AMD Radeon R9 M375X vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 A Mobile Comparison

NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 3050 A Mobile and AMD’s Radeon R9 M375X represent two distinct eras of mobile graphics. The RTX 3050 A Mobile is an end-of-life Ampere part from the GeForce 30-series, built for modern laptops, while the R9 M375X is a legacy GCN 1.0 part from 2015. Benchmark data shows a decisive overall victory for the NVIDIA part, with an average benchmark score of 8,746 compared to 8,325 for the AMD, placing them at the 44th and 43rd percentiles of all GPUs, respectively. However, the single head-to-head test reveals a massive gulf in compute performance, making the architectural and generational differences between these two chips starkly apparent.

Where Each One Wins

The data paints a clear picture: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 A Mobile is the outright winner in every measurable category where both have scores. The only direct comparison available, the Geekbench OpenCL test, shows the RTX 3050 A Mobile scoring 52,998 against the R9 M375X’s 8,273, a staggering 540.6% advantage. This is not a marginal victory; it is a generational obliteration. For any workload leveraging OpenCL—which includes many compute tasks and some game engines—the RTX 3050 A Mobile is in a completely different performance class.

The AMD Radeon R9 M375X, conversely, has no benchmark wins in this comparison. Its only other recorded result is a Geekbench Vulkan score of 8,377, but the RTX 3050 A Mobile has no corresponding Vulkan score in the data for a direct comparison. Within the provided facts, there is no scenario where the R9 M375X wins. The RTX 3050 A Mobile also holds the advantage in raw specification-driven capabilities like pixel rate (42.98 GPixel/s vs 16.24 GPixel/s) and texture rate (75.21 GTexel/s vs 40.60 GTexel/s), which translate to better fill-rate-bound performance in traditional rendering. For a user choosing between these two, the data unequivocally points to the NVIDIA part for any performance-sensitive application.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs are separated by nearly a decade of design philosophy and process technology. The RTX 3050 A Mobile is built on NVIDIA’s Ampere architecture and fabricated on Samsung’s 8 nm process node. It packs 12,000 million transistors onto a 276 mm² die, achieving a transistor density of 43.5 million per mm². In contrast, the R9 M375X uses AMD’s older GCN 1.0 architecture on TSMC’s 28 nm node, with a mere 1,500 million transistors on a 123 mm² die, resulting in a density of 12.2 million per mm². This fundamental difference in manufacturing and design accounts for the massive disparity in capabilities.

Feature-wise, the Ampere chip includes dedicated hardware that the older GCN part simply lacks. The RTX 3050 A Mobile has 14 ray tracing cores and 56 tensor cores, enabling hardware-accelerated ray tracing and AI-based features like DLSS. The R9 M375X has no such units. Furthermore, the RTX 3050 A Mobile supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, whereas the R9 M375X is limited to DirectX 12 (11_1) and Vulkan 1.2.170. The NVIDIA part also has a higher shader count with 1,792 shading units compared to 640, and its FP32 compute is rated at 4.813 TFLOPS versus 1,299.2 GFLOPS for the AMD. The RTX 3050 A Mobile’s FP16 performance is also 4.813 TFLOPS with a 1:1 ratio, while the R9 M375X has no listed FP16 capability.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only direct head-to-head benchmark available is Geekbench OpenCL, and it is a blowout. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 A Mobile scores 52,998, while the AMD Radeon R9 M375X scores 8,273. This represents a 540.6% delta, meaning the NVIDIA GPU is over six times faster in this compute-oriented test. This score reflects the combined impact of the RTX 3050 A Mobile’s superior architecture, more than double the shading units, and significantly faster memory bandwidth. The OpenCL test is a proxy for general-purpose GPU compute and certain rendering tasks, so this result indicates a massive advantage for the NVIDIA part in any workload that can utilise it.

