NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU vs AMD Radeon RX 5600M vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU (Codename GN21-X11) is a high-end laptop GPU. It is based on the AD103 chip as the desktop RTX 4080 and use the Ada Lovelace architecture. The AD103 chip offers a maximum of 10.752 shaders from which inly 9728 are used (e.g., the RTX 4080 Desktop uses 9.728) and a 256 Bit memory bus. The RTX 4090 mobile uses 16 GB GDDR6 dedicated graphics memory with a clock speed of 20 Gbps (effective). The TGP (Total Graphics Power) can be configured between 80 and 150 Watt (+ 15 Watt Dynamic Boost from the CPU) leading to different performance levels (the desktop RTX 4080 uses 320 Watt for comparisons). 

The performance depenends on the TGP settings which defines the maximum boost clock (1455 MHz for 80W and up to 2040 MHz for 150W). With 150W the performance should be in the region of the desktop RTX 4080 and therefore best suited for 4k60 or 2k with 120 fps for demanding games. For raytracing, lower resolutions or DLSS is needed.

In our reviews, an average RTX 4090 is clearly the fastest mobile GPU and bests the RTX 4080 Laptop GPU and mobile RTX 3080 Ti easily. 4090M GPUs with lower power limit can however loose up to 20% performance.

In games, fast RTX 4090 models allow gaming in 4k with maximum details. Adding Raytracing may lead to frame rates below 60 fps (e.g. F1 23) and therefore the use of DLSS or reduced settings are advised.

The AD103 chip of the RTX 4090 mobile is manufactured in an improved 5 nm process at TSMC (4N).

AMD Radeon RX 5600M

The AMD Radeon RX 5600M (or RX 5600 Mobile Graphics) is a mobile mid-range graphics card based on the Navi 10 chip (RDNA architecture) manufactured in the modern 7nm process. It features 2,304 cores (36 CUs - compute units) and fast GDDR6 graphics memory (12 Gbps most likely). The clock speed of the cores will depend on the laptop according to AMD. It can be up to the desktop RX 5600 XT (1265 base and 1560 boost).

The Navi 10 chip uses the new RDNA (Radeon DNA) microarchitecture which is a successor the the GCN instruction set. It features a new processor design, a multi-level cache hierarchy and an improved rendering pipeline with support for GDDR6 memory.

The performance of the RX5600M should be similar to a Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 according to AMD. That means it should be best suited for Full HD (1920x1080) with maximum settings in demanding games. 

The chip starts with a TDP of 60 Watt (for a Max-Q like version we guess, as the RX 5500M already has a TDP of 85 Watt).

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU (codename GN21-X2) is a mid-range laptop GPU. It is based on the AD107 chip and uses the Ada Lovelace architecture. The RTX 4050 Laptop offers 2560 shaders and uses 6 GB GDDR6 dedicated graphics memory with a clock speed of 16 Gbps (effective) and a 96 Bit memory bus. The TGP (Total Graphics Power) can be configured between 35 and 115 Watt (+ 10-25 Watt Dynamic Boost from the CPU) leading to different performance levels. The boost clock depends on the TGP settings and ranges from 1605 MHz (35 Watt) to 2370 MHz (115 Watt). The performance therefore is also highly depending on the laptop and TDP settings.

In our benchmarks, the RTX 4050 stays slightly behind the older mobile RTX 3060 but is clearly faster than the mobile RTX 3050 Ti. Therefore, it is best suited for 1920x1080 gaming at high to ultra settings depending on the game (see benchmarks below).

The RTX 4050 offers 80 tensor cores and therefore supports DLSS 3 including frame generation that can have a big impact in supported games. The raytracing cores however will see less usage, as the RTX 4050 does not offer enough performance for high detail settings and raytracing in demanding games.

The AD107 chip is manufactured in 5nm at TSMC (4N process).