NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super (Desktop) vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Max-Q vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Laptop GPU

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.

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Max-Q (for laptops, GN20-E5 Max-Q) is the former name for a RTX 3070 Laptop GPU with Max-Q technologies. In previous generations, the Max-Q name was used for low power versions. With the RTX 3000 series, every TGP-version can now use Max-Q technologies and all GPUs are called RTX 3070 Laptop GPU (80 - 125W).

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Laptop GPU (mobile, GN20-E6, Max-P, Max-Q) is a mobile graphics card for notebooks and the refresh of the RTX 3070. It was announced early 2021 at CES and is based on the same GA104 Ampere chip as the old RTX 3070 Laptop. Compared to the old card, the newer one offers 15% more shaders but less clock speed. It will still feature the 256 Bit memory bus and 8 GB GDDR6. The RTX 3070ti is available in different power variants ranging from 80 Watt TGP with a Boost clock of 1035 MHz up to 125 Watt models with a Boost clock of 1485 MHz. However, there are even some models with a maximum TGP of 150 Watt (e.g., Acer Nitro 5).

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 somewhere between the old RTX 3070 Mobile and RTX 3080 Mobile (at similar TDP settings). Therefore, the card is best suited for QHD gaming in max details (for demanding games like Cyberpunk 2077). Less demanding games like the Farming Simulator 22 or older games should also run in 4K with max. detail settings.

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 Ti however won't 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 Ti mobile series uses 5,888 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).