AMD Radeon RX 6700 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile Comparison

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile and the AMD Radeon RX 6700 occupy very different tiers of the graphics hardware spectrum, and the recorded data leaves no ambiguity about their relative performance. Across all three head-to-head benchmark tests, the AMD Radeon RX 6700 delivers decisively higher scores, often by wide margins. However, the two cards are built around fundamentally different design goals: one is a low-power mobile solution, the other a desktop-oriented part with substantially larger resources. This analysis walks through the benchmark results, architectural differences, and specification gaps to clarify where each product stands according to the database.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database includes three direct comparisons between the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile and the AMD Radeon RX 6700. In each test, the AMD card wins, and the margins are substantial. Starting with the DirectX 12 workload, the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test shows the AMD Radeon RX 6700 scoring 2014 points against 421 points for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile. This translates to a performance gap of 79.1 percent in favor of the AMD card. In practical terms, the RX 6700 delivers nearly five times the frame throughput in this demanding next-generation DirectX 12 scenario, a gap that dwarfs any difference in driver optimization or workload scaling.

The OpenCL compute benchmark reinforces the same conclusion. The AMD Radeon RX 6700 records a Geekbench OpenCL score of 97841, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile manages 50038 points. The delta here is 48.9 percent, meaning the RX 6700 is roughly twice as fast in general-purpose compute workloads. This is not a marginal advantage; it reflects a fundamental difference in raw processing throughput between the two architectures.

The Vulkan test shows a slightly narrower but still commanding lead for AMD. The RX 6700 scores 83974 in Geekbench Vulkan, compared to 49051 for the RTX 3050 Mobile, a difference of 41.6 percent. Vulkan tends to scale well with shader count and memory bandwidth, both of which favor the AMD part. Even in a scenario where NVIDIA's mobile chip is relatively strong, the RX 6700 maintains a clear edge.

Across these three benchmarks, the AMD Radeon RX 6700 wins three out of three head-to-head comparisons. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile does not win any of the recorded tests. The smallest margin is in Vulkan, where the RX 6700 leads by 41.6 percent, and the largest is in the DX12 Steel Nomad test, where it leads by 79.1 percent. These numbers indicate that the RX 6700 is not merely faster in isolated scenarios; it is consistently faster across different API workloads, from low-level graphics to compute-heavy tasks.

The average benchmark score for each card further contextualizes these results. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile has an average score of 33170 across its recorded benchmarks, placing it in the 78th percentile of all GPUs in the database. The AMD Radeon RX 6700, despite a lower percentile ranking at 75, has an average score of 30433. This apparent contradiction requires careful reading: the RTX 3050 Mobile's average is pulled up by its strong performance in Geekbench OpenCL and Vulkan relative to its peer group, while the RX 6700's average includes a broader set of legacy DirectX and compute tests, some of which score lower. The head-to-head tests, however, are the most direct comparison available, and they uniformly favor AMD.

Architecture Differences

The underlying designs of these two GPUs could hardly be more different. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile uses the GA107 chip built on Ampere architecture, fabricated on an 8 nm process at Samsung. The die size is 200 mm², and it contains 8,700 million transistors, yielding a transistor density of 43.5 million per square millimeter. This is a compact, power-efficient design intended for thin-and-light laptops.

The AMD Radeon RX 6700 uses the Navi 22 chip based on RDNA 2.0 architecture, fabricated on a 7 nm process at TSMC. Its die measures 335 mm², and it packs 17,200 million transistors, giving it a density of 51.3 million per square millimeter. The larger die, nearly double the transistor count, and the denser packing all point to a much more substantial piece of silicon.

The core configurations reflect this disparity. The NVIDIA chip has 2048 shading units, 64 texture mapping units, and 32 raster output units. It also includes 16 ray tracing cores and 64 tensor cores, the latter being exclusive to NVIDIA's architecture. The AMD chip counters with 2304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 64 raster output units, along with 36 ray tracing cores. Notably, the AMD card has no tensor cores, as RDNA 2 does not include dedicated AI acceleration hardware.

Clock speeds further separate the two. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile operates at a base clock of 1065 MHz and a boost clock of 1343 MHz. The AMD Radeon RX 6700 runs at a base clock of 1941 MHz, a game clock of 2174 MHz, and a boost clock of 2450 MHz. The AMD card's boost clock is nearly double the NVIDIA card's base clock, and its game clock alone exceeds the NVIDIA boost clock by more than 800 MHz. Higher clocks, combined with more shading units and texture units, explain why the AMD card achieves dramatically higher pixel and texture rates.

The memory subsystems also diverge sharply. The NVIDIA card has 4 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, delivering 192.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The AMD card has 10 GB of GDDR6 on a 160-bit bus, delivering 320.0 GB/s. The AMD card offers 2.5 times the memory capacity and roughly 67 percent more bandwidth. For modern games and compute workloads that are bandwidth-sensitive, this is a decisive advantage.

The process node difference is also noteworthy. The AMD card's 7 nm TSMC process versus NVIDIA's 8 nm Samsung process means the AMD chip achieves higher transistor density despite its larger physical size. This contributes to the AMD card's ability to run at much higher clocks while still maintaining a plausible power envelope, though the AMD card's thermal design power is far higher at 175 W versus 45 W for the NVIDIA mobile chip.

