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Comparative Analysis of High-End Laptop GPUs: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080, Intel Arc A570M, and More

GOOVER DAILY REPORT July 28, 2024
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

  1. Summary
  2. Specifications and Features of High-End Laptop GPUs
  3. Mid-Range Laptop GPUs: Specifications and Capabilities
  4. Professional Mobile GPUs: NVIDIA Quadro T500
  5. Conclusion

1. Summary

  • This report presents a comprehensive comparative analysis of various high-end and mid-range laptop GPUs, emphasizing their specifications, performance benchmarks, and architectural differences. The GPUs reviewed include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080, Intel Arc A570M, Intel Arc A770M, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050, and NVIDIA Quadro T500. Each GPU's core counts, memory capacities, power consumption, and benchmark performance are examined in detail. NVIDIA GPUs demonstrate superior performance, particularly in gaming and ray tracing capabilities, whereas Intel's Arc GPUs offer competitive performance for medium to high settings. The professional NVIDIA Quadro T500 is tailored for compute-intensive tasks without the capabilities for ray tracing and Tensor cores, thereby providing valuable insights for users based on specific requirements.

2. Specifications and Features of High-End Laptop GPUs

  • 2-1. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080

  • The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop GPU, codenamed GN21-X9, was introduced in early 2023. It is based on the AD104 chip (Ada Lovelace architecture) similar to the desktop RTX 4070 Ti. The RTX 4080 features a maximum of 7,680 Shaders, a 192-bit memory bus, and 12 GB of GDDR6 memory clocked at either 16 or 20 Gbps. The Total Graphics Power (TGP) ranges from 60 to 150 watts, with an additional 15 watts available via Dynamic Boost from the CPU. The GPU's clock speed varies from 1350 MHz at 60 watts to 2280 MHz at 150 watts. Fabricated using TSMC's 5nm process (4N), the AD104 chip contains 35,800 million transistors and covers an area of 379 mm². Other features include 232 Tensor Cores of the 4th generation for DLSS 3 and 58 Ray Tracing Cores of the 3rd generation. The RTX 4080 is capable of running demanding games such as F1 23 smoothly in QHD with ray tracing, and even some less demanding games in 4K. In synthetic benchmarks, it surpasses the earlier RTX 3080 Ti Laptop GPU but falls behind the RTX 4090.

  • 2-2. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090

  • The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU, codenamed GN21-X11, is a high-end GPU unveiled in early 2023. It utilizes the same AD103 chip and Ada Lovelace architecture as the desktop RTX 4080, featuring a maximum of 10,752 or 9,728 Shaders, a 256-bit memory bus, and 16 GB of GDDR6 memory clocked at 20 Gbps. The TGP for the RTX 4090 ranges from 80 to 150 watts, with an additional 15 watts available via Dynamic Boost from the CPU. The clock speed flexibly adjusts from 1455 MHz at 80 watts to 2040 MHz at 150 watts, depending on the TGP and cooling solutions of the notebook. The AD103 chip is also built using TSMC's 5nm process (4N) and includes 45,900 million transistors on a 379 mm² die. Known for its superior performance, the RTX 4090 can handle 4K gaming smoothly, and with the aid of DLSS, ray tracing performance in AAA titles is notably high. In synthetic benchmarks, this GPU outperforms both the RTX 4080M and the previous RTX 3080 Ti Laptop GPU.

  • 2-3. Intel Arc A770M

  • The Intel Arc A770M is a dedicated mid-range graphics card for laptops based on the ACM-G10 chip, which integrates all 32 Xe cores (512 ALUs) and 32 Ray-Tracing Units. The GPU features a 256-bit memory interface, supporting 16 GB GDDR6 memory with speeds of 16 Gbps. The clock speeds range from 300 MHz to 2050 MHz (Turbo), with standard gaming speeds around 1650 MHz. The Total Graphics Power (TGP) for the A770M is adjustable between 120 and 150 watts, positioning its performance slightly below NVIDIA’s RTX 3070. Manufactured using TSMC's 6nm process, the ACM-G10 chip includes 21.7 billion transistors and spans 406 mm². The GPU features two media engines capable of handling 8K60 12-bit HDR decoding and 8K 10-bit HDR encoding. Additionally, the A770M supports four 4K120 HDR displays, HDMI 2.0B, DP 2.0 10G, and Adaptive Sync functionalities. It is particularly optimized for use with 12th Generation Alder Lake CPUs via Deep Link and Dynamic Power Share.

3. Mid-Range Laptop GPUs: Specifications and Capabilities

  • 3-1. Intel Arc A570M

  • The Intel Arc A570M is a dedicated mid-range graphics card for laptops, using the ACM-G12 chip. It features 16 Xe cores (256 ALUs), 16 Ray-Tracing-Units, and 8 MB L2 cache. The clock speeds vary from 300 MHz to over 2.05 GHz, depending on the mode (Turbo mode). The memory interface is 128-bit, supporting 8 GB GDDR6 memory with a speed of 14 Gbps. The total graphics power (TGP) ranges from 75 to 95 watts according to model specifications. Performance-wise, the Intel Arc A570M is positioned in the lower middle range among dedicated laptop graphics cards. Its performance is estimated to be between the Radeon RX 6500M and 6600M, making it capable of running demanding games at medium to high settings smoothly. It differentiates itself from the slower Arc A550M by higher clock speeds and TDP values. The ACM-G12 chip is manufactured using TSMC’s 6nm process (N6) and uses a BGA2660 package. The chip integrates two media engines supporting VP9, AVC, HEVC, and AV1 decoding up to 8k60 12-Bit HDR and encoding up to 8k 10-Bit HDR. The integrated display pipes support up to four 4k120 HDR displays, HDMI 2.0B, DisplayPort 2.0 10G, and Adaptive Sync.

