NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti (Desktop) vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Max-Q

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti (Desktop)

The Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti is the fastest desktop consumer graphics card (beginning 2017). It is based on the same GP107 chip as the Titan X but with slightly higher clock speeds and a different memory configuration. It offers one memory controller less (and 11 instead of 12 GB), but the GDDR5X memory is faster clocked (11 GHz) leading to a comparable memory bandwidth. Due to the higher boost clock, the 1080Ti should be around 5 % faster compared to the Pascal Titan X and about 35 % faster compared to the GTX 1080. The TDP is equal to the Titan X with 250 Watt. A new cooler of the Founders Edition should be more efficient and quieter.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU (Codename GN21-X4) is an high-end laptop GPU. It is based on the AD107 chip and uses the Ada Lovelace architecture. The RTX 4060 Laptop offers 3072 shaders and uses 8 GB GDDR6 dedicated graphics memory with a clock speed of 16 Gbps (effective) and a 128 Bit memory bus. The TGP (Total Graphics Power) can be configured between 35 and 115 Watt (+ 15-25 Watt Dynamic Boost from the CPU) leading to different performance levels. The boost clock speed ranges from 1470 MHz (at 35 Watt TGP) up to 2370 MHz (115W).

The performance in synthetical benchmarks of an average RTX 4060 is between a mobile RTX 3070 and a mobile RTX 3070 Ti. GPUs with lower power limit (e.g. 45 Watt variants) are ranking clearly lower (75% lower performance in some reviews). The average gaming performance of the RTX 4060 mobile is ideal for highest settings in 1920x1080 for demanding games. Less demanding games can easily run in QHD (like Baldurs Gate 3). See below for detailed benchmarks of our reviews. Enabling DLSS in supported games, can highly improve the framerate.

The RTX 4060 offers 80 tensor cores (4th gen) that enable DLSS 3 including frame generation for supported games. The 20 raytracing cores (4rd gen) on the other hand, will see less use as the RTX 4060 is not that powerful for demanding games to enable raytracing (other than in low resolutions).

The AD107 chip is manufactured in 5nm at TSMC (4N process).

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Max-Q

The Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 with the Max-Q design is a mobile high-end GPU from the Pascal series. It is designed for thin and light laptops and about 10-15% slower than a regular GTX 1080 for laptops based on the cooling capabilities. The base frequency (1101-1290 MHz) is also much lower than on the regular GTX 1080 (1566 MHz, at least -18%) and the Boost (1278-1458 MHz) is also much lower compared to 1733 MHz (at least -16%) for the regular GTX 1080. The memory clock, however, is identical.

The clock is not the only difference compared to the regular GTX 1080 though. The drivers for the Max-Q version were optimized for efficiency (and not performance; only for Max-Q models), there are optimized voltage converters for 1V operation, high-end cooling methods, and a 40 dB limit for the fan noise (with clock adjustments to ensure this at all times).

The performance is nearer to the normal (Max-P) GeForce GTX 1070 than to then GTX 1080 (at least in the Asus Zephyrus). Therefore, most demanding games should be playable in full HD and maximum detail settings (see game benchmarks below).

Features

The GP104 chip is manufactured in 16nm FinFET process at TSMC and offers a range of new features. DisplayPort 1.4 (ready), HDMI 2.0b, HDR, Simultaneous Multi-Projection (SMP), improved H.265 video en- and decoders (for PlayReady 3.0) are only some of the improvements. See our detailed Pascal architecture article for more details.

The power consumption of the Max-Q design is notably lower than the normal GTX 1080 for laptops and ranges between 90 and 110 Watt (TGP) according to Nvidia.