NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM Comparison

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM is decisively faster than the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN in every directly comparable benchmark, with the gap ranging from substantial to overwhelming. The RTX 3050 OEM leads by 144.2% in Geekbench OpenCL and by a massive 469.5% in Geekbench Vulkan, making the older Kepler-based card a non-competitive option for modern workloads. While the GTX TITAN holds a slight edge in overall benchmark percentile ranking against all GPUs (56th vs. 57th for the RTX 3050 OEM), this is a statistical artifact of the different benchmark suites available for each card, not an indicator of real-world performance parity.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only two benchmark tests where both cards have comparable scores are Geekbench OpenCL and Geekbench Vulkan, and the RTX 3050 OEM wins both outright.

In Geekbench OpenCL, the RTX 3050 OEM scores 60,740 points against the GTX TITAN’s 24,873 points. This represents a 144.2% advantage for the newer card, meaning the RTX 3050 OEM delivers more than double the compute throughput in this API. The magnitude of this win is telling: it is not a marginal improvement but a generational leap that reflects the Ampere architecture’s superior compute efficiency and the massive clock speed advantage (1515 MHz base / 1755 MHz boost vs. 836 MHz base / 876 MHz boost).

The Geekbench Vulkan result is even more lopsided. The RTX 3050 OEM scores 57,103 points, while the GTX TITAN manages only 10,027 points, yielding a 469.5% delta in favor of the RTX 3050 OEM. This near-fivefold difference highlights a critical functional gap: the GTX TITAN supports Vulkan 1.2.175, while the RTX 3050 OEM supports Vulkan 1.4, and the newer card’s dedicated ray tracing and tensor cores (18 RT cores and 72 tensor cores vs. none) allow it to accelerate modern graphics workloads that the Kepler architecture simply cannot process efficiently. The data shows that in any Vulkan-based application, the RTX 3050 OEM is not just faster; it is in a different performance class entirely.

There are no comparable benchmark results for DirectX, PassMark, or compute workloads because the two cards were tested under different suites. The GTX TITAN has only three benchmark entries (Geekbench Metal, OpenCL, and Vulkan), while the RTX 3050 OEM has nine (including PassMark DirectX 9/10/11/12, G2D, G3D, and GPU Compute). This asymmetry means the head-to-head comparison is limited to the two Geekbench tests, but those two tests are sufficient to establish a clear hierarchy.

Where Each One Wins

Based strictly on the available benchmark data, the RTX 3050 OEM wins every single category where both cards were tested. There is no benchmark in the FACT PACK where the GTX TITAN outperforms the RTX 3050 OEM. The wins break down as follows:

• Compute (OpenCL): RTX 3050 OEM wins by 144.2%, demonstrating superior raw number-crunching ability for general-purpose GPU workloads.
• Graphics API (Vulkan): RTX 3050 OEM wins by 469.5%, showing overwhelming dominance in modern cross-platform graphics rendering.

The GTX TITAN’s only advantage appears in the Geekbench Metal benchmark, where it scores 8,218 points, but the RTX 3050 OEM has no Metal score in the FACT PACK, so a direct comparison is impossible. This absence of a Metal result for the RTX 3050 OEM likely reflects the test environment rather than a capability difference, as the RTX 3050 OEM supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and OpenGL 4.6, while the GTX TITAN only reaches DirectX 12 (11_0).

For use cases, the RTX 3050 OEM is the clear choice for any Vulkan-based gaming or compute application. The GTX TITAN, with its 6 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 384-bit bus (288.4 GB/s bandwidth), retains a memory bandwidth advantage over the RTX 3050 OEM’s 8 GB GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus (224.0 GB/s), but this does not translate into any benchmark win. The RTX 3050 OEM’s higher clock speeds and architecture efficiency more than compensate for the narrower memory bus.

The Verdict

The data is unambiguous: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM is the superior GPU for any workload measured in the FACT PACK. It wins both head-to-head benchmarks, and the margins (144.2% and 469.5%) are so large that no reasonable use case would favor the GTX TITAN based on performance. The RTX 3050 OEM also has a higher average benchmark score of 15,199 points compared to the GTX TITAN’s 14,373 points, a 5.7% overall advantage.

Who should pick the RTX 3050 OEM? Anyone running Vulkan-based games or OpenCL compute tasks. The card’s 8 GB of GDDR6 memory, 2304 shading units, and 18 RT cores make it suitable for modern titles, and its 130 W TDP (vs. the GTX TITAN’s 250 W) means it is far more power-efficient. The RTX 3050 OEM also supports PCIe 4.0 x8, while the GTX TITAN is limited to PCIe 3.0 x16, offering better bandwidth for future systems.

Who should pick the GTX TITAN? Only someone who specifically needs the GTX TITAN’s unique feature set, such as its 6 GB of memory on a 384-bit bus or its 224 texture mapping units (vs. the RTX 3050 OEM’s 72 TMUs). The GTX TITAN has a higher texture rate (196.2 GTexel/s vs. 126.4 GTexel/s) and a slightly higher pixel rate (49.06 GPixel/s vs. 56.16 GPixel/s for the RTX 3050 OEM, actually the RTX is higher). However, these theoretical throughput figures do not translate into benchmark wins, and the GTX TITAN’s lack of ray tracing and tensor cores makes it obsolete for modern feature-rich workloads. The GTX TITAN also requires a 600 W suggested PSU versus the RTX 3050 OEM’s 300 W, making the newer card dramatically easier to integrate.

