AMD Radeon R9 M380 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM Comparison

AMD Radeon R9 M380 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM represent two distinct generations of mobile graphics technology, separated by nearly seven years of architectural evolution. The data shows a decisive performance gap, with the RTX 3050 OEM delivering a Geekbench OpenCL score of 60,740 against the R9 M380’s 12,565, a delta of -79.3% for the older AMD part. This comparison highlights how far GPU design has progressed, moving from a 28 nm process to an 8 nm process, and from a 2,080 million transistor design to a 12,000 million transistor design.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon R9 M380 has an average benchmark score of 15,521, slightly ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM’s 15,199. Despite this, the RTX 3050 OEM wins the head-to-head OpenCL test decisively.

Q: How do the two compare in the Geekbench OpenCL test?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM scores 60,740, which is 48,175 points higher than the R9 M380’s 12,565. The deltaPct for this test is -79.3%, indicating the R9 M380 is significantly behind.

Q: What are the memory specifications for each card?

A: The R9 M380 has 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus with 96.00 GB/s bandwidth. The RTX 3050 OEM has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus with 224.0 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: Which GPU supports hardware ray tracing?

A: Only the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM, which includes 18 RT cores. The AMD Radeon R9 M380 has no RT cores listed in its specifications.

Q: What is the process node for each chip?

A: The AMD Radeon R9 M380 uses a 28 nm process from TSMC, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM uses an 8 nm process from Samsung. This difference contributes to the RTX 3050 OEM’s higher transistor density of 43.5M / mm² versus 13.0M / mm².

Q: Which card has a higher pixel rate?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM achieves a pixel rate of 56.16 GPixel/s, compared to the R9 M380’s 16.00 GPixel/s. This indicates a substantial advantage in fill-rate performance.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these two GPUs is vast. The AMD Radeon R9 M380 is built on the GCN 2.0 architecture, using the Strato chip, and was released in 2015 as part of the Gem System (R9 M300) generation. It utilizes a 28 nm process at TSMC, packing 2,080 million transistors on a 160 mm² die. In contrast, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM is based on the Ampere architecture, using the GA106 chip, and launched in 2022 within the GeForce 30-series. It is manufactured on Samsung’s 8 nm process, integrating 12,000 million transistors on a 276 mm² die. This results in a transistor density of 43.5M / mm² for NVIDIA, more than triple the 13.0M / mm² of the AMD part.

The compute capabilities diverge sharply. The R9 M380 has 768 shading units, 48 TMUs, and 16 ROPs, delivering 1.536 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. The RTX 3050 OEM, however, has 2,304 shading units, 72 TMUs, and 32 ROPs, offering 8.087 TFLOPS of FP32 and the same 8.087 TFLOPS for FP16 (1:1). The NVIDIA card also includes 18 RT cores and 72 tensor cores, hardware features entirely absent from the older AMD GPU. The RTX 3050 OEM further supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, while the R9 M380 tops out at DirectX 12 (12_0) and Vulkan 1.2.170.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only direct benchmark comparison available is the Geekbench OpenCL test, and it is not close. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM scores 60,740, while the AMD Radeon R9 M380 manages just 12,565. This represents a 79.3% deficit for the AMD card, meaning the RTX 3050 OEM delivers roughly 4.8 times the raw compute output in this workload. This result is consistent with the specification differences: the RTX 3050 OEM has three times the shading units, nearly double the ROPs, and over five times the FP32 throughput, along with much faster GDDR6 memory at 224.0 GB/s compared to the R9 M380’s 96.00 GB/s.

The average benchmark scores tell a different story, however. The R9 M380’s average score of 15,521 places it slightly above the RTX 3050 OEM’s 15,199. This is notable because the RTX 3050 OEM’s nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 7600 (15,171, deltaPct 0.2%) and the AMD Radeon 680M (15,270, deltaPct -0.5%), while the R9 M380 sits near the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti (15,548, deltaPct -0.2%). The RTX 3050 OEM’s performance percentile is 57, just one point below the R9 M380’s 58, suggesting that while the newer card dominates in a single OpenCL test, its overall benchmark profile is more varied, with additional tests like Passmark G3D (11,857) and Passmark GPU Compute (5,779) included in its average.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ across nearly every measurable specification. The process node drops from 28 nm to 8 nm, and the transistor count jumps from 2,080 million to 12,000 million. Die size increases from 160 mm² to 276 mm², though transistor density improves from 13.0M / mm² to 43.5M / mm². Clock speeds are substantially higher on the RTX 3050 OEM, with a base of 1515 MHz and boost of 1755 MHz, compared to the R9 M380’s 900 MHz base and 1000 MHz boost. Memory clocks also rise from 1500 MHz (6 Gbps effective) to 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective).

Memory capacity doubles from 4 GB GDDR5 to 8 GB GDDR6, while bandwidth improves from 96.00 GB/s to 224.0 GB/s on the same 128-bit bus. The shading unit count triples from 768 to 2,304, TMUs increase from 48 to 72, and ROPs double from 16 to 32. The RTX 3050 OEM adds 18 RT cores and 72 tensor cores, features the R9 M380 lacks entirely. Pixel rate jumps from 16.00 GPixel/s to 56.16 GPixel/s, and texture rate from 48.00 GTexel/s to 126.4 GTexel/s. FP32 performance scales from 1.536 TFLOPS to 8.087 TFLOPS. The RTX 3050 OEM also has a listed TDP of 130 W, a dual-slot form factor, a 1x 8-pin power connector, and a suggested PSU of 300 W, while the R9 M380 has no TDP or power data provided. Bus interface changes from PCIe 3.0 x16 to PCIe 4.0 x8, and the RTX 3050 OEM includes display outputs of 1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a, whereas the R9 M380 lists none.

The Verdict

The data is unambiguous for compute-heavy workloads: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM is the superior performer, delivering a 79.3% higher score in Geekbench OpenCL. Its architecture, with 2,304 shading units, 8.087 TFLOPS of FP32, and 224.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth, is generations ahead of the R9 M380’s 768 shading units and 1.536 TFLOPS. Gamers or professionals running OpenCL-accelerated tasks should choose the RTX 3050 OEM without hesitation, as its performance is roughly five times that of the AMD part in the tested workload.

However, the average benchmark scores complicate a simple recommendation. The R9 M380’s average of 15,521 slightly edges out the RTX 3050 OEM’s 15,199, and its percentile rank of 58 is one point higher. This suggests that in a broader set of benchmarks, the older card holds its own, possibly due to driver optimizations or specific workload characteristics. The RTX 3050 OEM’s nearest rivals include the RX 7600 and RTX 2060, while the R9 M380 sits near the GTX 1080 Ti, indicating that both cards occupy a similar mid-range performance tier in aggregate.

For users prioritizing modern features, the RTX 3050 OEM is the only choice, offering ray tracing via 18 RT cores, tensor cores, DirectX 12 Ultimate, and Vulkan 1.4 support. It also has double the memory (8 GB vs 4 GB) and significantly higher bandwidth. The R9 M380, being end-of-life since 2015, lacks these capabilities and supports only older API versions. Ultimately, the RTX 3050 OEM is the clear winner for new workloads and future-proofing, while the R9 M380’s slight average score advantage is likely a statistical artifact of the limited benchmark set. The data supports selecting the RTX 3050 OEM for any task requiring current standards or maximum compute performance.