AMD Radeon RX 550 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile Comparison

Where Each One Wins

The benchmark data splits cleanly along generational and architectural lines. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile wins every recorded head-to-head test, and the margins are substantial. AMD Radeon RX 550 does not register a single victory in the shared tests, which places it in a fundamentally different performance class despite both cards occupying similar percentile ranks among all GPUs.

The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile sits at the 53rd percentile of all GPUs in the database, while the RX 550 sits at the 50th percentile. That narrow percentile gap might suggest close competition, but the actual scores tell a different story. The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile averages 12,940 points across its benchmark suite, while the RX 550 averages 11,075 points, a difference of roughly 17 percent in average score. The percentile ranking compresses a wide range of scores into a small band near the middle of the distribution, so two cards can appear similar in rank yet diverge sharply in raw performance.

Where each card wins is therefore less about which one is faster and more about what each was designed to do. The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile delivers modern feature support and high throughput in current API workloads, which shows in its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 469 against 127 for the RX 550, a 269.3 percent advantage. The RX 550, by contrast, offers a lower-power, smaller-die alternative that still handles legacy DirectX workloads through its GCN architecture, but the data does not give it a single benchmark victory to claim.

The compute-oriented tests reinforce this split. Geekbench OpenCL shows the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile scoring 57,915 points against 11,063 for the RX 550, a 423.5 percent margin. Vulkan performance follows the same pattern: 55,812 against 12,270, a 354.9 percent advantage. The RX 550 has no Metal benchmark in the shared set, though its standalone Geekbench Metal score of 20,838 indicates it can still execute compute workloads, just at a much lower throughput level than the NVIDIA part achieves in OpenCL or Vulkan.

The practical interpretation is that the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile wins every scenario where modern API support, ray tracing capability, and raw compute throughput matter. The RX 550 wins the scenario where power draw, physical size, and legacy compatibility are the priorities, but not on raw performance.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from different architectural generations and different foundries. NVIDIA builds the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile on the GA106 chip using the Ampere architecture, manufactured on Samsung 8 nm process technology. The die measures 276 mm² and contains 12,000 million transistors, giving a transistor density of 43.5 million per square millimeter. AMD builds the RX 550 on the Lexa chip using GCN 4.0 architecture, part of the Polaris generation for the RX 500 series, manufactured on GlobalFoundries 14 nm process technology. The Lexa die measures 103 mm² and contains 2,200 million transistors, giving a transistor density of 21.4 million per square millimeter.

The transistor and die size differences are stark. The NVIDIA chip packs more than five times the transistor count into a die roughly 2.7 times larger, and its density advantage reflects the newer process node. The 14 nm GlobalFoundries process used for the RX 550 is an older node, which explains the lower density and the higher base clock of 1100 MHz needed to extract performance from a smaller design.

The shading resources differ by a factor of five. The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile has 2,560 shading units, 80 texture mapping units, and 32 render output units. The RX 550 has 512 shading units, 32 texture mapping units, and 16 render output units. The NVIDIA part also includes 20 ray tracing cores and 80 tensor cores, hardware that the RX 550 completely lacks, as its specification lists no ray tracing or tensor core counts at all.

Memory architecture shows a similar divergence. The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile uses 4 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus with 192.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The RX 550 uses 2 GB of GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus with 112.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The bus width is identical, but the newer memory type and higher effective speed give NVIDIA a 71 percent bandwidth advantage.

The API support reflects their respective generations. The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The RX 550 supports DirectX 12 (12_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3. The difference between DirectX 12_2 and DirectX 12_0 matters for feature-level capabilities, with 12_2 enabling ray tracing and mesh shaders in titles that require the Ultimate feature set.

The power envelope also differs significantly. The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile has a TDP of 75 W and uses no power connectors, relying on PCIe 4.0 x16 for power delivery in an IGP form factor. The RX 550 has a 50 W TDP, no power connectors, and a suggested PSU of 250 W, in a dual-slot card measuring 145 mm or 5.7 inches in length. The RX 550 connects via PCIe 3.0 x8, which is a narrower interface than the NVIDIA part's PCIe 4.0 x16.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The shared benchmark set contains three tests, and NVIDIA wins all three by wide margins. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test shows the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile scoring 469 against 127 for the RX 550, a 269.3 percent advantage. This test stresses modern DirectX 12 rendering paths, where the Ampere architecture's newer feature set and higher shading throughput provide a decisive edge.

Geekbench OpenCL shows the largest gap of the three tests. The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile scores 57,915, while the RX 550 scores 11,063, a 423.5 percent advantage. OpenCL compute performance scales heavily with shading unit count and memory bandwidth, and the NVIDIA part has five times the shading units and nearly double the bandwidth. The result is not surprising given those resource differences.

Geekbench Vulkan shows the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile scoring 55,812 against 12,270 for the RX 550, a 354.9 percent advantage. Vulkan is a lower-level API that exposes hardware capabilities more directly than OpenGL, and the NVIDIA part's architecture handles the workload with far greater efficiency. The margin is slightly smaller than OpenCL but still represents a multiple of the AMD card's performance.

The RX 550 has additional benchmark data not present in the shared set. Its Geekbench Metal score of 20,838 shows that on Apple's compute API, the card performs roughly in line with its other compute results, but there is no Metal result for the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile to compare against. The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile has several PassMark scores covering DirectX 9 through DirectX 12, 2D graphics, and GPU compute, but the RX 550 has no PassMark entries in the database, so direct comparison on that suite is not possible.

