NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 A Mobile Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded head-to-head data covers eight benchmark tests, with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 taking six wins and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 A Mobile taking two. The GTX 1070's largest margin comes in Passmark G2D, where it scores 846 against 526, a 60.8% advantage. This is the single biggest delta in the comparison, reflecting a substantial lead in 2D graphics work. The GTX 1070 also dominates in Passmark GPU Compute, scoring 6102 versus 4419, a 38.1% lead, and in Passmark DirectX 10, where it posts 82 against 61, a 34.4% advantage.

The GTX 1070 continues its winning run in Passmark DirectX 9, scoring 197 versus 152, a 29.6% gap, and in Passmark G3D, where it reaches 13498 against 11664, a 15.7% edge. Its narrowest win is in Passmark DirectX 11, with 100 versus 94, a 6.4% margin. These results indicate the older desktop card retains a clear performance cushion across most of the legacy and general 3D test suite.

The RTX 3050 A Mobile answers with two victories, and both are meaningful. In Geekbench OpenCL, it scores 52998 against 44700, a 15.7% lead. This is a significant compute-oriented result, showing the mobile part's strength in OpenCL workloads. The other win comes in Passmark DirectX 12, where it scores 55 against 48, a 12.7% margin. That result is notable because DirectX 12 is a modern API, and the newer architecture shows an advantage there despite losing most other tests.

Looking at the overall averages, the GTX 1070 holds a higher mean benchmark score of 9780 against 8746 for the RTX 3050 A Mobile, a difference of roughly 11.8%. The percentile rankings tell a similar story: the GTX 1070 sits at the 47th percentile among all GPUs, while the RTX 3050 A Mobile sits at the 44th. The nearest rivals for each card reinforce the picture. The GTX 1070's closest competitors are the AMD FirePro W5000 at 9803 (-0.2%), the NVIDIA Quadro M2000M at 9832 (-0.5%), the NVIDIA Tesla M10 at 9724 (+0.6%), and the NVIDIA Tesla C2070 at 9716 (+0.7%). The RTX 3050 A Mobile's nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 v2 at 8743 (0.0%), the NVIDIA Quadro P2200 at 8686 (+0.7%), the AMD Radeon R9 M265X at 8851 (-1.2%), and the AMD Radeon Pro WX 5100 at 8863 (-1.3%). In both cases, the recorded scores cluster tightly with their nearest rivals, indicating that each card is positioned in a dense performance band.

Where Each One Wins

The GTX 1070 is the stronger choice for general 3D rendering and legacy API workloads. Its Passmark G3D score of 13498 versus 11664 shows a 15.7% advantage in overall graphics performance. The card also wins every DirectX test except DirectX 12, with margins ranging from 6.4% in DirectX 11 to 34.4% in DirectX 10 and 29.6% in DirectX 9. For users running older games or applications built on earlier DirectX versions, the data clearly favors the GTX 1070. Its 60.8% lead in Passmark G2D also makes it the better option for 2D desktop work, image processing, and other non-3D tasks.

The GTX 1070 also dominates compute workloads in the Passmark suite. Its GPU Compute score of 6102 is 38.1% ahead of the RTX 3050 A Mobile's 4419. This is a substantial margin for tasks that rely on general-purpose GPU compute through that benchmark. However, the situation flips when looking at OpenCL specifically. The RTX 3050 A Mobile's Geekbench OpenCL score of 52998 is 15.7% ahead of the GTX 1070's 44700. This suggests the newer Ampere architecture handles OpenCL workloads more efficiently, even with lower raw FP32 throughput. The RTX 3050 A Mobile's FP32 rating is 4.813 TFLOPS, while the GTX 1070 posts 6.463 TFLOPS, yet the OpenCL result still favors the smaller card, indicating architectural efficiency matters more than peak theoretical throughput in this test.

For modern API support, the RTX 3050 A Mobile takes the DirectX 12 test with 55 against 48, a 12.7% lead. The newer card also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the GTX 1070 is limited to DirectX 12 (12_1). This makes the RTX 3050 A Mobile the better fit for titles that leverage DirectX 12 Ultimate features, even though its overall 3D performance is lower. The RTX 3050 A Mobile also includes 14 ray tracing cores and 56 tensor cores, features absent from the GTX 1070, so any workload that uses those hardware units will only run on the newer card. The GTX 1070 has no ray tracing or tensor core support in the recorded data.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 has an average benchmark score of 9780, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 A Mobile averages 8746.

Q: How do the two cards compare in DirectX 12 performance?

A: The RTX 3050 A Mobile wins the Passmark DirectX 12 test with a score of 55 against 48 for the GTX 1070, a 12.7% lead. The RTX 3050 A Mobile also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), whereas the GTX 1070 supports DirectX 12 (12_1).

Q: Which GPU is better for OpenCL compute workloads?

A: The RTX 3050 A Mobile scores 52998 in Geekbench OpenCL, which is 15.7% higher than the GTX 1070's 44700. Despite the GTX 1070 having higher FP32 throughput at 6.463 TFLOPS versus 4.813 TFLOPS, the RTX 3050 A Mobile still leads in this specific test.

Q: What are the closest rivals for each card?

