NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 Comparison

The Verdict

The recorded data presents a clear generational divide. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 share the same manufacturer but little else in practical performance. Across the two benchmark tests where both cards have recorded scores, the RTX 5050 wins both by a substantial margin. The Geekbench OpenCL score for the RTX 5050 is 90,334 versus 27,326 for the GTX 780 Ti, a difference of 69.8 percent. The Vulkan test shows a similar outcome: 89,381 for the RTX 5050 against 27,238 for the GTX 780 Ti, a 69.5 percent gap.

The GTX 780 Ti sits at the 70th percentile among all GPUs in the database, while the RTX 5050 sits at the 66th percentile. This means the older card actually holds a higher percentile rank despite losing the head-to-head tests. The explanation lies in the benchmark distribution. The GTX 780 Ti has an average benchmark score of 24,236, and its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1630 at 24,277 and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER at 24,170. The RTX 5050 has an average score of 21,035, with nearest rivals like the AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL at 21,153 and the NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile at 21,379. The RTX 5050 loses to several of these rivals by small margins, which drags its percentile down, but its raw compute output in OpenCL and Vulkan is far ahead of the GTX 780 Ti.

For a buyer choosing between these two cards today, the RTX 5050 is the only sensible option for modern workloads. It is actively in production, while the GTX 780 Ti is end-of-life. The RTX 5050 also carries hardware ray tracing cores and tensor cores, features entirely absent from the GTX 780 Ti. The GTX 780 Ti remains a historical artifact, competitive only in legacy scenarios or as a collector's piece. The data does not support choosing the GTX 780 Ti for any performance-driven task.

Architecture Differences

The GTX 780 Ti uses the GK110B chip built on Kepler architecture, fabricated on a 28 nm process at TSMC. It packs 7,080 million transistors into a 561 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 12.6 million per square millimeter. The RTX 5050 uses the GB207 chip on Blackwell 2.0 architecture, fabricated on a 5 nm process, also at TSMC. It contains 16,900 million transistors in a much smaller 149 mm² die, achieving 113.4 million transistors per square millimeter. This density difference is stark: the newer card fits more than twice the transistor count into roughly a quarter of the die area.

The memory configurations differ significantly. The GTX 780 Ti has 3 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 384-bit bus, delivering 336.6 GB/s of bandwidth. The RTX 5050 has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, delivering 320.0 GB/s. Despite the narrower bus, the RTX 5050 nearly matches the bandwidth of the older card, and it offers more than double the capacity. The memory clock for the GTX 780 Ti is 1753 MHz, stated as 7 Gbps effective. The RTX 5050 runs at 2500 MHz, stated as 20 Gbps effective.

Compute resources diverge as well. The GTX 780 Ti has 2,880 shading units, 240 texture mapping units, and 48 render output units. The RTX 5050 has 2,560 shading units, 80 texture mapping units, and 32 render output units. The older card has more raw units in every category except one: the RTX 5050 adds 20 ray tracing cores and 80 tensor cores, which have no equivalent on the GTX 780 Ti. The pixel rate favors the RTX 5050 at 82.30 GPixel/s versus 55.68 GPixel/s for the GTX 780 Ti. The texture rate favors the GTX 780 Ti at 222.7 GTexel/s versus 205.8 GTexel/s for the RTX 5050, a narrow margin.

Floating-point performance is where the gap becomes dominant. The GTX 780 Ti delivers 5.345 TFLOPS of FP32 compute. The RTX 5050 delivers 13.17 TFLOPS of FP32, and also matches that figure for FP16 at 13.17 TFLOPS (1:1). The GTX 780 Ti has no recorded FP16 capability. Clock speeds tell part of the story: the GTX 780 Ti runs at 875 MHz base and 928 MHz boost, while the RTX 5050 runs at 2317 MHz base and 2572 MHz boost.

Power and connectivity also differ. The GTX 780 Ti has a 250 W TDP, requires one 6-pin and one 8-pin power connector, and a suggested 600 W PSU. The RTX 5050 has a 130 W TDP, a single 8-pin connector, and a suggested 300 W PSU. The GTX 780 Ti uses PCIe 3.0 x16, while the RTX 5050 uses PCIe 5.0 x8. Display outputs: the GTX 780 Ti offers 2x DVI, 1x HDMI 1.4a, and 1x DisplayPort 1.2. The RTX 5050 offers 1x HDMI 2.1b and 3x DisplayPort 2.1b. API support also jumps: the GTX 780 Ti supports DirectX 12 (11_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.175. The RTX 5050 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4.

The physical dimensions are only recorded for the GTX 780 Ti: 267 mm length, 111 mm height, and 38 mm width. The RTX 5050 has no recorded dimensions in the database. Both are dual-slot cards.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database contains two direct comparisons between these cards, both compute-oriented. The Geekbench OpenCL test shows the RTX 5050 scoring 90,334 against the GTX 780 Ti's 27,326. The delta is 69.8 percent in favor of the newer card. The Geekbench Vulkan test shows the RTX 5050 at 89,381 against 27,238 for the GTX 780 Ti, a 69.5 percent advantage. The RTX 5050 wins both recorded head-to-head tests, giving it a clean 2-0 record.

