NVIDIA Quadro RTX 3000 Max-Q vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070

The Nvidia Quadro RTX 3000 with Max-Q Design is a professional high-end graphics card for powerful laptops and mobile workstations. It is based on the same TU106 chip as the consumer GeForce RTX 2070 (mobile) but with reduced clock speeds, shader count and memory bandwidth. Compared to the normal mobile RTX3000, the Max-Q variants are clocked lower and work in a more efficient state. Currently, we know of three variants with different clock speeds and power consumptions (60, 65 and 70 W).

The Quadro GPUs offer certified drivers, which are optimized for stability and performance in professional applications (CAD, DCC, medical, prospection, and visualizing applications). The performance in these areas is therefore much better compared to corresponding consumer GPUs.

Features

NVIDIA manufacturers the TU106 chip on a 12 nm FinFET process and includes features like Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) and Real-Time Ray Tracing (RTRT), which should combine to create more realistic lighting effects than older GPUs based on the company's Pascal architecture (if the games support it). The Quadro RTX 3000 is also DisplayPort 1.4 ready, while there is also support for HDMI 2.0b, HDR, Simultaneous Multi-Projection (SMP) and H.265 video en/decoding (PlayReady 3.0).

Performance

In professional applications, the Quadro RTX 3000 Max-Q can be faster GeForce RTX 2070 Max-Q due to the optimized drivers and bigger VRAM. When gaming with the RTX 3000, the slower clock speeds and less frequently updated drivers should hinder the performance compared to the GeForce variant.

The still relatively high power consumption of the RTX3000 Max-Q makes the card most suited for big  laptops. However, we should see thinner designs with the Max-Q variants than the regular RTX 3000.