AMD Radeon 880M vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 A Mobile Comparison

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 A Mobile and the AMD Radeon 880M represent two fundamentally different approaches to mobile graphics: one is a discrete, end-of-life Ampere part, and the other is an active, integrated RDNA 3.5 solution. Benchmark data shows the RTX 3050 A Mobile winning 7 of 8 head-to-head comparisons, yet the Radeon 880M posts a decisive victory in 2D workloads and operates at a fraction of the power draw. The average benchmark score for the NVIDIA part is 8746, placing it at the 44th percentile of all GPUs, while the AMD part averages 8436, sitting at the 43rd percentile. This page examines where each part excels, what the specification sheets reveal, and which user should favor which component based strictly on the data.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 A Mobile leads with an average benchmark score of 8746, compared to 8436 for the AMD Radeon 880M. This places the RTX 3050 A Mobile at the 44th percentile of all GPUs, one point above the Radeon 880M's 43rd percentile.

Q: How large is the performance gap in the most demanding graphics test?

A: In the Passmark G3D test, the RTX 3050 A Mobile scores 11664 versus 7615 for the Radeon 880M, a delta of 53.2%. This is the largest single-win margin among the 3D benchmarks, excluding the legacy DirectX 10 test.

Q: Is there any test where the AMD Radeon 880M wins?

A: Yes, the Radeon 880M wins the Passmark G2D test with a score of 969, against 526 for the RTX 3050 A Mobile. That represents a -45.7% delta from the perspective of the NVIDIA part, meaning the AMD GPU is roughly 84% faster in this specific 2D workload.

Q: What are the power consumption figures for each GPU?

A: The RTX 3050 A Mobile has a TDP of 45 W, whereas the Radeon 880M has a TDP of 15 W. This makes the AMD integrated part three times more power-efficient on paper, though it also reflects their different roles as discrete versus integrated graphics.

Q: Do both GPUs support the same modern API feature set?

A: Yes, both list DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4 as supported APIs. Neither has a numerical advantage in API version support per the data.

Q: Which GPU is currently in production?

A: The AMD Radeon 880M is marked as "Active" production status, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 A Mobile is listed as "End-of-life."

The Verdict

The data points to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 A Mobile as the stronger performer for 3D graphics and compute workloads. It wins the Passmark G3D test by 53.2%, the DirectX 12 test by 71.9%, and the Geekbench OpenCL test by 69.4%. For users prioritizing raw rendering power, gaming performance in modern APIs, or GPU compute tasks like OpenCL, the RTX 3050 A Mobile is the clear choice. Its average benchmark score of 8746 and 44th percentile ranking reinforce its edge over the Radeon 880M.

However, the AMD Radeon 880M is not without a compelling case. Its 15 W TDP versus 45 W for the NVIDIA part makes it drastically more suitable for thin-and-light laptops where battery life and thermal headroom are paramount. The Radeon 880M also wins the Passmark G2D test by a wide margin, suggesting superior 2D interface rendering and desktop compositing performance. Its production status is active, ensuring ongoing availability, whereas the RTX 3050 A Mobile is end-of-life. For a user building or buying a system where 2D responsiveness and power efficiency are the primary concerns, and where 3D performance is secondary, the Radeon 880M is the rational pick. For anyone needing the highest possible frame rates or compute throughput in a mobile form factor, the RTX 3050 A Mobile's benchmark dominance makes it the only logical option.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The head-to-head data is overwhelmingly in favor of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 A Mobile, which secures 7 wins out of 8 tests. The most significant victory comes in the legacy Passmark DirectX 10 benchmark, where the RTX 3050 A Mobile scores 61 against 31 for the Radeon 880M, a delta of 96.8%. This near-doubling of performance indicates that the NVIDIA part retains substantial strength in older DirectX pipelines, which can still matter for legacy applications.

In the modern DirectX 12 test, the RTX 3050 A Mobile scores 55 versus 32, a 71.9% advantage. This is a critical metric for current gaming, as DirectX 12 is the foundation of most contemporary titles. Similarly, the DirectX 11 test shows a 28.8% lead for NVIDIA (94 vs. 73), demonstrating consistency across API generations. The DirectX 9 test continues the trend, with NVIDIA winning 152 to 97, a 56.7% margin.

