AMD Radeon HD 8950M vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile Comparison

The AMD Radeon HD 8950M and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile represent two very different eras of mobile graphics, and the benchmark data reflects a complete generational shift in performance. While the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile wins every head-to-head test by a massive margin, the HD 8950M still holds a slight edge in the overall percentile ranking, making this a fascinating comparison of raw compute versus architectural maturity.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The data is unambiguous: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile dominates the AMD Radeon HD 8950M in every available benchmark. In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile scores 57,915 points against the HD 8950M's 13,772. That is a delta of -76.2% from the perspective of the AMD part, meaning the NVIDIA GPU delivers roughly 4.2 times the raw compute performance in this workload. The margin is nearly identical in the Geekbench Vulkan test, where the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile scores 55,812 versus 12,979 for the HD 8950M, a delta of -76.7%. These are not close contests; they are complete shutouts.

The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile's advantage is rooted in its sheer scale of execution resources. It packs 2,560 shading units, 80 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs, compared to the HD 8950M's 768 shading units, 48 TMUs, and 16 ROPs. This hardware advantage translates directly to a pixel rate of 33.12 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 82.80 GTexel/s for the NVIDIA part, versus 17.20 GPixel/s and 51.60 GTexel/s for the AMD part. The FP32 compute throughput tells the same story: 5.299 TFLOPS for the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile versus 1.651 TFLOPS for the HD 8950M.

Interestingly, despite winning every benchmark, the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile's percentile ranking is actually slightly lower than the HD 8950M's. The NVIDIA part sits at the 53rd percentile of all GPUs, while the AMD part sits at the 54th. This is a quirk of the broader database distribution, but it does suggest that the HD 8950M's average score of 13,376 is remarkably close to the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile's average of 12,940. The average benchmark score actually favors the older AMD card by a small margin, even though the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile wins the specific head-to-head tests. This discrepancy likely reflects the fact that the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile's benchmark suite includes many more DirectX and PassMark tests, which pull its average down relative to the HD 8950M's limited two-test sample.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon HD 8950M has a higher average benchmark score of 13,376, compared to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile's average of 12,940. This is despite the NVIDIA part winning both head-to-head benchmark tests.

Q: How much faster is the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile in OpenCL?

A: The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile scores 57,915 in Geekbench OpenCL, which is 76.2% higher than the HD 8950M's score of 13,772. This represents a more than fourfold performance advantage.

Q: What is the memory configuration difference?

A: The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile has 4 GB of GDDR6 memory with a bandwidth of 192.0 GB/s, while the HD 8950M has 2 GB of GDDR5 memory with a bandwidth of 88.00 GB/s. Both use a 128-bit memory bus.

Q: Which GPU has a higher transistor density?

A: The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile has a transistor density of 43.5M per mm², while the HD 8950M has a density of 13.0M per mm². The NVIDIA part is manufactured on Samsung's 8 nm process, whereas the AMD part uses TSMC's 28 nm process.

Q: Do both GPUs support the same DirectX version?

A: No. The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the HD 8950M supports DirectX 12 (12_0). The NVIDIA part also features ray tracing cores and tensor cores, which the AMD part does not have.

Q: What is the power consumption difference?

A: The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile has a TDP of 75 W, while the HD 8950M has a TDP of 100 W. The NVIDIA part delivers significantly higher performance while consuming 25% less power.

The Verdict

The data makes the choice straightforward for anyone building or buying a modern system: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile is the decisively superior GPU. Benchmark results show it leading by over 76% in both OpenCL and Vulkan workloads, which translates to roughly four times the compute performance. Its 5.299 TFLOPS of FP32 throughput, 82.80 GTexel/s texture rate, and 33.12 GPixel/s pixel rate leave the HD 8950M's 1.651 TFLOPS, 51.60 GTexel/s, and 17.20 GPixel/s in the dust. The NVIDIA part also achieves this with a lower TDP of 75 W versus 100 W, making it more efficient for mobile use.

The HD 8950M is an end-of-life product from 2013, and its architecture lacks the modern features that define the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile. The NVIDIA part supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, ray tracing cores, and tensor cores, while the AMD part caps out at DirectX 12_0 with no ray tracing or AI acceleration. The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile also offers double the memory capacity (4 GB vs 2 GB) and more than double the memory bandwidth (192.0 GB/s vs 88.00 GB/s). For any modern gaming, content creation, or compute task, the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile is the only rational choice.