Beyond the single direct test, the average benchmark scores from their respective benchmark suites reinforce the trend. The RTX 3050 A Mobile achieves a Passmark G3D score of 11,664, while the R9 M375X has no comparable Passmark scores in the data, only the Geekbench results. The NVIDIA part’s average benchmark score of 8,746 is 421 points higher than the AMD’s 8,325, a 5% difference that, while smaller than the OpenCL delta, still places it in a higher performance tier. The RTX 3050 A Mobile’s nearest rivals include the NVIDIA Quadro P2200 (0.7% faster) and the AMD Radeon R9 M265X (1.2% slower), while the R9 M375X sits alongside the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675MX (1.2% slower) and the NVIDIA GeForce MX330 (1.6% slower). This puts the RTX 3050 A Mobile in the company of modern entry-level discrete GPUs, while the R9 M375X is grouped with much older parts.

Specification Differences

The specification sheet highlights the generational gap between these two mobile GPUs. The most significant differences are in memory and compute resources. The RTX 3050 A Mobile has 4 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, delivering 192.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The R9 M375X has only 2 GB of GDDR5 on the same 128-bit bus, yielding just 72.00 GB/s. This 2.6x bandwidth advantage is crucial for modern game textures and compute workloads. The memory clock also differs, with the NVIDIA part running at 1500 MHz (12 Gbps effective) versus the AMD’s 1125 MHz (4.5 Gbps effective).

The core configurations are equally divergent. The RTX 3050 A Mobile features 1,792 shading units, 56 texture mapping units (TMUs), and 32 render output units (ROPs). The R9 M375X has 640 shading units, 40 TMUs, and 16 ROPs. Clock speeds also differ, with the NVIDIA GPU running at a base of 1065 MHz and a boost of 1343 MHz, while the AMD part runs at 925 MHz base and 1015 MHz boost. The NVIDIA GPU’s pixel rate is 42.98 GPixel/s and its texture rate is 75.21 GTexel/s, compared to 16.24 GPixel/s and 40.60 GTexel/s for the AMD. The TDP for the RTX 3050 A Mobile is listed as 45 W, while the R9 M375X has no TDP listed. The bus interface also differs: the RTX 3050 A Mobile uses PCIe 4.0 x8, while the R9 M375X uses PCIe 3.0 x16. Finally, the RTX 3050 A Mobile is an integrated-style part (IGP slot width) with no power connectors, whereas the R9 M375X has no slot width or power connector data.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU is faster in the only shared benchmark?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 A Mobile is dramatically faster, scoring 52,998 in Geekbench OpenCL compared to the AMD Radeon R9 M375X’s 8,273, a 540.6% advantage.

Q: Do both GPUs support modern graphics APIs like Vulkan and DirectX 12?

A: Yes, but to different extents. The RTX 3050 A Mobile supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, while the R9 M375X supports the older DirectX 12 (11_1) and Vulkan 1.2.170.

Q: How does the memory configuration compare?

A: The NVIDIA part has 4 GB of GDDR6 with 192.0 GB/s bandwidth on a 128-bit bus. The AMD part has 2 GB of GDDR5 with 72.00 GB/s bandwidth on the same 128-bit bus.

Q: What is the difference in compute capability?

A: The RTX 3050 A Mobile has 1,792 shading units and delivers 4.813 TFLOPS of FP32 compute. The R9 M375X has 640 shading units and delivers 1,299.2 GFLOPS of FP32 compute. The NVIDIA GPU also has 14 ray tracing cores and 56 tensor cores, which the AMD GPU lacks entirely.

Q: Are there any workloads where the AMD Radeon R9 M375X wins?

A: Based on the data provided, no. The AMD GPU has no benchmark wins, and its only other score is a Geekbench Vulkan result of 8,377 with no direct NVIDIA counterpart for comparison.

Q: How do their overall average scores compare?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 A Mobile has an average benchmark score of 8,746, placing it in the 44th percentile. The AMD Radeon R9 M375X has an average score of 8,325, placing it in the 43rd percentile.