If rumours are to be believed, Nvidia may be working on an RTX 3080 Ti laptop graphics card.
Nvidia’s higher-end laptop GPUs have been rumoured for a while, with prior leaks pointing to the potential of an RTX 3080 Supermodel a few months ago (plus 3070 Super for that matter).
This new leak has pinned the Ti label on the purportedly upcoming RTX 3080 variant, rather than the Super branding, with the theory being that this product will be based on Nvidia’s GA103 GPU (GN20-E8), as noted in a tweet from Matthew Smith that VideoCardz spotted (Smith is the keeper of TechPowerUp’s GPU database).
According to VideoCardz, the breach is the result of someone using the account ‘Faintsnow’ publishing to a PCI Device ID database, implying that they work for a graphics card manufacturer. When asked what Nvidia’s moniker for this graphics solution would be, Faintsnow added the details of the GPU and verified that it will be the ‘GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Laptop GPU.’
There are no more specifics offered, therefore the information presented is admittedly sparse.
Analysis: Is a high-end laptop GPU on the way in early 2022?
Obviously, we must maintain a healthy level of suspicion regarding the truth of this, given the original source is, to say the least, a shady one.
However, this is long-running speculation, and it appears to be a plausible step for Nvidia to produce a more powerful laptop GPU in the near future — prior rumours said that this mobile graphics card (or cards) will be launched in early 2022. We might be looking at a CES debut in January 2022, and if that’s the case, expect to hear a lot more about this GPU from the rumour mill in the near future.
There has been some debate in the past about whether the rumoured RTX 3080 Ti or Super would use the GA103 laptop chip instead of the GA104 used in the notebook RTX 3080 card, because as you may recall, regular rumour peddler Kopite7kimi – who first spilled the beans on the GA103 laptop chip – said it was most likely cancelled.
With this recent leak, Kopite7kimi joined in as well, saying that this new find may be an RTX 3090 mobile rather than a 3080 Ti. On the subject of naming, it’s worth noting that Nvidia has never utilised the Ti suffix for a mobile GPU, so keep that in mind when playing the name guessing game.
Whatever it’s named, the chance that Nvidia has a more powerful high-end laptop GPU in the works, ready to step up and become Ampere’s new flagship in gaming laptops, is still very much alive.