[Comparison] NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 (Laptop, 85/95W) vs RTX 2080 SUPER Max-Q – both of the 3070s win in benchmarks but in real gaming…
The RTX 3000-series are probably the most hype up and expected GPUs right now, and their mobile versions are no slouches. Laptops with them are already starting to hit the market and we already have a review of a device with one of them, the ASUS TUF Gaming A17 (2021), which we will use to base this comparison on.
The RTX 3070 (Laptop) is the sweet spot between the more budget-oriented RTX 3060 and the superexpensive RTX 3080 as you still get insane performance for the dollar that you’re paying. Today we want to test how powerful the RTX 3070 (Laptop) is and we will use the RTX 2080 SUPER Max-Q in order to do that.
Before we start off, however, you would need to know that we found there to be two versions of the RTX 3070 (Laptop), with one having a TDP of 85W and the other: 95W. So for today, we will have both GPU variants go against the RTX 2080 SUPER Max-q
You can visit our Top Laptop Graphics Ranking, where you can see that both RTX 3070 (Laptop) variants are in the Top 5.
You can also check our dedicated article about All laptops with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 / 3070 Max-Q.
You can find more information about all of the GPUs here: RTX 3070 (Laptop, 95W) / RTX 3070 (Laptop, 85W) / RTX 2080 SUPER Max-Q
Specs table
RTX 3070 (Laptop, 85W / 95W) | RTX 2080 SUPER Max-Q | |
---|---|---|
Architecture | Ampere | Turing |
Lithography | 8 nm | 8 nm |
Base / Max Frequency | 1110MHz / 1620MHz | 975MHz / 1230MHz |
Memory Type | GDDR6-1500MHz | GDDR6-1100MHz |
Memory capacity | 8GB | 8GB |
Cores | 5120 | 3072 |
Power Consumption | 85W / 95W | 90W |
Memory bus | 256-bit | 256-bit |
Memory bandwidth | 384 GB/sec | 352 GB/sec |
GPU benchmarks
In 3DMark Fire Strike, the RTX 3070 (Laptop, 95W) outshined both the 85W 3070 (Laptop) and the RTX 2080 SUPER Max-Q by 8% and 13% respectively. Also, the 85W RTX 3070 was 5% faster than the RTX 2080 SUPER Max-Q.
Moving over to Unigine Heaven 4.0 here the RTX 3070 (Laptop, 85W) performed the best out of the three, being 0.4% quicker than its higher-powered brother and 7% faster than the 2080 SUPER Max-Q. What is more, the 95W RTX 3070 was 6% faster than the same 2080.
For the last GPU benchmark, Unigine Superposition, the 95W RTX 3070 was once again the best out of the three, followed by the 85W RTX 3070, which was 8% slower, and at last, the RTX 2080, which was 12% slower.
The results are from 3DMark Time Spy (Graphics). Higher is better.
Results are from 3DMark Fire Strike (Graphics) benchmark (higher the score, the better)
Results are from the Unigine Superposition benchmark (higher the score, the better)
Gaming tests
Far Cry 5 | Full HD, Normal (Check settings) | Full HD, High (Check settings) | Full HD, Ultra (Check settings) |
---|---|---|---|
RTX 3070 (Laptop, 95W) | 108 fps | 103 fps | 98 fps |
RTX 3070 (Laptop, 85W) | 101 fps | 96 fps | 92 fps |
RTX 2080 SUPER Max-Q | 129 fps | 119 fps | 113 fps |
Rise of the Tomb Raider (2016) | Full HD, Medium (Check settings) | Full HD, Very High (Check settings) | Full HD, MAX (Check settings) |
---|---|---|---|
RTX 3070 (Laptop, 95W) | 131 fps | 96 fps | 68 fps |
RTX 3070 (Laptop, 85W) | 137 fps | 89 fps | 60 fps |
RTX 2080 SUPER Max-Q | 167 fps | 93 fps | 66 fps |
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands | Full HD, High (Check settings) | Full HD, Very High (Check settings) | Full HD, Ultra (Check settings) |
---|---|---|---|
RTX 3070 (Laptop, 95W) | 100 fps | 89 fps | 61 fps |
RTX 3070 (Laptop, 85W) | 94 fps | 83 fps | 58 fps |
RTX 2080 SUPER Max-Q | 99 fps | 87 fps | 58 fps |
Shadow of the Tomb Raider (2018) | Full HD, Medium (Check settings) | Full HD, High (Check settings) | Full HD, Highest (Check settings) |
---|---|---|---|
RTX 3070 (Laptop, 95W) | 104 fps | 102 fps | 81 fps |
RTX 3070 (Laptop, 85W) | 96 fps | 96 fps | 73 fps |
RTX 2080 SUPER Max-Q | 111 fps | 108 fps | 72 fps |
Conclusion
It’s obvious that the GPUs from the new RTX 30 series are monsters in terms of raw performance and we expect them to perform better in real-life gaming as well when the GeForce drivers get better optimization. Of course, we’ll keep testing the GPUs with the next driver iterations so you’ll be able to see more precise results and not just conclusions based on synthetic benchmarks. What’s for sure is that NVIDIA did a great job with its Ampere architecture.
You can also check our dedicated article about All laptops with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 / 3070 Max-Q.