The latest leak from a laptop maker suggests that upcoming mobile GPUs from Nvidia will feature up to 16GB of memory. Team Green is seemingly keeping the amount of VRAM unchanged for yet another generation.
According to a leaked document from laptop maker Clevo, Nvidia could launch six variants of its upcoming mobile GPU architecture. These are dubbed X2, X4, X6, X7, X9, and X11 by Clevo, potentially representing RTX 5050, RTX 5060, RTX 5070, RTX 5070 Ti, RTX 5080, and RTX 5090.
The brand plans to pair the X2, X4, and X6 models with 8GB of GDDR7 VRAM, followed by 12GB on the X7 and 16GB on the X9 and X11. This memory could be interfaced using 128-bit, 192-bit, and 256-bit buses, respectively.
This amount of VRAM powering the best graphics cards in laptops – especially the 70-class models – will surely raise many eyebrows. Seeing how games like The Last of Us already require more than 8GB to run at the maximum graphics settings, laptops powered by such GPUs may become limited fairly quickly. But hey, this is purely speculation. Game devs can still optimise their games to use less memory, not to forget that ultra settings are often not worth the performance cost anyway.
Also, keep in mind that mobile chips are generally one or two tiers lower than their desktop counterparts. For example, an RTX 5080 mobile will likely perform similarly to a desktop RTX 5070 or RTX 5060 Ti, further explaining the lower VRAM capacity.
This document also reveals that the low range will be covered by existing RTX 4050 6GB and RTX 3050 6GB/4GB GPUs, potentially indicating that Nvidia will once again focus on high-end chips first. Likewise, the usage of GDDR7 VRAM could indicate a similar choice for desktop chips, which would help Nvidia unlock more performance out of its RTX 5000 GPUs.
Nvidia’s mobile RTX 5000 GPUs are expected to hit the market next year, so things may still change. Until then, as long as performance sees a noticeable uptick, I believe most users will be more than happy. We shall wait and see.