NVIDIA GeForce 945M vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 A Mobile Comparison

The data is unambiguous: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 A Mobile is in a completely different performance class than the NVIDIA GeForce 945M. The RTX 3050 A Mobile’s average benchmark score of 8746 places it in the 44th percentile of all GPUs, while the 945M’s score of 8099 places it in the 42nd percentile. This narrow percentile gap is misleading, however, because the only shared benchmark, Geekbench OpenCL, shows the RTX 3050 A Mobile scoring 52998 versus 8099 for the 945M — a massive 554.4% advantage. The RTX 3050 A Mobile is the only rational choice for any modern workload, as the 945M is a legacy part from the Maxwell era, while the RTX 3050 A Mobile is built on the Ampere architecture.

The Verdict

The RTX 3050 A Mobile is the definitive winner in every measurable category. The data shows a 554.4% lead in the sole head-to-head benchmark, Geekbench OpenCL, which is not a marginal improvement but a generational leap. Anyone considering these two GPUs should exclusively target the RTX 3050 A Mobile, as the 945M’s performance does not compete in any scenario. The RTX 3050 A Mobile also offers modern features like 14 ray-tracing cores and 56 tensor cores, while the 945M has none of these. The 945M’s only advantage is its lower TDP of 75 W compared to the RTX 3050 A Mobile’s 45 W, but this is a power draw figure, not a performance metric. For gaming, content creation, or compute tasks, the RTX 3050 A Mobile is the only viable option. The 945M should be considered obsolete for any application requiring more than basic 2D acceleration, given its 2 GB DDR3 memory and 28.8 GB/s bandwidth versus the RTX 3050 A Mobile’s 4 GB GDDR6 and 192.0 GB/s bandwidth.

FAQ

Q: How much faster is the RTX 3050 A Mobile than the 945M in the only shared benchmark?

A: In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the RTX 3050 A Mobile scores 52998, while the 945M scores 8099, giving the RTX 3050 A Mobile a 554.4% performance advantage.

Q: Does the 945M support ray tracing or tensor cores?

A: No. The 945M has no ray-tracing cores and no tensor cores, whereas the RTX 3050 A Mobile includes 14 RT cores and 56 tensor cores.

Q: Which GPU has a higher memory bandwidth?

A: The RTX 3050 A Mobile has a bandwidth of 192.0 GB/s, which is 6.7 times higher than the 945M’s 28.80 GB/s, due to its GDDR6 memory versus the 945M’s DDR3.

Q: What are the architecture generations of these two GPUs?

A: The RTX 3050 A Mobile is based on the Ampere architecture with an 8 nm process, while the 945M is based on the older Maxwell architecture with a 28 nm process.

Q: Which GPU has a higher pixel fill rate?

A: The RTX 3050 A Mobile has a pixel rate of 42.98 GPixel/s, which is 2.6 times higher than the 945M’s 16.32 GPixel/s.

Q: Are these GPUs still in production?

A: Both are end-of-life parts, but the RTX 3050 A Mobile was released in December 2023, whereas the 945M was released in October 2015, making the 945M significantly older.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these two GPUs is the primary reason for the performance disparity. The RTX 3050 A Mobile uses the GA106 chip built on an 8 nm process at Samsung, housing 12,000 million transistors on a 276 mm² die. In contrast, the 945M uses the GM107 chip built on a 28 nm process at TSMC, with only 1,870 million transistors on a 148 mm² die. This gives the RTX 3050 A Mobile a transistor density of 43.5M per mm², versus 12.6M per mm² for the 945M, indicating a far more advanced manufacturing technology. The RTX 3050 A Mobile features 14 ray-tracing cores and 56 tensor cores, which are entirely absent from the 945M. The RTX 3050 A Mobile also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the 945M only supports DirectX 12 (11_0), meaning the newer card can handle advanced rendering features that the older one cannot. The 945M’s Maxwell architecture was designed for a different era, lacking the hardware acceleration for modern AI-driven tasks and real-time ray tracing that the Ampere-based RTX 3050 A Mobile provides.

