Should you buy a newer RTX 3070 gaming laptop, or can you save some money on an older RTX 2070?
I’ve compared both in 17 different games at 2 different resolutions to find out.
Here are the differences in specs between these two laptop GPUs.
The newer RTX 3070 came out two years after the RTX 2070 and has more than
double the CUDA core count. The 3070 has a higher maximum power limit, so it’s able
to hit higher boost clock speeds as well. Both have 8 gigs of GDDR6 memory at the same speed,
but the newer 30 series also has extra features like resizable BAR and dynamic boost.
To do this testing I’m using two Tongfang laptops, the Neo 15 from XMG for the RTX 3070
and the MAX-15 from Eluktronics for the RTX 2070, as they both have the highest wattage
power limit available, though the 3070 can go higher with dynamic boost in certain scenarios.
Now the older RTX 2070 laptops are only available with Intel processors. Before AMD’s newer Ryzen
5000, Ryzen 4000 was only available with up to RTX 2060 graphics. Basically because the RTX 2070 is
older we’re expecting it to be paired with older processors. Unfortunately this does mean that some
of the differences in this video might simply be down to the CPU difference rather than the GPU,
so it kind of seems like this isn’t going to be a fair comparison, but it is, because fact is
if you were to buy an older RTX 2070 laptop you would be getting one of those older processors.
Likewise, if you’re instead getting a newer
30 series laptop then you’ll be getting a newer processor.
To try and mitigate the processor difference I’ll be focusing on higher setting presets in games,
as these are generally more GPU bound. Plus along with 1080p results we’ll also be looking at 1440p.
I should also note that the older processor in the 2070 system means
that it has slower memory. Again this isn’t ideal for a fair GPU comparison,
but it is kind of is what it is. Older CPU architectures just run with slower memory.
Now XMG’s Neo 15 has a MUX switch which let’s us disable optimus to get the best possible
performance results. Unfortunately the 2070 MAX-15 from Eluktronics does not have this,
so all testing on this one has been done with an external screen connected
to bypass the integrated graphics and optimus, as this has the same effect.
So basically just to summarize, although there are some other differences between
these laptops apart from the GPUs, I still think this is going to be a pretty fair comparison,
so let’s start out by comparing those 17 different games at 2 resolutions, then after that we’ll look
at things like content creator workloads and pricing and availability afterwards.
Call of Duty Warzone saw some of the biggest differences between these two GPUs out of
all 17 games tested. I’ve got the 1080p results below and 1440p results above, with the older
RTX 2070 on the bottom, and newer RTX 3070 on top. Even the 1% lows from the 3070 were significantly
ahead of the average FPS that the 2070 laptop was able to offer. In terms of average FPS, the
3070 was more than 50% faster at both resolutions. This game also has DLSS support for RTX graphics,
so both the 2070 and 3070 can get a further speed boost simply by enabling this setting in the game.
The 3070 still has a huge lead, but the 2070 was still holding its own.
On the other end of the spectrum, Red Dead Redemption 2 had the one of the smallest
differences between the two GPUs out of all 17 games tested. At 1080p the 3070 laptop was just
11% faster than the 2070 laptop, but then at the higher 1440p resolution the 3070 had a 30%
lead. Higher resolutions generally need more GPU horsepower to run,
so that’s probably why the difference increases there. This game also recently added DLSS support,
and it allows the 2070 to close the gap with both laptops performing essentially the same at 1080p
now, while the 3070 still had a 23% lead at 1440p, down from its 30% lead before enabling DLSS.
Cyberpunk 2077 was much better on the 3070, reaching 52% higher average FPS
compared to the 2070 at 1080p, though at 1440p this lowers slightly to a 49%
lead, still a fairly large improvement in any case given the 1% lows from the 3070 were quite
a bit ahead of even the average FPS from the 2070. This is another game with DLSS support,
so both RTX GPUs can get higher frame rates by enabling this. At 1080p the 2070 gets a 41% boost,
while the 3070 gets a 33% boost, so DLSS is helping the older GPU out more here,
but both are still getting nice gains given all we’ve done is change one setting.
I’ve compared Control with ray tracing and DLSS, but let’s start off with neither,
so just stock standard gameplay. At 1080p the 2070 is still running above the 60 FPS sweet spot even
with max settings, but the 3070 is offering a 45% higher average FPS in this GPU heavy game,
and this increases a little more to a 47% lead at the higher 1440p resolution. Again
with DLSS enabled both laptops are able to get significant performance improvements,
in fact even the 1% lows in all cases here are higher than the average FPS prior to enabling
DLSS. I’ve also tested both with RT enabled to try and compare ray tracing performance.
In terms of percentage difference, the ray tracing results weren’t too different compared to ray
tracing off, which I found surprising given the 3070 has 11% more RT cores, plus they’re
the newer 2nd gen version, but that doesn’t seem to matter much in this particular game.
The differences in Microsoft Flight Simulator were right in line with the 17 game average at 1080p,
but then at 1440p the 3070 has a much larger 57% higher average frame rate compared to the 2070,
the second biggest difference out of all titles tested at this resolution.
