Latest GeForce RTX 5090 laptops are just barely faster than a desktop RTX 5070, but there is one key differentiator

The mobile GeForce RTX 5090 is the fastest GPU solution available for laptops at the moment, but it's also significantly pared back when up against its desktop counterpart. The difference isn't minor either as even the last generation GeForce RTX 4070 Ti desktop GPU can trade blows with the latest mobile flagship. Now that the desktop RTX 5070 is available, we can now show that the mobile RTX 5090 can have trouble keeping up with a "midrange" RTX 5070 desktop as well.

Our graphs below compare the recently reviewed RTX 5070 FE desktop to the latest GeForce RTX 5090 laptops like the Schenker Neo 16 and Razer Blade 16. 3DMark results show the laptops to be just slightly faster by up to 5 to 10 percent on average. In some cases, however, the mobile RTX 5090 can be consistently behind the RTX 5070 desktop by 10 to 15 percent depending on the laptop as the mobile RTX 5090 can be downclocked at factory to fit into thinner designs.

Nevertheless, RTX 5090 laptops can still hold an edge over the desktop RTX 5070 when it comes to running actual games in 4K. Our early tests show an 8 to 16 percent lead in games like Baldur's Gate 3, Cyberpunk 2077, and Black Myth: Wukong sans any DLSS enhancements. Perhaps most notably, RTX 5090 laptops may hold a larger advantage in games like Alan Wake 2 potentially due to the wider bus (256-bit vs. 192-bit) and much larger memory pool (24 GB vs. 12 GB) when compared to the desktop RTX 5070.

Additional games and comparisons will be tested as more desktop and laptop samples roll in. Our data is always completed in-house with no numbers provided by developers or manufacturers which can oftentimes be unrepresentative of retail SKUs.