We're kicking off our reviews of Nvidia's RTX thirty laptop GPUs with a look at the GeForce RTX 3060, the more affordable of three new Ampere mobile GPUs released so far. It'south a little unusual to be reviewing a laptop GPU variant before the desktop flake, just to align with the laptop release bicycle and the launch of AMD's new Ryzen 5000 APUs, nosotros're getting the RTX 3060 alongside the RTX 3070 and RTX 3080 all at the same time.

The mobile RTX 3060 is using Nvidia's GA106 silicon with 3840 unlocked CUDA cores, more than what you'll find in the desktop equivalent. There are a range of power configurations that OEMs tin utilize, anywhere from 60 to 115 watts, which brings with it a boost clock anywhere from 1283 MHz to 1703 MHz depending on the variant yous become. Of form, one of the key talking points around this generation is Nvidia removing the "Max-Q" label, instead giving all configurations from the 60W model (previously Max-Q) up to 115W (Max-P) the aforementioned name, something nosotros're not big fans of.

The retention configuration for all RTX 3060 laptop variants is 6GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit passenger vehicle, with clock speeds of either fourteen Gbps or 12 Gbps depending on the power class. As this is a new GPU featuring the Ampere architecture, it's built on Samsung'due south 8nm process node and features all the new architectural benefits like 3rd-gen Tensor cores, 2nd-gen ray tracing cores, and dual FP32 pipelines.

For laptops specifically, Nvidia has introduced a range of new technologies such as Dynamic Boost 2.0, WhisperMode 2.0 and Resizable BAR, to go along with previous stuff similar Avant-garde Optimus. While these features autumn nether Nvidia's Max-Q umbrella, they aren't restricted just to depression power variants; all RTX 30 GPUs can use them. Not all of these features are required to exist used though by the laptop manufacturer. From what we've seen and then far, uptake Dynamic Boost in item has been far college than in prior generations.

For today's review, we'll exist testing ii variants of the RTX 3060 mobile GPU: one with a base power rating of 80W, and another with a base power of 115W. Note how we specify "base ability" here equally both come with Dynamic Boost 2.0, which is enabled past default. This balances system power load while gaming, and in some situations where CPU usage is light, information technology can enable the RTX 3060 to run up to 15W higher. Considering it's enabled out of the box on both systems, this is how we'll be testing these laptops and nosotros'll be reporting a ability range on our benchmark charts.

Our RTX 3060 115-130W system today is the XMG Apex 17, a powerful animal of a organisation with significant cooling capacity. The RTX 3060 inside has a base clock of 1387 MHz and boost clock of 1702 MHz, along with fourteen Gbps memory. Information technology supports Dynamic Heave and Resizable BAR, but not WhisperMode or Advanced Optimus.

The XMG Apex is powered by the Ryzen 7 5800H, a new Cezanne APU that just launched and we'll exist reviewing in item soon. At that place's also 16GB of dual-channel DDR4-3200 memory and a 17-inch 1080p 144Hz display. 1440p laptops are also starting to filter into the market at present, but our testing for today volition remain at 1080p. We'll look to add 1440p to the mix in the future.

Our second RTX 3060 laptop is some other XMG Noon 17 only equipped with a 80-95W GPU power configuration. The laptop is a slightly unlike model with a thinner chassis and smaller cooler. Clock speeds are 900 MHz base and 1425 MHz boost, likewise with fourteen Gbps retention. This laptop features Dynamic Heave and WhisperMode, simply not Resizable BAR or Advanced Optimus. Maybe the lack of Resizable BAR is downward to the utilise of an Intel CPU. There's also 16GB of dual-channel DDR4-3200 memory and a 17-inch 1080p 144Hz display.

It'south interesting to meet that XMG and ODM Clevo have decided to make Ryzen 5000 processors the focus of the Noon 17 series. While many aspects to these chassis are like, the AMD model is notably larger and has better cooling, allowing it to run the GPU at a higher power rating for better performance. This is opposite to previous generations where Intel was always given the higher terminate designs.

With that said, both of these Apex models are the sort of entry-level chassis options that XMG offers. Core and Neo models sitting above with slimmer builds and more than premium materials.

