AMD Radeon 660M vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile Comparison

The AMD Radeon 660M and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile occupy different tiers of the mobile graphics market, as evidenced by the benchmark data. The Radeon 660M is an integrated processor built on RDNA 2.0, while the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile is a discrete Ampere-based GPU. In the shared head-to-head benchmarks, the NVIDIA part dominates decisively, but the AMD chip holds its own in specific architectural areas. This analysis compares the two based solely on the provided data, focusing on benchmark scores, architectural differences, and specification gaps.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The data presents two direct comparisons between these GPUs, both from Geekbench. The results are one-sided. In the geekbench_opencl test, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile scores 57,915, while the AMD Radeon 660M scores 12,876. This gives the NVIDIA part a -77.8% deltaPct, meaning the AMD GPU's score is 77.8% lower than the NVIDIA's. This is a massive gap, representing a 4.5x difference in raw compute throughput as measured by OpenCL.

The second test, geekbench_vulkan, shows a similar pattern. The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile scores 55,812, compared to the Radeon 660M's 14,748. The deltaPct here is -73.6%, again indicating the AMD part trails by a significant margin. The Vulkan score for NVIDIA is roughly 3.8x higher than the AMD's score. In both instances, the winner is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile, and the data shows zero wins for the AMD Radeon 660M in these head-to-head tests.

The average benchmark score reinforces this hierarchy. The AMD Radeon 660M has an average benchmark score of 13,812, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile averages 12,940. Interestingly, despite losing the head-to-head tests, the AMD part has a higher average score. This discrepancy arises because the averages are calculated from different sets of benchmarks. The NVIDIA part includes results from 3DMark and Passmark tests, which drag its average down. The AMD part's average is derived solely from its two Geekbench scores, which are relatively close to each other.

Where Each One Wins

Based on the data, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile is the clear winner in the two benchmarks where both are tested. It wins both the OpenCL and Vulkan compute workloads. This suggests it has a significant advantage in general-purpose GPU compute tasks, including rendering, physics simulations, and other parallel workloads that utilize these APIs. The margin of victory is substantial, indicating that for any application leveraging OpenCL or Vulkan, the NVIDIA part will deliver far higher performance.

The AMD Radeon 660M, despite losing the head-to-head, has a higher average benchmark score when all its benchmarks are considered. This is a statistical quirk. It wins in the sense that its average score of 13,812 places it in the 55th percentile of all GPUs, while the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile sits in the 53rd percentile. Furthermore, the AMD part's average score is higher than several of its nearest rivals, including the NVIDIA RTX A2000 Mobile (score 13,821, deltaPct -0.1%) and the AMD Radeon RX 570X (score 13,871, deltaPct -0.4%). This indicates that within its performance class, the integrated GPU is competitive, even if it cannot match the discrete NVIDIA solution in direct compute tests.

In terms of feature support, both GPUs support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. This means they are on par regarding modern API availability. However, the NVIDIA part has dedicated ray tracing cores and tensor cores, which the AMD part also has in the form of ray accelerators, but their performance is not directly compared in the provided benchmarks. The data does not provide any benchmark where the AMD part wins, so its "wins" are confined to the statistical average and percentile ranking.

The Verdict

The data leads to a straightforward verdict for compute performance. If the workload involves OpenCL or Vulkan, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile is the superior choice. Its scores of 57,915 and 55,812 dwarf the AMD Radeon 660M's scores of 12,876 and 14,748. The deltaPct values of -77.8% and -73.6% indicate the NVIDIA part is roughly four times faster in these specific tests. Users who prioritize raw compute throughput in these APIs will find the NVIDIA GPU overwhelmingly faster.

However, the choice is not entirely one-sided. The AMD Radeon 660M has a higher average benchmark score of 13,812 compared to the NVIDIA part's 12,940. This suggests that in a broader range of tests, the AMD part performs more consistently relative to its class. Its 55th percentile ranking, versus the NVIDIA's 53rd, also suggests it outperforms a larger percentage of the GPU population. For users who are not specifically targeting OpenCL or Vulkan compute workloads, the AMD part might be the more balanced option, especially considering its integrated nature and lower power consumption.

The NVIDIA part also has a distinct advantage in memory bandwidth. Its dedicated 4 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus provides 192.0 GB/s of bandwidth, whereas the AMD part uses system shared memory with bandwidth that is "System Dependent." For memory-intensive applications, the dedicated VRAM of the NVIDIA part is a critical advantage, even if not directly benchmarked here. Therefore, the verdict is: pick the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile for maximum compute performance in OpenCL/Vulkan and dedicated memory benefits; pick the AMD Radeon 660M if you value its higher average score and integrated efficiency, but acknowledge it will lag heavily in the tested compute APIs.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has a higher score in the Geekbench OpenCL test?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile scores 57,915, which is 77.8% higher than the AMD Radeon 660M's score of 12,876.