Compute workloads follow the same pattern. The Geekbench OpenCL test is a decisive 69.4% win for the RTX 3050 A Mobile, with scores of 52998 versus 31285. The Passmark GPU Compute test is closer, but still favors NVIDIA at 4419 versus 3719, an 18.8% edge. These results suggest that the RTX 3050 A Mobile is substantially more capable for general-purpose GPU compute tasks, which is relevant for video encoding, machine learning inference, and scientific simulations.

The only benchmark where the AMD Radeon 880M takes the lead is Passmark G2D, scoring 969 versus 526. This 45.7% difference in favor of AMD is notable, as it indicates the integrated GPU's strength in 2D rendering, which affects desktop smoothness, UI responsiveness, and 2D application acceleration. It is notably the RTX 3050 A Mobile still wins the overall Passmark G3D test decisively, scoring 11664 versus 7615, a 53.2% margin. This G3D score is the more comprehensive measure of overall 3D gaming performance, and it solidifies the NVIDIA part's position as the stronger gaming GPU.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ fundamentally in memory architecture. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 A Mobile features 4 GB of dedicated GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing 192.0 GB/s of bandwidth. In contrast, the AMD Radeon 880M uses "System Shared" memory, with a bus width and bandwidth listed as "System Shared" and "System Dependent," respectively. This means the AMD part relies on the host system's RAM, which can introduce latency and bandwidth contention that the discrete NVIDIA memory avoids.

Clock speeds also differ significantly. The RTX 3050 A Mobile has a base clock of 1065 MHz and a boost clock of 1343 MHz, while the Radeon 880M has a much lower base clock of 400 MHz but a much higher boost clock of 2900 MHz. This suggests the AMD part is designed for aggressive dynamic clocking, ramping up under load and dropping low when idle, whereas the NVIDIA part operates in a narrower, more consistent range.

The shading unit count is another major differentiator. The RTX 3050 A Mobile has 1792 shading units, 56 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. The Radeon 880M has only 768 shading units, 48 TMUs, and 16 ROPs. Despite having fewer than half the shading units, the Radeon 880M achieves a slightly higher pixel rate (46.40 GPixel/s versus 42.98 GPixel/s) and a much higher texture rate (139.2 GTexel/s versus 75.21 GTexel/s), thanks to its higher boost clock. The FP32 compute is close, with NVIDIA at 4.813 TFLOPS and AMD at 4.454 TFLOPS.

The process node and physical characteristics are wildly different. The RTX 3050 A Mobile uses an 8 nm process from Samsung, with 12,000 million transistors on a 276 mm² die. The Radeon 880M uses a 4 nm process from TSMC, packing 34,000 million transistors into a 233 mm² die. This gives the AMD part a transistor density of 145.9M / mm² versus 43.5M / mm² for NVIDIA, highlighting the efficiency of the newer manufacturing process.

Architecture Differences

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 A Mobile is built on the Ampere architecture, specifically using the GA106 chip. It belongs to the GeForce 30-series and the GeForce 30 Mobile generation. This architecture includes dedicated 14 RT cores and 56 tensor cores, enabling hardware-accelerated ray tracing and AI-based features like DLSS. The FP32 and FP16 performance are both listed at 4.813 TFLOPS, indicating a 1:1 ratio for these operations.

The AMD Radeon 880M is built on the RDNA 3.5 architecture, using the Strix Point chip from the Navi III IGP generation. It has 12 RT cores, but no tensor cores are listed, which means it lacks a direct equivalent to NVIDIA's tensor core hardware. Its FP32 and FP16 performance are both 4.454 TFLOPS, also at a 1:1 ratio, but slightly lower than the RTX 3050 A Mobile's figure.

The transistor count is a major architectural difference, with the Radeon 880M integrating 34,000 million transistors versus 12,000 million for the RTX 3050 A Mobile. This reflects the Radeon 880M's role as an integrated GPU within a larger Strix Point APU, which also contains CPU cores and other system components. The RTX 3050 A Mobile is a discrete GPU chip, hence its smaller transistor count despite being on an older, less dense process.

The production status and release dates also differ. The RTX 3050 A Mobile was released in late 2023, according to its release date of 2023-12-31, while the Radeon 880M was released in mid-2024, on 2024-07-14. The RTX 3050 A Mobile is end-of-life, whereas the Radeon 880M is active. The NVIDIA part's predecessor is listed as GeForce 20 Mobile, while the AMD part's predecessor is Navi II IGP. Neither has a successor listed. Both use a PCIe 4.0 x8 bus interface and have no power connectors, with display outputs marked as "Portable Device Dependent."