Ethan Carter
NVIDIA is set to launch an exciting new variant of its 5070 GPU specifically designed for laptops. This announcement comes within a blog post detailing the latest updates to its Game Ready Drivers. The company has revealed that its partners will soon introduce laptops featuring the 5070 equipped with 12GB of VRAM, joining the previously available 8GB model that NVIDIA has provided since the inception of the 50-series.
NVIDIA highlighted, “The demand for GeForce RTX remains robust, while the supply of memory is constrained. To maximize the availability of memory, we are releasing the GeForce RTX 5070 Laptop GPU with a 12GB configuration using 24Gb G7 memory. This will provide our partners with an additional pool of memory, complementing the 16Gb G7 supply currently available with most GeForce GPUs.” This strategic move aims to meet the growing needs of gamers and professionals alike, ensuring they have access to powerful and capable graphics performance.
The initial shipments of laptops featuring the 12GB 5070 are expected to commence around June, with manufacturers such as ASUS, Lenovo, and MSI likely to include this upgraded video card option in some of their models. While NVIDIA has not yet confirmed specific pricing details, sources like NotebookCheck suggest that laptops with the 12GB 5070 may be priced similarly to their 5070 Ti counterparts. Currently, a PC equipped with a 5070 Ti, such as the Acer Predator Helios Neo 16S AI, can cost up to $2,650, which varies based on the RAM configuration. It is anticipated that the new 12GB 5070 laptops will be more affordable, as manufacturers might opt for configurations with less RAM.
While NVIDIA has not released a comprehensive specification list for the 12GB 5070, they have confirmed the use of 24Gb G7 memory for this new model, in contrast to the 16GB G7 memory utilized in previous models. The two memory types are produced through different manufacturing processes, where the former employs 3GB memory modules and the latter utilizes 2GB modules. This initiative taps into a distinct supply of memory that Samsung and Micron have been able to produce more consistently in recent months. Nevertheless, unless NVIDIA has re-engineered the 5070 to feature a wider 192-bit bus interface, which appears unlikely, the new model may not access the additional memory as swiftly as the 5070 Ti and other superior models in NVIDIA’s product lineup. For the majority of gaming applications, this difference may not be significantly impactful; however, it implies that the new configuration may not represent as substantial an upgrade as the increase in raw VRAM might suggest.
Brandon Fletcher