However, the data also shows that the HD 8950M is not entirely obsolete. Its average benchmark score of 13,376 is actually higher than the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile's 12,940, and it ranks slightly higher in the percentile distribution (54th vs 53rd). This suggests that in certain legacy workloads or specific driver-optimized scenarios, the older AMD card can still hold its own. For someone running very old software that was optimized for GCN 2.0 architecture, the HD 8950M might be a viable low-cost option, provided the system can accommodate its 100 W TDP and MXM Module form factor.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ in almost every measurable specification. The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile is built on Samsung's 8 nm process with 12,000 million transistors on a 276 mm² die, while the HD 8950M uses TSMC's 28 nm process with 2,080 million transistors on a 160 mm² die. The transistor density reflects this: 43.5M per mm² for NVIDIA versus 13.0M per mm² for AMD. Clock speeds also differ, with the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile having a base clock of 735 MHz and a boost clock of 1035 MHz, while the HD 8950M's base and boost clocks are not specified in the data. Memory clocks are 1500 MHz (12 Gbps effective) for the NVIDIA part and 1375 MHz (5.5 Gbps effective) for the AMD part.

The execution resources are starkly different. The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile has 2,560 shading units, 80 TMUs, 32 ROPs, 20 ray tracing cores, and 80 tensor cores. The HD 8950M has 768 shading units, 48 TMUs, and 16 ROPs, with no ray tracing or tensor cores. The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile also offers FP16 performance at 5.299 TFLOPS (1:1 ratio), while the HD 8950M has no listed FP16 capability. The power profiles differ as well: 75 W TDP for the NVIDIA part versus 100 W for the AMD part. The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile is an IGP (integrated graphics processor) form factor with no power connectors, while the HD 8950M is an MXM Module. The bus interface is PCIe 4.0 x16 for the NVIDIA part and PCIe 3.0 x16 for the AMD part.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these two GPUs spans nearly a decade of GPU design evolution. The HD 8950M is based on the GCN 2.0 architecture, using the Saturn chip. GCN (Graphics Core Next) was AMD's compute-focused design that prioritized throughput over latency. The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile uses the Ampere architecture, built around the GA106 chip, which is a much more modern and feature-rich design. Ampere introduced dedicated ray tracing cores and tensor cores, enabling hardware-accelerated ray tracing and AI-based features like DLSS. The HD 8950M has no such dedicated hardware.

The manufacturing process is a major differentiator. The HD 8950M uses a 28 nm process from TSMC, while the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile uses Samsung's 8 nm process. This process shrink allows the NVIDIA part to pack 12,000 million transistors into a 276 mm² die, versus 2,080 million transistors into a 160 mm² die for the AMD part. The newer process also contributes to the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile's lower power draw despite its much higher performance. The memory architecture also reflects the generational leap: GDDR5 with 5.5 Gbps effective speed for the HD 8950M versus GDDR6 with 12 Gbps effective speed for the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile.

The API support further highlights the architectural divide. The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), which includes features like mesh shaders, variable rate shading, and hardware ray tracing. The HD 8950M supports DirectX 12 (12_0), which lacks these advanced features. Both support OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan, but the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile supports Vulkan 1.4 compared to the HD 8950M's Vulkan 1.2.170. The NVIDIA part also has a newer production status, having been released in 2021, while the HD 8950M dates back to 2013.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile wins in every benchmark category where both are tested. It is the clear victor in Geekbench OpenCL and Vulkan, with margins exceeding 76%. Beyond those tests, the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile has a much broader benchmark portfolio, including PassMark scores for DirectX 9 (120), DirectX 10 (60), DirectX 11 (76), DirectX 12 (49), G2D (498), G3D (10093), and GPU compute (4305). The HD 8950M has no data for these tests, which means the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile wins by default in any DirectX or rasterization workload. The NVIDIA part also wins on features: it has ray tracing cores, tensor cores, and DirectX 12 Ultimate support, making it suitable for modern games and AI workloads that the HD 8950M cannot handle.

The HD 8950M's only "win" is in the aggregate average benchmark score (13,376 vs 12,940) and the percentile ranking (54th vs 53rd). This is a statistical anomaly driven by the different test suites, but it does suggest that in certain legacy or compute-focused workloads, the HD 8950M can still produce competitive numbers. The AMD part also has a higher TDP of 100 W, which, while less efficient, might indicate a more aggressively tuned card in some implementations. However, in practical terms, the HD 8950M's wins are purely academic. For anyone choosing between these two GPUs for a real system, the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile is the only sensible pick. It offers superior performance, modern features, lower power consumption, and a more recent production timeline. The HD 8950M is a relic of a bygone era, best left to retro builds or very specific legacy applications.