NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile vs NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000 Comparison

# NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile vs NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile and the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000 occupy different corners of the GPU landscape, one built for thin-and-light laptops and the other for professional workstations. The recorded benchmark data shows a clear performance hierarchy, but the picture is more nuanced than a simple winner-takes-all outcome. The Quadro RTX 8000 leads in both head-to-head tests by substantial margins, yet the RTX 3050 Mobile holds a higher overall percentile ranking among all GPUs in the database. This contrast between raw benchmark scores and percentile placement suggests that the two cards serve different workloads and usage environments. The RTX 3050 Mobile sits in the 78th percentile of all GPUs, while the Quadro RTX 8000 sits in the 74th percentile, a small gap that reflects the mobile card's strong showing in its own benchmark set. The average benchmark scores tell a similar story: the RTX 3050 Mobile averages 33,170 points, while the Quadro RTX 8000 averages 28,421 points. However, when the two are tested side by side in identical workloads, the Quadro RTX 8000 wins both available comparisons. This apparent contradiction resolves when considering the benchmark compositions, as the Quadro's head-to-head victories come in OpenCL and Vulkan compute tests where its larger memory and compute resources dominate.

The Verdict

The data points to a straightforward recommendation for users who need maximum compute throughput in professional applications: the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000 is the stronger card. It wins both head-to-head benchmark comparisons, and the margins are decisive. In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the Quadro RTX 8000 scores 101,883 against the RTX 3050 Mobile's 50,038, a difference of 50.9 percent in the Quadro's favor. In the Geekbench Vulkan test, the Quadro scores 122,637 against 49,051, a 60 percent advantage. For workloads that rely heavily on OpenCL or Vulkan compute, the Quadro RTX 8000 is the clear choice.

However, the RTX 3050 Mobile is not without its own claims. Its average benchmark score of 33,170 exceeds the Quadro's 28,421, and its 78th percentile placement among all GPUs tops the Quadro's 74th. The RTX 3050 Mobile's nearest rivals in the database, the NVIDIA T550 Mobile and the AMD Radeon Pro 570, sit within a fraction of a percent of its average score, indicating a tight competitive cluster. The Quadro RTX 8000, by contrast, finds its nearest rivals in the AMD Radeon R9 M295X, the AMD FirePro S7150, the AMD Radeon RX 570, and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti, all within 1.4 percent of its average. For users constrained to a laptop form factor, the RTX 3050 Mobile offers a competitive combination of compute capability and mobility. The Quadro RTX 8000, with its dual-slot design and 260 W power draw, is strictly a desktop workstation component. The choice between the two is less about which is better in absolute terms and more about which fits the intended deployment scenario.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile has an average benchmark score of 33,170, while the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000 averages 28,421 points.

Q: Which GPU wins the Geekbench OpenCL test?

A: The NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000 wins, scoring 101,883 compared to the RTX 3050 Mobile's 50,038, a 50.9 percent lead.

Q: How much memory does each GPU have?

A: The RTX 3050 Mobile has 4 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, while the Quadro RTX 8000 has 48 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 384-bit bus.

Q: What is the process node for each GPU?

A: The RTX 3050 Mobile uses an 8 nm process from Samsung, while the Quadro RTX 8000 uses a 12 nm process from TSMC.

Q: Which GPU has a higher percentile ranking among all GPUs?

A: The RTX 3050 Mobile ranks in the 78th percentile, while the Quadro RTX 8000 ranks in the 74th percentile.

Q: What is the power consumption difference?

A: The RTX 3050 Mobile has a 45 W power draw, while the Quadro RTX 8000 draws 260 W.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs represent different architectural generations from NVIDIA. The RTX 3050 Mobile is built on the Ampere architecture, using the GA107 chip, while the Quadro RTX 8000 uses the older Turing architecture with the TU102 chip. This architectural split carries significant implications for performance and efficiency. The RTX 3050 Mobile is manufactured on an 8 nm process at Samsung, while the Quadro RTX 8000 uses a 12 nm process at TSMC. The smaller process node gives the mobile chip a transistor density of 43.5 million transistors per square millimeter, compared to the Quadro's 24.7 million per square millimeter. The RTX 3050 Mobile packs 8,700 million transistors into a 200 mm² die, while the Quadro RTX 8000 contains 18,600 million transistors across a much larger 754 mm² die.

The compute resource allocation differs dramatically between the two. The Quadro RTX 8000 fields 4,608 shading units, 288 texture mapping units, and 96 raster output units, while the RTX 3050 Mobile has 2,048 shading units, 64 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. Ray tracing and tensor core counts also favor the Quadro, which has 72 RT cores and 576 tensor cores versus the mobile chip's 16 RT cores and 64 tensor cores. The FP32 compute throughput reflects these differences: the Quadro RTX 8000 delivers 16.31 TFLOPS against the RTX 3050 Mobile's 5.501 TFLOPS. Interestingly, the FP16 numbers diverge in ratio: the RTX 3050 Mobile achieves 5.501 TFLOPS FP16 at a 1:1 ratio with FP32, while the Quadro RTX 8000 achieves 32.62 TFLOPS FP16 at a 2:1 ratio, indicating a different approach to half-precision compute.

