AMD Radeon Pro WX 5100 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 A Mobile Comparison

The AMD Radeon Pro WX 5100 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 A Mobile are both end-of-life GPUs that land in the same performance tier, with the AMD card posting an average benchmark score of 8863 and the NVIDIA card at 8746. That 1.3% gap in favor of the AMD card is within the noise of the benchmark data, yet the two cards achieve that parity through wildly different means. The Radeon Pro WX 5100 is a desktop workstation card built on a 14 nm process, while the RTX 3050 A Mobile is a laptop part on an 8 nm node, and their benchmark profiles reveal distinct strengths that matter depending on the workload.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The RTX 3050 A Mobile dominates the 3D and compute benchmarks outright, winning seven of the eight head-to-head tests. The largest single victory comes in Geekbench OpenCL, where the NVIDIA card scores 52998 against the AMD card's 24217, a delta of -54.3% from the AMD card's perspective. That is more than double the raw compute throughput, and it shows up again in Passmark GPU Compute, where the NVIDIA card scores 4419 versus 2053, a -53.5% gap. For any task that leans on general-purpose GPU compute, the RTX 3050 A Mobile is the clear pick.

DirectX performance follows the same pattern. In Passmark DirectX 11, the NVIDIA card scores 94 against the AMD card's 36, a -61.7% delta, and in DirectX 12 it scores 55 versus 26, a -52.7% delta. Even the older DirectX 9 and DirectX 10 tests show the NVIDIA card ahead by wide margins: 152 versus 88 (-42.1%) and 61 versus 29 (-52.5%), respectively. The overall 3D marker, Passmark G3D, puts the NVIDIA card at 11664 versus 5496, a -52.9% delta. These results indicate that for gaming or any DirectX-based rendering, the RTX 3050 A Mobile is not just faster but roughly twice as fast.

The single benchmark where the AMD card wins is Passmark G2D, the 2D graphics test, where it scores 777 against the NVIDIA card's 526, a +47.7% delta. That is a substantial margin, suggesting the Radeon Pro WX 5100 has an edge in 2D desktop workloads, potentially due to its different display output configuration. However, that one win does little to offset the NVIDIA card's overwhelming lead in every other category, and the data shows the RTX 3050 A Mobile is the stronger overall performer.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro WX 5100 has a slightly higher average benchmark score of 8863 compared to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 A Mobile's 8746, a difference of 1.3%. Both cards sit at the 44th percentile of all GPUs, so they are effectively in the same performance class.

Q: How do the two cards compare in DirectX 12 performance?

A: The NVIDIA card is significantly faster in DirectX 12, scoring 55 in Passmark DirectX 12 versus the AMD card's 26, a -52.7% delta. This indicates the RTX 3050 A Mobile is roughly twice as capable in modern DirectX 12 workloads.

Q: Is the AMD card better at any benchmark?

A: Yes, the AMD Radeon Pro WX 5100 wins the Passmark G2D test, scoring 777 against the NVIDIA card's 526, a +47.7% delta. This suggests a clear advantage in 2D graphics performance, which may matter for desktop productivity tasks.

Q: What is the difference in memory bandwidth?

A: The NVIDIA card has higher memory bandwidth at 192.0 GB/s, while the AMD card offers 160.0 GB/s. The NVIDIA card uses 4 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, whereas the AMD card uses 8 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus.

Q: Which card has more shading units?

A: Both cards have exactly 1792 shading units. However, the AMD card has 112 texture mapping units and 32 ROPs, while the NVIDIA card has 56 texture mapping units and 32 ROPs, so the architecture allocates the shading units differently.

Q: Does the NVIDIA card support ray tracing?

A: Yes, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 A Mobile includes 14 ray tracing cores and 56 tensor cores, and it supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2). The AMD card has no ray tracing cores and only supports DirectX 12 (12_0).

Architecture Differences

The architectural divide here is stark, starting with the process node. The AMD Radeon Pro WX 5100 uses a 14 nm process from GlobalFoundries, packing 5,700 million transistors into a 232 mm² die, which yields a transistor density of 24.6M per mm². The NVIDIA card uses an 8 nm process from Samsung, fitting 12,000 million transistors into a 276 mm² die, for a density of 43.5M per mm². That means the NVIDIA chip has more than double the transistor count on a slightly larger die, and the higher density reflects the more modern manufacturing process.

The AMD card is built on GCN 4.0 architecture with the Ellesmere chip, part of the Radeon Pro Polaris generation. The NVIDIA card uses Ampere architecture with the GA106 chip, from the GeForce 30 Mobile generation. The NVIDIA card's newer architecture brings dedicated hardware features that the AMD card simply lacks: 14 ray tracing cores and 56 tensor cores. The AMD card has no equivalent hardware, and its DirectX support stops at 12_0, while the NVIDIA card supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2). Vulkan support also differs, with the AMD card at version 1.3 and the NVIDIA card at 1.4.

