NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti vs NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile Comparison

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti has a higher average benchmark score of 24,236, versus 21,379 for the NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile. The GTX 780 Ti also sits at the 70th percentile among all GPUs, while the RTX A4000 Mobile sits at the 66th percentile.

Q: How do the two GPUs compare in OpenCL performance?

A: The RTX A4000 Mobile scores 97,178 in Geekbench OpenCL, which is 71.9% higher than the GTX 780 Ti's score of 27,326. This is the largest performance gap recorded in the head-to-head benchmarks.

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

A: The RTX A4000 Mobile has 384.0 GB/s of bandwidth, while the GTX 780 Ti has 336.6 GB/s. The RTX A4000 Mobile also has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, whereas the GTX 780 Ti has 3 GB of GDDR5 on a 384-bit bus.

Q: Which GPU has higher shading unit count and what does that mean for compute?

A: The RTX A4000 Mobile has 5,120 shading units, compared to 2,880 on the GTX 780 Ti. This contributes to the RTX A4000 Mobile's 17.20 TFLOPS of FP32 compute, versus 5.345 TFLOPS on the GTX 780 Ti.

Q: Do both GPUs support the same DirectX version?

A: No. The GTX 780 Ti supports DirectX 12 (11_1), while the RTX A4000 Mobile supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2). The RTX A4000 Mobile also adds hardware ray tracing cores (40) and tensor cores (160), which the GTX 780 Ti lacks entirely.

Q: Which GPU has a higher pixel rate?

A: The RTX A4000 Mobile has a pixel rate of 134.4 GPixel/s, which is more than double the GTX 780 Ti's 55.68 GPixel/s. The RTX A4000 Mobile also leads in texture rate at 268.8 GTexel/s versus 222.7 GTexel/s.

The Verdict

The data presents a clear split between two very different products. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti, despite being older, holds a higher average benchmark score (24,236) and a better percentile rank (70th) than the RTX A4000 Mobile (21,379, 66th percentile). This is driven by the GTX 780 Ti's performance in the Geekbench suite, where it scores 27,326 in OpenCL and 27,238 in Vulkan, both above the RTX A4000 Mobile's corresponding scores in those specific tests.

However, the head-to-head benchmark results tell a different story. In the two tests where both cards were measured directly, the RTX A4000 Mobile wins both, with a 71.9% advantage in OpenCL and a 62.7% advantage in Vulkan. This suggests that the RTX A4000 Mobile is the stronger compute performer in modern workloads, despite its lower aggregate score across a broader benchmark set.

For users prioritizing raw compute throughput, modern API support, and memory capacity, the RTX A4000 Mobile is the clear choice from the direct comparisons. For users looking at overall average scores across multiple test suites, the GTX 780 Ti appears more consistent in legacy benchmarks. The data does not support a single universal winner; it depends entirely on which benchmark set is considered authoritative.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The direct comparison between the two GPUs is limited to two Geekbench tests, and the RTX A4000 Mobile dominates both. In Geekbench OpenCL, the RTX A4000 Mobile scores 97,178 against the GTX 780 Ti's 27,326, a delta of 71.9% in favor of the newer card. This is a massive margin, reflecting the RTX A4000 Mobile's 5,120 shading units, 17.20 TFLOPS FP32, and 8 GB of GDDR6 memory operating at 12 Gbps effective.

In Geekbench Vulkan, the RTX A4000 Mobile scores 73,002 versus 27,238 for the GTX 780 Ti, a 62.7% advantage. The RTX A4000 Mobile's Vulkan support is listed as 1.4, while the GTX 780 Ti supports Vulkan 1.2.175, which may contribute to the gap in this API-specific workload.

The GTX 780 Ti does not win either head-to-head test. Its best relative showing comes in Vulkan, where it achieves roughly 37.3% of the RTX A4000 Mobile's score. In OpenCL, it achieves only 28.1% of the RTX A4000 Mobile's score. These are not close contests; the RTX A4000 Mobile is categorically faster in both measured workloads.

It is notably the GTX 780 Ti's average benchmark score of 24,236 is higher than the RTX A4000 Mobile's 21,379. This discrepancy arises because the GTX 780 Ti's benchmark set includes only Geekbench tests (where it scores 18,144 to 27,326), while the RTX A4000 Mobile's set includes PassMark tests with lower scores (e.g., 66 in DirectX 12, 105 in DirectX 10), which drag its average down. The head-to-head data, however, is unambiguous: the RTX A4000 Mobile wins both tests decisively.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ across nearly every measured specification. The GTX 780 Ti uses a 28 nm process from TSMC, while the RTX A4000 Mobile uses an 8 nm process from Samsung. This leads to a stark difference in transistor density: the RTX A4000 Mobile packs 44.4M transistors per mm² versus 12.6M / mm² on the GTX 780 Ti, despite the GTX 780 Ti having a larger die (561 mm² versus 392 mm²).

Memory configurations diverge significantly. The GTX 780 Ti has 3 GB of GDDR5 on a 384-bit bus, while the RTX A4000 Mobile has 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus. The RTX A4000 Mobile's bandwidth of 384.0 GB/s exceeds the GTX 780 Ti's 336.6 GB/s, despite the narrower bus, due to the faster 12 Gbps effective memory speed versus 7 Gbps effective.

Compute resources favor the RTX A4000 Mobile: 5,120 shading units versus 2,880, 160 TMUs versus 240, and 80 ROPs versus 48. The RTX A4000 Mobile also includes 40 ray tracing cores and 160 tensor cores, which are absent from the GTX 780 Ti. Clock speeds are higher on the RTX A4000 Mobile (1140 MHz base, 1680 MHz boost) versus the GTX 780 Ti (875 MHz base, 928 MHz boost).