A: The GTX 1070's nearest rivals are the AMD FirePro W5000 (9803, -0.2%), NVIDIA Quadro M2000M (9832, -0.5%), NVIDIA Tesla M10 (9724, +0.6%), and NVIDIA Tesla C2070 (9716, +0.7%). The RTX 3050 A Mobile's nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 v2 (8743, 0.0%), NVIDIA Quadro P2200 (8686, +0.7%), AMD Radeon R9 M265X (8851, -1.2%), and AMD Radeon Pro WX 5100 (8863, -1.3%).

Q: Which GPU has the larger memory bandwidth?

A: The GTX 1070 has a memory bandwidth of 256.3 GB/s, compared to 192.0 GB/s for the RTX 3050 A Mobile. The GTX 1070 also has a wider 256-bit memory bus, while the RTX 3050 A Mobile uses a 128-bit bus.

Q: How do the percentile rankings differ?

A: The GTX 1070 ranks at the 47th percentile among all GPUs, while the RTX 3050 A Mobile ranks at the 44th percentile.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ across nearly every core specification category. The GTX 1070 has 1920 shading units, 120 texture mapping units, and 64 render output units. The RTX 3050 A Mobile has 1792 shading units, 56 texture mapping units, and 32 render output units. The GTX 1070 leads in pixel rate at 107.7 GPixel/s versus 42.98 GPixel/s, and in texture rate at 202.0 GTexel/s versus 75.21 GTexel/s. FP32 throughput also favors the GTX 1070 at 6.463 TFLOPS against 4.813 TFLOPS.

Memory configurations differ substantially. The GTX 1070 comes with 8 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus, delivering 256.3 GB/s of bandwidth and running at 2002 MHz with 8 Gbps effective. The RTX 3050 A Mobile has 4 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, delivering 192.0 GB/s at 1500 MHz with 12 Gbps effective. The GTX 1070 has double the memory capacity and over 33% more bandwidth, while the RTX 3050 A Mobile uses a faster memory type.

Clock speeds also differ. The GTX 1070 has a base clock of 1506 MHz and a boost clock of 1683 MHz. The RTX 3050 A Mobile runs at 1065 MHz base and 1343 MHz boost. Power draw is sharply different: the GTX 1070 is rated at 150 W TDP, while the RTX 3050 A Mobile is rated at 45 W TDP. The GTX 1070 requires a dual-slot cooler and a single 8-pin power connector, with a suggested PSU of 450 W. The RTX 3050 A Mobile has no power connectors and is listed as an IGP (integrated graphics processor) slot width, typical of a mobile part.

The interface and outputs differ as well. The GTX 1070 uses PCIe 3.0 x16 and provides 1x DVI, 1x HDMI 2.0, and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a outputs. The RTX 3050 A Mobile uses PCIe 4.0 x8 and its display outputs are listed as portable device dependent. The GTX 1070 has physical dimensions of 267 mm length, 112 mm height, and 40 mm width, while the RTX 3050 A Mobile has no recorded dimensions. FP16 performance is another major split: the GTX 1070 delivers 101.0 GFLOPS at a 1:64 ratio, while the RTX 3050 A Mobile delivers 4.813 TFLOPS at a 1:1 ratio. The release dates are also far apart: the GTX 1070 launched on 2016-06-09, and the RTX 3050 A Mobile launched on 2023-12-31. The GTX 1070 has a launch MSRP of 379 USD; the RTX 3050 A Mobile has no launch MSRP recorded.

Architecture Differences

The GTX 1070 is built on the Pascal architecture using the GP104 chip, manufactured by TSMC on a 16 nm process. The RTX 3050 A Mobile uses the Ampere architecture with the GA106 chip, manufactured by Samsung on an 8 nm process. The transistor counts reflect the process difference: the GTX 1070 packs 7,200 million transistors on a 314 mm² die, giving a transistor density of 22.9M per mm². The RTX 3050 A Mobile contains 12,000 million transistors on a 276 mm² die, achieving a density of 43.5M per mm². The newer process allows nearly double the transistor density in a smaller die.

The most significant architectural gap is the presence of dedicated hardware on the RTX 3050 A Mobile. It includes 14 ray tracing cores and 56 tensor cores, neither of which exists on the GTX 1070. This means the RTX 3050 A Mobile can accelerate ray-traced workloads and tensor-based operations, while the GTX 1070 relies entirely on its traditional shader pipeline. The FP16 capability highlights this difference: the GTX 1070 handles FP16 at 101.0 GFLOPS with a 1:64 ratio, effectively treating it as a low-priority path, while the RTX 3050 A Mobile delivers 4.813 TFLOPS at a 1:1 ratio, matching its FP32 throughput. This makes the RTX 3050 A Mobile far more capable in mixed-precision workloads.

API support also differs. The GTX 1070 supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The RTX 3050 A Mobile supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The DirectX 12 Ultimate tier includes features that the older 12_1 tier lacks, which aligns with the RTX 3050 A Mobile's win in the Passmark DirectX 12 benchmark. The GTX 1070 belongs to the GeForce 10-series and the GeForce 10 generation, while the RTX 3050 A Mobile belongs to the GeForce 30-series and the GeForce 30 Mobile generation. The GTX 1070's predecessor is GeForce 900 and its successor is GeForce 20. The RTX 3050 A Mobile's predecessor is GeForce 20 Mobile, and no successor is recorded. Both are listed as end-of-life production status.