Intel Arc A730M vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The benchmark data presents a starkly one-sided comparison. Across every recorded test, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile delivers a decisive victory over the Intel Arc A730M. The database records three head-to-head tests, and NVIDIA wins all three with commanding margins.

The most significant gap appears in the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test. The RTX 5080 Mobile scores 4952, while the Arc A730M manages just 1732. That is a delta of negative 65 percent from the Intel part's perspective, meaning the NVIDIA GPU is roughly 186 percent faster in this modern DirectX 12 workload. This test stresses raw graphics throughput, and the result indicates a generational leap in rendering capability.

In Geekbench OpenCL, the RTX 5080 Mobile records 166986 points against the Arc A730M's 70352. The delta of negative 57.9 percent translates to the NVIDIA part delivering about 137 percent higher compute performance in this API. OpenCL workloads often scale with raw shader count and memory bandwidth, both of which favor the newer NVIDIA design.

The Vulkan results follow a similar pattern. The RTX 5080 Mobile posts 169754 points, while the Arc A730M reaches 64693. With a delta of negative 61.9 percent, the NVIDIA GPU is about 162 percent faster in this cross-platform graphics and compute API. Vulkan's low-overhead nature tends to expose architectural efficiency differences, and the data shows the Blackwell part has a substantial edge.

The overall average benchmark scores in the database tell a slightly different story, because they include a broader set of tests for the NVIDIA part. The RTX 5080 Mobile has an average benchmark score of 38349, while the Arc A730M averages 45592. This places the Intel GPU in the 84th percentile of all recorded GPUs, while the NVIDIA part sits in the 81st percentile. The discrepancy arises because the RTX 5080 Mobile's average includes several low-score Passmark legacy tests, which drag down its overall mean despite its dominant performance in modern workloads. The Arc A730M's recorded benchmark set consists entirely of high-end tests, skewing its average upward.

Looking at the nearest rivals for each card clarifies their competitive positions. The Arc A730M sits within a narrow band of the AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT, which averages 45384, a delta of just 0.5 percent. It also trades places with the NVIDIA RTX 5880 Ada Generation (45972, delta negative 0.8 percent) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Mobile (45152, delta 1 percent). The Intel part is effectively performance-neutral against these peers in the database's aggregate scoring.

The RTX 5080 Mobile, by contrast, is clustered with much lower-tier parts in the aggregate. Its average score of 38349 places it within 0.1 percent of the NVIDIA GeForce MX570 (38299), 0.6 percent above the RTX 4080 Mobile (38135), and within 0.9 percent of both the MX570 A (38691) and AMD Radeon Pro 580X (38706). This odd grouping reflects the Passmark legacy tests in its record, not its true modern performance.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from different architectural generations and manufacturing approaches. The Intel Arc A730M uses the DG2-512 chip built on the Xe-HPG architecture, part of the Alchemist generation for Arc 7 Mobile. It is fabricated on a 6 nm process at TSMC. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile uses the GB203 chip with the Blackwell 2.0 architecture, part of the GeForce 50 Mobile generation, and is built on a 5 nm process, also at TSMC.

Transistor counts reveal a major scale difference. The Intel chip contains 21,700 million transistors on a 406 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 53.4 million per square millimeter. The NVIDIA chip packs 45,600 million transistors onto a smaller 378 mm² die, achieving 120.6 million transistors per square millimeter. That is more than double the density, reflecting the newer process node and more compact design.

Core configurations differ dramatically. The Arc A730M has 3072 shading units, 192 texture mapping units, and 96 ROPs. It includes 24 ray tracing cores and no dedicated tensor cores in the recorded data. The RTX 5080 Mobile features 7680 shading units, 240 TMUs, and 96 ROPs. It has 60 ray tracing cores and 240 tensor cores. The NVIDIA part more than doubles the shader count and ray tracing cores, while matching the ROP count.

Clock speeds show an interesting inversion. The Intel GPU runs at a base clock of 1100 MHz and boosts to 2050 MHz. The NVIDIA GPU has a lower base clock of 975 MHz and a significantly lower boost clock of 1500 MHz. Despite this clock disadvantage, the RTX 5080 Mobile wins decisively in every benchmark, demonstrating that its architectural efficiency and wider execution resources more than compensate.

Memory subsystems are also generational apart. The Arc A730M uses 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192 bit bus, delivering 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth at 14 Gbps effective. The RTX 5080 Mobile uses 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256 bit bus, delivering 896.0 GB/s at 28 Gbps effective. The NVIDIA card has nearly 2.7 times the memory bandwidth, which is critical for modern games and compute tasks.

The bus interface differs as well. Intel uses PCIe 4.0 x16, while NVIDIA uses PCIe 5.0 x16. Both cards are designed as integrated graphics packages (IGP) with a slot width of IGP and portable device dependent display outputs. Both support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 5080 Mobile wins every recorded benchmark comparably. In 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, it outperforms by 65 percent relative to the Intel part. This is a modern, demanding test that stresses the full graphics pipeline, and the NVIDIA GPU's advantage is overwhelming. Users targeting high refresh rate gaming at high resolutions in recent titles will clearly favor this part.

