mobile. Well, check that—the next move should be to light a fire under Samsung to produce more 8nm wafers so the GeForce RTX 30 series will be more readily available, then focus on mobile. Skipping right to the latter, a new leak purports to know which mobile Ampere GPUs NVIDIA has on tap.
As things currently stand, Ampere is available in three desktop cards for consumers. They include the GeForce RTX 3090, GeForce RTX 3080, and GeForce RTX 3070. There are rumors of other cards being added to the mix—namely a GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, and of course we will eventually see lower end models to fill those price points. But what about mobile?
Mobile GPUs are coming too. The questions are, what will the options be, and when will they arrive? Well, have a look at this...
A user at Giggle Hardware's forums (yes, that is actually the site's name, and it did indeed make me giggle) claims to have the inside scoop and posted the image above, which they say is a copy of the sheet given to them by a manufacturer for pre-order options from NVIDIA. So supposedly this is a list of mobile Ampere GPUs that laptop makers can order and put into their own designs, for sale to the public.
We have no way of verifying this, but hey, it gives us something to talk about while we sit back and wait for an inevitable mobile launch. That said, it is interesting that the only full-power option is the GeForce RTX 3060, as designated by "RTX 3060P" in the chart above.
The higher models—GeForce RTX 3080 and GeForce RTX 3070—are both Max-Q designs. Max-Q variants trade a bit of performance to facilitate cooler temps for thinner and lighter designs. However, a Max-Q GPU is not always necessary, as we saw in our recent review of the excellent Alienware m15 R3, a relatively quiet and powerful gaming laptop with a GeForce RTX 2070 shoved into a svelte chassis.
Assuming this list is real, we suspect it is a partial one, with other SKUs and combinations to be made available. And perhaps full-power versions of the GeForce RTX 3080 and GeForce RTX 3070, though probably not a mobile variant of the GeForce RTX 3090. It's possible, but that is basically this generation's RTX Titan, so we'll see.
As for the timing, these are said to be launching at CES in January 2021.
