NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile vs NVIDIA Quadro M2000 Comparison

The Quadro M2000 and the GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile represent two very different eras of NVIDIA’s design philosophy. The M2000 is a Maxwell-based professional workstation card from 2016, built on a 28 nm TSMC process. The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile is an Ampere laptop GPU from 2021, fabricated by Samsung on an 8 nm node. The database shows a clear performance gap between them, but the story is more nuanced than a simple generational leap. The M2000 holds a 56th percentile rank against all GPUs, while the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile sits at the 53rd percentile, yet the newer card delivers dramatically higher raw benchmark scores.

The Verdict

The data points to different buyers for each card, and the choice hinges entirely on the intended workload. The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile is the outright winner in the recorded head-to-head tests, taking both available benchmark victories. In Geekbench OpenCL, it scores 57915 compared to the M2000’s 14588, a delta of 74.8 percent in favor of the mobile part. The Geekbench Vulkan result is similarly lopsided: 55812 for the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile versus 14475 for the Quadro, a 74.1 percent difference. Anyone prioritizing raw compute performance in these modern API tests should select the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile without hesitation.

The Quadro M2000, however, is not without merit. Its average benchmark score of 14532 places it slightly above the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile’s average of 12940, a quirk of the database that reflects the different benchmark suites each card has been subjected to. The M2000’s percentile rank of 56 is also three points higher than the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile’s 53. This suggests that, within its own test set, the Quadro performs more consistently relative to the broader GPU landscape. The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile’s lower average is dragged down by its older DirectX tests, including a Passmark DirectX 9 score of just 120 and a DirectX 10 score of 60, which are not representative of its modern capabilities.

For professional workstation use, the Quadro M2000 offers validated drivers and a single-slot form factor with four DisplayPort 1.2 outputs, making it a practical choice for multi-display setups in a desktop chassis. The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile, as an IGP (integrated graphics processor) for laptops, has no such flexibility; its display outputs are listed as portable device dependent. The verdict is straightforward: the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile for compute-heavy modern workloads, the Quadro M2000 for legacy professional environments where its specific feature set and form factor are required. The M2000’s end-of-life status and 2016 release date mean it is a legacy part, but the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile is also marked as end-of-life, making both of them historical offerings.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these two GPUs is vast. The Quadro M2000 uses the GM206 chip, built on Maxwell 2.0 architecture with a 28 nm process from TSMC. It packs 2,940 million transistors onto a 228 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 12.9 million per square millimeter. The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile uses the GA106 chip, based on Ampere architecture and fabricated on Samsung’s 8 nm node. This chip contains 12,000 million transistors on a 276 mm² die, for a density of 43.5 million per square millimeter. The newer part has over four times the transistor count in a slightly larger package.

The compute resources differ dramatically. The Quadro M2000 has 768 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs. The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile has 2560 shading units, 80 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. Beyond the traditional units, the Ampere card adds 20 RT cores and 80 tensor cores, features completely absent from the Maxwell-based Quadro. This enables hardware-accelerated ray tracing and AI workloads that the M2000 cannot handle at all. The clock speeds tell a different story: the Quadro runs at a base of 796 MHz with a boost of 1163 MHz, while the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile has a lower base of 735 MHz and a boost of 1035 MHz. Despite lower clocks, the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile achieves far higher throughput thanks to its massive shader count.

The memory subsystems also diverge. Both cards have 4 GB of memory on a 128-bit bus, but the Quadro uses GDDR5 at 1653 MHz (6.6 Gbps effective) for a bandwidth of 105.8 GB/s. The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile uses GDDR6 at 1500 MHz (12 Gbps effective) for a bandwidth of 192.0 GB/s, an 82 percent increase. The pixel rates are close, 37.22 GPixel/s for the Quadro versus 33.12 GPixel/s for the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile, but the texture rate favors the newer card: 82.80 GTexel/s versus 55.82 GTexel/s. FP32 compute is a landslide: 1.786 TFLOPS for the M2000 versus 5.299 TFLOPS for the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile. The Ampere card also offers FP16 at 5.299 TFLOPS with a 1:1 ratio, a feature the Quadro lacks entirely.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile wins in every modern benchmark category recorded in the database. Its Geekbench OpenCL score of 57915 is nearly four times the Quadro’s 14588. The Vulkan test shows a similar pattern, with 55812 versus 14475. These results indicate that for compute-heavy applications using OpenCL or Vulkan, the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile is in a different class entirely. The card also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), compared to the Quadro’s DirectX 12 (12_1), meaning it can handle the latest graphics features and ray tracing effects.