Benchmarks

We're starting off with some older games where we take more comparison data, then motility into newer benchmarks with a smaller range of systems. Shadow of the Tomb Raider is up offset, and immediately we're seeing pretty decent results.

There wasn't a huge deviation between the power configurations of our RTX 3060 laptops in this test, just it did allow the 80-95W model to deliver 17% more functioning than a 90W power configuration of the RTX 2060. And so a similar power configuration here, merely a decent chunk more performance out of the new RTX xxx series GPU.

This places the RTX 3060 slightly above the RTX 2070 Super Max-Q in our charts. Meanwhile for those with a system a couple of generations old, say a GTX 1060 6GB for case, you're looking at more than than 65% meliorate performance in the same power class.

In Metro Exodus, the RTX 3060 is able to flex its muscles, peculiarly with the 115W power configuration. In both instances, the new RTX 3060 is pretty like to an RTX 2070 Super of the same power rating, putting it towards the top of the charts. At 80W we're seeing xvi% more performance than the RTX 2060, although this extends to a xxx% delta at 115W. Plus, if you lot're upgrading from an older organization or something lower tier, the gains are much more substantial.

Control is extremely GPU limited on laptops, and equally such shows some of the highest performance gains for the RTX 3060 over the 2060 at 1080p. We achieved a 27% higher frame charge per unit when comparing at 80-95W, and 21% higher at the maximum 115W configuration.

So generation on generation, in the same sort of laptop design with the same cooler, an RTX 3060 will be giving you a decent step up in terms of frame rate. This puts the 3060 slightly in a higher place the terminal generation RTX 2070 Super, but at a lower price bespeak.

Borderlands three shows a solid functioning improvement for the RTX 3060, pushing frame rates 17% higher in 80-95W range, and nineteen% higher in the 115-130W range, over the RTX 2060. This makes the 3060 nearly five% faster than the RTX 2070 Super Max-Q in a lower ability configuration, or equal to that GPU in a higher ability configuration. And while we're not setting new records in the 90W power grade with this GPU, we're getting 88% of the functioning of the RTX 2080 Super Max-Q in a price range that'south almost half as expensive.

Scarlet Dead Redemption 2 shows some of the strongest results in favor of the RTX 3060, with the new GPU delivering performance above the RTX 2070 Super in a watt for watt battle.

The 3060 ends up 24% faster than the RTX 3060 in both power classes, and almost twice every bit fast every bit the GTX 1060 for people thinking of upgrading from a much older laptop. Really, now is the fourth dimension to remember near ditching your Pascal gaming arrangement for something newer.

Tom Clancy'southward Rainbow Half-dozen Siege is a classic example of a competitive game running at medium settings. With new AMD CPUs in these systems, we're no longer suffering a huge operation penalty choosing an AMD-based laptop, so the end upshot is both RTX 3060 laptops deliver similar performance.

Big gains for the RTX 3060 in this title over previous generation GPUs, which is going to exist specially good if yous buy a system with a 240 Hz brandish.

In Assassin's Creed Valhalla, the RTX 3060 is able to outperform the RTX 2070 Super Max-Q by a couple of frames, delivering a 17 percentage performance gain over the RTX 2060 in a similar power grade. Specially at 115W, this makes Valhalla quite playable on very high settings at 1080p, which wasn't previously the instance.

Cyberpunk 2077 requires a lot of GPU horsepower for decent frame rates at 1080p on a laptop, and ultimately nosotros'd recommend people turn downwardly the quality settings 1 notch with a mid-range GPU like the RTX 3060. 17% more operation on offer than the RTX 2060 here in the lower power class, however the RTX 3060 does autumn behind the RTX 2070 Super in this game.

Watch Dogs Legion, even at 1080p on Ultra settings, is quite punishing on the RTX 3060 and part of that comes down to Ultra settings needing 8GB of VRAM. The 3060 has simply 6GB, which in some areas of the benchmark causes stuttering and a somewhat lower 1% low than the RTX 2070 Super despite similar boilerplate frame rates.

We're nonetheless seeing a substantial 29% proceeds over the RTX 2060, another 6GB GPU, however we think having more VRAM for this game would be nice if you lot wanted to play on Ultra settings. With that said, how realistic ultra settings are for a laptop GPU is another question, and I'd probably turn downwards the preset 1 notch for actual gaming on a arrangement like this.