These are not small margins. The RTX 5050 more than triples the GTX 780 Ti's score in each test. The OpenCL result of 90,334 also stands well above the RTX 5050's own average benchmark score of 21,035, which suggests that OpenCL is a strong workload for this architecture. The GTX 780 Ti's OpenCL score of 27,326 is close to its average of 24,236, indicating typical performance for that card.

The RTX 5050 also shows strength in its own benchmark suite. It records a Passmark G3D score of 17,326 and a Passmark GPU Compute score of 9,184. It has a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2,502. The GTX 780 Ti has no equivalent scores in these tests, so no direct comparison is possible from the database. The RTX 5050 also records Passmark DirectX 9 at 186, DirectX 10 at 103, DirectX 11 at 150, and DirectX 12 at 66. The Passmark G2D score is 1,113. None of these tests appear in the GTX 780 Ti's record.

The percentile data places these cards in different neighborhoods. The GTX 780 Ti at the 70th percentile is surrounded by cards like the GTX 1630 and RTX 2080 SUPER, with delta percentages of -0.2 and 0.3 respectively. The RTX 5050 at the 66th percentile sits near the RX Vega M GL and RTX A4000 Mobile, with deltas of -0.6 and -1.6. The RTX 5050 actually trails its nearest rivals slightly, which is why its percentile is lower despite its massive head-to-head wins. This is a useful reminder that average benchmark scores aggregate many different workloads, some of which favor older architectures.

FAQ

Q: Which card has better raw compute performance?

A: The RTX 5050. In Geekbench OpenCL, it scores 90,334 versus 27,326 for the GTX 780 Ti, a 69.8 percent advantage. In Geekbench Vulkan, it scores 89,381 versus 27,238, a 69.5 percent advantage.

Q: Does the GTX 780 Ti have any advantage in memory bandwidth?

A: Yes, marginally. The GTX 780 Ti has 336.6 GB/s of bandwidth from its 384-bit bus and GDDR5 memory. The RTX 5050 has 320.0 GB/s from a 128-bit bus and GDDR6 memory. The difference is 16.6 GB/s in favor of the older card.

Q: Which card supports ray tracing?

A: Only the RTX 5050. It has 20 ray tracing cores and 80 tensor cores. The GTX 780 Ti has no ray tracing or tensor cores recorded in the database.

Q: What is the power consumption difference?

A: The GTX 780 Ti has a 250 W TDP and requires a 600 W suggested PSU. The RTX 5050 has a 130 W TDP and requires a 300 W suggested PSU. The newer card uses nearly half the power.

Q: Which card has more memory capacity?

A: The RTX 5050 has 8 GB of GDDR6, while the GTX 780 Ti has 3 GB of GDDR5. The RTX 5050 offers more than double the capacity.

Q: How do the API support levels compare?

A: The RTX 5050 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4. The GTX 780 Ti supports DirectX 12 (11_1) and Vulkan 1.2.175. Both support OpenGL 4.6.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 5050 wins in every recorded head-to-head benchmark, both OpenCL and Vulkan. It also wins on transistor density, clock speeds, FP32 compute, FP16 compute, memory capacity, API support, ray tracing capability, tensor core capability, pixel rate, power efficiency, and production status. The RTX 5050 is the clear choice for any modern compute workload, any DirectX 12 Ultimate game, any Vulkan application, and any task that can leverage ray tracing or tensor cores. Its 13.17 TFLOPS of FP32 and FP16 output places it in a different performance class than the GTX 780 Ti's 5.345 TFLOPS.

The GTX 780 Ti wins in a few narrow technical categories. It has more shading units (2,880 versus 2,560), more texture mapping units (240 versus 80), more render output units (48 versus 32), and a higher texture rate (222.7 GTexel/s versus 205.8 GTexel/s). It also has a wider memory bus (384-bit versus 128-bit) and slightly higher memory bandwidth (336.6 GB/s versus 320.0 GB/s). Its die size is larger (561 mm² versus 149 mm²), and it uses a PCIe 3.0 x16 interface versus the RTX 5050's PCIe 5.0 x8. The GTX 780 Ti also has a higher percentile rank at 70 versus 66, though this reflects its position among all GPUs in the database rather than direct performance.

For a user with legacy software that relies on the GTX 780 Ti's specific unit configuration, the older card might still function. The higher TMU and ROP counts could theoretically benefit certain older DirectX 9 or OpenGL workloads, though the RTX 5050's Passmark DirectX 9 score of 186 and Passmark DirectX 10 score of 103 show it handles legacy APIs without issue. The GTX 780 Ti has no recorded Passmark scores, so no direct legacy comparison exists.

The database records the GTX 780 Ti as having a launch MSRP of 699 USD, while the RTX 5050 has a launch MSRP of 249 USD. The production status for the GTX 780 Ti is end-of-life, and its successor is the GeForce 900 series. The RTX 5050 is active, with its predecessor being the GeForce 40 series and its successor being the GeForce 60 series. The release dates are far apart: November 6, 2013 for the GTX 780 Ti and June 30, 2025 for the RTX 5050.

For practical use cases, the RTX 5050 is the only card that makes sense. It delivers more than triple the compute performance in the recorded tests, consumes less than half the power, supports modern APIs, and offers hardware acceleration for ray tracing and AI workloads. The GTX 780 Ti is a historical footnote, a powerful card for its era that has been decisively surpassed. The data shows no scenario where the GTX 780 Ti outperforms the RTX 5050 in any recorded benchmark, and its only wins are in raw unit counts that do not translate to practical performance gains.