NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile Comparison

Where Each One Wins

The head-to-head data splits this pairing into two distinct personalities. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 takes the overall win count, securing 7 out of 10 benchmark victories. Its wins are concentrated in traditional rasterization workloads, particularly DirectX 9, DirectX 10, DirectX 11, and 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12. The desktop card also dominates in 2D performance and compute tasks, as shown by Passmark G2D and GPU Compute results.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile, despite losing the overall count, wins in the modern API categories that matter most for current and upcoming games. It takes Geekbench OpenCL with a 21% advantage and Geekbench Vulkan with an 11.3% edge. These are the workloads that stress contemporary rendering paths and general-purpose GPU compute. The mobile chip also ties in Passmark DirectX 12, which is notable because it matches the desktop card in the most future-facing legacy API test.

The practical split is clear. If you are running older titles, DirectX 9-era games, or applications that rely on 2D acceleration, the GTX 1660 is the stronger choice. If you are on modern Vulkan-based titles or OpenCL compute workloads, the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile pulls ahead. The data also shows the GTX 1660 has a significant lead in the demanding 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test, with a 56% higher score, which suggests it handles sustained modern 3D rendering better in that specific benchmark.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from different architectural generations and are built for different physical environments. The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile uses the GA106 chip with Ampere architecture, manufactured on Samsung's 8 nm process. The GTX 1660 uses the TU116 chip with Turing architecture, built on TSMC's 12 nm node. The process difference is substantial: the mobile chip packs 12,000 million transistors into a 276 mm² die, giving a transistor density of 43.5M per mm². The desktop chip has 6,600 million transistors on a 284 mm² die, with a density of 23.2M per mm². That means the Ampere chip is more than twice as dense, which is a direct result of the newer process node.

The architectural feature set diverges sharply. The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile includes 20 ray tracing cores and 80 tensor cores, which are entirely absent from the GTX 1660. This is the defining difference: Ampere supports DirectX 12 Ultimate with feature level 12_2, while Turing on this card only reaches DirectX 12 (12_1). The ray tracing and tensor hardware are not just spec sheet additions; they enable the mobile card to handle accelerated ray tracing and AI workloads that the GTX 1660 cannot process in hardware.

The memory subsystems also differ in type and configuration. The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile has 4 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, running at 12 Gbps effective for 192.0 GB/s bandwidth. The GTX 1660 has 6 GB of GDDR5 on a 192-bit bus, running at 8 Gbps effective for 192.1 GB/s bandwidth. The bandwidth is nearly identical, but the capacity and bus width favor the desktop card. The GTX 1660 also has more render output units (48 vs 32) and texture mapping units (88 vs 80), while the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile has far more shading units (2560 vs 1408).

Clock speeds tell the story of their intended environments. The GTX 1660 runs at a base of 1530 MHz and boosts to 1785 MHz, with a TDP of 120 W. The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile runs at 735 MHz base and 1035 MHz boost, with a TDP of 75 W. The desktop card operates at nearly double the frequency, which explains why it can sustain higher pixel and texture rates despite having fewer shading units. The mobile chip compensates with higher FP32 throughput: 5.299 TFLOPS vs 5.027 TFLOPS.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The largest single gap in either direction appears in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12. The GTX 1660 scores 1065 against the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile's 469, a 56% advantage for the desktop card. This is a massive delta and suggests the GTX 1660's higher clock speeds and larger memory bus give it a decisive edge in this particular DirectX 12 workload.

The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile answers in Geekbench OpenCL, where it scores 57915 versus 47850, a 21% lead. This is the mobile chip's biggest win and reflects the efficiency of its Ampere compute architecture. In Geekbench Vulkan, the mobile card leads again with 55812 versus 50137, an 11.3% advantage. These two wins are not marginal; they show a clear compute and modern API superiority.

The legacy API tests favor the GTX 1660 consistently. In Passmark DirectX 9, the desktop card scores 177 versus 120, a 32.2% lead. In Passmark G2D, it scores 776 versus 498, a 35.8% lead. Passmark DirectX 10 shows a narrow 1.6% edge for the GTX 1660 (61 vs 60), and DirectX 11 shows a 3.8% edge (79 vs 76). Passmark DirectX 12 is an exact tie at 49 for both cards.

The remaining tests show moderate desktop advantages. Passmark G3D scores 11646 for the GTX 1660 versus 10093 for the mobile chip, a 13.3% lead. Passmark GPU Compute scores 4963 versus 4305, also a 13.3% lead. The overall average benchmark scores reflect this: the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile averages 12940, while the GTX 1660 averages 11680. Interestingly, the mobile chip has a higher average score despite losing the majority of individual tests, because its wins in OpenCL and Vulkan are weighted heavily.

The percentile rankings put both cards in the middle of the GPU population. The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile sits at the 53rd percentile against all GPUs, while the GTX 1660 sits at the 51st percentile. Their nearest rivals confirm the close overall performance: the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile is within 0.1% of the AMD Radeon RX 580 and 0.4% behind the GTX 1660 SUPER, while the GTX 1660 is within 0.5% of the AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT.