Hitman 3 is the newest title in our benchmark suite, and for this test we are using the built-in test set to the Dartmoor level. This is an intensive exam on both the CPU and GPU, with the RTX 3060 putting upwardly a good showing relative to other products in the chart.

It is simply 15% faster than the RTX 2060 in a watt for watt battle, but utterly obliterates the GTX 1060 configuration which is hamstrung by just a quad-core Intel 7th-gen processor.

The final criterion we'll be showing in detail today is Dirt five. The results seen here don't differ too much from the previous results, but this is a newer and more performance intensive title in some ways. With 17 percentage more performance than the RTX 2060 on offer, information technology allows the 80-95W configuration to match the RTX 2070 Super Max-Q.

Performance Breakdown

Time for some head to head comparisons featuring 20 games in our up-to-date laptop GPU benchmark exam suite. When comparing the RTX 3060 (80 to 95W) with Dynamic Boost enabled, to the average of all our RTX 2060 laptops running at 90W, the RTX 3060 ends up 19% faster on average in the same power class.

Some results were non as loftier for the new RTX 30 series GPU, similar Gears 5 and Cyberpunk with ray tracing enabled, while other games like Control and Picket Dogs Legion could exist nearly 30 per centum ahead on Nvidia's new GPU.

In the higher power grade -- 115W-130W -- nosotros don't have equally many games that tin can be used for a comparison. However, from the tests ran we can say that the RTX 3060 is 22% faster than the RTX 2060 on boilerplate. This suggests that the 3060 is delivering a similar comeback to efficiency over its Turing predecessor regardless of whether yous get a mid-tier or higher-end power configuration.

Another useful comparing is that the RTX 3060 provides similar performance to the RTX 2070 Super when y'all're on a similar power class. The ane outlier here is Cyberpunk 2077 with ray tracing enabled, where 6GB of VRAM is non enough and causes a significant operation loss compared to the 8GB-equipped 2070 Super. Remove that result and the 3060 is a couple percent faster on boilerplate.

Not unlike what nosotros've observed from previous generations, the higher 115W power configuration is 11% faster on average than the 80W config of the RTX 3060. While there is likewise a CPU difference at play here, about of our gaming benchmarks are GPU limited, with results ranging from a low single-digit improvement, to an uplift of 20% or more, depending on the game. These two power classes deliver fundamentally different performance and, of course, the 115W model is faster.

For those looking to upgrade coming from a GTX 10 series Pascal GPU of the aforementioned class, the RTX 3060 provides a huge 72% performance gain over the GTX 1060 6GB on average.

For those looking to upgrade coming from a GTX x series Pascal GPU of the same class, the RTX 3060 provides a huge 72% performance gain over the GTX 1060 6GB on boilerplate. Factored into this is likewise the uplift moving from a dated Intel quad-core that was ordinarily used in 2022'due south laptops, to a new 8-cadre CPU that will be widespread across today'southward gaming systems. This is the primary comparison Nvidia is making for RTX xxx laptop GPUs and it makes sense given with these sorts of gains nosotros think considering a gaming laptop upgrade is well worth it, peculiarly for modern games.

The MaxQ naming event (update)

Update (Feb 5): Before long after publishing this review, Nvidia appear that they will now require all companies selling RTX laptops to be more transparent well-nigh their graphics subsystems. In other words, while Nvidia used to encourage manufacturers to state clocks and power consumption on their product pages, at present it requires them to practise and then. The Max-Q branding can still be used, albeit for different reasons, such as indicating back up for Dynamic Boost 2.0, Advanced Optimus, and Whisper Style two.0.

Many RTX 30-series laptop listings have nevertheless to be updated to reverberate differences in the clock speed and full power consumption. Nevertheless, manufacturers like Asus, Acer, Razer, Origin, MSI, Alienware, and Gigabyte have already updated some production pages, then things are moving in the right direction for consumers.

The text below belongs to the original review, before Nvidia'due south alter of centre with regards to RTX thirty-series laptop GPU branding...

