Nvidia Lovelace AD102 RTX 4090 could result in wide performance deltas compared to desktop

Power limits for Nvidia’s upcoming Lovelace generation of GPUs have leaked indicating large differences between corresponding desktop and laptop variants. The flagship AD102 is rated at 800 W, and it will be a desktop-only GPU. GPUs from AD103 to AD106 will be available for desktops and laptops. Though the power limits seem high, the actual TGP figures are likely to be much lesser.

We have been speculating that Nvidia’s upcoming Lovelace generation of GPUs would have higher power consumption than Ampere. Rumors so far suggested that the upcoming flagship RTX 4090 based on the AD102 GPU may have power consumption pushing past 700 W or even 850 W. 

Nvidia will offer both desktop and mobile variants of Lovelace, and now we are getting to know what could be their likely power targets.

This information comes via @kopite7kimi on Twitter who has been quite accurate for the most part when it comes to GPU leaks. The Lovelace lineup will have GPU offerings starting from AD102, which is the flagship chip, all the way down to AD106.

AD102 is expected to have a mind-boggling 800 W power limit, which obviously means it will not make it to laptop form factors. This is not unlike what we’ve seen with Ampere wherein the top-end RTX 3080 Ti Laptop GPU was based on GA103 and not GA102.

GPUs from AD103 onwards will come in both desktop and mobile variants. While the desktop AD103 will have a maximum power limit of 450 W, the mobile version will be capped at 175 W similar to the RTX 3080 Ti Laptop GPU.

AD104 is touted to have a power limit of 400 W on the desktop but will be restricted to 175 W on mobile. This is a good uplift from what we’ve seen with the RTX 3070 Ti Laptop GPU, which has a TGP of 150 W (125 W TDP and 25 W Dynamic Boost).

Finally, AD106 will have a power limit of 260 W on the desktop but will work at 140 W in laptops. The RTX 3060 Laptop GPU offers a range of TDPs from 60 W to 115 W, but it is interesting to know that its successor can be pushed all the way to 140 W. We do not have power limits for AD107 yet.

A point worth noting here is that these figures are maximum power limits for a particular GPU and not actual TDP or TGP figures. These numbers serve to indicate as to how much a GPU can be pushed under the right cooling and overclocking conditions. They also give us an indication of what could be the extent of a momentary spike in power consumption under load.

The RTX 4090 cards are thought to hover around 600 W TGP. However, a more recent spec leak puts the RTX 4090’s TGP at around 450 W, which is still a good 100 W higher than the RTX 3090‘s 350 W rating. 

The mobile Lovelace cards look to be using similar power limits as the current Ampere generation. The wide power limit gap between corresponding desktop and laptop Lovelace SKUs indicates that the performance delta between them could be huge. 

Having said that, pushing Lovelace any higher than 175 W would probably require large investments into chassis and cooling redesign R&D, which is unlikely a near-term goal for most OEMs. Some Alder Lake HX laptops are pushing a combined 250 W from both the CPU and the GPU already. That being said, the increased CUDA core counts and other specifications should still lend a good performance uplift with Lovelace mobile, but it is too early to speculate.