Specification Differences

The specification sheets for these two GPUs diverge on nearly every major field. The RTX 3050 Mobile uses the GA107 chip on an 8 nm Samsung process, while the Quadro RTX 8000 uses the TU102 chip on a 12 nm TSMC process. Clock speeds favor the Quadro, with a base clock of 1395 MHz and a boost clock of 1770 MHz, compared to the RTX 3050 Mobile's 1065 MHz base and 1343 MHz boost. Memory configurations are starkly different: the RTX 3050 Mobile has 4 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus with 192.0 GB/s bandwidth, while the Quadro RTX 8000 has 48 GB of GDDR6 on a 384-bit bus with 672.0 GB/s bandwidth. Memory clocks also differ, with the mobile card running at 1500 MHz (12 Gbps effective) and the Quadro at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective).

Pixel and texture fill rates show the Quadro's advantage: it achieves 169.9 GPixel/s and 509.8 GTexel/s, while the RTX 3050 Mobile manages 42.98 GPixel/s and 85.95 GTexel/s. The power envelope is a major separator, with the RTX 3050 Mobile drawing 45 W compared to the Quadro's 260 W. The Quadro requires a 1x 6-pin plus 1x 8-pin power connector and a suggested 600 W power supply, while the RTX 3050 Mobile uses no external power connectors. The bus interface also differs: the RTX 3050 Mobile uses PCIe 4.0 x8, while the Quadro RTX 8000 uses PCIe 3.0 x16. The Quadro offers four DisplayPort 1.4a outputs and one USB Type-C port, while the mobile card's display outputs are dependent on the portable device. The Quadro measures 267 mm in length and 111 mm in height, occupying a dual-slot form factor, while the RTX 3050 Mobile is an IGP solution with no slot width. Release timing also differs, with the Quadro RTX 8000 launching in August 2018 and the RTX 3050 Mobile launching in May 2021.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

Two head-to-head benchmark comparisons are recorded in the database, and the Quadro RTX 8000 wins both. In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the Quadro RTX 8000 scores 101,883 against the RTX 3050 Mobile's 50,038. This represents a 50.9 percent advantage for the Quadro, meaning the professional card more than doubles the mobile card's OpenCL score. The Geekbench Vulkan test shows an even wider gap: the Quadro RTX 8000 scores 122,637 against the RTX 3050 Mobile's 49,051, a 60 percent difference. These results indicate that for compute-heavy workloads exposed through OpenCL or Vulkan APIs, the Quadro RTX 8000 is in a different performance class entirely.

The RTX 3050 Mobile's own benchmark portfolio, however, shows strengths that the head-to-head tests do not capture. Its Geekbench OpenCL score of 50,038 and Vulkan score of 49,051 are respectable for a mobile part, and its average score of 33,170 places it above the Quadro's 28,421 average. The RTX 3050 Mobile also has a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 421, a test that the Quadro RTX 8000 does not have recorded in the database. The Quadro's benchmark results include Passmark tests that the mobile card lacks, including DirectX 9, 10, 11, and 12 scores of 211, 137, 188, and 79 respectively, plus a Passmark G2D score of 866, a G3D score of 19,799, and a GPU compute score of 9,992. These additional data points suggest that the Quadro RTX 8000's benchmark profile is more comprehensive, while the RTX 3050 Mobile's recorded tests focus on modern compute APIs.

Where Each One Wins

The NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000 wins in scenarios that demand raw compute throughput and large memory capacity. Its 48 GB of VRAM on a 384-bit bus provides 672.0 GB/s of bandwidth, a figure that dwarfs the RTX 3050 Mobile's 192.0 GB/s. For workloads such as rendering, scientific simulation, or machine learning inference that can utilize OpenCL or Vulkan compute, the Quadro's 50.9 percent and 60 percent leads in the head-to-head tests make it the dominant choice. The Quadro's dual-slot design, 260 W power draw, and dedicated power connectors place it firmly in the workstation desktop segment, where space and power are less constrained.

The RTX 3050 Mobile wins in the context of mobility and efficiency. Its 45 W power draw makes it suitable for laptops, and its IGP form factor requires no external power connectors. Its 8 nm Samsung process gives it a transistor density advantage, and its 1:1 FP16 ratio may benefit certain compute workloads that prefer equal FP32 and FP16 throughput. The RTX 3050 Mobile's higher percentile ranking (78th versus 74th) and higher average benchmark score (33,170 versus 28,421) indicate that in its own benchmark set, it performs competitively against a broad range of GPUs. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA T550 Mobile, the AMD Radeon Pro 570, the NVIDIA P104-100, and the NVIDIA T600 Mobile, all within 1 percent of its average score, showing that it holds its own in the mobile professional segment. For users who need a capable compute GPU in a laptop form factor, the RTX 1 3050 Mobile is the appropriate selection.