Mystery Nvidia graphics card with uncut AD106 GPU fails to impress in leaked benchmarks

A recent leak quite literally shed light on Nvidia's AD106 GPU for laptops, showcasing its tiny die area compared to its last-gen counterparts. Benchmark scores for some graphics cards running the silicon (GeForce RTX 4060 laptop) looked grim, but one can also attribute that to other factors. Its desktop counterpart is slightly better off, as some leaked benchmarks exhibit.

A post on Chiphell shows how a yet-to-be-named graphics card with a full AD106 die performs compared to its Ampere and Turning-based counterparts. It features 4,608 CUDA cores, 32 MB of L2 cache, a boost clock of 2.5 GHz, and a max TGP of 180 Watts. Its total memory bandwidth is 288 GB/s with 18 Gbps modules on a 128-bit bus width. The memory is bog-standard GDDR6; therefore, one can reasonably assume the graphics card in question packs 8 GB VRAM.

However, before delving into the test results, the original Chiphell poster says the performance isn't indicative of how a retail version of the mystery graphics card will perform. Furthermore, the GA104 graphics card in question (GeForce RTX 3070 Ti) isn't in its best shape and performs on par with a GeForce RTX 3070.

Twitter user Harukaze5719 drew up an excellent graph showing how the AD106 fares against the GA104 and TU104 in 3D Mark's Speed Way, Port Royale, Time Spy, Time Spy Extreme, Fire Strike, Fire Strike Ultra and Fire Strike extreme. The results are a mixed bag, with the GA104 leading in some tests (Fire Strike Ultra, Fire Strike Extreme and Time Spy Extreme) and the AD106 in others (Speed Way, Port Royale, Time Spy, Fire Strike).

The above results align with an earlier report which stated the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti (likely recipient of a full AD106 GPU) performs on par with a GeForce RTX 3070. While it is remarkably more power-efficient than its GA104-toting predecessor, the lacklustre generation-over-generation performance gains combined with skyrocketing prices will make these graphics cards less attractive to those on a budget. Then again, Team Red's offerings aren't exactly doing too well either, so one will be forced to look at last-gen offerings, which, thankfully, are a lot more affordable than they used to be.

Buy the MSI GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB on Amazon