The Verdict

The data is unambiguous. The AMD Radeon RX 6700 is the faster GPU in every recorded head-to-head benchmark. Its lead ranges from 41.6 percent in Vulkan to 79.1 percent in DirectX 12, with a 48.9 percent advantage in OpenCL. For anyone prioritizing raw performance in gaming or compute, the RX 6700 is the superior choice. It also offers more memory, higher bandwidth, more shading units, and significantly higher clock speeds.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile, however, occupies a distinct niche. Its 45 W thermal design power, integrated form factor, and lack of external power connectors make it suitable for portable devices where space and battery life are paramount. The RX 6700, by contrast, is a dual-slot desktop card requiring a power supply rated at 450 W and a single 8-pin connector. These are not interchangeable products, and the benchmark results should be read in that context.

The percentile rankings add nuance. The RTX 3050 Mobile sits at the 78th percentile of all GPUs, while the RX 6700 sits at the 75th percentile. This does not mean the NVIDIA card is faster overall; it means the RTX 3050 Mobile is unusually strong relative to the other mobile and low-power GPUs in the database, while the RX 6700 competes in a field that includes many high-end desktop parts. The average benchmark scores, 33170 for NVIDIA and 30433 for AMD, reflect different benchmark sets and should not be used to override the direct head-to-head results.

The nearest rivals listed in the database further contextualize each card's standing. The RTX 3050 Mobile's closest competitors are the NVIDIA T550 Mobile, AMD Radeon Pro 570, NVIDIA P104-100, and NVIDIA T600 Mobile, all with average scores within 1 percent. The RX 6700's nearest rivals are the NVIDIA CMP 70HX, NVIDIA Tesla M60, AMD Radeon RX 6800, and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, with deltas between 0.1 percent and 1.6 percent. The RX 6700 sits alongside much more powerful desktop parts, reinforcing its higher absolute performance tier.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ in nearly every measurable specification. The process node differs: 8 nm for NVIDIA versus 7 nm for AMD. Transistor counts are 8,700 million for NVIDIA and 17,200 million for AMD. The die sizes are 200 mm² and 335 mm², respectively. Transistor density is 43.5M per mm² for NVIDIA and 51.3M per mm² for AMD.

Clock speeds show the AMD card running far higher. The base clocks are 1065 MHz versus 1941 MHz, and boost clocks are 1343 MHz versus 2450 MHz. The AMD card also has a game clock of 2174 MHz, which the NVIDIA card does not list. Memory clocks are 1500 MHz with 12 Gbps effective for NVIDIA, and 2000 MHz with 16 Gbps effective for AMD.

Memory capacity differs at 4 GB versus 10 GB, bus widths at 128-bit versus 160-bit, and bandwidth at 192.0 GB/s versus 320.0 GB/s. The shading units are 2048 versus 2304, texture units are 64 versus 144, and raster operations units are 32 versus 64. Ray tracing cores are 16 versus 36. The NVIDIA card has 64 tensor cores; the AMD card has none.

The NVIDIA card has a thermal design power of 45 W, while the AMD card is rated at 175 W. The NVIDIA card is an integrated form factor with no power connectors, while the AMD card is dual-slot with one 8-pin connector and a suggested power supply of 450 W. The bus interface is PCIe 4.0 x8 for NVIDIA and PCIe 4.0 x16 for AMD. Display outputs are portable-device-dependent for NVIDIA, while AMD lists 1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a. The AMD card has physical dimensions of 267 mm in length, 110 mm in height, and 40 mm in width.

FAQ

Q: Which card wins in the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 6700 scores 2014 points, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile scores 421 points. The AMD card leads by 79.1 percent.

Q: How much faster is the AMD Radeon RX 6700 in OpenCL compute?

A: The RX 6700 scores 97841 in Geekbench OpenCL, compared to 50038 for the RTX 3050 Mobile, a 48.9 percent advantage.

Q: Does the NVIDIA card win any head-to-head benchmark?

A: No. The database records three head-to-head tests, and the AMD card wins all three. The NVIDIA card records zero wins.

Q: What are the memory capacities of these two cards?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile has 4 GB of GDDR6, while the AMD Radeon RX 6700 has 10 GB of GDDR6.

Q: What is the thermal design power for each card?

A: The NVIDIA card is rated at 45 W, while the AMD card is rated at 175 W.

Q: Which card has a higher boost clock?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 6700 has a boost clock of 2450 MHz, compared to 1343 MHz for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon RX 6700 wins everywhere that raw performance matters. In DirectX 12, OpenCL, and Vulkan, it delivers higher scores by margins ranging from 41.6 percent to 79.1 percent. It has more shading units, more texture units, more raster operations units, more ray tracing cores, more memory, and higher memory bandwidth. It runs at substantially higher clock speeds and produces higher pixel and texture rates. For gaming at high settings, for compute workloads, and for any task that scales with GPU throughput, the RX 6700 is the stronger choice.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile wins in the context of power and portability. Its 45 W thermal design power is a fraction of the AMD card's 175 W rating. It requires no external power connectors, fits an integrated form factor, and is designed for portable devices. Its nearest rivals are other low-power mobile and workstation cards, and it sits in the 78th percentile of all GPUs, which is a strong result for a chip with such modest resources. It also includes 64 tensor cores, which the AMD card lacks, making it potentially relevant for AI-accelerated workloads that can use those cores.

The choice between these two cards depends entirely on the intended use case. For a desktop system where power draw and physical size are secondary concerns, the AMD Radeon RX 6700 is the clear performance winner. For a thin-and-light laptop where power efficiency is paramount, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile is the only viable option of the two, given its integrated form factor and lack of power connectors. The benchmark data does not support any scenario where the NVIDIA card outperforms the AMD card in raw processing, but it does support the NVIDIA card as a capable low-power solution for mobile environments.