NVIDIA GeForce GT 745M vs NVIDIA RTX 5000 Mobile Ada Generation Comparison

The NVIDIA GeForce GT 745M and the NVIDIA RTX 5000 Mobile Ada Generation represent two vastly different eras of mobile graphics. The GT 745M is a 2013 Kepler-era part designed for mainstream laptops, while the RTX 5000 Mobile is a 2023 Ada Lovelace flagship workstation-class GPU. The benchmark data, however, presents a surprisingly narrow picture of their performance, largely due to the limited and non-overlapping tests available.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

Direct head-to-head comparison is complicated by the fact that the two GPUs have no overlapping benchmark entries in the database. The GT 745M has scores in Geekbench Metal (2777), Geekbench OpenCL (3580), and Geekbench Vulkan (5502). The RTX 5000 Mobile has a single score in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 (3596). No single test was run on both parts, so a direct apples-to-apples score comparison is impossible from the available data.

However, the average benchmark scores provide a point of reference. The GT 745M has an average benchmark score of 3953, while the RTX 5000 Mobile has an average of 3596. This makes the GT 745M appear roughly 9.9% higher in its average score, but this is misleading because the tests are entirely different workloads. The GT 745M's average is pulled up by its strong Geekbench Vulkan score of 5502, while the RTX 5000 Mobile's 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 3596 is a modern, demanding DX12 test that is not comparable to older Geekbench compute tests.

When looking at the nearest rival data, the picture becomes even more cautionary. The RTX 5000 Mobile's nearest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce GT 545, with an average score of 3594, a delta of just 0.1%. This means the RTX 5000 Mobile's sole benchmark result places it statistically at parity with a decade-old desktop entry-level card. The other rivals (GT 735M at 3616, GTX 1050 at 3629, Radeon HD 6770 at 3649) all show the RTX 5000 Mobile trailing by -0.6% to -1.5%. In contrast, the GT 745M's nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon R5 M420 (3956, -0.1%) and NVIDIA GeForce 830M (3957, -0.1%), putting it in a cluster of similarly performing low-end mobile parts.

The data suggests that within the specific tests recorded, neither GPU dominates the other in a meaningful way. The RTX 5000 Mobile's single DX12 result is competitive with older, lower-tier cards, while the GT 745M's OpenCL and Vulkan scores are also mid-pack for its era. The lack of shared tests means the only honest conclusion from the head-to-head data is that the GT 745M holds a slight edge in average aggregate score, but that this is not a reflection of real-world performance parity, given the profound architectural differences.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these two GPUs is the defining story. The GT 745M is built on the GK107 chip using the Kepler architecture, manufactured on a 28 nm process at TSMC. It packs 1,270 million transistors into a 118 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 10.8M / mm². The RTX 5000 Mobile uses the AD103 chip with the Ada Lovelace architecture, fabricated on a 5 nm process, also at TSMC. It contains 45,900 million transistors on a 379 mm² die, for a density of 121.1M / mm². This represents a massive leap: over 36 times more transistors, and a density that is over 11 times higher.

The core configurations are equally divergent. The GT 745M has 384 shading units, 32 texture mapping units (TMUs), and 16 raster operation units (ROPs). It has no dedicated ray tracing or tensor cores. The RTX 5000 Mobile, by contrast, has 9,728 shading units, 304 TMUs, and 112 ROPs. It also includes 76 ray tracing cores and 304 tensor cores, enabling hardware-accelerated ray tracing and AI-driven features like DLSS. The raw compute throughput is staggering: the RTX 5000 Mobile delivers 41.15 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, compared to just 421.6 GFLOPS for the GT 745M—roughly a 97.6 times difference.

Memory subsystems tell a similar story. The GT 745M uses 2 GB of GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus, providing 64.00 GB/s of bandwidth. The RTX 5000 Mobile features 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, delivering 576.0 GB/s—exactly 9 times more bandwidth. The RTX 5000 Mobile also has much higher clock speeds: its base clock is 1425 MHz with a boost of 2115 MHz, whereas the GT 745M's core clocks are not listed, though its memory runs at 1000 MHz (4 Gbps effective) versus 2250 MHz (18 Gbps effective) for the RTX part.

The feature sets reflect their generations. The GT 745M supports DirectX 12 (11_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.175. The RTX 5000 Mobile supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The RTX part also uses a PCIe 4.0 x16 interface, while the GT 745M uses PCIe 3.0 x16. Power consumption is also dramatically different: the GT 745M has a TDP of 45 W, while the RTX 5000 Mobile has a TDP of 120 W, reflecting the latter's far greater compute capability. Both are IGP form factors with "Portable Device Dependent" display outputs.