Power and physical specifications differ as well. The GTX 780 Ti has a 250 W TDP, requires a 600 W suggested PSU, uses dual-slot cooling, and needs 1x 6-pin plus 1x 8-pin power connectors. The RTX A4000 Mobile has a 115 W TDP, no power connectors, and no slot width specified, reflecting its mobile design. The GTX 780 Ti measures 267 mm in length, 111 mm in height, and 38 mm in width; the RTX A4000 Mobile has no listed dimensions.

Bus interface and display outputs also differ. The GTX 780 Ti uses PCIe 3.0 x16 and offers 2x DVI, 1x HDMI 1.4a, and 1x DisplayPort 1.2. The RTX A4000 Mobile uses PCIe 4.0 x16 and lists "Portable Device Dependent" for display outputs. DirectX support favors the RTX A4000 Mobile (12 Ultimate, 12_2) over the GTX 780 Ti (12, 11_1), though OpenGL is the same at 4.6 for both.

Architecture Differences

The GTX 780 Ti is built on the Kepler architecture with the GK110B chip, part of the GeForce 700 generation. The RTX A4000 Mobile is built on the Ampere architecture with the GA104 chip, part of the Ampere-MW (Ax000) generation. These are fundamentally different designs separated by roughly eight years of development.

The RTX A4000 Mobile introduces hardware ray tracing cores (40) and tensor cores (160), which the Kepler-based GTX 780 Ti cannot support. This enables the RTX A4000 Mobile to handle DirectX 12 Ultimate features and accelerated ray tracing workloads, whereas the GTX 780 Ti is limited to DirectX 12 (11_1) without any dedicated RT or AI acceleration hardware.

The manufacturing process difference is significant: 28 nm (TSMC) for the GTX 780 Ti versus 8 nm (Samsung) for the RTX A4000 Mobile. This allows the RTX A4000 Mobile to fit 17,400 million transistors on a smaller die (392 mm²) versus 7,080 million on a larger die (561 mm²) for the GTX 780 Ti. The transistor density more than triples, from 12.6M / mm² to 44.4M / mm².

The RTX A4000 Mobile also supports FP16 compute at a 1:1 ratio with FP32 (17.20 TFLOPS for both), while the GTX 780 Ti has no listed FP16 capability. The RTX A4000 Mobile's memory architecture uses GDDR6 with a 256-bit bus, while the GTX 780 Ti uses GDDR5 with a 384-bit bus. The RTX A4000 Mobile's memory operates at 1500 MHz (12 Gbps effective), whereas the GTX 780 Ti's memory runs at 1753 MHz (7 Gbps effective).

The RTX A4000 Mobile belongs to the Ampere-MW (Ax000) generation, succeeding Quadro Turing-M and being succeeded by Ada-MW. The GTX 780 Ti belongs to the GeForce 700 generation, succeeding GeForce 600 and being succeeded by GeForce 900. Both are marked end-of-life in the database.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX A4000 Mobile wins decisively in raw compute benchmarks. Its Geekbench OpenCL score of 97,178 is 71.9% ahead of the GTX 780 Ti's 27,326, and its Geekbench Vulkan score of 73,002 is 62.7% ahead of 27,238. This makes it the clear choice for compute-heavy workloads such as OpenCL or Vulkan-based rendering, machine learning inference (thanks to tensor cores), and ray-traced graphics (thanks to RT cores).

The RTX A4000 Mobile also wins on memory capacity (8 GB versus 3 GB), memory bandwidth (384.0 GB/s versus 336.6 GB/s), and raw FP32 throughput (17.20 TFLOPS versus 5.345 TFLOPS). Its higher pixel rate (134.4 GPixel/s versus 55.68 GPixel/s) and texture rate (268.8 GTexel/s versus 222.7 GTexel/s) suggest better fill-rate performance in modern games and applications. The RTX A4000 Mobile also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate and Vulkan 1.4, while the GTX 780 Ti is capped at DirectX 12 (11_1) and Vulkan 1.2.175.

The GTX 780 Ti wins on average benchmark score (24,236 versus 21,379) and percentile rank (70th versus 66th). Its nearest rivals include the GeForce GTX 1630 (delta -0.2%), RTX 2080 SUPER (delta 0.3%), RX 6800S (delta 0.7%), and RX 6600 XT (delta -0.8%), showing it sits in a competitive mid-range position despite its age. The RTX A4000 Mobile's nearest rivals are the Radeon HD 8970M (delta 0.7%), Radeon RX Vega M GL (delta 1.1%), Quadro RTX 5000 (delta -1.2%), and RTX 5050 (delta 1.6%), placing it in a lower absolute performance tier.

For users running legacy Geekbench tests or relying on the aggregate average score, the GTX 780 Ti appears more stable. For users running modern compute or graphics workloads that leverage Vulkan 1.4, DirectX 12 Ultimate, ray tracing, or tensor cores, the RTX A4000 Mobile is the only option with those capabilities. The GTX 780 Ti's 3 GB memory may also be a limiting factor in modern workloads, while the RTX A4000 Mobile's 8 GB provides more headroom.

The GTX 780 Ti's higher TDP (250 W versus 115 W) and desktop-only form factor make it unsuitable for mobile use, while the RTX A4000 Mobile is explicitly a mobile part with no power connectors and portable-device-dependent display outputs. This distinction is not about performance but about deployment: the GTX 780 Ti belongs in a desktop chassis, the RTX A4000 Mobile belongs in a laptop.