  • 3-2. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050

  • The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 is a mid-range notebook graphics card that debuted in early 2023. Built on the AD107 chip with the Ada Lovelace architecture, it features a 96-bit memory bus and 6 GB of GDDR6 memory clocked at an effective speed of 16 Gbps. The total graphics power (TGP) can range from 35 to 115 watts, with an additional 10-25 watt Dynamic Boost coming from the CPU. Depending on power settings, the GPU’s boost clock ranges from 1605 MHz at 35 watts to 2370 MHz at 115 watts. Performance of the GeForce RTX 4050 is highly dependent on its TDP settings. According to benchmarks, it outperforms the RTX 3050 Ti Laptop GPU, positioning itself between the RTX 3050 Ti and RTX 3060 Laptop GPU. This makes the GPU suitable for 1920x1080 gaming at high to maximum detail settings depending on the game. Additionally, it includes 80 Tensor Cores for DLSS 3, which can boost performance in supported games with minimal quality loss, but its 20 Ray Tracing cores are less effective as the GPU lacks the power for efficient ray tracing. The AD107 chip is manufactured using TSMC’s 5nm process (4N).

4. Professional Mobile GPUs: NVIDIA Quadro T500

  • 4-1. Specifications

  • The Nvidia T500 Mobile, formerly known as Quadro T500, is a professional mobile graphics card based on the Turing architecture (TU117 chip). It features 896 cores and a 64-bit memory bus. The T500 is available with either 2 GB or 4 GB of graphics RAM (GDDR5 or GDDR6), with the TDP ranging between 18 to 25 watts depending on the variant. Additionally, it supports PCIe 4.0 and is manufactured with a 12nm FinFET process at TSMC.

  • 4-2. Benchmarks

  • The NVIDIA Quadro T500 delivers NVIDIA 3DMark GPU performance ratings with various TDP levels (18W, 22W, and 25W) in benchmarks such as 3DMark 11, Fire Strike, and Time Spy. It is benchmarked with SPECviewperf 13 and SPECviewperf 2020 across multiple professional workloads, including sw-04, snx-03, showcase-02, medical-02, maya-05, energy-02, creo-02, catia-05, and 3dsmax-06. Cinebench R11.5 and Cinebench R15 tests show robust performance for OpenGL tasks. GFXBench 3.1, 3.0, and LuxMark v2.0 benchmarks further highlight its compute power. Finally, real-world game benchmarks indicate that the T500 can handle various settings from low to ultra at resolutions up to 4K, though performance can vary significantly based on the system configurations and drivers.

  • 4-3. Architecture

  • Based on the Turing generation, the Quadro T500 benefits from an architecture optimized for concurrency, enabling concurrent execution of floating point and integer operations. It lacks the ray tracing and Tensor cores present in higher-end Quadro RTX cards. However, the T500's architecture includes a new unified memory architecture, which provides double the cache compared to the Pascal generation, leading to a 50% increase in instructions per clock and a 40% improvement in power efficiency.

5. Conclusion

  • The comparative analysis reveals distinct strengths and applications for the various high-end and mid-range laptop GPUs. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 and RTX 4090 lead in both gaming and professional settings, showcasing exceptional ray tracing and high-resolution support. Intel's mid-range options, the Arc A570M and A770M, while competitive, cater better to medium to high gaming settings. Conversely, the NVIDIA Quadro T500 focuses on professional workloads, excelling in compute-heavy tasks despite lacking ray tracing and Tensor cores. The insights provided by this report are valuable for users in selecting the most suitable GPU based on their specific needs; however, the analysis remains limited by evolving GPU technologies and future market shifts. Future prospects involve advancing GPU architectures and further refinement of ray tracing capabilities, which likely points to significant performance improvements in forthcoming releases. Applying these findings, professional and gaming users can make more informed decisions when choosing a high-performance laptop GPU.

6. Glossary

  • 6-1. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop GPU [Product]

  • A high-end GPU for notebooks featuring 7680 Shader cores, 12 GB GDDR6 memory, and strong performance in demanding games with ray tracing support.

  • 6-2. Intel Arc A570M [Product]

  • A mid-range notebook GPU with 16 Xe cores, 8 GB GDDR6 memory, and balanced performance for medium to high settings in gaming.

  • 6-3. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU [Product]

  • A mid-range GPU based on the AD107 chip with 6 GB GDDR6 memory, designed to improve performance in supported games with 80 Tensor cores.

  • 6-4. NVIDIA Quadro T500 Mobile GPU [Product]

  • A professional mobile GPU based on the Turing architecture with 896 cores, optimized for compute-heavy workloads without ray tracing and Tensor cores.

  • 6-5. Intel Arc A770M [Product]

  • A high-end notebook GPU presented alongside RTX 4090 and RTX 4080, highlighting its specifications and performance in various benchmarks.

  • 6-6. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU [Product]

  • A top-tier GPU compared with Arc A770M and RTX 4080, focusing on its leading performance metrics in synthetic and gaming benchmarks.

7. Source Documents