The Verdict

Strictly from the data, the RTX 5000 Mobile is the superior hardware by any architectural metric. Its compute throughput, memory bandwidth, and feature set are in another league entirely. The benchmark results, however, do not reflect this due to the lack of shared tests. The RTX 5000 Mobile's sole score places it at parity with the GeForce GT 545 and slightly behind the GeForce GTX 1050, which would be an absurd result for a modern workstation GPU if those tests were directly comparable.

The GT 745M, despite being older and far less capable on paper, shows a higher average benchmark score (3953 vs 3596). This is an artifact of the test selection. The GT 745M's scores come from Geekbench compute tests that are more favorable to older architectures, while the RTX 5000 Mobile's score comes from a modern DX12 workload that stresses features the GT 745M lacks entirely.

For a user choosing between these two, the decision is clear from the specification data alone. The RTX 5000 Mobile is designed for professionals needing ray tracing, AI acceleration, and massive parallel compute, with 16 GB of VRAM for large datasets. The GT 745M is an entry-level mobile GPU from 2013, suitable only for basic tasks and light gaming from its era. The benchmark database does not capture the RTX 5000 Mobile's true capability because it lacks a representative set of modern tests. The data shows the RTX 5000 Mobile is active and current, while the GT 745M is end-of-life, making the RTX part the only sensible choice for any current workload.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ on nearly every measurable specification. Here are the key fields where they diverge:

• Chip: GK107 (GT 745M) vs AD103 (RTX 5000 Mobile)
• Architecture: Kepler vs Ada Lovelace
• Process Node: 28 nm vs 5 nm
• Transistors: 1,270 million vs 45,900 million
• Die Size: 118 mm² vs 379 mm²
• Transistor Density: 10.8M / mm² vs 121.1M / mm²
• Base Clock: Not listed vs 1425 MHz
• Boost Clock: Not listed vs 2115 MHz
• Memory Clock: 1000 MHz (4 Gbps effective) vs 2250 MHz (18 Gbps effective)
• Memory Size: 2 GB vs 16 GB
• Memory Type: GDDR5 vs GDDR6
• Memory Bus Width: 128 bit vs 256 bit
• Memory Bandwidth: 64.00 GB/s vs 576.0 GB/s
• Shading Units: 384 vs 9,728
• TMUs: 32 vs 304
• ROPs: 16 vs 112
• RT Cores: None vs 76
• Tensor Cores: None vs 304
• Pixel Rate: 4.392 GPixel/s vs 236.9 GPixel/s
• Texture Rate: 17.57 GTexel/s vs 643.0 GTexel/s
• FP32 Performance: 421.6 GFLOPS vs 41.15 TFLOPS
• FP16 Performance: Not listed vs 41.15 TFLOPS (1:1)
• TDP: 45 W vs 120 W
• Power Connectors: Not listed vs None
• Bus Interface: PCIe 3.0 x16 vs PCIe 4.0 x16
• DirectX Support: 12 (11_0) vs 12 Ultimate (12_2)
• Vulkan Support: 1.2.175 vs 1.4
• Production Status: End-of-life vs Active

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce GT 745M has a higher average benchmark score of 3953, compared to the RTX 5000 Mobile's 3596. However, these averages are based on non-overlapping tests, so they are not directly comparable.

Q: Does the RTX 5000 Mobile support ray tracing?

A: Yes, the RTX 5000 Mobile has 76 dedicated ray tracing cores, a feature completely absent from the GT 745M, which has no RT cores.

Q: What is the memory bandwidth difference between the two?

A: The RTX 5000 Mobile has a memory bandwidth of 576.0 GB/s, which is exactly 9 times higher than the GT 745M's 64.00 GB/s.

Q: Which GPU has more shading units?

A: The RTX 5000 Mobile has 9,728 shading units, while the GT 745M has only 384. This is a difference of over 25 times.

Q: Are these GPUs from the same manufacturing process?

A: No. The GT 745M is built on a 28 nm process, while the RTX 5000 Mobile uses a 5 nm process, both at TSMC.

Q: What is the TDP of each GPU?

A: The GT 745M has a TDP of 45 W, while the RTX 5000 Mobile has a TDP of 120 W, reflecting the RTX part's significantly higher performance envelope.