Watch Dogs Legion saw a below average difference compared to the other games tested,
which I think really goes to show what happens when both laptops have 8 gigs
of VRAM. If you caught my previous comparison comparing the 2070 with the lower tier 3060,
Watch Dogs was the only game out of the 17 that still did better on the 2070 simply due
to the 3060 being limited by its 6 gigs of VRAM. Even Though the difference was below average,
the 3070 is still offering a 37% higher average FPS at 1440p and 34% higher at 1080p. This game
also has DLSS support which can be enabled to further boost performance on both laptop GPUs.
Fortnite was tested with the exact same replay on both laptops, and the differences were above
average in this game. The 2070 is still doing reasonably well, above 60 FPS at
1440p max settings should be playable, though you could of course lower the setting level for more
performance, but the 3070 was still 47% faster here, and 45% ahead at the lower 1080p resolution.
This is another game with DLSS support, so it’s possible to get gains with both laptops, putting
the 2070 system above 100 FPS at max settings 1440p now, but the 3070 still had a 39% lead.
F1 2021 was tested with the highest setting preset which enables some ray tracing effects by default,
as denoted at the top of the graph. Perhaps this is why the gains in this game are above
average compared to others, as the 3070 has that newer generation ray tracing hardware with 11%
more RT cores. The 3070 was 44% faster than the 2070 at 1080p, and then 53% faster at 1440p.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla had below average differences with the 3070,
though it’s still clearly offering reasonable improvements. Personally I’m more interested in
comparing the 3070 with the Radeon RX 6700M, as AMD says that competes with the 3070, and this is
a game that generally seems to favor AMD, so make sure you’re subscribed for that future comparison.
Rather than talk through the rest of the 8 games individually in depth,
I’ll just blast through them so we can get into the average differences
as that’s more interesting, even if all of this testing did take many hours to complete.
A larger selection of games is important to help get a better rounded average.
Feel free to pause the video if you want a closer look at these additional games.
On average over all 17 games tested at 1080p, the RTX 3070 laptop was reaching
37% higher average FPS compared to the 2070 laptop. The 3070 was ahead in all games,
as expected, but the margins could vary significantly depending on the game.
Red Dead Redemption 2 down the bottom of the graph for example was only 11% faster on the 3070,
while a few other games at the top were more than 50% faster with the 3070, quite a difference.
Stepping up to the higher 1440p resolution the 3070 pulls further ahead with a 44%
average improvement now. Even in the worst case we’re seeing at least a 30%
improvement in Red Dead Redemption 2. Bigger differences are expected
at higher resolutions as we start to become more GPU bound.
It’s also worth mentioning that Nvidia’s newer RTX 30 series has more features compared to the older
20 series. Some of the performance differences mentioned earlier include resizable BAR support
and dynamic boost, but RTX 30 series also has HDMI 2.1 support. So if you plan on connecting
a high refresh rate 4K screen like a TV or something then 30 series might be preferable.
Just before we get into the price differences I’m also going to
compare both GPUs in some content creator workloads - it’s not all just about gaming!
The 3070 was a massive 130% faster than 2070 in the longer classroom test,
which makes sense when you consider that the 3070 also has 122% more CUDA cores and
this is a CUDA workload. The shorter BMW test was still 113% faster with the 3070.
V-Ray was also better on the 3070, scoring 95% higher in the CUDA test,
but the ray tracing test was scoring 133% higher on the 3070, so the RT performance definitely
seems to be much better there. Not only does the 3070 have 11% more RT cores than the 2070,
but they’re also newer 2nd gen RT cores. Some games like Control earlier didn’t
seem to care about this, but it’s definitely making a bigger difference in creator apps.
SPECviewperf tests out various professional 3D workloads,
and the 3070, shown by the purple bars, was ahead in all of these tests,
though the margins could vary a fair bit depending on the specific test.
Alright great, so the 3070 performs better than the older 2070 as expected,
but what are the price differences? Is the 2070 actually better value? Prices will of
course change over time, so refer to those links in the description below for updates.
At the time of recording, scrolling through Newegg for RTX 2070 laptops isn’t looking
great as they’re generally similar and often more expensive than 3060 options,
and I’ve already shown in another video that the 3060 beats the 2070.
Generally speaking, we seem to be looking at about $300-500 USD more
for a modern 3070 laptop, though prices of course depend on the specific model,
and lower priced options often have lower power limits which don’t perform as well.
Even if we go $500 more or 33% more money, that could still be worth considering, of course if you
can afford it. Not only do you get a more modern processor, but on average in games there was a 37%
performance increase, so 33% more money for a 37% FPS boost doesn’t sound too unreasonable to me.
Now considering that price increase at least somewhat scales with the performance increase
it might appear that the 2070 is still worth considering, and hey as we’ve seen in many of
the games tested the 2070 does still perform pretty well. The problem that I’ve got is that
2070 laptops seem to generally be priced close to 3060 laptops, so based on that alone there’s no
real point considering a 2070 laptop if you can get a 3060 laptop for a similar price.
Check out this video next if you want to see how the 3060 compares against the 2070.
Make sure you’re subscribed for future laptop comparisons like this one, and come and join
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