NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile Comparison

Where Each One Wins

The benchmark data splits these two NVIDIA GPUs into clearly distinct roles. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti wins decisively in the modern DirectX 12 rasterization workload, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile takes the compute-oriented and cross-API synthetic tests.

In 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, the GTX 980 Ti records a score of 1321 against the RTX 3050 Mobile’s 421, a 68.1% advantage. This is a massive gap in a current-generation DirectX 12 test, and it indicates that for traditional gaming workloads that stress raw pixel throughput and geometry processing, the older desktop card remains substantially faster. The GTX 980 Ti’s 103.3 GPixel/s pixel rate and 189.4 GTexel/s texture rate, both far higher than the mobile part’s 42.98 GPixel/s and 85.95 GTexel/s, align with this result.

The RTX 3050 Mobile, however, wins both Geekbench compute tests. In Geekbench OpenCL it scores 50038 versus 43513, a 15% lead. In Geekbench Vulkan it scores 49051 versus 47724, a narrower 2.8% margin. These results indicate that the modern Ampere architecture with its 2048 shading units and 64 tensor cores executes general-purpose compute tasks and Vulkan API workloads more efficiently than the older Maxwell design, despite having fewer shading units than the GTX 980 Ti’s 2816.

The wins breakdown is 2 for the RTX 3050 Mobile and 1 for the GTX 980 Ti, but the magnitude of the GTX 980 Ti’s single win is far larger than either of the mobile card’s victories. Users should interpret this as: the GTX 980 Ti is the stronger choice for demanding DirectX 12 gaming, while the RTX 3050 Mobile is the better option for compute-heavy applications and Vulkan-based workloads.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU is faster in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti is significantly faster, scoring 1321 compared to the RTX 3050 Mobile’s 421, a 68.1% difference in favor of the desktop card.

Q: Does the RTX 3050 Mobile win any benchmarks?

A: Yes, it wins both Geekbench tests. It scores 50038 in OpenCL versus 43513 for the GTX 980 Ti (15% ahead), and 49051 in Vulkan versus 47724 (2.8% ahead).

Q: How do their average benchmark scores compare?

A: The RTX 3050 Mobile has a higher average benchmark score of 33170, while the GTX 980 Ti averages 28020. The RTX 3050 Mobile also sits at the 78th percentile among all GPUs, compared to the GTX 980 Ti’s 73rd percentile.

Q: What is the closest rival to each card in the database?

A: For the RTX 3050 Mobile, the closest rival is the NVIDIA T550 Mobile with an average score of 33161, essentially tied at a 0% delta. For the GTX 980 Ti, the closest rival is the AMD Radeon Pro W5500X with an average score of 27973, a 0.2% delta.

Q: Which card has more memory and bandwidth?

A: The GTX 980 Ti has 6 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 384-bit bus with 336.6 GB/s bandwidth. The RTX 3050 Mobile has 4 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus with 192.0 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: Do both cards support the same DirectX version?

A: No. The RTX 3050 Mobile supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the GTX 980 Ti supports DirectX 12 (12_1). Both support OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The three head-to-head benchmarks paint a clear picture of generational trade-offs. The most striking result is in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, where the GTX 980 Ti scores 1321 against the RTX 3050 Mobile’s 421. The delta of 68.1% in favor of the GTX 980 Ti is the largest margin recorded in any test. This benchmark rewards the GTX 980 Ti’s raw rasterization horsepower: 96 ROPs, 176 TMUs, and a 384-bit memory bus delivering 336.6 GB/s. The mobile card’s 32 ROPs and 64 TMUs, paired with a 128-bit bus at 192.0 GB/s, simply cannot keep pace in this workload.

The Geekbench OpenCL test flips the result. The RTX 3050 Mobile scores 50038, which is 15% higher than the GTX 980 Ti’s 43513. This is a substantial margin in a compute-heavy test. The RTX 3050 Mobile’s Ampere architecture includes 64 tensor cores and supports FP16 at a 1:1 ratio with 5.501 TFLOPS, while the GTX 980 Ti has no tensor cores and no listed FP16 capability. The compute advantage of the newer architecture is evident here, even though the GTX 980 Ti has a higher FP32 rating of 6.060 TFLOPS versus 5.501 TFLOPS for the mobile card.

The Geekbench Vulkan test is the closest contest. The RTX 3050 Mobile wins with 49051 against 47724, a 2.8% margin. This narrow win suggests that in Vulkan workloads, the two cards are nearly equivalent, with the modern architecture’s efficiency just barely overcoming the older card’s raw throughput. It is notably the GTX 980 Ti also has a Geekbench Metal score of 19520, a test not run on the RTX 3050 Mobile, but Metal is not a cross-platform benchmark and does not affect the head-to-head comparison.

Overall, the GTX 980 Ti’s single victory is three times larger in percentage terms than the RTX 3050 Mobile’s combined wins. The data shows that for DirectX 12 gaming, the GTX 980 Ti is overwhelmingly faster, while for compute and Vulkan, the RTX 3050 Mobile holds a modest but consistent edge.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ across nearly every major specification category. The RTX 3050 Mobile uses the GA107 chip on an 8 nm Samsung process, while the GTX 980 Ti uses the GM200 chip on a 28 nm TSMC process. The RTX 3050 Mobile has 8,700 million transistors on a 200 mm² die, giving a transistor density of 43.5 million per mm². The GTX 980 Ti has 8,000 million transistors on a 601 mm² die, for a density of 13.3 million per mm².