The recorded data indicates a consistent pattern: the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile leads by factors of roughly 2.7 to 4.2 times depending on the test. The smallest margin is in the 3DMark test, and the largest is in OpenCL compute. No test in the shared set favors the RX 550.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ across nearly every specification category. The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile uses the GA106 chip on Samsung 8 nm, while the RX 550 uses Lexa on GlobalFoundries 14 nm. Transistor count is 12,000 million versus 2,200 million, and die size is 276 mm² versus 103 mm². Transistor density is 43.5 million per mm² versus 21.4 million per mm².

Clock speeds differ in an interesting way. The RX 550 has a higher base clock of 1100 MHz and a higher boost clock of 1183 MHz, while the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile runs a 735 MHz base and 1035 MHz boost. The AMD card's higher clocks do not compensate for its far smaller execution resource pool. Memory clocks also differ: the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile runs 1500 MHz with 12 Gbps effective, while the RX 550 runs 1750 MHz with 7 Gbps effective. The newer GDDR6 memory achieves higher effective bandwidth despite a lower physical clock.

Memory capacity is 4 GB versus 2 GB, both on 128-bit buses, with bandwidth of 192.0 GB/s versus 112.0 GB/s. Shading units are 2,560 versus 512, TMUs are 80 versus 32, and ROPs are 32 versus 16. The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile has 20 ray tracing cores and 80 tensor cores, while the RX 550 has none of either. Pixel rate is 33.12 GPixel/s versus 18.93 GPixel/s, and texture rate is 82.80 GTexel/s versus 37.86 GTexel/s. FP32 throughput is 5.299 TFLOPS versus 1,211.4 GFLOPS, and FP16 throughput is 5.299 TFLOPS (1:1) for both.

TDP is 75 W versus 50 W, and slot width is IGP for the NVIDIA part versus dual-slot, power connectors are none for both, and the RX 550 has a suggested PSU of 250 W while the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile lists none. The bus interface is PCIe 4.0 x16 versus PCIe 3.0, display outputs are listed as portable device dependent for the NVIDIA part, while the RX 550 lists 1x DVI, 1x HDMI 2.0b, 1x DisplayPort 1.1x 4a. The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), and the RX 550 supports DirectX 12 (12_0). Release dates differ by roughly four years, with the RX 550 launching on April 19, 2017, and the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile launching May 10, 2021. The RX 550 has a launch MSRP of 79 USD, stated once here. The RX 550's predecessor is Arctic Islands, successor Vega. The RTX 3050 Ti's predecessor is GeForce 20 Mobile. Both are listed as end-of-life production status. The RTX 3050 Ti's series is GeForce 30-series.

FAQ

Q: Is the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile is faster in every test?

Yes, the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile wins 3 out of 3 head-to-head benchmarks, with gains of 269.3 percent in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, 423.5 percent in Geekbench OpenCL, and 354.9 percent in Geekbench Vulkan.

Q: Why does the RX 550 have higher clocks but lower performance?

The RX 550 has a base clock of 1100 MHz and boost 1183 MHz, higher than the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile's 735 MHz base and 1035 MHz boost. However, the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile has 2,560 shading units versus 512, and 192.0 GB/s bandwidth versus 112.0 GB/s, so the NVIDIA card processes far more work per clock.

Q: Which card supports ray tracing?

Only the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile includes 20 ray tracing cores and 80 tensor cores. The RX 550 has no ray tracing or tensor core hardware listed in its specifications.

Q: What memory types do these cards use?

The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile uses 4 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, while the RX 550 uses 2 GB of GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus. The NVIDIA card's bandwidth is 192.0 GB/s versus 112.0 GB/s for the AMD card.

Q: How do their average benchmark scores compare?

The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile has an average benchmark score of 12,940, while the RX 550 averages 11,075. The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile sits at the 53rd percentile of all GPUs, and the RX 550 at the 50th percentile.

Q: Which card has a higher power draw?

The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile has a TDP of 75 W, while the RX 550 has a TDP of 50 W. The RX 550 also lists a suggested PSU of 250 W, while the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile lists no suggested PSU.

The Verdict

The data points to a clear conclusion for performance-oriented users: the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile is the faster card by every recorded measure. It wins all three shared benchmarks, and its margins range from 269.3 percent to 423.5 percent. It carries more memory, newer memory technology, more shading resources, and hardware ray tracing support. Its average benchmark score is roughly 17 percent higher, and its percentile ranking is slightly higher at 53 versus 50.

Users who need a low-power, small-form-factor card with a 50 W TDP and no power connectors might consider the RX 550, particularly if they run older DirectX 12 workloads or prefer a dual-slot card with a 145 mm length. Its higher base and boost clocks do not translate into competitive performance against the Ampere part, but for workloads that do not stress modern API features, it remains a functional option.

The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile is the choice for anyone who needs modern API support, ray tracing, tensor cores, or high compute throughput. The RX 550 is the choice for anyone constrained by power, physical size, or legacy software requirements where its 50 W envelope and simpler feature set suffice. The benchmark data does not support any scenario where the RX 550 outperforms the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile in raw speed.