Clearly, the new RTX 3060 laptop GPU delivers on the performance front, that'southward why it'due south disappointing Nvidia has decided to misfile users with mixed naming schemes – in particular the removal of Max-Q branding. We've been banging on about this for years at present, but the problem is bad enough that even mainstream media is catching on. Laptop makers usually simply signal what's the bones GPU name (e.grand. "RTX 3060"), just different power configurations all differ in operation as we merely saw in this review, sometimes significantly so.

Substantially, the problem is that the aforementioned GPU model is being used beyond several power configurations.

Nvidia used to mitigate this somewhat past branding the lower ability (and slower) variants as "Max-Q" and college-power laptops with "Max-P." And while there were still more sub-variants betwixt the 2 extremes, this could at least give you some hint before you bought a new laptop. That'southward no longer possible with 2022's laptops.

Using today'southward review as a basic instance, we looked at two RTX 3060 laptop GPU configurations that used an 80W and 115W base ability level. The operation divergence was x% on average. That'south significant plenty in our opinion, but we didn't exam the fifty-fifty lower power 60W variant of the 3060 which could be 15-20% slower, which is basically an entirely different GPU class at that signal.

Now, Nvidia has said that they are encouraging laptop makers to be clear well-nigh the power and clock speeds of the laptops they sell. But let's exist honest. What maker wants to admit their cooling solution is inadequate and that they're using a slower GPU variant?

The solution is simple, these GPUs should be given unlike names. The RTX 3060 at 115W could exist the RTX 3060MX, the 80W model could be RTX 3060M and the 60W model could exist RTX 3060Q. There, solved.

What We Learned

Overall, there'south a lot to like from the new RTX 3060 from a performance standpoint. The laptop GPU provides a notable functioning uplift over previous parts of the same class and ability level, which is something we couldn't say about Nvidia's Super refresh concluding yr.

The upgrade to the Ampere compages and Samsung 8nm process presents a solid leap for laptop hardware; hardware that's constrained by ability and requires new architectures and next-gen process nodes to provide a spring in efficiency and therefore performance per watt.

When nosotros compare two laptop GPUs in the same price segment, relative to its generation – RTX 3060 vs RTX 2060 – we become twenty% improve performance on average. So if we take two laptops with the same blueprint, same cooling capacity, and likely a similar price tag, the newer RTX 30 serial option is going to deliver a decent performance gain in today's games at 1080p. That'due south exactly what we're looking for.

The generation on generation performance spring with Ampere vs. Turing isn't as large as we got from the Pascal to Turing upgrade on laptops. The RTX 2060, for example, was most 28 percent faster in our 2022 testing compared to the GTX 1060. Yet, in this instance Nvidia also increased the price tag. That isn't the example with the RTX 3060.

Shopping for a gaming laptop

In today's market place, our conclusion above is not factoring in two fundamental data points. First, this price comparison is based off the MSRP. We tin can't say for sure if gaming laptops volition see inflated pricing due to the electric current terrible market situation for GPU hardware. Information technology as well doesn't account for end-of-life discounts on RTX 2060 laptops, so initially there may be a bargain to be had on last-gen hardware. But if we are comparing launch pricing to launch pricing, the RTX 3060 is well positioned and buyers are getting meliorate performance per dollar.

Another style to look at it is that the RTX 3060 matches the performance of the RTX 2070 Super from the previous generation, a GPU that was two steps above in the bureaucracy. Those laptops used to cost around $1,800 or more, while some RTX 3060 laptops should exist every bit low as $1,000-1,200. It's difficult to brand a direct comparison right at present as most RTX 30 series laptops aren't bachelor to buy just yet, but the early signs are a very strong value suggestion for the RTX 3060 class of laptops.

It'southward also a promising landscape for those wanting to upgrade from a 4-yr-old GTX laptop. Even when yous don't factor in a drastic footstep upward in CPU performance -- from say the i7-7700HQ -- new brandish tech and all the other benefits of modernistic laptops, the RTX 3060 lonely is lxx% faster than the GTX 1060 in the aforementioned power grade. That's enough of a performance proceeds to justify an upgrade.

From a performance standpoint and even without taking into consideration value-added features like ray tracing, DLSS, Dynamic Boost and so on, Nvidia is delivering the goods right now in the laptop market.

Shopping Shortcuts
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