A GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Laptop GPU Could Be on the Way
A GPU that makes little sense, in a world where power limits dictate performance, far more than core count.
According to a report from the PCI-ID Repository, a new GeForce RTX 3070 Ti mobile GPU could be on the horizon from Nvidia. The repository detected the RTX 3070 Ti laptop GPU under the name GN20-E6. This means a device was caught somewhere in the world equipped with this GPU. Nvidia has yet to reveal a 3070 Ti in any official manner, but we expect the GPU is still in prototype format, getting ready for use in new gaming laptops.
According to more details from the repository, the GPU die used is GA104, the same as the RTX 3080 and RTX 3070. That makes sense, as the 3070 Ti will slot in between both SKUs to fill in the gaps.
What we don't know yet is how many cores the GPU will include or its power limits. We already know that the RTX 3080 mobile GPU is equipped with 6144 CUDA cores, and the 3070 has 5120, So we can expect the 3070 Ti mobile to be fitted with a core count somewhere in between -- probably around the 5600 mark.
The power requirements should also be similar to the 3080 and 3070, with the 3080 maxing out at 150+W and 125W for the 3070. So we can assume that the 3070 Ti will be slightly above the 3070's power limit and right under the 3080s, somewhere in the 130-145W range.
We don't know how this GPU will be beneficial over current RTX 3070 and RTX 3080 laptops. Unfortunately, in the world of Ampere gaming notebooks, there is very little room for an RTX 3070 Ti to thrive. This is mainly due to the broad range of power limits both the 3070 and 3080 can use, to the point where 110-120W 3070's can outperform 3080 laptops if the latter uses a low enough power limit.
However, the one area the RTX 3070 Ti laptop GPU could shine is in its pricing strategy. The RTX 3070 Ti should be a bit cheaper than the RTX 3080 due to having more cores disabled on the same GA104 die. This means Nvidia can turn damaged wafers that were meant for RTX 3080 production into RTX 3070 Tis.
We'll have to see how the 3070 Ti plays out, but if Nvidia does produce this new GPU, we could see some new gaming laptops that are potentially much cheaper than RTX 3080 laptops.
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Aaron Klotz is a contributing writer for Tom’s Hardware, covering news related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.