Clock speeds favor the mobile card at the base level: 1065 MHz versus 1000 MHz, with boosts of 1343 MHz versus 1076 MHz. Memory clocks also differ, with the RTX 3050 Mobile running at 1500 MHz (12 Gbps effective) and the GTX 980 Ti at 1753 MHz (7 Gbps effective). Memory configuration diverges sharply: the RTX 3050 Mobile has 4 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, while the GTX 980 Ti has 6 GB of GDDR5 on a 384-bit bus.

Compute unit counts differ substantially. The RTX 3050 Mobile has 2048 shading units, 64 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. The GTX 980 Ti has 2816 shading units, 176 TMUs, and 96 ROPs. The RTX 3050 Mobile adds 16 RT cores and 64 tensor cores, neither of which exists on the GTX 980 Ti. Pixel rate and texture rate both favor the GTX 980 Ti: 103.3 GPixel/s and 189.4 GTexel/s versus 42.98 GPixel/s and 85.95 GTexel/s. FP32 performance favors the GTX 980 Ti at 6.060 TFLOPS versus 5.501 TFLOPS, while FP16 is listed only for the RTX 3050 Mobile at 5.501 TFLOPS (1:1).

Power and physical specifications are also very different. The RTX 3050 Mobile has a TDP of 45 W, is an IGP with no power connectors, and uses a PCIe 4.0 x8 interface. The GTX 980 Ti has a TDP of 250 W, is a dual-slot card with 1x 6-pin and 1x 8-pin power connectors, requires a 600 W suggested PSU, and uses PCIe 3.0 x16. The GTX 980 Ti measures 267 mm in length, 111 mm in height, and 40 mm in width, while the RTX 3050 Mobile has no listed dimensions. Display outputs differ as well: the RTX 3050 Mobile is portable-device dependent, while the GTX 980 Ti offers 1x DVI, 1x HDMI 2.0, and 3x DisplayPort 1.2.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these two GPUs spans two NVIDIA generations and two foundries. The RTX 3050 Mobile is built on Ampere, NVIDIA’s 30-series architecture, fabricated by Samsung on an 8 nm process. The GTX 980 Ti is built on Maxwell 2.0, from the GeForce 900 series, fabricated by TSMC on a 28 nm process. The node difference is stark: 8 nm versus 28 nm, which explains the RTX 3050 Mobile’s much higher transistor density of 43.5 million per mm² versus 13.3 million per mm².

The RTX 3050 Mobile includes dedicated ray tracing cores (16) and tensor cores (64), features entirely absent from the GTX 980 Ti. This is the defining architectural difference: Ampere is a hybrid renderer designed for ray tracing and AI-accelerated workloads, while Maxwell 2.0 is a pure rasterization architecture. The RTX 3050 Mobile also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), which includes features like mesh shaders and variable rate shading, whereas the GTX 980 Ti is limited to DirectX 12 (12_1). Both cards support OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4.

The memory architecture also reflects the generational divide. The RTX 3050 Mobile uses GDDR6 memory at 12 Gbps effective, while the GTX 980 Ti uses GDDR5 at 7 Gbps effective. The newer memory type operates at higher effective speeds, although the GTX 980 Ti’s much wider 384-bit bus compensates with higher total bandwidth (336.6 GB/s versus 192.0 GB/s). The RTX 3050 Mobile’s PCIe 4.0 x8 interface is newer than the GTX 980 Ti’s PCIe 3.0 x16, though the practical bandwidth difference depends on workload.

The RTX 3050 Mobile’s predecessor is the GeForce 20 Mobile series, while the GTX 980 Ti’s predecessor is GeForce 700 and its successor is GeForce 10. The GTX 980 Ti was released on 2015-06-01, and the RTX 3050 Mobile on 2021-05-10. Both are end-of-life products. The GTX 980 Ti has a launch MSRP of 649 USD; the RTX 3050 Mobile has no listed launch MSRP.

The Verdict

The data supports a clear split decision. For DirectX 12 gaming, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti is the superior choice. Its 68.1% lead in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 is overwhelming, and its higher pixel rate, texture rate, and FP32 throughput all point toward stronger traditional rasterization performance. The 6 GB of VRAM on a 384-bit bus also provides more memory capacity and bandwidth for texture-heavy scenes. The GTX 980 Ti’s 73rd percentile ranking among all GPUs, while lower than the RTX 3050 Mobile’s 78th, is still respectable for a card from 2015.

For compute workloads and Vulkan applications, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile is the better option. Its 15% margin in Geekbench OpenCL and 2.8% margin in Geekbench Vulkan demonstrate that the Ampere architecture, with its tensor cores and 1:1 FP16 support, executes modern compute tasks more efficiently. The higher average benchmark score of 33170 versus 28020, and the higher percentile ranking of 78 versus 73, reinforce this conclusion.

The practical choice depends entirely on the use case. A desktop user with a 600 W PSU and space for a dual-slot, 267 mm card should choose the GTX 980 Ti for gaming. A laptop user or anyone prioritizing compute efficiency, newer API features like DirectX 12 Ultimate, and dramatically lower power draw (45 W versus 250 W) should choose the RTX 3050 Mobile. The GTX 980 Ti requires external power connectors and a substantial PSU; the RTX 3050 Mobile requires none. There is no single winner across all categories, but the data is unambiguous about which card wins where.