Nvidia has launched its new mobile GeForce RTX 5090 GPUs for laptops, showcasing advancements with the Blackwell architecture, including 24 GB of GDDR7 memory and enhanced CUDA cores. The Razer Blade 16, featuring a lightweight design and AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor, was used for testing. Innovations like MaxQ technology, advanced power gating, and DLSS 4 contribute to improved performance and energy efficiency, with the RTX 5090 showing strong results in gaming benchmarks, particularly at 1600p resolution.
Nvidia has recently unveiled its latest mobile GPUs for laptops, following the launch of four powerful desktop graphics cards. These sought-after mobile RTX models are highly anticipated each generation as users evaluate their performance versus power consumption.
This year, Nvidia is emphasizing a hybrid approach, catering to both gaming and creative tasks. We’ve had the opportunity to test the mobile GeForce RTX 5090 across a variety of games and creative applications, such as video editing and 3D rendering, to gauge the expected performance levels.
Mobile GeForce RTX 5090: Technical Overview
The mobile GeForce RTX 5090 showcases significant advancements thanks to the Blackwell architecture, featuring rapid GDDR7 video memory that has expanded from 16 GB in the RTX 4090 to a whopping 24 GB this year. Additionally, it includes upgraded Tensor and ray tracing cores.
While the boost and memory frequencies are slightly lower—dropping by nearly 500 Hz compared to the RTX 4090—the overall bandwidth has seen a substantial increase, reaching 576 GB/s. This is complemented by an impressive CUDA Core count of approximately 10,500, surpassing the previous generation’s 9,728 cores.
Moreover, the mobile RTX 5090 boasts a total graphics power (TGP) of up to 150W, which can be boosted by an additional 25W through Dynamic Boost features.
Testing Setup: Razer Blade 16 (2025)
In our evaluation of the mobile GeForce RTX 5090, we utilized the newly launched Razer Blade 16, which debuted in the first quarter of 2025. Understanding the collaboration between Nvidia and manufacturers like Razer is crucial in this context.
Nvidia provides guidelines for TGP (thermal envelope) implementation, while the manufacturer selects the appropriate processor, chassis, and cooling solutions. The Razer Blade 16 is part of a growing trend of gaming ultrabooks aimed at delivering portability without sacrificing performance, featuring a chassis that’s been reduced by 30% this year, now measuring just 1.49 cm thick.
This model strikes an ideal balance between lightweight design and robust performance, with the Razer Blade 18 set to be released later, focusing solely on high performance.
Our Razer Blade 16 is powered by the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, a high-end processor with a more efficient consumption profile of 54W, in contrast to gaming laptop processors that can reach a maximum TDP of 175W in Turbo mode.
For graphics, the base TGP is set at 135W, with a Dynamic Boost potential of 25W, resulting in a maximum possible envelope of 160W on the Razer Blade 16.
These specifications are essential to consider as they influence the mobile RTX 5090’s performance within this specific setup.
Nvidia’s MaxQ Technology: Enhancing Laptop Performance
It’s vital to understand Nvidia’s MaxQ technology and the new innovations introduced this year with the Blackwell architecture.
First launched in 2017, MaxQ encompasses various technologies designed to enhance performance and energy efficiency based on different workloads. Here are the latest innovations:
Advanced Power Gating
This year, Nvidia has introduced advanced Power Gating for its mobile GPUs, allowing specific inactive parts of the chip to be powered down, thus reducing energy consumption. Unused cores, including CUDA, RT, and Tensor cores, can be disabled when full graphics power isn’t necessary, extending battery life during less intensive tasks.
Independent Voltage for GDDR7 Memory
The GDDR7 memory benefits from increased speed and bandwidth, along with a quicker ability to enter and exit sleep mode. This independent power supply for VRAM allows for more efficient power management, applying Power Gating to adjust voltage levels separately from other sections of the graphics chip.
Efficient Sleep and Clock Frequency Management
MaxQ also brings enhanced management of sleep states and clock frequencies, enabling rapid transitions that adapt to dynamic applications. This results in clock frequencies that can significantly decrease during less demanding tasks, conserving energy. The graphics chip can now enter a deep sleep mode up to ten times faster than its predecessor, minimizing latency between the power required for a task and what the GPU delivers.
DLSS 4: Performance and Energy Efficiency
Another exciting development is DLSS 4, a technology focused on improving energy efficiency for the graphics chip. By rendering at lower resolutions and then upscaling through Tensor cores, the graphics card experiences reduced workload. In our instance, the moderately consuming AMD Ryzen helps maintain power efficiency during low-resolution gaming, although this may impact performance.
Gaming Performance Insights
We evaluated the mobile RTX 5090 across multiple games, concentrating on tests that highlight the graphical capabilities of the device while minimizing processor strain, particularly at a resolution of 1600p.
To streamline our results, we conducted tests on five selected games, balancing between rasterization and ray tracing.
Synthetic Benchmarks
Starting with our standard synthetic benchmarks, we gained valuable insights into the mobile RTX 5090’s performance compared to desktop counterparts. In the 3D Mark Steel Nomad test, the mobile RTX 5090 performed similarly to an RTX 4070 Ti Super, surpassing the RTX 5070 in this GPU implementation.
In ray tracing tests using 3D Mark Speed Way, Nvidia’s mobile GPU outperformed an AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX while still leading ahead of the RTX 5070.
This suggests that we can expect mid-range performance from the last two generations, but packaged within a portable laptop format. Let’s see how this translates in actual gameplay.
Rasterization Performance
When ray tracing features are disabled, the mobile RTX 5090 demonstrates impressive performance, consistently delivering frame rates that reflect its capabilities.