Intel Arc B390 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Mobile Comparison

FAQ

Q: How do the two GPUs compare in overall benchmark standing?

A: The Intel Arc B390 sits at the 9th percentile of all GPUs, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Mobile sits at the 63rd percentile. The NVIDIA part's average benchmark score is 19,049, compared to Intel's 1,482.

Q: What are the closest rivals to each card?

A: The Intel Arc B390's nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX (1.3% ahead), GeForce 800M (1.5% ahead), GeForce GT 625 OEM (2.5% ahead), and GeForce GT 710 (2.7% ahead). The RTX 4050 Mobile's nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon RX 6600 (0.1% ahead), NVIDIA Quadro K6000 (0.1% ahead), NVIDIA Tesla K20m (0.2% behind), and NVIDIA RTX 2000 Ada Generation (0.5% ahead).

Q: What is the memory configuration difference?

A: The RTX 4050 Mobile has 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 96-bit bus with 192.0 GB/s bandwidth. The Arc B390 uses system shared memory, with bus width and bandwidth described as system dependent.

Q: Which GPU has a higher boost clock?

A: The Intel Arc B390 boosts to 2500 MHz, while the RTX 4050 Mobile boosts to 1755 MHz. However, the NVIDIA part has a higher base clock at 1455 MHz versus 300 MHz for Intel.

Q: What are the power requirements?

A: The Arc B390 has a TDP of 80 W, while the RTX 4050 Mobile has a TDP of 50 W. Neither card requires external power connectors.

Q: Which GPU has more shading units?

A: The RTX 4050 Mobile has 2560 shading units, compared to 1536 for the Arc B390. The NVIDIA part also has 80 texture mapping units versus 48, and 48 ROPs versus 24.

The Verdict

The data shows a clear performance hierarchy. The RTX 4050 Mobile's average benchmark score of 19,049 is roughly 13 times higher than the Arc B390's 1,482. The percentile ranking difference, 63rd versus 9th, confirms that the NVIDIA part competes in a completely different performance class. The Arc B390 sits near the bottom of the database, with its closest rivals being legacy GT-series parts from over a decade ago.

For anyone selecting a GPU for gaming or compute tasks, the RTX 4050 Mobile is the only sensible choice from this data. It delivers 8.986 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, 20 ray tracing cores, and 80 tensor cores. The Arc B390's 7.680 TFLOPS and 12 ray tracing cores are lower across the board. The RTX 4050 Mobile also brings dedicated 6 GB GDDR6 memory, while the Intel part relies on shared system memory, which introduces dependency on the host system's memory performance.

The Arc B390 does have advantages in specific areas. Its boost clock of 2500 MHz exceeds the NVIDIA part's 1755 MHz. It also ships on Intel's 3 nm process node, while the RTX 4050 Mobile uses TSMC's 5 nm node. The Intel part supports FP16 at 15.36 TFLOPS with a 2:1 ratio, double its FP32 rate, which could matter for workloads that use reduced precision.

However, these advantages do not translate into benchmark wins. The database records zero head-to-head benchmark wins for the Arc B390 and zero for the RTX 4050 Mobile, meaning no direct comparison tests exist, but the aggregate scores and percentile positions speak clearly. The RTX 4050 Mobile belongs in a different tier, one occupied by desktop-class GPUs like the Radeon RX 6600 and professional cards like the Quadro K6000.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database contains no direct head-to-head benchmark entries between these two GPUs. Instead, the comparison relies on their respective benchmark suites and average scores.

The RTX 4050 Mobile's benchmark results span multiple test types. In Geekbench OpenCL it scores 74,748, and in Geekbench Vulkan it scores 75,235. PassMark results show 14,423 in G3D, 5,947 in GPU compute, 633 in G2D, 184 in DirectX 9, 130 in DirectX 11, 79 in DirectX 10, and 61 in DirectX 12. The Intel Arc B390 has a single recorded benchmark: 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 with a score of 1,482.

Comparing the only overlapping API support, both cards support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The Arc B390's 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 1,482 places it in the company of the GT 520MX, which scores 1,463, and the GT 710, which scores 1,443. The RTX 4050 Mobile's average of 19,049 puts it near the Radeon RX 6600 at 19,036 and the Tesla K20m at 19,089.

The RTX 4050 Mobile's compute performance in PassMark GPU compute, 5,947, and its G3D score of 14,423, indicate strong general rendering and compute capability. The Arc B390 does not have comparable entries in those tests, so the only direct numerical comparison is the 3DMark result, where the NVIDIA part's suite average dwarfs the Intel part's single score.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ in nearly every measured specification. The Arc B390 uses a 3 nm process node from Intel, while the RTX 4050 Mobile uses TSMC's 5 nm node. The NVIDIA chip, AD107, contains 18,900 million transistors on a 159 mm² die, with a transistor density of 118.9M per mm². The Intel chip, Panther Lake, has unknown transistor count and die size.

