Uh oh, the mobile GeForce RTX 3070 Ti can be slower than an older regular GeForce RTX 3070 alternative

A big reason why Nvidia ditched the GeForce Max-Q series was that some Max-Q laptops would actually outperform some non-Max-Q laptops leading to potential confusion amongst customers. Unfortunately, we are again seeing history repeat itself with the new mobile GeForce RTX 3070 Ti versus the older regular mobile GeForce RTX 3070.

MSI recently sent us the thicker Vector GP66 and slimmer Stealth GS66 each equipped with the same RTX 3070 Ti GPU. The former, however, would target a much higher TGP ceiling of 150 W versus only 105 W on the latter. GPU Boost clock rates can reach 1035 MHz and 1485 MHz on the GS66 and GP66, respectively, leading to 15 to 17 percent slower 3DMark GPU results on the GS66. This deficit is enough to make the RTX 3070 Ti in the GS66 slower than some laptops with the regular mobile GeForce RTX 3070 like the Schenker XMG Apex 17. GPU-bound titles like Final Fantasy XV can run faster on the Schenker than on the GS66 by up to 15 percent as a result despite the supposedly faster and newer "Ti" graphics of the GS66.

For shoppers, this means that one can't simply look at the name of the GPU anymore when comparing graphics power between laptops. Before the launch of the mobile GeForce RTX Ti series, an RTX 3070 laptop would almost surely be slower than an RTX 3080 laptop. The same cannot be said when comparing between RTX 3070 and RTX 3070 Ti laptops since their performances are more likely to overlap. In other words, we now have the Max-Q problem all over again.