NVIDIA's "most powerful" RTX 50-Series laptops fail to impress — Here's what I suggest before buying - Technology News

The mobile RTX 5090 GPU isn't exactly blowing the doors off in early tests, and I'm here to temper your expectations.

Gaming laptops with NVIDIA's RTX 50-series mobile GPUs officially entered the market on March 28, with options from Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo, MSI, Razer, and more.

Many laptops are ready to ship, while others are being released throughout April. You can preorder most models even if there's a shipping delay.

However, I come to you with a word of warning regarding the most expensive new NVIDIA RTX gaming laptops.

NVIDIA's RTX 5090 laptop performance is half that of its desktop counterpart

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Founders Edition (top) width and color compared to RTX 5090 Founders Edition (bottom)

The RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 are thinner than ever, but there's still no way they're fitting into a laptop without some modifications.

(Image credit: Windows Central | Ben Wilson)

NVIDIA has provided OEMs with RTX 5090, RTX 5080, and RTX 5070 Ti Laptop GPUs, so there's plenty of variety from which you can choose.

However, I come with a word of warning for those who are interested in the mobile 5090.

NVIDIA's RTX 5090 Laptop GPU looks a lot like a desktop RTX 5080, so don't buy a new laptop expecting the same performance.

As Notebookcheck discovered in its initial RTX 5090 Laptop testing, the mobile version is up to 50% slower than its desktop counterpart.

That applies to PC games and synthetic benchmarks. I've included some results here, but I urge you to check out the full collection of graphs and further analysis at Notebookcheck.net.

A look at Notebookcheck's findings on RTX 5090 Laptop performance in 3DMark.

(Image credit: Notebookcheck)

Notebookcheck's graphs showing RTX 5090 desktop and laptop performance in Blender.

(Image credit: Notebookcheck)

You can see in the above graphs how big a difference there is between the laptop and desktop RTX 5090 GPUs.

Notebookcheck uses a Zotac RTX 5090 Solid model to compare to the new Razer Blade 16 (2025) and the ASUS Strix Scar 18 G835LX with the mobile 5090 card.

The difference in performance also extends to gaming benchmarks.

NVIDIA RTX 5090 laptop GPU

Notebookcheck's findings regarding RTX 5090 desktop and mobile performance in Cyberpunk 2077.

(Image credit: Notebookcheck)

It's no surprise that NVIDIA's laptop GPUs don't measure up to their desktop counterparts. I wasn't expecting such a large gap.

The NVIDIA RTX 5090 Founders Edition desktop GPU we reviewed is thinner than ever, but it's impossible to include as much raw horsepower in a thermal envelope as small as a laptop.

The RTX 4090 Laptop is slower than its desktop sibling, although the difference isn't quite as major, with roughly a 35% performance decrease.

The raw specs of the two NVIDIA RTX 5090 GPUs show some interesting bits, and I included the RTX 5080 desktop GPU for further comparison.

GPU	RTX 5090 Laptop	RTX 5090 Desktop	RTX 5080 Desktop
GPU name	GB203	GB202	GB203
CUDA cores	10,496	21,760	10,752
RT cores	82	170	84
Tensor cores	328	680	336
ROPs	112	176	112
VRAM	24GB	32GB	16GB
Memory bandwidth	890GB/s	1.79TB/s	960GB/s
Memory bus	256-bit	512-bit	256-bit
TGP	175W	575W	360W

The RTX 5090 Laptop GPU looks a lot closer to the desktop RTX 5080 than anything else.

Don't get me wrong; the mobile RTX 5090 is a monster GPU, but it probably shouldn't have been granted the top-tier XX90 branding.

Both the mobile 5090 and desktop 5080 use the same GB203 GPU chip, and other than the 24GB of VRAM and the lower power draw in the mobile 5090, the numbers are very similar.

The tradeoff is, of course, extra mobility and less power draw, with the mobile 5090 dropping to a fraction of the desktop 5090's power demands.

The major appeal for the 50-series cards includes access to the full suite of DLSS 4's tools, including Multi Frame Generation (MFG).

MFG is so far exclusive to RTX 50-series GPUs, and its performance boosting capabilities are impressive thanks to AI advancements.

Where can I buy NVIDIA RTX 50-series laptops?

I'm not here to stop you from buying the laptop of your dreams. I simply want to shed some light on the situation.

NVIDIA's RTX 5090 Laptop GPU isn't exactly going to offer the XX90 performance you might desire, and I want to temper expectations before these laptops ship.

If you're indeed in search of the power available from the desktop 5090, there's really only one avenue: build your own PC or check out a pre-built with the 5090 already inside.

If you are interested in checking out the fresh line of NVIDIA RTX 50-series laptops, it looks like Best Buy and Newegg currently have the most varied selection.

You can also head over to Razer to check out its refreshed Blade 16 and Blade 18 models, while Dell is home to the new Alienware Area-51 gaming laptops.

I also found the Legion Pro 7i (Gen 10) with RTX 5080 Laptop GPU available for preorder at Lenovo.

Are you buying a new laptop with NVIDIA's RTX 50-series mobile GPUs? Which one are you getting? Let me know in the comments section below!

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NVIDIA's "most powerful" RTX 50-Series laptops fail to impress — Here's what I suggest before buying

The mobile RTX 5090 GPU isn't exactly blowing the doors off in early tests, and I'm here to temper your expectations.

NVIDIA's RTX 5090 laptop performance is half that of its desktop counterpart

Where can I buy NVIDIA RTX 50-series laptops?

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