This desktop PC and this gaming laptop both have Nvidia RTX 4090 graphics inside, so they
should perform about the same right? Wrong, the difference isn’t even close, which is why
I’ve compared both in 25 games at 4K, 1440p and 1080p resolutions to show you all the differences!
The desktop graphics card has a whopping 68% more CUDA cores compared to the laptop version,
and its max power limit is 3 times as high compared to the laptop version,
allowing it to reach higher clock speeds. The desktop card also has 50% more memory
capacity, and it uses faster GDDR6X memory with a bigger memory bus.
So sharing the same “RTX 4090” naming is basically the only thing these two machines have in common.
The 4090 laptop GPU is actually more similar to a desktop 4080 in terms of specs, so I would
have preferred if the laptop 4090 was just called the 4080. And I’d give them bonus points if they
added the “M” back onto the end of the name, like Intel and AMD do on their mobile GPUs.
Nvidia used to do this with the 10 series and older, but they removed it with the RTX 20,
30 and now 40 series. Which results in us getting the same product name for a
desktop and laptop GPU, despite the vastly different specs.
To be fair, Nvidia do specify “laptop GPU” on the end of their laptop models, but I still don’t
think that this is very clear that it’s something completely different compared to the desktop chip.
It wouldn’t surprise me at all if someone has seen the crazy performance that a desktop 4090
can offer and then incorrectly assumes that they might get something similar from a 4090 laptop.
Now don’t get me wrong, and RTX 4090 laptop is going to offer
insane performance as far as a gaming laptop is concerned, but as you’ll see,
it still can’t compete with the desktop version, so let’s find out what the differences are!
To do this testing I’m using MSI’s Titan GT77. It’s fairly big for a gaming laptop and is
designed to be more of a desktop replacement that’s still somewhat portable, but it offers
high power limits for both the RTX 4090 laptop GPU and Intel Core i9-13950HX processor.
Along with the RTX 4090 graphics card, the desktop system has Intel’s Core
i9-13900K processor, which was chosen as it has the same amount of cores,
threads and cache as the laptop CPU. I’ve also tested with 32 gigs of DDR5-5600 memory with
the exact same timings that the laptop had set to try and make things fairer.
There are always going to be differences between desktop
and laptop parts. But by using CPUs with similar specs and the same speed memory,
we’re able to minimize the difference as much as possible here so that we can focus on GPUs.
All 25 games were tested with max settings too, which are usually more GPU heavy.
The RTX 4090 laptop GPU in MSI’s Titan runs between 150 and 175 watts,
which is basically the best case for a laptop. The 4090 laptop GPU can
technically run as low as 80 watts, so expect even lower performance compared
to what I’m showing here in thinner and lighter laptops with a 4090 laptop GPU.
Laptops simply have to have lower power limits because more power equals more heat,
and I don’t know if you can tell, but there’s a pretty big size difference
between these two. Laptop’s just don’t have as much space for cooling.
This means that the laptop fans need to spin faster and louder
to keep things cool compared to the desktop, let’s have a listen.
The desktop is running quieter despite the fact that it’s pulling 90% more power from the wall
when running Cyberpunk 2077 at 4K max settings, or 110% more power in Control at max settings.
We’ve got 25 game benchmarks coming soon, but spoiler, the performance gain on the desktop
isn’t 90 to 110% extra FPS, which means that the laptop is actually more power efficient. The
laptop doesn’t output as much raw FPS, but it’s giving us more from an FPS per watt perspective.
The laptop GPU was only running a little warmer compared to the desktop GPU, despite
the desktop sucking down much more power, though as you heard, the laptops fans are louder too.
The extra power allows the desktop GPU to reach higher clock speeds in games
when compared to the laptop version, which will contribute to more FPS.
There’s also a PCIe bandwidth difference. The desktop card can run with 16 lanes of PCIe Gen 4,
while gaming laptop GPUs this generation are limited to 8 lanes of PCIe Gen 4,
which may affect some games.
Alright, with that in mind let’s get into the game benchmarks! After comparing 25 games at 3
resolutions we’ll also check out some content creator workloads as well as price difference.
Let’s start out with a Plague Tale Requiem, which I’ve found to be quite GPU heavy. I’ve
got the 1080p results down the bottom, 1440p in the middle and 4K up the top,
with the laptop GPU below the desktop GPU. The laptop was still performing
fine at 1440p max settings, running close to 80 FPS, but the desktop was 69% faster,
nice. 4K without upscaling was still going on ok the desktop, but the laptop was choppy now.
DLSS is able to help with this, again I’ve got the laptop below the desktop, with and without
frame generation. The laptop was able to run above 60 FPS with DLSS on quality mode at 4k,
however simply turning frame gen on boosted FPS by 37%. It still couldn’t match the desktop though,
which was ahead of the laptop with frame gen on with just regular DLSS. It’s a bit different
at the lower 1080p and 1440p resolutions though, the laptop with frame gen on was fairly close to
the desktop with DLSS on, but then the desktop can get a big boost if it uses frame gen too.
