NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 (Desktop) vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 sits behind the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti as the second fastest desktop GPU in NVIDIA's current Turing line-up. The RTX 2080 has 2,944 shader units, 8 GB GDDR6 VRAM and a 256-bit interface that runs at 14 GHz and delivers up to 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 should perform on par with a GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, but it will outclass the latter in games that support DLSS and RTRT. The RTX 2080 is at the pinnacle of consumer desktop GPUs and can play most triple-A games released in 2018 at high graphics in 4K.

Power Requirements

NVIDIA estimates that the RTX 2080 should consume a maximum of 215 W, which is 35 W higher than the company rates its GeForce GTX 1080.

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (for laptops, GN20-E5, Max-P, ID 249c / 249d) is the second fastest Ampere graphics card for notebooks in early 2021. It is based on the GA104-770-A1 Ampere chip and offers 8 GB GDDR6 graphics memory with a 256 Bit memory bus. It supports PCIe 4.0 and will be available in two different variants from 80 to 125 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, Whispermode).

The performance depends on the TGP setting and cooling of the laptop. On average it should be similar to the old RTX 2080 Super Mobile and therefore best suited for QHD - 4k gaming. The similar named RTX 3070 desktop card is significantly faster.

The GA104 chip offers 6,144 FP32 ALUs of which half can also execute INT32 instructions (i.e. 3,072 INT32 ALUs). The RTX 3070 however wont use all ALUs 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 RTX 3070 mobile series uses 5,120 of the 6,144 cores. 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 GA104 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).