RTX 50 series laptop GPUs can now reach higher TGPs following fix from Nvidia

Soon after reviewers got their hands on the RTX 50 series laptops, it was observed that these GPUs were unable to reach their maximum TGP (total graphics power). This resulted in underwhelming performance to the point where the previous generation laptops were outperforming the RTX 50 series laptops. Now, Nvidia has silently fixed the issue through the latest driver update on May 19. 

Setting aside the delayed launch and limited updates from Nvidia about the RTX 50 series laptops, there were performance related issues when the laptops actually did arrive. It was reported that some models had missing ROPs, the same issue that plagued some desktop GPUs, and on top of that, reviewers found that the laptops GPUs were unable to reach their typical 175W TGP. The TGP varies with different GPUs but it seemed to be a trend with RTX 50 series laptops GPUs. This led to unsatisfactory performance and more disappointment in the RTX 50 series launch. 

Fortunately, GeForce GRD 576.52 released on May 19 seem to have addressed and fixed the issue. In the general bugs section, one of the fixes is “[Notebook] GeForce RTX 50 series TGP limit may be clipped earlier” and according to YouTuber GizmoSlipTech, the issue has actually been fixed. In a short video showing a side-by-side comparison in Witcher 3, the RTX 5080 laptop GPU was able to get 10W more and 50 MHz higher clock speed after the driver update. 

In terms of in-game FPS, the difference was not significant, but at least the GPU was able to reach, or get closer to, its full potential. Nvidia did not make this a big announcement as it seemingly wanted to keep the issue, unsurprisingly, on the down low.