NVIDIA GeForce MX550 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded data shows a decisive overall victory for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080, which wins both head-to-head benchmark comparisons against the NVIDIA GeForce MX550. The most dramatic separation occurs in the Geekbench OpenCL test, where the RTX 3080 scores 152,423 compared to the MX550's 20,372, a margin of 86.6%. This is not a close contest; it represents a fundamental gap in raw compute throughput that appears across nearly every metric.

In the Geekbench Vulkan test, the RTX 3080 still wins, but the margin shrinks considerably. The RTX 3080 posts 33,620 points versus 32,469 for the MX550, a delta of only 3.4%. This narrower gap suggests that the MX550's Turing architecture handles Vulkan workloads relatively efficiently, and that the RTX 3080's advantage in this API is far less pronounced than in OpenCL. Still, a win is a win, and the RTX 3080 takes both recorded comparisons.

Looking at the percentile rankings, the MX550 sits at the 72nd percentile among all GPUs, while the RTX 3080 ranks at the 68th percentile. This counterintuitive result stems from the fact that the MX550's average benchmark score of 26,421 is actually higher than the RTX 3080's average of 23,172. The RTX 3080's average is dragged down by its many PassMark scores, which include legacy DirectX 9, 10, and 11 tests where it performs relatively modestly (258, 170, and 207 respectively) compared to its modern API results. The MX550, by contrast, only has two Geekbench scores in the database, both of which are solidly mid-range.

The RTX 3080's nearest rivals in the database include the NVIDIA P106-100 (average score 23,249, delta of -0.3%), the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16 (23,250, delta of -0.3%), and the AMD Radeon RX 6600M (23,273, delta of -0.4%). These sub-1% deltas indicate that the RTX 3080's average score is tightly clustered with several other GPUs, all within a hair of each other. Meanwhile, the MX550's nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon 860M (26,401, delta of 0.1%), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 (26,331, delta of 0.3%), and the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary (26,553, delta of -0.5%). This puts the MX550 in a different performance class entirely, one where the competition is much closer.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 3080 dominates in OpenCL compute workloads, delivering an 86.6% advantage over the MX550. This is the clearest win for the larger card, and it reflects the massive difference in shading units, texture mapping units, and raw FP32 throughput. The RTX 3080 has 8,704 shading units versus 1,024 for the MX550, and its FP32 performance is 29.77 TFLOPS compared to 2.703 TFLOPS. For any application that leverages OpenCL for general-purpose computing, rendering, or physics simulation, the RTX 3080 is the only viable choice.

The MX550's best showing comes in the Vulkan API, where it trails by just 3.4%. This is a narrow margin, and it suggests that for Vulkan-based games or applications, the MX550 is surprisingly competitive. The MX550's Turing architecture handles Vulkan's explicit, low-overhead model well, and its smaller memory footprint (2 GB versus 10 GB) does not appear to be a limiting factor in this particular benchmark. However, even here, the RTX 3080 wins, so the MX550 does not claim a single recorded victory.

In terms of raw rasterization throughput, the RTX 3080's pixel rate of 164.2 GPixel/s is roughly 7.8 times higher than the MX550's 21.12 GPixel/s. Its texture rate of 465.1 GTexel/s is more than 11 times higher than the MX550's 42.24 GTexel/s. These figures are not directly benchmarked in the head-to-head data, but they are recorded specifications that explain the benchmark results. The RTX 3080 also has dedicated ray tracing cores (68 of them) and tensor cores (272 of them), which the MX550 lacks entirely. For any workload that uses ray tracing or AI acceleration, the MX550 has no answer.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from different architectural generations and use different manufacturing processes. The MX550 is built on Turing, using the TU117SB chip, and is fabricated on a 12 nm process at TSMC. The RTX 3080 is built on Ampere, using the GA102 chip, and is fabricated on an 8 nm process at Samsung. This process difference is significant: the RTX 3080 packs 28,300 million transistors into a 628 mm² die, while the MX550 has just 4,700 million transistors on a 200 mm² die. The transistor density tells the story: the RTX 3080 achieves 45.1 million transistors per mm², while the MX550 manages only 23.5 million per mm².

The memory subsystems are entirely different. The MX550 uses 2 GB of GDDR6 on a 64-bit bus, yielding 96.00 GB/s of bandwidth. The RTX 3080 uses 10 GB of GDDR6X on a 320-bit bus, delivering 760.3 GB/s of bandwidth, nearly eight times as much. The memory clock rates also differ: the MX550 runs at 1500 MHz (12 Gbps effective), while the RTX 3080 runs at 1188 MHz (19 Gbps effective). The GDDR6X standard on the RTX 3080 allows for substantially higher effective data rates despite a lower base clock.

The RTX 3080 has 68 ray tracing cores and 272 tensor cores, while the MX550 has none of either. This makes the RTX 3080 a full-featured ray tracing and AI-capable GPU, while the MX550 is strictly a traditional rasterizer with compute capabilities. The FP16 to FP32 ratio is 1:1 on both cards, meaning neither has a dedicated half-precision boost, but the RTX 3080's absolute FP16 performance of 29.77 TFLOPS dwarfs the MX550's 2.703 TFLOPS.

