Do underwhelming Nvidia RTX 5090 laptop graphics signal a slower rate of innovation for GPUs?

HP Omen Max 16 open on a white desk at an angle.

This week, tech YouTuber Jarrod of Jarrod’sTech compared the mobile RTX 4090 and RTX 5090 GPUs head-to-head on hardware alone. Unfortunately, the results weren’t nearly as impressive as those we’ve come to expect in the desktop segment thus far.

As questions surrounding the real-world performance gains between the mobile RTX 4090 and RTX 5090 series of dedicated laptop GPUs grow, more are noticing minimal gains between the two products — and “minimal” is almost being kind, depending on the game.