Compute capabilities are shaped by the architecture as well. The AMD card delivers 3.892 TFLOPS of FP32 and FP16 performance, with a 1:1 ratio. The NVIDIA card delivers 4.813 TFLOPS of FP32 and FP16, also at 1:1, so it has a theoretical compute advantage that the benchmark results confirm. Texture and pixel rates tell a more nuanced story: the AMD card has a higher texture rate at 121.6 GTexel/s versus 75.21 GTexel/s, but the NVIDIA card has a higher pixel rate at 42.98 GPixel/s versus 34.75 GPixel/s. The AMD card's higher TMU count (112 versus 56) explains the texture advantage, while the NVIDIA card's higher boost clock drives its pixel rate.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ in nearly every core specification category. The AMD Radeon Pro WX 5100 has a base clock of 713 MHz and a boost clock of 1086 MHz, while the NVIDIA card runs at 1065 MHz base and 1343 MHz boost. Memory is a major divergence: the AMD card offers 8 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus with 160.0 GB/s bandwidth, versus the NVIDIA card's 4 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus with 192.0 GB/s bandwidth. The AMD card has more memory capacity, but the NVIDIA card has faster memory throughput per bit.

Shading units are identical at 1792, but the AMD card has 112 TMUs versus the NVIDIA card's 56, while both have 32 ROPs. The AMD card draws up to 75 W TDP and requires no power connectors, with a suggested 250 W PSU; the NVIDIA card draws a lower 45 W TDP and also uses no power connectors, with no suggested PSU listed. The AMD card is a single-slot desktop card measuring 173 mm in length and 112 mm in height, while the NVIDIA card is an IGP (integrated graphics processor) with no listed dimensions, designed for portable devices.

Bus interface and display outputs also differ. The AMD card uses PCIe 3.0 x16 and provides 4x DisplayPort 1.4a outputs. The NVIDIA card uses PCIe 4.0 x8 and has display outputs described as "Portable Device Dependent," meaning they are determined by the laptop manufacturer. The AMD card's release date is 2016-11-17, while the NVIDIA card was released later on 2023-12-31. The AMD card has a launch MSRP of 499 USD, while the NVIDIA card has no listed launch MSRP.

The Verdict

The data is unambiguous: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 A Mobile is the faster GPU in nearly every measurable category. It wins seven of eight head-to-head benchmarks, with the only AMD victory coming in 2D graphics. The NVIDIA card is roughly twice as fast in DirectX 10, 11, and 12 tests, and it more than doubles the AMD card's compute scores in Geekbench OpenCL and Passmark GPU Compute. For anyone prioritizing 3D rendering, gaming, or compute workloads, the RTX 3050 A Mobile is the correct choice based on benchmark results alone.

The AMD Radeon Pro WX 5100 does have its own case. It wins the 2D benchmark by a wide margin, and it offers 8 GB of memory versus the NVIDIA card's 4 GB, which could matter for memory-heavy workloads that fit within the AMD card's slower bandwidth. Its higher texture rate of 121.6 GTexel/s suggests it may handle texture-bound tasks better, despite its lower overall compute throughput. However, the NVIDIA card's advantages in ray tracing support, DirectX 12 Ultimate, and Vulkan 1.4 make it more future-proof in terms of API compatibility.

The average benchmark scores are close, with the AMD card at 8863 and the NVIDIA card at 8746, a 1.3% difference that places them at the same 44th percentile. But the distribution of those scores is lopsided: the AMD card's average is propped up by its strong 2D result, while the NVIDIA card dominates every 3D metric. For practical purposes, the RTX 3050 A Mobile is the stronger all-around performer, and the data supports choosing it over the Radeon Pro WX 5100 unless 2D performance or memory capacity is the primary concern.

Where Each One Wins

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 A Mobile wins in all 3D and compute scenarios. Its Passmark G3D score of 11664 versus 5496 makes it the clear choice for gaming or any DirectX rendering workload. The DirectX 11 and 12 results, at 94 versus 36 and 55 versus 26, reinforce that the NVIDIA card is better suited for modern game engines and graphics APIs. Compute-heavy tasks like machine learning inference, video encoding, or any OpenCL-based workload will also favor the NVIDIA card, given its 52998 Geekbench OpenCL score and 4419 Passmark GPU Compute score. The presence of tensor cores further strengthens its position for AI-adjacent tasks, even though no specific tensor benchmarks are listed.

The AMD Radeon Pro WX 5100 wins in 2D and memory capacity scenarios. Its Passmark G2D score of 777 versus 526 makes it the better option for desktop productivity, multi-monitor setups, or any workload that stresses 2D blitting and window management. The 8 GB memory capacity, double the NVIDIA card's 4 GB, gives it an edge for datasets or textures that exceed the NVIDIA card's smaller frame buffer, even though the NVIDIA card's 192.0 GB/s bandwidth is higher than the AMD card's 160.0 GB/s. The AMD card's higher texture rate of 121.6 GTexel/s also suggests it could handle certain texture-heavy workloads more efficiently, despite its lower FP32 throughput. For a professional workstation focused on 2D CAD or desktop applications, the Radeon Pro WX 5100's strengths are relevant, but the NVIDIA card's overwhelming 3D lead makes it the better choice for most users.