CES 2023: Nvidia RTX 40 Series GPUs Are Going Mobile

After last September's announcement of the Ada Lovelace desktop GPU architecture for the RTX 4080 and 4090 cards, Nvidia revealed its plans to bring this new style of graphics cards to on-the-go gamers and professionals via a new line of laptops.

Mobile hardware featuring RTX 4090 and 4080 cards will be available to consumers this Feb. 8, as per the company's announcement for CES 2023. These laptops will then be followed by models equipped with RTX 4070, 4060 and 4050 GPUs on Feb. 22.

The mobile versions of these new cards are based on improved Max-Q tech, which Nvidia describes as having the "biggest generation leap ever." Thanks to the Ada Lovelace architecture, these GPUs are at least three times more efficient compared to their older counterparts while remaining quiet, compact and powerful.

One of the biggest features of this new Max-Q tech is the addition of high-efficiency on-chip memory that greatly decreases power consumption while simultaneously boosting capacity and bandwidth as well as improving clock gating.

Rough benchmarks showed that the new RTX 40 laptop cards offer at least 1.5 times better performance in certain programs compared to GPUs with Ampere architecture. The newer graphics cards can reportedly play "Cyberpunk 2077" at a constant 60 FPS at 1440p resolution and Ultra settings, and they can render complex Blender scenes in minutes.

Additionally, the RTX 40-series laptop GPUs can use Ada's AV1 encoder for higher-quality video streaming and editing.

Much like their larger desktop variants, 40-series cards support DLSS 3, an AI-powered video upscaling technology that accelerates performance even in the most graphically demanding of tasks.

This also comes with Ray Tracing enabled for maximum picture quality as well as Nvidia Reflex support, which synchronizes a computer's GPU and CPU to ensure responsiveness and low system latency.

Artists and creative specialists also have something to gain from the RTX 40 cards and the laptops they come in—access to Nvidia Studio. This suite of exclusive apps offers creators software options like Broadcast, Canvas and the upcoming RTX Remix, which allows modders to capture game assets and create enhanced versions of them using AI tools.