The Verdict

From the recorded data, the choice depends entirely on your workload and platform constraints. The GTX 1660 is the stronger card for traditional desktop gaming, especially with older APIs and 2D applications. Its 56% lead in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 and 32.2% lead in DirectX 9 are decisive for anyone running legacy titles. The larger 6 GB memory buffer and 192-bit bus also give it more headroom for texture-heavy scenarios, even if the bandwidth is effectively identical to the mobile chip.

The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile is the better pick for modern compute and Vulkan-based workloads. Its 21% OpenCL and 11.3% Vulkan wins show that the Ampere architecture with tensor cores and ray tracing hardware translates into real performance gains in contemporary APIs. The 4 GB memory is a limitation, but the 75 W TDP makes it suitable for thin-and-light laptops where the GTX 1660's 120 W requirement would be impractical.

For a desktop builder, the GTX 1660 is the straightforward recommendation. It wins more tests, dominates the DX9 and DX12 workloads that matter for gaming, and has more VRAM. For a laptop buyer who needs modern API support and compute acceleration, the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile is the logical choice, especially since the GTX 1660 is a dual-slot desktop card with a 1x 8-pin power connector and a 300 W suggested PSU, making it unsuitable for mobile implementations.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has higher raw FP32 compute performance?

A: The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile has 5.299 TFLOPS FP32, slightly ahead of the GTX 1660's 5.027 TFLOPS. However, the GTX 1660 has higher FP16 performance at 10.05 TFLOPS (2:1 ratio) versus the mobile chip's 5.299 TFLOPS (1:1 ratio).

Q: Does the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile support ray tracing?

A: Yes, it has 20 ray tracing cores and 80 tensor cores, plus DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) support. The GTX 1660 has no ray tracing or tensor cores and only supports DirectX 12 (12_1).

Q: Why does the GTX 1660 win in Passmark DirectX 9 by such a large margin?

A: The GTX 1660 scores 177 in that test versus 120 for the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile, a 32.2% difference. The desktop card's much higher clock speeds (1530 MHz base, 1785 MHz boost) and larger ROP count (48 vs 32) likely contribute to its strength in older API workloads.

Q: Which card has more memory bandwidth?

A: They are effectively tied. The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile has 192.0 GB/s, and the GTX 1660 has 192.1 GB/s. The mobile card achieves this with GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, while the desktop card uses GDDR5 on a 192-bit bus.

Q: What is the average benchmark score difference between them?

A: The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile has an average benchmark score of 12940, which is 10.8% higher than the GTX 1660's 11680. This is driven by the mobile chip's strong Geekbench OpenCL and Vulkan results.

Q: Are they both end-of-life products?

A: Yes, both are marked as end-of-life in the database. The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile was released on 2021-05-10, and the GTX 1660 was released on 2019-03-13.

Specification Differences

| Specification | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 |

| --- | --- | --- |

| Architecture | Ampere | Turing |

| Process Node | 8 nm (Samsung) | 12 nm (TSMC) |

| Transistors | 12,000 million | 6,600 million |

| Die Size | 276 mm² | 284 mm² |

| Transistor Density | 43.5M / mm² | 23.2M / mm² |

| Base Clock | 735 MHz | 1530 MHz |

| Boost Clock | 1035 MHz | 1785 MHz |

| Memory Clock | 1500 MHz (12 Gbps effective) | 2001 MHz (8 Gbps effective) |

| Memory Size | 4 GB | 6 GB |

| Memory Type | GDDR6 | GDDR5 |

| Memory Bus Width | 128 bit | 192 bit |

| Memory Bandwidth | 192.0 GB/s | 192.1 GB/s |

| Shading Units | 2560 | 1408 |

| TMUs | 80 | 88 |

| ROPs | 32 | 48 |

| RT Cores | 20 | None |

| Tensor Cores | 80 | None |

| Pixel Rate | 33.12 GPixel/s | 85.68 GPixel/s |

| Texture Rate | 82.80 GTexel/s | 157.1 GTexel/s |

| FP32 Performance | 5.299 TFLOPS | 5.027 TFLOPS |

| FP16 Performance | 5.299 TFLOPS (1:1) | 10.05 TFLOPS (2:1) |

| TDP | 75 W | 120 W |

| Slot Width | IGP | Dual-slot |

| Power Connectors | None | 1x 8-pin |

| Suggested PSU | None | 300 W |

| Bus Interface | PCIe 4.0 x16 | PCIe 3.0 x16 |

| DirectX Support | 12 Ultimate (12_2) | 12 (12_1) |

| Vulkan Support | 1.4 | 1.4 |

| Display Outputs | Portable Device Dependent | 1x DVI, 1x HDMI 2.0, 1x DisplayPort 1.4a |

| Dimensions | Not specified | 229 mm x 111 mm x 35 mm |

| Launch MSRP | Not specified | 219 USD |