AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile Comparison

The Verdict

The data paints a stark picture. The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT is a desktop-class powerhouse that wins 9 of 10 head-to-head benchmarks, often by triple-digit margins. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile is a mobile chip with a single, significant victory in one compute workload. For anyone building a desktop system with space for a dual-slot, 276 mm card, the RX 7900 XT is the clear choice for gaming and general GPU compute. The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile, with its 75 W TDP and IGP form factor, is for portable systems where power draw and physical size are the constraints. The data shows a 55th percentile ranking for the RX 7900 XT versus a 53rd for the mobile chip, yet the raw score differences are enormous, reflecting the different performance tiers these parts occupy. If you need a desktop card, pick the RX 7900 XT. If you are limited to a laptop, the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile is the only option here, but its performance is in a completely different class.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT has a higher average benchmark score of 13,745 compared to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile's 12,940. The RX 7900 XT outperforms its closest rival, the AMD Radeon 660M, by -0.5%, while the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile is 0.1% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 580.

Q: Which card wins in DirectX 12 gaming benchmarks?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT wins the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test with a score of 5,623, which is 1098.9% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile's 469. In Passmark DirectX 12, the RX 7900 XT also wins with 110 points versus 49 points, a 124.5% advantage.

Q: Is there any benchmark where the NVIDIA GPU beats the AMD GPU?

A: Yes. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile wins the Geekbench OpenCL test with a score of 57,915, which is 78% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT's 12,756. This is the only benchmark win for NVIDIA out of the 10 head-to-head tests.

Q: What is the difference in memory bandwidth?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT has a memory bandwidth of 800.0 GB/s, which is significantly higher than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile's 192.0 GB/s. This is due to a 320-bit memory bus for the AMD card versus a 128-bit bus for the NVIDIA chip.

Q: How do the two compare in terms of transistor count and density?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT has 57,700 million transistors on a 529 mm² die, resulting in a density of 109.1M / mm². The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile has 12,000 million transistors on a 276 mm² die, with a density of 43.5M / mm².

Q: What are the launch dates for these products?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT was released on 2022-11-02, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile was released earlier on 2021-05-10. Both are now marked as end-of-life products.

Architecture Differences

The architecture gap is fundamental. The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT is built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture, specifically using the Navi 31 chip with the codename "Plum Bonito." It is manufactured on a 5 nm process at TSMC. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile uses the Ampere architecture with the GA106 chip and is manufactured on an 8 nm process at Samsung. This process difference is a major factor in their transistor densities, with the AMD card achieving 109.1M transistors per mm² versus the NVIDIA's 43.5M per mm².

The AMD card has 5,376 shading units, 336 TMUs, and 192 ROPs. It also features 84 ray tracing cores but no tensor cores. The NVIDIA chip has 2,560 shading units, 80 TMUs, and 32 ROPs, with 20 ray tracing cores and 80 tensor cores. The presence of tensor cores on the NVIDIA chip is a distinct architectural feature that the AMD card lacks. Both support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4.

The AMD card is a discrete, dual-slot desktop component with a 300 W TDP and 2x 8-pin power connectors, requiring a 700 W power supply. The NVIDIA chip is an IGP (integrated graphics processor) for mobile devices with a 75 W TDP and no power connectors. The AMD card's dimensions are 276 mm in length, 110 mm in height, and 51 mm in width, while the NVIDIA chip has no listed dimensions, as it is meant for integration into laptops.

Specification Differences

The specification differences are vast, reflecting their different intended markets. The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT has 20 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 320-bit bus, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile has 4 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus. This leads to the AMD card's 800.0 GB/s bandwidth versus the NVIDIA's 192.0 GB/s.

Clock speeds are also notably different. The AMD card has a base clock of 1387 MHz and a boost clock of 2394 MHz, with a game clock of 2025 MHz. The NVIDIA chip has a base clock of 735 MHz and a boost clock of 1035 MHz. The AMD memory clock is 2500 MHz (20 Gbps effective), while the NVIDIA memory clock is 1500 MHz (12 Gbps effective).

Compute throughput follows the same pattern. The AMD card delivers 51.48 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 103.0 TFLOPS of FP16 (2:1). The NVIDIA chip delivers 5.299 TFLOPS of FP32 and 5.299 TFLOPS of FP16 (1:1). The AMD card's pixel rate is 459.6 GPixel/s and texture rate is 804.4 GTexel/s, versus the NVIDIA's 33.12 GPixel/s and 82.80 GTexel/s. The AMD card has a launch MSRP of 899 USD. The NVIDIA chip has no launch MSRP listed.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The benchmark results are overwhelmingly in favor of the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT. The largest margin is in the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test, where the AMD card scores 5,623 against the NVIDIA's 469, a massive 1098.9% difference. This is a pure gaming workload, and the AMD card obliterates the mobile chip.

In Passmark G3D, the AMD card scores 29,009 versus 10,093 for the NVIDIA, a 187.4% advantage. The Passmark GPU Compute test shows a 290.9% win for AMD, with scores of 16,828 and 4,305. The Passmark DirectX 11 test shows a 347.4% margin, with the AMD card scoring 340 and the NVIDIA scoring 76. Even in legacy APIs, the AMD card wins: DirectX 10 (158 vs 60, +163.3%) and DirectX 9 (322 vs 120, +168.3%).

The AMD card also wins in Passmark DirectX 12 (110 vs 49, +124.5%) and Passmark G2D (1232 vs 498, +147.4%). In Geekbench Vulkan, the AMD card scores 71,068 versus 55,812, a 27.3% win. The single NVIDIA victory is in Geekbench OpenCL, where the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile scores 57,915 versus the AMD card's 12,756, a 78% margin. This is a notable exception, showing that the NVIDIA chip can be substantially faster in certain compute tasks.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT wins in every gaming-related benchmark. It is the clear winner for DirectX 9, 10, 11, and 12 workloads, as well as for the modern 3DMark Steel Nomad test. Its 187.4% lead in Passmark G3D indicates a massive advantage in general 3D rendering performance. For anyone building a desktop gaming PC, the data unequivocally favors the AMD card.

The AMD card also wins in Vulkan performance, with a 27.3% lead. Its dominance in Passmark GPU Compute (290.9% advantage) suggests it is also the better choice for general-purpose compute workloads that use that API. The only area where the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile wins is Geekbench OpenCL, where it is 78% faster. This makes it a better choice for specific compute applications that rely heavily on OpenCL.

The NVIDIA chip's other advantages are not in performance but in form factor and power. Its 75 W TDP and IGP design make it suitable for laptops, whereas the AMD card's 300 W TDP and dual-slot design require a desktop case and a 700 W power supply. The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile is also smaller, with no listed dimensions, and has no power connectors, making it the only viable option for portable systems. In summary, the AMD card wins on raw performance across nearly every metric, while the NVIDIA chip wins on efficiency and mobility, with a single compute benchmark where it is superior.