Geekbench OpenCL shows a 57.9 percent lead for the NVIDIA card. Compute-heavy tasks such as rendering, physics simulations, and general purpose GPU computing will see substantial benefits. The combination of 7680 shaders and 896.0 GB/s bandwidth gives it a massive throughput advantage.

Geekbench Vulkan shows a 61.9 percent lead. Vulkan is widely used in modern game engines and cross-platform applications. The RTX 5080 Mobile's architecture handles this API with far greater efficiency. The Arc A730M was competitive in its own generation, but the Blackwell architecture simply outclasses it.

Where does the Arc A730M hold any advantage? The data shows no benchmark wins in the head-to-head tests. However, its aggregate average score of 45592 is higher than the RTX 5080 Mobile's 38349, which reflects the composition of its recorded benchmark set rather than true performance superiority. The Intel card's percentile ranking of 84 versus the NVIDIA card's 81 also reflects this scoring artifact.

The RTX 5080 Mobile's production status is Active, with a release date of 2025-04-01, and it succeeds the GeForce 40 Mobile family. The Arc A730M is marked End-of-life. For new system designs, the NVIDIA part is the current option, while the Intel part is a legacy product.

The NVIDIA card also offers tensor cores, which the recorded data does not list for the Intel part. These are essential for AI acceleration, deep learning inference, and features like DLSS. The RTX 5080 Mobile's 240 tensor cores give it a clear advantage in AI workloads that the Arc A730M cannot match.

Specification Differences

The recorded specifications show several direct differences between the two GPUs.

• Chip: Intel uses DG2-512; NVIDIA uses GB203.
• Architecture: Intel uses Xe-HPG; NVIDIA uses Blackwell 2.0.
• Generation: Intel is Alchemist (Arc 7 Mobile); NVIDIA is GeForce 50 Mobile.
• Process node: Intel is 6 nm; NVIDIA is 5 nm, both at TSMC.
• Transistors: Intel has 21,700 million; NVIDIA has 45,600 million.
• Die size: Intel is 406 mm²; NVIDIA is 378 mm².
• Transistor density: Intel is 53.4M / mm²; NVIDIA is 120.6M / mm².
• Base clock: Intel is 1100 MHz; NVIDIA is 975 MHz.
• Boost clock: Intel is 2050 MHz; NVIDIA is 1500 MHz.
• Memory speed: Intel is 1750 MHz, 14 Gbps effective; NVIDIA is 1750 MHz, 28 Gbps effective.
• Memory size: Intel has 12 GB; NVIDIA has 16 GB.
• Memory type: Intel uses GDDR6; NVIDIA uses GDDR7.
• Memory bus: Intel is 192 bit; NVIDIA is 256 bit.
• Memory bandwidth: Intel is 336.0 GB/s; NVIDIA is 896.0 GB/s.
• Shading units: Intel has 3072; NVIDIA has 7680.
• TMUs: Intel has 192; NVIDIA has 240.
• ROPs: Both have 96.
• Ray tracing cores: Intel has 24; NVIDIA has 60.
• Tensor cores: Intel has none recorded; NVIDIA has 240.
• Pixel rate: Intel is 196.8 GPixel/s; NVIDIA is 144.0 GPixel/s.
• Texture rate: Intel is 393.6 GTexel/s; NVIDIA is 360.0 GTexel/s.
• FP32: Intel is 12.60 TFLOPS; NVIDIA is 23.04 TFLOPS.
• FP16: Intel is 25.19 TFLOPS (2:1); NVIDIA is 23.04 TFLOPS (1:1).
• TDP: Both are 80 W.
• Power connectors: Intel has none recorded; NVIDIA has none.
• Bus interface: Intel is PCIe 4.0 x16; NVIDIA is PCIe 5.0 x16.
• Production status: Intel is End-of-life; NVIDIA is Active.
• Release date: Intel has none recorded; NVIDIA is 2025-04-01.
• Predecessor: Intel has none recorded; NVIDIA is GeForce 40 Mobile.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU is faster in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile scores 4952, while the Intel Arc A730M scores 1732. The NVIDIA part leads by 65 percent relative to the Intel GPU.

Q: How do the two cards compare in Geekbench Vulkan?

A: The RTX 5080 Mobile scores 169754, and the Arc A730M scores 64693. The NVIDIA GPU is 61.9 percent ahead in this test.

Q: What are the memory bandwidth figures for each GPU?

A: The Intel Arc A730M has 336.0 GB/s from 12 GB of GDDR6 on a 192 bit bus. The RTX 5080 Mobile has 896.0 GB/s from 16 GB of GDDR7 on a 256 bit bus.

Q: Does the Intel Arc A730M have tensor cores?

A: The recorded data does not list tensor cores for the Intel part. The RTX 5080 Mobile includes 240 tensor cores.

Q: What is the FP32 compute performance of each GPU?

A: The Intel Arc A730M delivers 12.60 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. The RTX 5080 Mobile delivers 23.04 TFLOPS.

Q: What is the production status of each GPU?

A: The Intel Arc A730M is End-of-life. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile is Active, with a release date of 2025-04-01 and a predecessor in the GeForce 40 Mobile family.