Clock behavior differs substantially. The Arc B390 has a 300 MHz base clock and 2500 MHz boost. The RTX 4050 Mobile has a 1455 MHz base and 1755 MHz boost. Memory clocks are also different: the Intel part uses system shared memory, while the NVIDIA part runs GDDR6 at 2000 MHz with 16 Gbps effective speed.

Compute resources favor NVIDIA. The RTX 4050 Mobile has 2560 shading units, 80 TMUs, 48 ROPs, 20 RT cores, and 80 tensor cores. The Arc B390 has 1536 shading units, 48 TMUs, 24 ROPs, and 12 RT cores, with no tensor cores listed. Pixel rate is 84.24 GPixel/s for NVIDIA versus 60.00 GPixel/s for Intel. Texture rate is 140.4 GTexel/s versus 120.0 GTexel/s. FP32 performance is 8.986 TFLOPS versus 7.680 TFLOPS. FP16 performance is 8.986 TFLOPS (1:1) for NVIDIA versus 15.36 TFLOPS (2:1) for Intel.

Power draw also differs. The Arc B390 has an 80 W TDP, the RTX 4050 Mobile a 50 W TDP. Both are integrated graphics packages with no power connectors and portable device dependent display outputs. The bus interface differs: the Arc B390 uses IGP, while the RTX 4050 Mobile uses PCIe 4.0 x8.

Architecture Differences

The Arc B390 is built on Intel's Xe3-LPG architecture, part of the Arc Graphics-M generation for Panther Lake. It uses the Xe3-LPG design with 12 ray tracing cores and no tensor core count listed. Its FP16 throughput of 15.36 TFLOPS at a 2:1 ratio indicates that Intel's architecture prioritizes half-precision compute, doubling the FP32 rate.

The RTX 4050 Mobile uses NVIDIA's Ada Lovelace architecture on the AD107 chip, part of the GeForce 40 Mobile generation. It includes 20 ray tracing cores and 80 tensor cores, reflecting NVIDIA's integration of dedicated AI hardware. Its FP16 throughput matches FP32 at 8.986 TFLOPS with a 1:1 ratio, meaning the Ada Lovelace architecture does not accelerate half-precision beyond full-precision rates.

The process technology difference is significant: Intel fabricates the Arc B390 on a 3 nm node, while TSMC fabricates the RTX 4050 Mobile on 5 nm. The NVIDIA chip has a known transistor count of 18,900 million and a die size of 159 mm², yielding a density of 118.9M transistors per mm². The Intel chip's transistor count and die size are not recorded.

Both architectures support the same API level: DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The RTX 4050 Mobile's tensor cores provide hardware acceleration for AI workloads, a feature absent from the Arc B390's specification sheet. The Arc B390's higher FP16 throughput suggests it may handle certain compute tasks involving half precision more efficiently, despite its lower overall FP32 performance.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 4050 Mobile wins in raw performance across every recorded benchmark category. Its average benchmark score of 19,049 places it at the 63rd percentile, compared to the Arc B390's 1,482 and 9th percentile. The NVIDIA part's nearest rivals are modern desktop GPUs and professional workstation cards, while the Intel part's nearest rivals are legacy entry-level parts.

The RTX 4050 Mobile also wins in memory configuration. Its dedicated 6 GB GDDR6 with 192.0 GB/s bandwidth provides consistent performance independent of the host system. The Arc B390's system shared memory means bandwidth and capacity vary with the system's RAM configuration, introducing unpredictability.

The NVIDIA part wins on compute resources. It has more shading units, TMUs, ROPs, RT cores, and adds 80 tensor cores. Its FP32 output of 8.986 TFLOPS exceeds the Intel part's 7.680 TFLOPS. Pixel and texture rates are higher as well.

The Arc B390 has specific advantages in a few areas. Its 2500 MHz boost clock is substantially higher than the RTX 4050 Mobile's 1755 MHz. Its FP16 throughput of 15.36 TFLOPS is nearly double the NVIDIA part's 8.986 TFLOPS, which could benefit workloads that leverage half-precision arithmetic. Its 3 nm process node is more advanced than the 5 nm node used by NVIDIA.

The Arc B390 also draws more power, 80 W versus 50 W, which may indicate headroom for sustained operation, but the benchmark data does not show any performance benefit from that higher power budget. The RTX 4050 Mobile achieves a higher average score with lower power consumption, indicating better performance per watt.

For gaming, the RTX 4050 Mobile's dedicated memory and higher FP32 throughput make it the clear choice. For AI and tensor workloads, the NVIDIA part's 80 tensor cores provide dedicated hardware that the Intel part lacks entirely. For half-precision compute, the Arc B390's FP16 advantage could matter, but no benchmark data in the database confirms this translates into real-world wins. The recorded data consistently favors the RTX 4050 Mobile for all practical use cases.