Lenovo's listings appear to confirm RTX 5070 mobile GPU upgrade, but will it be enough to make 2026 gaming laptops worth it?

Rumors have been swirling around an RTX 5070 12GB VRAM refresh for a few weeks now, but new listings from Lenovo itself confirm the boosted card is heading our way. The upgraded GPU is set to replace the 8GB model inside some of the best gaming laptop contenders on the release slate this year, with models from Asus also seemingly supporting the new card.

That comes from reliable hawk-eye Huang514613, who posted some of the first sightings of this boosted RTX 5070 earlier in the year. Between Amazon listings and Lenovo's own product detailings, the refresh looks pretty guaranteed for 2026.

The refreshed board looks to take advantage of the uptake in 3GB chips, loading up the same buses with a total of 12GB RAM rather than the 8GB they could previously hold. Essentially, the slightly larger chip size (3GB vs 2GB used previously) means greater flexibility in how Nvidia squeezes its memory 'modules' onto the bus.

What will it mean in practice? If you're not currently struggling to run your games on an 8GB card, it's not going to mean too much in real life. The RTX 5070 gaming laptops I've tested average at around 133fps in Shadow of the Tomb Raider at max settings in QHD+ (the best mobile GPU upgrade for a gaming laptop and Acer Predator Triton 14 AI review). That's a lighter game that's not going to stress the 8GB card too much.

Something like Cyberpunk 2077, however, is set to put that extra VRAM to work in a far more tangible way. Using the same three machines from the above data set (the Triton, as well as the Razer Blade 14 and Asus ROG Strix G16), the RTX 5070 averages 48fps in this more demanding title. That's where the extra headroom up to 12GB will be able to provide a little more support.

This year's roster of new gaming laptops is facing challenges from all angles. SSDs are tough to find at a solid price, and RAM shortages are driving MSRPs even higher up the ladder. 2026's releases don't have too many new GPUs (aside from this refresh) to sing about, Intel's new processors are more of an iterative update, and OLED screens are holding firm in their specs.

Component shortages already seem to have delayed the full release of many of this year's rigs (I'm normally reviewing the first few machines in the new cohort by now), and we're yet to hear too much about launch prices. It's highly likely these gaming laptops will cost a considerable amount more than last year's, while only providing smaller upgrades from a performance perspective.

Yes, the 12GB upgrade is going to help those who are currently struggling to run more demanding games at 60fps but for those taking things a little slower, it's not going to make a material difference. At least, not enough to warrant the price tags we're expecting to see.

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I'm also testing all the best Razer laptops and the best Asus gaming laptops on the market, or take a look at the best Alienware laptops for something a little chunkier.