Specification Differences

The specification sheet shows a clear generational divide. The RTX 3050 A Mobile has 1792 shading units, 56 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs, versus the 945M’s 640 shading units, 40 TMUs, and 16 ROPs. The RTX 3050 A Mobile’s base clock is 1065 MHz with a boost of 1343 MHz, while the 945M runs at 928 MHz base and 1020 MHz boost. Memory configurations are starkly different: the RTX 3050 A Mobile uses 4 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus with 192.0 GB/s bandwidth, while the 945M uses 2 GB of DDR3 on the same 128-bit bus but with only 28.80 GB/s bandwidth. The memory clock is 1500 MHz (12 Gbps effective) for the RTX 3050 A Mobile versus 900 MHz (1800 Mbps effective) for the 945M. Compute performance is also lopsided: the RTX 3050 A Mobile delivers 4.813 TFLOPS FP32 and 4.813 TFLOPS FP16, while the 945M manages only 1,305.6 GFLOPS FP32 and has no FP16 data. The RTX 3050 A Mobile has a TDP of 45 W and uses an IGP slot width with PCIe 4.0 x8 interface, whereas the 945M has a 75 W TDP and uses an MXM Module with MXM-B (3.0) interface. Both have no power connectors and portable-device-dependent display outputs.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only direct head-to-head benchmark available is Geekbench OpenCL, and it is not close. The RTX 3050 A Mobile scores 52998, while the 945M scores 8099, resulting in a deltaPct of 554.4% in favor of the RTX 3050 A Mobile. This single result dwarfs any other comparison and effectively ends the discussion. For context, the RTX 3050 A Mobile’s average benchmark score across all tests is 8746, which is higher than the 945M’s single Geekbench score of 8099. The RTX 3050 A Mobile also has a Passmark G3D score of 11664, a Passmark G2D score of 526, and a Passmark GPU Compute score of 4419, while the 945M has no Passmark scores listed, meaning the RTX 3050 A Mobile wins the benchmark count 1 to 0. The RTX 3050 A Mobile’s nearest rivals include the NVIDIA Quadro P2200 (0.7% slower) and AMD Radeon R9 M265X (1.2% faster), positioning it within a tight performance band that the 945M cannot approach. The 945M’s nearest rivals, such as the NVIDIA GTX 950M (0.4% faster), are all within a 0.4% delta, indicating the 945M is at the bottom of its own performance tier.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 3050 A Mobile wins in every single workload category derived from the data. Its 554.4% lead in OpenCL compute makes it the only choice for any general-purpose GPU computing task, including OpenCL-accelerated applications. The RTX 3050 A Mobile’s 4.813 TFLOPS FP32 performance versus 1,305.6 GFLOPS for the 945M means it handles floating-point workloads 3.7 times faster. The newer card’s 192.0 GB/s memory bandwidth versus 28.80 GB/s gives it a massive advantage in memory-bound scenarios like high-resolution textures or large datasets. The RTX 3050 A Mobile’s support for DirectX 12 Ultimate and Vulkan 1.4 ensures compatibility with modern games, whereas the 945M’s DirectX 12 (11_0) support limits it to older titles. The 945M has no wins in any benchmark or feature comparison. Its only nominal advantage is a lower TDP of 75 W versus 45 W for the RTX 3050 A Mobile, but this is a power specification, not a performance metric, and the RTX 3050 A Mobile is actually more power-efficient given its superior performance. The 945M’s 2 GB DDR3 memory is insufficient for modern applications, while the RTX 3050 A Mobile’s 4 GB GDDR6 is the minimum viable capacity. The RTX 3050 A Mobile also supports PCIe 4.0 x8, which is four times the bandwidth of the 945M’s MXM-B (3.0) interface, reducing data transfer bottlenecks. In summary, the RTX 3050 A Mobile is the clear winner for gaming, compute, and professional workloads, while the 945M is relegated to legacy or basic display tasks.