NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti vs NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile Comparison

The NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti represent two vastly different eras of GPU design, separated by nearly eight years of architectural evolution. The data shows a decisive generational leap, with the mobile workstation part outperforming the older desktop flagship in every shared benchmark by a significant margin, yet both cards hold a 70th percentile ranking among all GPUs.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The benchmark results illustrate a complete shutout, with the RTX A5000 Mobile winning both head-to-head comparisons. In Geekbench OpenCL, the A5000 Mobile scores 110,877 points, a staggering 305.8% higher than the GTX 780 Ti’s 27,326 points. This is not a marginal improvement; it is a three-fold increase in raw compute throughput, reflecting the massive leap in shader count and architectural efficiency between the two generations.

The gap narrows somewhat in Geekbench Vulkan, but the result is still lopsided. The RTX A5000 Mobile posts 88,144 points, which is 223.6% ahead of the GTX 780 Ti’s 27,238 points. While the older card was designed before Vulkan was widely adopted, the newer architecture’s native support for modern APIs gives it a substantial advantage in this test. The GTX 780 Ti also has a Geekbench Metal score of 18,144, but no comparable Metal result exists for the A5000 Mobile, so it cannot be used for a direct comparison.

The average benchmark score tells a similar story. The RTX A5000 Mobile averages 24,763 points, while the GTX 780 Ti averages 24,236 points, a difference of roughly 2.2%. This smaller delta is due to the fact that the A5000 Mobile’s average includes its Passmark scores, which are relatively low (e.g., 72 in DirectX 12, 115 in DirectX 10), while the GTX 780 Ti’s average only includes its three Geekbench results. The head-to-head data, however, shows the true scale of the performance gap in compute-heavy workloads.

Architecture Differences

The architectural chasm between these two GPUs is vast. The RTX A5000 Mobile is built on the Ampere architecture (chip GA104), fabricated on an 8 nm process at Samsung, while the GTX 780 Ti uses the Kepler architecture (chip GK110B) on a 28 nm process at TSMC. This process shrink allows the A5000 Mobile to pack 17,400 million transistors into a 392 mm² die, achieving a transistor density of 44.4M / mm². In contrast, the GTX 780 Ti has only 7,080 million transistors on a much larger 561 mm² die, yielding a density of just 12.6M / mm².

The functional unit counts reflect this generational leap. The A5000 Mobile features 6,144 shading units, 192 TMUs, and 96 ROPs, whereas the GTX 780 Ti has 2,880 shading units, 240 TMUs, and 48 ROPs. Notably, the A5000 Mobile brings hardware features the GTX 780 Ti entirely lacks: 48 RT cores for ray tracing and 192 tensor cores for AI acceleration. The GTX 780 Ti has no equivalent hardware, as it predates both technologies. The A5000 Mobile also supports PCIe 4.0 x16, while the older card is limited to PCIe 3.0 x16.

The memory subsystems are equally divergent. The A5000 Mobile uses 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, delivering 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GTX 780 Ti uses only 3 GB of GDDR5 on a wider 384-bit bus, but achieves just 336.6 GB/s. The newer card’s higher effective memory speed of 14 Gbps compensates for its narrower bus, resulting in a 33% bandwidth advantage. In terms of compute output, the A5000 Mobile delivers 19.35 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, while the GTX 780 Ti manages just 5.345 TFLOPS, a 3.6-fold difference that aligns closely with the OpenCL benchmark delta.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX A5000 Mobile wins in nearly every conceivable scenario. Its 16 GB VRAM capacity makes it suitable for large datasets, high-resolution textures, and machine learning workloads that would immediately exhaust the GTX 780 Ti’s 3 GB frame buffer. The presence of RT cores and tensor cores enables real-time ray tracing and DLSS, features that are entirely absent from the older card. Its 150 W TDP is also significantly lower than the GTX 780 Ti’s 250 W, making it a more power-efficient option despite delivering over three times the compute throughput.

The GTX 780 Ti retains a narrow set of advantages. It has a slightly wider 384-bit memory bus, which helps in certain bandwidth-sensitive legacy workloads. It also offers 2x DVI, 1x HDMI 1.4a, and 1x DisplayPort 1.2 outputs, whereas the A5000 Mobile’s display outputs are described as "Portable Device Dependent," meaning it relies on the host laptop’s connections. The older card’s 267 mm length and dual-slot design make it a standard desktop part, whereas the A5000 Mobile is a mobile chip with no standalone slot width. For users with legacy applications that are optimized for Kepler’s specific instruction set, the GTX 780 Ti might still function, but the data shows it is decisively slower in general compute.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ on nearly every measurable specification. The RTX A5000 Mobile uses a GA104 chip with 17,400 million transistors on an 8 nm process, while the GTX 780 Ti uses GK110B with 7,080 million transistors on 28 nm. Clock speeds also differ: the A5000 Mobile runs at 900 MHz base and 1575 MHz boost, while the GTX 780 Ti runs at 875 MHz base and 928 MHz boost. The newer card’s higher boost clock is remarkable given its lower power draw.

Memory capacity is a major differentiator: 16 GB GDDR6 versus 3 GB GDDR5. The A5000 Mobile has 6,144 shading units and 192 TMUs versus 2,880 shading units and 240 TMUs on the GTX 780 Ti. The ROP count also differs significantly: 96 versus 48. The A5000 Mobile’s pixel rate is 151.2 GPixel/s compared to 55.68 GPixel/s on the older card, and its texture rate is 302.4 GTexel/s versus 222.7 GTexel/s.

The API support also reflects the generational gap. The A5000 Mobile supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, while the GTX 780 Ti only supports DirectX 12 (11_1) and Vulkan 1.2.175. Both support OpenGL 4.6. The power and cooling requirements differ as well: the A5000 Mobile uses 150 W with no power connectors (drawing power from the motherboard), while the GTX 780 Ti requires 250 W with 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin connectors and a 600 W suggested PSU.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU is faster in Geekbench OpenCL?

A: The NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile scores 110,877 points, which is 305.8% higher than the GeForce GTX 780 Ti’s 27,326 points.

Q: Does the GTX 780 Ti support ray tracing?

A: No. The GTX 780 Ti has no RT cores, while the RTX A5000 Mobile includes 48 RT cores for hardware-accelerated ray tracing.

Q: How much memory does each card have?

A: The RTX A5000 Mobile has 16 GB of GDDR6 memory, while the GTX 780 Ti has 3 GB of GDDR5 memory.

Q: What is the power consumption difference?

A: The RTX A5000 Mobile has a TDP of 150 W, while the GTX 780 Ti has a TDP of 250 W. The older card also requires a 600 W suggested PSU.

Q: Which card has a higher transistor density?

A: The RTX A5000 Mobile has a transistor density of 44.4M / mm², compared to 12.6M / mm² for the GTX 780 Ti.

Q: What is the launch MSRP of the GTX 780 Ti?

A: The GeForce GTX 780 Ti had a launch MSRP of 699 USD.