FAQ

Q: Is the RTX 3050 OEM faster than the GTX TITAN in all benchmarks?

A: Yes. In the two comparable benchmarks (Geekbench OpenCL and Vulkan), the RTX 3050 OEM wins by 144.2% and 469.5%, respectively. The GTX TITAN has no benchmark victories in the FACT PACK.

Q: How much memory bandwidth does the GTX TITAN have compared to the RTX 3050 OEM?

A: The GTX TITAN has 288.4 GB/s bandwidth from its 384-bit GDDR5 bus, while the RTX 3050 OEM has 224.0 GB/s from a 128-bit GDDR6 bus. The GTX TITAN’s bandwidth is 28.7% higher, but this does not result in any benchmark win.

Q: Does the GTX TITAN support ray tracing or tensor cores?

A: No. The GTX TITAN has no RT cores or tensor cores, while the RTX 3050 OEM includes 18 RT cores and 72 tensor cores, enabling hardware-accelerated ray tracing and AI workloads.

Q: What are the power requirements for each card?

A: The RTX 3050 OEM has a 130 W TDP and a suggested PSU of 300 W with a single 8-pin connector. The GTX TITAN has a 250 W TDP and a suggested PSU of 600 W with a 6-pin plus 8-pin connector.

Q: Which card has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The RTX 3050 OEM has an average benchmark score of 15,199 points, which is 5.7% higher than the GTX TITAN’s 14,373 points. However, the RTX 3050 OEM was tested across nine benchmarks, while the GTX TITAN has only three.

Q: What is the release date difference between the two cards?

A: The GTX TITAN was released on February 18, 2013, while the RTX 3050 OEM was released on January 3, 2022, a gap of nearly nine years.

Architecture Differences

The two cards represent fundamentally different GPU architectures from different eras. The RTX 3050 OEM uses the GA106 chip built on Ampere architecture, fabricated on an 8 nm process at Samsung. It contains 12,000 million transistors on a 276 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 43.5 million per mm². The GTX TITAN uses the GK110 chip on Kepler architecture, fabricated on a 28 nm process at TSMC, with 7,080 million transistors on a much larger 561 mm² die, giving a density of just 12.6 million per mm².

The RTX 3050 OEM features 2304 shading units, 72 TMUs, 32 ROPs, 18 RT cores, and 72 tensor cores, enabling DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), Vulkan 1.4, and OpenGL 4.6 support. The GTX TITAN has 2688 shading units, 224 TMUs, and 48 ROPs, but no RT or tensor cores, and supports only DirectX 12 (11_0), Vulkan 1.2.175, and OpenGL 4.6. The RTX 3050 OEM’s FP32 throughput is 8.087 TFLOPS, nearly double the GTX TITAN’s 4.709 TFLOPS, despite having fewer shading units, highlighting the efficiency gains from the newer architecture.

The GTX TITAN’s memory subsystem is wider but slower: 6 GB of GDDR5 on a 384-bit bus at 6 Gbps effective, versus the RTX 3050 OEM’s 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus at 14 Gbps effective. The RTX 3050 OEM also has a higher base clock (1515 MHz vs. 836 MHz) and boost clock (1755 MHz vs. 876 MHz). The GTX TITAN measures 267 mm in length and 38 mm in width, while the RTX 3050 OEM is 242 mm long and 112 mm high (width not specified), with both being dual-slot cards.

Specification Differences

The key specification differences between the two cards are extensive, reflecting their generational gap. The RTX 3050 OEM uses an 8 nm process (Samsung) versus the GTX TITAN’s 28 nm process (TSMC), with transistor counts of 12,000 million vs. 7,080 million, and die sizes of 276 mm² vs. 561 mm². The RTX 3050 OEM has a base clock of 1515 MHz and a boost clock of 1755 MHz, while the GTX TITAN runs at 836 MHz base and 876 MHz boost. Memory differs in size (8 GB vs. 6 GB), type (GDDR6 vs. GDDR5), bus width (128-bit vs. 384-bit), and bandwidth (224.0 GB/s vs. 288.4 GB/s).

The power profile is notably different: the RTX 3050 OEM has a 130 W TDP with a 300 W suggested PSU and a single 8-pin connector, while the GTX TITAN has a 250 W TDP with a 600 W suggested PSU and dual connectors (6-pin and 8-pin). The bus interface also differs: PCIe 4.0 x8 for the RTX 3050 OEM versus PCIe 3.0 x16 for the GTX TITAN. Display outputs vary, with the RTX 3050 OEM offering 1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a, while the GTX TITAN provides 2x DVI, 1x HDMI 1.4a, and 1x DisplayPort 1.2. The RTX 3050 OEM has a launch MSRP of null (not disclosed), while the GTX TITAN had a launch MSRP of 999 USD. The RTX 3050 OEM’s FP32 performance is 8.087 TFLOPS versus the GTX TITAN’s 4.709 TFLOPS, and it supports FP16 at a 1:1 ratio, which the GTX TITAN does not support at all.