NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile Comparison

FAQ

Q: Which GPU is faster in the recorded benchmarks?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti wins all three head-to-head tests. In 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, it scores 3537 versus 421 for the RTX 3050 Mobile, a delta of -88.1% for the mobile part. In Geekbench OpenCL and Vulkan, the RTX 2080 Ti leads by 61% and 63.1% respectively.

Q: How much memory does each card have?

A: The RTX 3050 Mobile has 4 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus with 192.0 GB/s bandwidth. The RTX 2080 Ti has 11 GB of GDDR6 on a 352-bit bus with 616.0 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: What are the average benchmark scores for these two GPUs?

A: The RTX 3050 Mobile has an average benchmark score of 33170, while the RTX 2080 Ti averages 29783. The RTX 3050 Mobile also sits at the 78th percentile among all GPUs, compared to the 75th percentile for the RTX 2080 Ti.

Q: Which GPU has a higher boost clock?

A: The RTX 2080 Ti boosts to 1545 MHz, while the RTX 3050 Mobile boosts to 1343 MHz. The RTX 2080 Ti also has a higher base clock at 1350 MHz versus 1065 MHz.

Q: What is the power draw of each card?

A: The RTX 3050 Mobile has a TDP of 45 W and is an IGP (integrated) form factor with no power connectors. The RTX 2080 Ti has a TDP of 250 W, is dual-slot, and uses 2x 8-pin power connectors with a suggested PSU of 600 W.

Q: When was each GPU released?

A: The RTX 2080 Ti was released on 2018-09-19, and the RTX 3050 Mobile was released on 2021-05-10. Both are now end-of-life products.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from different NVIDIA architectures and foundries. The RTX 3050 Mobile uses the GA107 chip built on Ampere architecture, fabricated by Samsung on an 8 nm process. The RTX 2080 Ti uses the TU102 chip built on Turing architecture, fabricated by TSMC on a 12 nm process. This generational gap is visible in transistor density: the mobile chip packs 43.5M transistors per mm² versus 24.7M for the older desktop chip.

The RTX 2080 Ti is physically much larger. It has 18,600 million transistors on a 754 mm² die, while the RTX 3050 Mobile has 8,700 million transistors on a 200 mm² die. Despite the smaller size, the newer 8 nm process gives the mobile chip a higher transistor density, but the desktop chip still has far more raw compute resources.

Core counts differ substantially. The RTX 2080 Ti has 4352 shading units, 272 texture mapping units, and 88 ROPs. The RTX 3050 Mobile has 2048 shading units, 64 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. Ray tracing and tensor core counts follow the same pattern: 68 RT cores and 544 tensor cores for the RTX 2080 Ti, versus 16 RT cores and 64 tensor cores for the RTX 3050 Mobile.

Both GPUs support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, so API-level features are identical. The key differences are in the hardware implementation. The RTX 3050 Mobile uses a PCIe 4.0 x8 interface, while the RTX 2080 Ti uses PCIe 3.0 x16. The mobile part is also portable-device dependent for display outputs, whereas the desktop card has 1x HDMI 2.0, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a, and 1x USB Type-C.

The FP16 throughput reveals a notable architectural split. The RTX 3050 Mobile delivers 5.501 TFLOPS FP16 at a 1:1 ratio with FP32, meaning it does not double FP16 rate. The RTX 2080 Ti delivers 26.90 TFLOPS FP16 at a 2:1 ratio, doubling its FP32 rate of 13.45 TFLOPS. This reflects a different design philosophy for compute workloads between the two generations.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The three recorded head-to-head tests all favor the RTX 2080 Ti by wide margins. The largest gap is in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, where the RTX 2080 Ti scores 3537 versus 421 for the RTX 3050 Mobile, a delta of -88.1%. This is a massive difference and indicates that the desktop card is in a completely different performance class for modern DX12 workloads.

In Geekbench Vulkan, the RTX 2080 Ti scores 132930 against 49051 for the RTX 3050 Mobile, a delta of -63.1%. The OpenCL test shows a similar pattern: 128171 versus 50038, a delta of -61%. These compute-oriented tests confirm that the RTX 2080 Ti holds a commanding lead in both graphics and general-purpose GPU compute.

The RTX 3050 Mobile does not win any of the three head-to-head benchmarks. However, its average benchmark score across all recorded tests is 33170, which is actually higher than the RTX 2080 Ti's average of 29783. This discrepancy comes from the fact that the RTX 2080 Ti has a much larger benchmark suite, including several Passmark tests that pull its average down. The RTX 3050 Mobile is only recorded in three tests, all of which are modern and demanding.

Looking at the percentile rankings, the RTX 3050 Mobile sits at the 78th percentile among all GPUs, while the RTX 2080 Ti sits at the 75th percentile. This suggests that in the broader database context, the mobile chip holds its own relative to the full GPU landscape, even though it loses decisively in direct head-to-head comparisons.

The nearest rivals for each card provide additional context. The RTX 3050 Mobile is closely matched with the NVIDIA T550 Mobile (delta 0%), AMD Radeon Pro 570 (delta -0.1%), NVIDIA P104-100 (delta 0.6%), and NVIDIA T600 Mobile (delta 1%). The RTX 2080 Ti is close to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile (delta -0.5%), NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti (delta -0.5%), AMD Radeon RX 6800 (delta -1%), and AMD FirePro W8000 (delta 2%). This places each card in very different performance tiers despite the similar percentile rankings.

