NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2050 Mobile vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super (Desktop)

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile (for laptops, GN20-E3, Max-P) is the third Ampere graphics card for notebooks in early 2021. It is based on the GA106 Ampere chip and offers 6 GB GDDR6 graphics memory with a 192 Bit memory bus. It supports PCIe 4.0 and will be available in different variants from 60 or 115 Watt (TGP). As package the notebook graphic card uses GB5-256 and the chip size is 40x40mm. The GPU supports eDP 1.4b to connect the internal monitor.

There is no more Max-Q variant (formerly used for the low power variants) but every OEM can choose to implement Max-Q technologies (Dynamic Boost, Whisper Mode).

The performance depends on the TGP setting and cooling of the laptop. On average it should be similar to the older GeForce RTX 2070 Super Mobile and therefore best suited for QHD gaming (very demanding games). Less demanding games like Star Wars Squadrons should be playable in 4k with maximum detail settings. The similar named RTX 3060 desktop card is significantly faster.

The GA106 chip offers 3,840 FP32 ALUs of which half can also execute INT32 instructions (i.e. 1,920 INT32 ALUs). The mobile RTX 3060 uses all 3,840 cores on the chip. With Turing all shaders could still execute FP32 or INT32 instructions. The raytracing and tensor cores on the chip were also improved according to Nvidia. The Ampere chips also include an improved 5th generation video encoder (NVENC for H.264 and H.265) and a 7th generation decoder (for various formats now including AV1).

The GA106 chip is manufactured by Samsung in 8nm (8N), which is not quite able to keep up with the 7nm node at TSMC (e.g. used by AMD and also for the professional GA100 Ampere chip).

TGP Frequencies
60W = 817-1282 MHz
65W = 975-1357 MHz
70W = 1050-1402 MHz
80W = 900-1425 MHz
85W = 1035-1485 MHz
90W = 1163-1530 MHz
95W = 1215-1567 MHz
100W = 1267-1605 MHz
105W = 1305-1642 MHz
110W = 1342-1680 MHz
115W = 1387-1702 MHz

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super or 2080S sits behind the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti as the second fastest desktop GPU in NVIDIA's current Turing line-up (mid 2019). It is the refresh of the one year old RTX 2080 (Desktop) with slightly higher performance. The GPU offers 3,072 cores (up from 2,944) and is based on the TU104 chip. The VRAM is still 8 GB of GDDR6 but now higher clocked at 15.5 GHz (496 GB/s vs. 14 GHz and 448 GB/s).

Features

NVIDIA manufacturers the TU104 chip on a 12 nm FinFET process and includes features like Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) and Real-Time Ray Tracing (RTRT), which should combine to create more realistic lighting effects than older GPUs based on the company's Pascal architecture (if the games supports it). The RTX 2080 is also DisplayPort 1.4 ready, while there is also support for HDMI 2.0b, HDR, Simultaneous Multi-Projection (SMP) and H.265 video en/decoding (PlayReady 3.0).

Performance

The RTX 2080 Super slightly outperforms the older Nvidia Titan XP and of course the RTX 2080 which it succeeds. Therefore, the RTX2080S is located in the absolute high end and well suited for 4k gaming with high to maximum detail settings (depending on the game). Using raytracing features, will reduce the playable resolution however.

Power Requirements

NVIDIA estimates that the RTX 2080 Super should consume a maximum of 250 W, which is 35 W higher than the company rates its GeForce GTX 2080.