Q: What is the difference in average benchmark scores between the two?

A: The AMD Radeon 660M has an average benchmark score of 13,812, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile has an average of 12,940. The AMD part is higher by 872 points.

Q: Does the AMD Radeon 660M win any head-to-head benchmarks against the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile?

A: No. The data shows the AMD Radeon 660M has 0 wins, and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile has 2 wins in the head-to-head benchmarks provided.

Q: What is the memory configuration of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile?

A: It has 4 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing 192.0 GB/s of bandwidth.

Q: Which GPU has a higher transistor count?

A: The AMD Radeon 660M has 13,100 million transistors on a 6 nm process, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile has 12,000 million transistors on an 8 nm process.

Q: What are the percentile rankings for each GPU?

A: The AMD Radeon 660M is in the 55th percentile of all GPUs, and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile is in the 53rd percentile.

Architecture Differences

The architectural divide between these two GPUs is fundamental. The AMD Radeon 660M is built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture, using the Rembrandt chip, and is classified as a Navi II IGP. It is fabricated on a 6 nm process at TSMC, with a die size of 208 mm² and a transistor count of 13,100 million. This gives it a transistor density of 63.0M / mm². The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile, in contrast, uses the Ampere architecture with the GA106 chip, part of the GeForce 30-series. It is built on an 8 nm process at Samsung, with a larger die size of 276 mm² but a lower transistor count of 12,000 million, resulting in a lower density of 43.5M / mm².

The compute units differ drastically. The AMD part has 384 shading units, 24 texture mapping units, 16 raster output units, and 6 ray tracing cores. The NVIDIA part has 2560 shading units, 80 TMUs, 32 ROPs, 20 ray tracing cores, and 80 tensor cores. This massive difference in shading units explains the performance gap in the benchmarks. The NVIDIA part also has a much higher texture rate of 82.80 GTexel/s and pixel rate of 33.12 GPixel/s, compared to the AMD's 45.60 GTexel/s and 30.40 GPixel/s. The FP32 performance is also stark: 5.299 TFLOPS for NVIDIA versus 1,459.2 GFLOPS for AMD.

The memory architecture is completely different. The AMD Radeon 660M uses System Shared memory, with the type, bus width, and bandwidth all listed as "System Shared" or "System Dependent." The NVIDIA part uses 4 GB of dedicated GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus with 192.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This gives the NVIDIA GPU a dedicated memory pool that does not compete with the system RAM. Both GPUs support the same APIs: DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The NVIDIA part supports FP16 at a 1:1 ratio, while the AMD part supports FP16 at a 2:1 ratio, meaning the AMD's FP16 throughput is half its FP32, while NVIDIA's is equal.

Specification Differences

The specification sheets reveal several key differences beyond the core architecture. The clock speeds show a significant divergence. The AMD Radeon 660M has a base clock of 1500 MHz and a boost clock of 1900 MHz. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile has a much lower base clock of 735 MHz and a boost clock of 1035 MHz. This is typical, as the NVIDIA chip has far more cores running at lower frequencies.

The power draw is also different. The AMD Radeon 660M has a TDP of 40 W, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile has a TDP of 75 W. This reflects the integrated nature of the AMD part versus the discrete NVIDIA GPU. The bus interface also differs: the AMD part uses PCIe 4.0 x8, while the NVIDIA part uses PCIe 4.0 x16. Both are listed as "IGP" slot width and have "None" for power connectors, and both have display outputs that are "Portable Device Dependent."

In terms of release timing, the AMD Radeon 660M was released on 2022-01-03, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile was released earlier on 2021-05-10. The AMD part lists its predecessor as "Vega II IGP" and successor as "Navi III IGP," while the NVIDIA part lists its predecessor as "GeForce 20 Mobile" and has no listed successor. The production status for both is "End-of-life." The NVIDIA part has a higher FP32 throughput of 5.299 TFLOPS versus the AMD's 1,459.2 GFLOPS, and its texture rate is 82.80 GTexel/s versus 45.60 GTexel/s. The pixel rate is closer, with NVIDIA at 33.12 GPixel/s and AMD at 30.40 GPixel/s. The AMD part has a higher transistor density, but the NVIDIA part has more shading units, TMUs, ROPs, and ray tracing cores.