NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER Comparison

The benchmark data presents a clear generational and performance-class divide between the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER. The RTX 4070 Ti SUPER, a desktop-class card from the Ada Lovelace generation, dominates across all recorded tests, while the RTX 3050 Mobile, an Ampere-era laptop part, trails significantly. The average benchmark scores, however, tell a nuanced story: the RTX 3050 Mobile posts an average score of 33170, which is higher than the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER’s average of 31087. This counterintuitive result stems from the different benchmark suites and the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER’s inclusion of legacy DirectX tests where it scores relatively low, weighting its average down. Despite this, the head-to-head results and individual test scores leave no doubt about which GPU is faster in modern workloads.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The most dramatic divergence appears in the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test, a modern API benchmark that stresses raw graphics throughput. Here, the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER scores 5569, while the RTX 3050 Mobile manages only 421. This represents a delta of -92.4% for the mobile part, meaning the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER outperforms it by a factor of over 13 times. This is not a marginal improvement; it is a categorical shift in rendering capability, reflecting the massive difference in shading units (8448 vs 2048) and texture rate (689.0 GTexel/s vs 85.95 GTexel/s). For any DX12-heavy gaming or content creation workload, the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is in a completely different performance tier.

In Geekbench OpenCL, a compute-focused benchmark, the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER again wins decisively with a score of 199267 against the RTX 3050 Mobile’s 50038, a delta of -74.9%. This 4x advantage in raw compute throughput aligns with the FP32 performance figures, where the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER delivers 44.10 TFLOPS versus 5.501 TFLOPS for the RTX 3050 Mobile. The RTX 4070 Ti SUPER’s higher transistor count (45,900 million vs 8,700 million) and larger die size (379 mm² vs 200 mm²) provide the physical resources for this compute dominance. This suggests significant advantages in GPU-accelerated tasks like video encoding, scientific simulation, or machine learning inference.

The closest contest comes in Geekbench Vulkan, where the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER scores 53683 against the RTX 3050 Mobile’s 49051, a much smaller delta of -8.6%. While the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER still wins, this narrow margin is notable. It suggests that in certain low-level API scenarios, the architectural advantages of the RTX 3050 Mobile’s Ampere design, or perhaps driver optimizations for that specific test, can partially mitigate the raw hardware disparity. Even so, the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER maintains the lead, but this result highlights that benchmark selection can dramatically influence perceived performance gaps. For the RTX 3050 Mobile, this is its best relative showing, but it still results in a loss.

Across the three shared benchmarks, the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER wins all three, giving it a 3-0 record in head-to-head victories. The RTX 3050 Mobile wins none. The data is unambiguous: in every measured metric, the desktop card is faster, with the most extreme differences appearing in modern, high-throughput DX12 workloads. The Vulkan result, while still a loss, shows the RTX 3050 Mobile can be competitive in specific, less bandwidth-intensive scenarios.

FAQ

Q: How much faster is the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER in the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test?

A: The RTX 4070 Ti SUPER scores 5569, which is -92.4% higher than the RTX 3050 Mobile’s score of 421. This represents a performance advantage of over 13x in this specific DX12 benchmark.

Q: Which GPU has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The RTX 3050 Mobile has a higher average benchmark score of 33170, compared to the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER’s 31087. This is an artifact of the different benchmark suites, as the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER’s low scores in legacy DirectX 9 and DirectX 10 tests (360 and 181, respectively) pull its average down.

Q: What is the difference in memory bandwidth between the two cards?

A: The RTX 4070 Ti SUPER has a memory bandwidth of 672.3 GB/s, which is significantly higher than the RTX 3050 Mobile’s 192.0 GB/s. This is due to its 256-bit bus width and faster GDDR6X memory, compared to the 128-bit bus and GDDR6 memory of the mobile part.

Q: Are both GPUs using the same manufacturing process?

A: No. The RTX 3050 Mobile uses an 8 nm process from Samsung, while the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER uses a 5 nm process from TSMC. The smaller process node allows for higher transistor density (121.1M / mm² vs 43.5M / mm²).

Q: What is the boost clock speed for each GPU?

A: The RTX 4070 Ti SUPER has a boost clock of 2610 MHz, which is nearly double the RTX 3050 Mobile’s boost clock of 1343 MHz. This higher clock speed, combined with more cores, contributes to its substantial performance lead.

Q: How do the two cards compare in terms of power consumption?

A: The RTX 4070 Ti SUPER has a TDP of 285 W, whereas the RTX 3050 Mobile has a TDP of 45 W. The desktop card requires a 600 W suggested PSU and a 1x 16-pin power connector, while the mobile chip has no power connectors and is listed as an IGP.

