CES 2021: NVIDIA Brings 30 Series GPUs To Laptops, Reveals Entry-Level RTX 3060

NVIDIA has unveiled a range of 30-series GPUs for laptops, as well as its new entry-level GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card, which boasts more RAM than the more expensive Ti model.

With laptops now the fastest-growing gaming platform at more than 50 million sold, the RTX 3070 and 3080 graphics cards, launched for desktops last year, will now power more than 70 new laptop models.

Kaustubh Sanghani, vice president and general manager of GeForce OEM at NVIDIA, says the new 30 series cards will increase energy efficiency by almost double, alongside performance boosts.

“Nowhere does power efficiency matter more than in gaming laptops, a market that’s grown 7x in the past seven years.

“These new thin and light systems are based on our Max-Q technologies, where every aspect — CPU, GPU, software, PCB design, power delivery, thermals — is optimised for power and performance,” said Sanghani.

Acer and Lenovo have already launched RTX 30-powered laptops at CES, with other manufacturers such as Razer, Alienware, MSI, and Asus expected to follow. The first 30-series laptops will release on January 26 with a starting price of $999 USD ($1285 AUD).

Also revealed was the new RTX 3060 graphics card. Slated for release in February at $329 USD ($423 AUD, though likely to be more expensive), the RTX 3060 is built on the same Ampere architecture as the 3060 Ti, 3070, 3080, and 3090 GPUs. Though overall less powerful than the 3060 Ti, which starts at around $750 AUD, it includes 12GB of VRAM to the Ti’s 8GB.

Matt Wuebbling, vice president of global GeForce marketing at NVIDIA, says the 3060 represents a big step up over the GTX 1060, the world’s most popular GPU, with 10 times the ray tracing performance and twice the raster performance.

“There’s unstoppable momentum behind ray tracing, which has quickly redefined the new standard of gaming.

“The NVIDIA Ampere architecture has been our fastest-selling ever, and the RTX 3060 brings the strengths of the RTX 30 Series to millions more gamers everywhere,” he said.

A laptop version of the 3060 will also be released.