Cyberpunk 2077 was above the magic 60 FPS sweet spot at 4K ultra settings on the desktop,
a 56% higher average frame rate compared to the laptop. To be fair, the laptop was
still very capable at 1440p with around 90 FPS, but the desktop was still 49% faster.
I’ve tested with DLSS enabled at the higher ray tracing ultra preset, which is why we’re making
use of upscaling. If we turn on DLSS and frame gen, the laptop can beat the desktop with DLSS,
but again like the last game, enabling frame gen on the desktop gives it a much higher boost.
The dips in performance as shown by the 1% lows were really bad in Dead Space on
the laptop. I’m not sure why, but I’ve seen the same thing happen on two other laptops.
Despite the low 1% low, the game felt fine to me on the laptop at 4K and 1440p,
but it was more obvious at 1080p for some reason. The 1% lows hardly change on the
laptop even if we enable DLSS on quality mode. The average frame rates still get a decent uplift,
but compared to the desktop, the 1% lows are quite pathetic on the laptop.
The Witcher 3 was tested with its next gen update, and as the frame rate was stupid high I chose to
test with the ray tracing preset enabled to see what these GPUs can do. The laptop was
just able to run above 60 FPS with FSR on quality mode at 1440p, but the desktop still had a 61%
lead. Even the desktop’s 1% low was higher than the laptop’s average FPS. This game has frame
generation support, and if we turn that on then even the 1% low from the laptop is higher than the
average FPS prior to enabling the feature, though the desktop was still 53% faster in this test.
Microsoft’s Flight Simulator had some of the smallest differences between the laptop and
desktop out of all 25 games tested, as it’s more CPU heavy at lower resolutions. The desktop was
29% faster at 1080p, 28% faster at 1440p, and then 53% faster at 4K where the GPU gets better
put to work. This game doesn’t really need a super high frame rate to enjoy though, so near 60 FPS
on the laptop at 4K max settings should be plenty fine. This game also has frame generation support,
and that enabled and DLSS on quality mode was able to increase the laptop’s FPS at 4K by 78%,
though the desktop saw a larger 88% boost with these upscaling features compared to without them.
Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered is a CPU heavy game, which is why both the laptop
and desktop weren’t seeing much difference in FPS between 1080p and 1440p resolutions. At 1440p the
desktop was 25% faster than the laptop, the second smallest difference out of all 25 games tested,
as the GPU just matters less in this game. The GPU matters more at 4K though, which is why the
desktop has a 56% higher average FPS now, but a much larger 129% boost to the 1% lows. The laptop
kept having noticeable stuttering issues in this game, which weren’t happening on the desktop. DLSS
and frame generation were able to increase the 1% lows at 4K, but there was still stuttering
from time to time compared to the desktop, which felt noticeably smoother compared to the laptop.
Call of Duty was tested with the game’s benchmark because trying to fairly compare multiplayer is
actually the worst. The desktop 4090 was 40% faster than the laptop 4090 at 1440p,
and 52% faster at 4K, a below average difference out of the 25 games tested.
Apex Legends was tested in the firing range for reproducible results, and this game has
a 300 FPS frame cap, which the desktop was hitting at both 1080p and 1440p resolutions.
This makes it appear that the desktop was only 19% faster at 1080p and 42% faster at 1440p,
but it’s just because the game prevents the desktop 4090 from going higher. 4K seems to
show the true difference, with a massive 105% higher average FPS on the desktop,
more than double the FPS of the laptop, and check out the 1% low,
it seems that the 300 FPS frame cap at the lower resolutions was preventing that going higher too.
The same thing was seen in control at 1080p. The desktop 4090 was hitting a 240 FPS frame cap,
which forced its 1% low slower than the laptop.
Fortnite was still able to run above 100 FPS at 4K max settings on the laptop without upscaling,
it’s just that the desktop was able to run 70% better in terms of average
FPS. The gap is smaller with the desktop 53% ahead at the lower 1440p resolution,
but still, even the desktop’s 1% low isn’t far off the laptop’s average FPS.
Rather than individually talk through the rest of the 15 games tested I’ll just quickly skip through
the rest of the results on screen now so that we can focus on more important details. Feel free to
pause the video if you want a closer look at any of these results. The reason that I test so many
games is so that we can get a much more accurate average result from a wider selection of games,
which allows us to draw a better conclusion. In other words, more data equals more better.
On average over all 25 games tested, at 1080p the RTX 4090 desktop GPU was
about 37% faster when compared to the RTX 4090 laptop GPU. This isn’t actually quite that big,
for brief comparison, when I previously compared a 3080 laptop and desktop, the desktop was 45%
faster at this same resolution, though in a smaller 17 game selection. Some of our games
that were subject to frame rate limits at this lower resolution saw the smallest difference,
followed closely by CPU heavier titles where the GPU doesn’t matter as much. Regardless,
I wouldn't recommend a 4090 laptop or desktop if you're just playing at 1080p.
