NVIDIA and Laptop Partners Release New Models

At the beginning of the week (March 31), NVIDIA and its laptop manufacturing partners unveiled higher-end models just in time for the Q1 2025 launch. However, the conditions on the first day for the general public were not ideal, as predicted by PC gaming hardware experts. Media and influencer outlets received evaluation units before the official launch, but the embargo lift on Monday did not result in a flood of reviews being published. Independent benchmarking of NVIDIA's flagship GeForce RTX 5090 Mobile showed results that were somewhat disappointing. Several outlets, including Notebookcheck, found that the laptop-oriented GPU was significantly slower than its desktop counterpart in lab tests. Notebookcheck noted that the performance gap between the mobile RTX 5090 and desktop RTX 5090, as well as the improvement over the previous mobile RTX 4080, was mainly due to TGP.

On the other hand, Notebookcheck was more impressed with NVIDIA's sub-flagship model, the Schenker XMG Neo 16 powered by Ryzen 9 9955HX. Two test units with almost identical specifications were compared, and a mini-review of benchmarked figures was released today. According to Notebookcheck's Allen Ngo, the GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile in the Schenker Neo was about 10 to 15 percent slower than its more expensive counterpart. This performance difference was noticeable in games like Baldur's Gate 3, Final Fantasy XV, Alan Wake 2, and Assassin's Creed Shadows, especially at 4K resolutions. Interestingly, the performance gap between the mobile RTX 5080 and RTX 5090 remained consistent whether DLSS was enabled or not. Ngo suggested that opting for the RTX 5080 instead of the RTX 5090 could be a better choice for cost savings or improved performance per dollar.

For example, the XMG NEO 16 (A25) with a GeForce RTX 5090 Mobile GPU costs €855 (~$928 USD) more than a build with an RTX 5080, as shown on Bestware.com's system configurator.