The Verdict

The data points to a single conclusion: for any performance-sensitive application, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is the superior choice. It wins every single head-to-head benchmark, with its largest victory being a 92.4% delta in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12. Its compute capabilities, as shown by a 74.9% lead in Geekbench OpenCL, and its massive memory bandwidth advantage (672.3 GB/s vs 192.0 GB/s) make it suitable for high-resolution gaming, 3D rendering, and GPU compute tasks. The RTX 3050 Mobile, while it holds a higher average benchmark score due to a different test suite composition, cannot compete in any direct comparison. It is also worth noting the launch MSRP for the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is 799 USD, a figure that reflects its desktop-class positioning.

The RTX 3050 Mobile’s only potential advantage lies in its form factor and power envelope. With a 45 W TDP and IGP slot width, it is designed for portable devices where power efficiency is paramount. Its smaller die size and lower transistor count also suggest a lower manufacturing complexity. However, from a pure performance standpoint, the data shows it is outclassed by the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER in every measured category. A user prioritizing maximum frame rates or compute throughput would have no reason to select the mobile chip. Conversely, a user requiring a low-power, integrated solution for a laptop would be unable to use the 285 W desktop card at all. The choice is not about performance parity; it is about the fundamental difference in use case.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ in nearly every core specification. The RTX 4070 Ti SUPER has 8448 shading units, 264 TMUs, and 96 ROPs, while the RTX 3050 Mobile has 2048 shading units, 64 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. This translates to a pixel rate of 250.6 GPixel/s for the desktop card versus 42.98 GPixel/s for the mobile part, and a texture rate of 689.0 GTexel/s versus 85.95 GTexel/s. The FP32 compute performance is 44.10 TFLOPS versus 5.501 TFLOPS, and FP16 performance is also 44.10 TFLOPS versus 5.501 TFLOPS. The RTX 4070 Ti SUPER has 66 RT cores and 264 tensor cores, compared to 16 and 64, respectively, on the RTX 3050 Mobile.

Memory configurations are also starkly different. The RTX 4070 Ti SUPER comes with 16 GB of GDDR6X on a 256-bit bus, delivering 672.3 GB/s of bandwidth. The RTX 3050 Mobile has 4 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, offering 192.0 GB/s. Clock speeds favor the desktop card, with a base clock of 2340 MHz and boost of 2610 MHz, versus 1065 MHz and 1343 MHz for the mobile chip. The RTX 4070 Ti SUPER has a TDP of 285 W and a triple-slot form factor, while the RTX 3050 Mobile is rated at 45 W with an IGP slot width. The bus interface is also different: PCIe 4.0 x16 for the desktop card, and PCIe 4.0 x8 for the mobile part.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap is generational. The RTX 3050 Mobile is built on the Ampere architecture, using the GA107 chip on an 8 nm Samsung process. It contains 8,700 million transistors on a 200 mm² die. The RTX 4070 Ti SUPER uses the Ada Lovelace architecture with the AD103 chip, fabricated on a 5 nm TSMC process. This chip packs 45,900 million transistors into a 379 mm² die, resulting in a transistor density of 121.1M / mm², nearly three times the 43.5M / mm² of the mobile chip. This process advantage and transistor budget allow for the significant increases in core counts, RT cores, and tensor cores.

Both GPUs support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, so API feature support is identical. However, the underlying hardware implementations differ. The RTX 3050 Mobile’s memory operates at 1500 MHz with 12 Gbps effective speed, while the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER’s memory runs at 1313 MHz with 21 Gbps effective speed. The desktop card also has a different display output configuration (1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a) compared to the mobile part’s portable-device-dependent outputs. The RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is a triple-slot card with dimensions of 310 mm in length, requiring a 600 W PSU, while the RTX 3050 Mobile is an integrated part with no separate power connector.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 4070 Ti SUPER wins in all performance-based categories. It is the clear choice for desktop gaming, especially at high resolutions or with ray tracing enabled, given its 66 RT cores and 16 GB of GDDR6X memory. Its high FP32 and FP16 throughput (44.10 TFLOPS) makes it suitable for professional 3D rendering, video editing, and scientific computing. The 672.3 GB/s bandwidth ensures it can feed its 8448 shading units effectively, avoiding bottlenecks in texture-heavy scenes. In any scenario where maximum performance is the goal and power consumption is not a constraint, the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is the winner.

The RTX 3050 Mobile wins in the domain of power efficiency and portability. Its 45 W TDP is a fraction of the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER’s 285 W, making it suitable for thin-and-light laptops where thermal and battery constraints are paramount. Its IGP form factor and lack of power connectors mean it can be integrated into systems where a discrete, triple-slot card is physically impossible. While it loses every benchmark, its higher average score of 33170 (due to the benchmark suite composition) shows it is not without compute capability. For a user who needs a GPU for a portable device and does not require top-tier performance, the RTX 3050 Mobile is the only viable option from this comparison. The data shows no scenario where the RTX 3050 Mobile wins on raw speed, but it is the definitive winner on operational efficiency and system integration.