Specification Differences

The most obvious difference is memory. The RTX 2080 Ti has 11 GB of GDDR6 with a 352-bit bus and 616.0 GB/s bandwidth. The RTX 3050 Mobile has 4 GB of GDDR6 with a 128-bit bus and 192.0 GB/s bandwidth. The desktop card has nearly 3.2 times the memory bandwidth and almost three times the capacity.

Clock speeds also differ. The RTX 2080 Ti runs at a base of 1350 MHz and boosts to 1545 MHz. The RTX 3050 Mobile runs at a base of 1065 MHz and boosts to 1343 MHz. Memory clocks are 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective) for the RTX 2080 Ti and 1500 MHz (12 Gbps effective) for the RTX 3050 Mobile.

Compute throughput favors the desktop card heavily. The RTX 2080 Ti delivers 13.45 TFLOPS FP32, 26.90 TFLOPS FP16, a pixel rate of 136.0 GPixel/s, and a texture rate of 420.2 GTexel/s. The RTX 3050 Mobile delivers 5.501 TFLOPS FP32, 5.501 TFLOPS FP16, 42.98 GPixel/s, and 85.95 GTexel/s.

Power and physical specifications are entirely different. The RTX 3050 Mobile has a TDP of 45 W, is an IGP form factor, and requires no power connectors. The RTX 2080 Ti has a TDP of 250 W, is dual-slot, requires 2x 8-pin power connectors, and suggests a 600 W PSU. The desktop card measures 267 mm in length, 116 mm in height, and 35 mm in width.

The bus interface differs: PCIe 4.0 x8 for the mobile part versus PCIe 3.0 x16 for the desktop part. The RTX 2080 Ti has a launch MSRP of 999 USD. The RTX 3050 Mobile has no recorded launch MSRP. Release dates are about two and a half years apart, with the RTX 2080 Ti launching on 2018-09-19 and the RTX 3050 Mobile on 2021-05-10. The RTX 2080 Ti lists its predecessor as GeForce 10 and its successor as GeForce 30, while the RTX 3050 Mobile lists its predecessor as GeForce 20 Mobile.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 2080 Ti wins in every recorded head-to-head benchmark. It is the clear choice for raw performance in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, Geekbench OpenCL, and Geekbench Vulkan. Its 3537 Steel Nomad score versus 421 for the RTX 3050 Mobile makes it dominant in modern DX12 gaming workloads. The 2:1 FP16 ratio and 26.90 TFLOPS FP16 throughput also give it an edge in compute tasks that can use half-precision arithmetic.

The RTX 3050 Mobile has its own advantages, though they are not visible in the head-to-head tests. Its average benchmark score of 33170 is higher than the RTX 2080 Ti's 29783, and its 78th percentile ranking beats the 75th percentile of the desktop card. This means that across the full set of database measurements, the mobile chip performs better relative to the broader GPU population. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA T550 Mobile and AMD Radeon Pro 570, placing it in a competitive segment for professional mobile graphics.

The RTX 3050 Mobile also wins on efficiency and form factor. Its 45 W TDP is dramatically lower than the 250 W TDP of the RTX 2080 Ti. It requires no power connectors and no suggested PSU, and its IGP form factor means it is designed to be integrated into laptops. The RTX 2080 Ti is a dual-slot desktop card that needs 2x 8-pin power connectors and a 600 W PSU, along with 267 mm of case length.

The RTX 3050 Mobile also has the newer PCIe 4.0 x8 interface, which offers higher per-lane bandwidth than the PCIe 3.0 x16 of the RTX 2080 Ti. This matters less for raw GPU compute, but it is a modern interface choice for laptop platforms.

The Verdict

The data points to a clear split. For anyone who needs maximum performance in a desktop system, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti is the obvious pick. It wins all three head-to-head benchmarks by margins of 61% to 88.1%, has 11 GB of memory versus 4 GB, delivers 13.45 TFLOPS FP32 against 5.501 TFLOPS, and has 68 RT cores compared to 16. It is the stronger card for 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, OpenCL compute, and Vulkan workloads.

For a laptop or low-power integrated system, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile is the only realistic choice of the two. Its 45 W TDP, IGP form factor, and lack of power connectors make it suitable for portable devices, while the RTX 2080 Ti requires a desktop chassis, dual-slot cooling, and a 600 W PSU. The mobile card also posts a higher average benchmark score of 33170 and a higher percentile ranking of 78%, which suggests it is well-regarded in the database relative to the full GPU field.

The RTX 2080 Ti launched at 999 USD and sits at the 75th percentile. The RTX 3050 Mobile has no recorded launch MSRP and sits at the 78th percentile. The percentile difference is small, but the performance gap in direct comparisons is enormous. The RTX 2080 Ti is a high-end desktop part from 2018; the RTX 3050 Mobile is a mainstream mobile part from 2021. They serve different markets and different physical constraints.

The verdict is straightforward. Pick the RTX 2080 Ti for desktop performance. Pick the RTX 3050 Mobile for mobile integration. The benchmark data does not suggest any scenario where the RTX 3050 Mobile outperforms the RTX 2080 Ti in raw compute, but the mobile card's efficiency and form factor are its own advantages. The recorded measurements show a 0-3 win count in favor of the RTX 2080 Ti, and that is the deciding factor for performance-focused users.