Stepping up to the higher 1440p resolution and the 4090 desktop graphics card was now 49%
faster compared to the 4090 laptop GPU. Again for comparison with 3080 laptop vs desktop,
that saw a 47% increase with the desktop GPU, so we’re seeing a fairly similar margin here between
the 4090s. Some of the CPU heavier games only had an 18% to 30% improvement to average FPS,
while our most GPU heavy games were 70% faster on the desktop.
At the highest 4K resolution the desktop card was now almost 67% faster compared to the laptop
version - quite a big difference from two GPUs with the same name. The difference is bigger
as this resolution is more GPU bound in more games compared to the others, and close to the 68% extra
CUDA cores found on the desktop card. Apex Legends up the top was running twice as fast on the
desktop, and although that’s clearly an outlier, some others were still up to 85% faster. Even a
number of our CPU heavy games are now seeing 50% performance improvements with the desktop.
Here’s how frame rates look if we instead take the average of all 25 games at all resolutions
at max settings. I think this better allows us to visually see how much better the desktop is
in a quick and easy summary. The 4090 laptop GPU was still quite capable,
given it’s averaging above 80 FPS at max setting levels without upscaling,
it’s just that the desktop offers much more on top of this while having the same product name.
Just before the price differences,
what about content creation? I guess it’s not all just about max FPS and headshots.
The difference in Blender wasn’t far off our average game difference at 4K,
with the Monster test scoring 59% higher on the desktop,
57% faster in the junkshop test and 62% faster in the Classroom test.
There’s a 53% boost in the V-Ray CUDA test with the desktop 4090, which is lower than I thought
we’d see considering the desktop card has 68% more CUDA cores, even without factoring in the
higher power limit, while the ray tracing test had a smaller 46% boost with the desktop card.
DaVinci Resolve tests video editing and was scoring 40% higher on the desktop system,
however unlike the last two tests, the processor plays more of a role here,
and the higher CPU power limit on the desktop would be contributing much more in this one.
Alright so the desktop 4090 was better than the laptop 4090 in every workload,
surprising absolutely no one. But what about the price difference?
Pricing and availability will change over time,
so refer to those links below the video for current updates and sales.
And speaking of sales, we update the gaminglaptop.deals website daily so that
you can get the best deal on your next gaming laptop! So check it out at gaminglaptop.deals
Right now we’re looking at around $4000 USD for a brand new PC with similar components to
what I’ve tested here. Obviously you could get a cheaper motherboard, power supply, CPU cooler,
case and less SSD space to lower the price even further while getting similar
performance in games, but this is a similar configuration to what I’ve tested here.
The laptop on the other hand is $5300, or around $1300 more money. I suppose
we didn’t include a screen, keyboard, and mouse in the desktop build budget,
which the laptop has built into it, but even if we picked out some nice ones, the laptop
is still easily far more expensive. Again to be fair, this is a top of the line gaming laptop,
I would expect there to also be cheaper options with high powered RTX 4090 laptop GPUs too.
From a cost per frame perspective, obviously the desktop is doing better.
Not only does it cost less money, but it was performing better in games as well,
and it’s this combination that gives it better value compared to the laptop.
Ultimately, it’s going to come down to whether or not you need portability.
If you do, then good luck taking something like this to the office or school. In that case,
you might be fine with paying the premium to get a more portable package. That said,
although this is obviously more portable compared to this, it’s not exactly thin
and light. Of course you absolutely can build a much smaller PC than this, but still, some people
just don’t have enough space to dedicated to a permanent setup like this to always leave around.
Fact is, laptops still take up less space compared to a mini ITX system
with monitor and keyboard. Basically it all really depends on your personal needs.
For me personally, I like to have a somewhat powerful desktop as I spend most of my time at
home in front of it anyway, and I’ve got enough desk space. And I combine that with a portable
laptop that still has decent power in case I need to edit a video while I’m traveling somewhere.
Obviously this one is going to be much easier to upgrade in future. You just can’t take out
the CPU and GPU in most laptops, that’s a very rare feature. So if you did want to upgrade those
components in the future, you’d have to replace the entire machine. Not exactly cost effective!
So yeah, basically different machines for different people with different use cases.
But unless you’re someone that needs the absolute best performance in either of these form factors,
honestly I don’t really think it’s worth spending the extra money to get the RTX 4090,
whether we’re talking about desktop GPU or laptop GPU.
But hey, if you are made of money, now you know what the differences are,
as well as understand why a laptop 4090 can be misleading by having the
same name as the desktop 4090. As they do perform quite differently.
You can check out how other laptop and desktop GPUs compare in these videos next. I’ve compared
almost all the 30 series options and I’ll also be doing this video for the RTX 4080, 4070,
4060 and 4050 as soon as possible, so make sure you’re subscribed for more videos like this one!