RTX 5090 laptop comparison shows you might as well buy a cheaper 4090 model
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As the reviews for the new laptops equipped with the RTX 5090 GPU continue to trickle in, the news is not good for Team Green. Added to the numerous woes of the RTX 50 series, according to one YouTuber, customers are better off saving money on an older laptop than splashing out on the latest generation.
YouTuber Jarrod'sTech was brutal in his assessment of the RTX 5090 laptop he tested, saying: Nvidia's RTX 5090 laptop GPU is kind of a joke compared to the last gen's 4090.” Despite the boost in specifications of the RTX 5090, with more VRAM, higher CUDA core count, and higher boost clock, the GPU is hobbled by having the same 256-bit memory bus as its predecessor.
RTX 5090 laptop benchmarked versus 4090 laptop
Jarrod tested 25 games to get his results, and one game in particular displayed the inadequacies of the RTX 5090 laptop GPU. When testing Red Dead Redemption 2 on Ultra settings, the RTX 4090 laptop embarrassed the RTX 5090 model. Average FPS at 1080p on the RTX 4090 laptop was 149.56 FPS. The RTX 5090 laptop only managed 114.18. Though this is an older game, and the RTX 5090 did better at 4K, this is still not a great result for the RTX 5090 laptop GPU.
Startled by these numbers, Jarrod actually bought a second RTX 5090 laptop and re-ran all 25 benchmarks to double-check his data, only to see very similar results.
The news isn't all bad, the RTX 5090 laptop did win out when it came to battery life. Improvements in power efficiency have made a significant difference to how long users can play games running solely on battery.
It is unknown if this lackluster performance is due to a driver or firmware issue, or if something is very wrong with these laptop GPUs. Hopefully, Nvidia can address these concerns.
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