Power consumption reflects the performance gap. The MX550 is rated at 25 W TDP and uses no external power connectors, fitting into an IGP (integrated graphics processor) slot width. The RTX 3080 is rated at 320 W TDP, requires a 1x 12-pin power connector, and needs a 700 W suggested PSU. The RTX 3080 is a dual-slot card measuring 285 mm in length, 112 mm in height, and 40 mm in width, while the MX550 has no recorded dimensions and is listed as "Portable Device Dependent" for display outputs.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce MX550 has an average benchmark score of 26,421, which is higher than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080's average of 23,172. This is because the RTX 3080's many legacy DirectX benchmarks lower its average, despite its much higher scores in modern APIs.

Q: How close is the Vulkan performance between the two?

A: The Geekbench Vulkan scores are 32,469 for the MX550 and 33,620 for the RTX 3080, a difference of only 3.4%. This is the closest head-to-head result between the two cards.

Q: Does the MX550 support ray tracing?

A: No, the MX550 has no ray tracing cores. The RTX 3080 has 68 ray tracing cores, so any ray tracing workload is exclusively supported by the RTX 3080.

Q: What is the memory bandwidth difference?

A: The MX550 has 96.00 GB/s of bandwidth, while the RTX 3080 has 760.3 GB/s. This is nearly an eightfold difference in favor of the RTX 3080.

Q: What is the release date gap between the two?

A: The RTX 3080 was released on 2020-08-31, while the MX550 was released on 2021-12-16. The MX550 came out about a year and a half later, but it belongs to a lower performance tier.

Q: Which card has a higher boost clock?

A: The RTX 3080 has a boost clock of 1710 MHz, while the MX550 has a boost clock of 1320 MHz. The RTX 3080 also has a higher base clock: 1440 MHz versus 1065 MHz.

Specification Differences

| Specification | NVIDIA GeForce MX550 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 |

|---------------|---------------------|-------------------------|

| Architecture | Turing | Ampere |

| Process Node | 12 nm | 8 nm |

| Foundry | TSMC | Samsung |

| Transistors | 4,700 million | 28,300 million |

| Die Size | 200 mm² | 628 mm² |

| Transistor Density | 23.5M / mm² | 45.1M / mm² |

| Base Clock | 1065 MHz | 1440 MHz |

| Boost Clock | 1320 MHz | 1710 MHz |

| Memory Size | 2 GB | 10 GB |

| Memory Type | GDDR6 | GDDR6X |

| Memory Bus | 64 bit | 320 bit |

| Memory Bandwidth | 96.00 GB/s | 760.3 GB/s |

| Shading Units | 1024 | 8704 |

| TMUs | 32 | 272 |

| ROPs | 16 | 96 |

| RT Cores | None | 68 |

| Tensor Cores | None | 272 |

| Pixel Rate | 21.12 GPixel/s | 164.2 GPixel/s |

| Texture Rate | 42.24 GTexel/s | 465.1 GTexel/s |

| FP32 | 2.703 TFLOPS | 29.77 TFLOPS |

| FP16 | 2.703 TFLOPS (1:1) | 29.77 TFLOPS (1:1) |

| TDP | 25 W | 320 W |

| Slot Width | IGP | Dual-slot |

| Power Connectors | None | 1x 12-pin |

| Suggested PSU | Not listed | 700 W |

| Bus Interface | PCIe 4.0 x8 | PCIe 4.0 x16 |

| DirectX Support | 12 (12_1) | 12 Ultimate (12_2) |

| Release Date | 2021-12-16 | 2020-08-31 |

| Launch MSRP | Not listed | 699 USD |

The Verdict

The data makes the choice clear: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 is the overwhelmingly more powerful GPU for any compute-heavy or modern gaming workload. It wins both head-to-head benchmarks, and its 86.6% OpenCL advantage is the single largest margin between the two. For users who need ray tracing, tensor core acceleration, or high-bandwidth memory, the RTX 3080 is the only option, and its 10 GB GDDR6X memory with 760.3 GB/s bandwidth provides a massive buffer for large textures and datasets.

The MX550's only real concession is its Vulkan result, where it trails by just 3.4%. This makes it a reasonable choice for lightweight Vulkan-based applications where power consumption is a priority, given its 25 W TDP and lack of external power connectors. Its higher average benchmark score (26,421 versus 23,172) is a quirk of the test suite rather than a sign of real-world superiority, since the RTX 3080's legacy DirectX scores drag its average down.

For a desktop user building a high-performance system, the RTX 3080 is the clear winner. Its 29.77 TFLOPS FP32 performance, 68 RT cores, and 272 tensor cores place it in an entirely different performance class. For a notebook or portable device user with constrained power and thermal budgets, the MX550 offers a competent baseline, but it cannot match the RTX 3080 in any recorded benchmark. The verdict is unambiguous: choose the RTX 3080 whenever power and space allow, and choose the MX550 only when the 320 W TDP and dual-slot footprint are simply not feasible.