Nvidia has quietly announced the 12 GB RTX 5070 mobile in a GeForce driver update, of all things

As I stared bleary-eyed at my monitor this morning, I noticed a new Game Ready Nvidia driver update in my system tray. Better check the notes, I thought. Ah, it's mostly some optimisations for Conan Exiles Enhanced, a game I'm unlikely to play. Also, further down the page, the announcement of the "GeForce RTX 5070 Laptop GPU 12 GB configuration." Wait, what?

Yep, a previously-leaked 12 GB version of the RTX 5070 mobile GPU has finally been unveiled, albeit with a surprising lack of fanfare. According to Nvidia:

"Demand for GeForce RTX GPUs remains strong, and memory supply is constrained. In order to maximize memory availability, we are releasing the GeForce RTX 5070 Laptop GPU 12 GB configuration with 24 Gb G7 memory."

"This gives our partners access to an additional pool of memory to complement the 16 Gb G7 supply that currently ships with most GeForce GPUs," the company continues. "The 12 GB configuration will exist alongside the current 8 GB configuration, and allows our partners to bring a broader range of GeForce RTX 5070 laptops to consumers."

Fair enough. The new GPU configuration will make use of 3 GB (24 Gbit) GDDR7 modules, as opposed to the 2 GB versions used in the standard 8 GB variant, hence the 12 GB total.

There are two main things to unpack here. One, the use of 3 GB modules means Nvidia can sidestep the current demand for the 2 GB variants and spread out its GDDR7 needs across different module types, hence the "maximise memory availability" quote.

And two, having spent my time recently testing 8 GB vs 16 GB graphics cards, I can tell you that the 12 GB variants have the potential to perform a fair bit better than the 8 GB versions in certain games.

There's no hint from Nvidia of any other changes to the RTX 5070 itself for these mobile-ready chips, so presumably the new modules will be running over the same 128-bit bus as the current version, along with the same shader counts, etc etc. That's speculation, of course, but a straight module swap is where the info points for now.

Still, extra VRAM capacity in some RTX 5070 gaming laptops is a welcome thought, and if it means laptop manufacturers can pump out more machines with Nvidia's mid-tier mobile graphics chip at the helm, that's a pretty good deal, too.

It'll be interesting to see how manufacturers price lappys using the new GPU configuration, though. According to laptop provider XMG, "Under normal market conditions, this new option would also be a viable way to close the price gap."

"However, the current situation makes the assessment more complex," the company continues. "Due to increased graphics memory prices, the 12GB RTX 5070 will approach the price level of the existing RTX 5070 Ti very closely."

Well, it couldn't all be good news, could it? As for desktop cards, the long-rumoured RTX 50-series Super GPUs were said to have increased VRAM figures, too, likely due to the use of 3 GB GDDR7 modules.

However, the scuttlebutt has gone very quiet on that front, so I wouldn't hold your breath just yet. Reports earlier this year suggested that no new RTX graphics cards for gamers would arrive in 2026—although this mobile GPU variant would run contrary to that info.

There's been talk of an RTX 5050 9 GB (be still my beating heart), but that's about where we're at. If a range of Super-variant RTX 50-series desktop cards do break cover, though, I wonder if they too will turn up in a driver update announcement. Something tells me they'd be more of a big deal, but I'll keep an eye on my system tray just in case.