The launch of the Nvidia RTX30 mobile GPU appears to be set for Tuesday

The launch of the Nvidia RTX30 mobile GPU appears to be set for Tuesday

We've known for a while that Nvidia would be holding a GeForce RTX-focused event on January 12, and we always suspected that it would include the RTX 3060 GPU and RTX 30 mobile chipset, but the company released a blink-and-you'll-miss-it teaser video on Twitter that It almost confirmed some of the contents.

It's a 9-second video, but there is a surprising amount to be gleaned from it. First, from the video itself:

Interestingly, at the 4-second mark, four images flash up in quick succession. This is the strongest indicator that Nvidia plans to give mobile GPUs an ampere-based shot in the arm, just as desktop GPUs were upgraded last year.

This is not entirely surprising. Not only is it a bit odd that top-end gaming laptops are currently maxed out with RTX 2080 Super while desktops can be equipped with RTX 3070 or 3080 cards, but the list of RTX 30-based laptops has already been posted (and quickly pulled up), officially suggesting that a release is imminent. If the previous leaks are accurate, we can expect an Nvidia RTX 3060 with 6GB of GDDR6 memory, an RTX 3070 Max-Q with 8GB of GDDR6, and an RTX 3080 Max-Q with 16GB of GDDR6 RAM.

The second quickly flashing image is not about hardware, but perhaps about a software tie-in. It is a still from Outriders, People Can Fly's upcoming co-op shooter. The game is expected to have flashy effects that will show off Nvidia's hardware particularly strongly. [This may not make any sense given the event's overall focus on GeForce RTX, but our guess is that it is related to the unveiling of the RTX 3060 GPU. Entry-level RTX 30 cards have long been rumored and are set to undercut the $400 3060 Ti for mainstream gaming PCs. Rumors suggest that both 6GB and 12GB versions will be available, but we'll have to wait until Tuesday to be sure.

The last photo shows what appears to be Resizable BAR (Base Address Register) technology. As our sister site Tom's Hardware explains, this clever technology increases the throughput between the CPU and GPU, improving gaming performance; Ampere GPUs already support it, but it needs to be enabled via a software update. The inclusion of this technology in the video suggests that Nvidia is almost ready to make that switch.

The remaining seven seconds of the video are a logo and a reminder that all will be revealed shortly, along with details on how to watch the event. As a reminder, the event will begin at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Standard Time on January 12, and if you want to be the first to know, you can watch it on Nvidia's official Twitch and YouTube channels.

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