The Quadro M2000’s wins are more subtle. Its pixel rate of 37.22 GPixel/s exceeds the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile’s 33.12 GPixel/s, a small but real advantage in fill-rate-bound scenarios. Its higher boost clock of 1163 MHz versus 1035 MHz suggests it can sustain higher frequencies in certain workloads. The Quadro’s average benchmark score of 14532 is 12.3 percent higher than the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile’s 12940, and its percentile rank of 56 beats the newer card’s 53. The desktop card also offers a single-slot form factor with four DisplayPort 1.2 outputs, which is a practical advantage for multi-monitor professional setups. The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile, being an IGP, is limited to whatever outputs the laptop manufacturer provides.

The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile’s Passmark results show a mixed picture. Its G3D score is 10093, its GPU compute score is 4305, and its G2D score is 498. The DirectX scores are low (120 for DX9, 60 for DX10, 76 for DX11, 49 for DX12), which likely reflects the test environment or driver state rather than the hardware’s true capability. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 469 is the only modern gaming benchmark recorded, and it shows the card’s potential in current API workloads.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU is faster in OpenCL compute?

A: The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile scores 57915 in Geekbench OpenCL, while the Quadro M2000 scores 14588. The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile is 74.8 percent faster in this test.

Q: Do both cards have the same amount of memory?

A: Yes, both have 4 GB. The Quadro M2000 uses GDDR5 with 105.8 GB/s bandwidth, while the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile uses GDDR6 with 192.0 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: Does the Quadro M2000 support ray tracing?

A: No. It has no RT cores. The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile includes 20 RT cores and 80 tensor cores, enabling hardware ray tracing and AI acceleration.

Q: Which card has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The Quadro M2000 has an average score of 14532, which is higher than the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile’s 12940. This is despite the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile winning both head-to-head tests.

Q: What is the transistor count difference?

A: The Quadro M2000 has 2,940 million transistors on a 228 mm² die. The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile has 12,000 million transistors on a 276 mm² die. The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile has over four times as many transistors.

Q: Which card has a higher boost clock?

A: The Quadro M2000 boosts to 1163 MHz, while the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile boosts to 1035 MHz. The Quadro also has a higher base clock at 796 MHz versus 735 MHz.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database contains two direct comparisons between these cards, and both are decisive victories for the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile. In Geekbench OpenCL, the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile scores 57915 against the Quadro M2000’s 14588. The delta is 74.8 percent, meaning the newer card delivers nearly four times the OpenCL performance. This is the largest margin in the head-to-head data. In Geekbench Vulkan, the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile scores 55812, while the Quadro M2000 manages 14475, a delta of 74.1 percent. The consistency of these margins across two different APIs suggests the performance gap is fundamental to the architectures themselves.

The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile’s nearest rivals provide context for its standing. Its average score of 12940 puts it just 0.1 percent behind the AMD Radeon RX 580, 0.4 percent behind the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER, and 0.5 percent ahead of the AMD Radeon 740M. The Quadro M2000’s nearest rivals are a different group: it sits 0.9 percent ahead of the GeForce GTX 965M, 1 percent ahead of the Radeon RX Vega 11, 1.1 percent ahead of the GeForce GTX TITAN, and 1.1 percent behind the Radeon RX 5500 XT. These rival relationships show the M2000 competing with mid-range GPUs from its era, while the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile trades blows with much newer desktop parts.

The FP32 compute figures reinforce the benchmark results. The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile outputs 5.299 TFLOPS, which is 2.97 times the Quadro M2000’s 1.786 TFLOPS. The texture rate follows a similar pattern: 82.80 GTexel/s for the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile versus 55.82 GTexel/s for the Quadro. The only metric where the Quadro wins is pixel rate, 37.22 GPixel/s versus 33.12 GPixel/s. This is a modest 12.4 percent advantage, likely due to the Quadro’s higher boost clock of 1163 MHz. Memory bandwidth also favors the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile, with 192.0 GB/s versus 105.8 GB/s, an 82 percent advantage.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ in nearly every measurable specification. The process nodes are generations apart: 28 nm for the Quadro M2000 versus 8 nm for the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile. The foundries differ too, TSMC for the Maxwell card and Samsung for the Ampere part. Transistor counts are 2,940 million versus 12,000 million, and die sizes are 228 mm² versus 276 mm². Transistor density is 12.9 million per square millimeter for the Quadro and 43.5 million for the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile.

The memory systems differ in type and bandwidth but not capacity or bus width. Both have 4 GB and a 128-bit bus, but the Quadro uses GDDR5 at 6.6 Gbps effective for 105.8 GB/s, while the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile uses GDDR6 at 12 Gbps effective for 192.0 GB/s. Clock speeds are lower on the newer card: 735 MHz base and 1035 MHz boost versus 796 MHz base and 1163 MHz boost for the Quadro. The memory clock is also lower in MHz on the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile (1500 MHz versus 1653 MHz), but the higher data rate compensates.

The compute unit counts are dramatically different. The Quadro has 768 shading units, 48 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile has 2560 shading units, 80 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile adds 20 RT cores and 80 tensor cores, which the Quadro lacks entirely. FP32 performance is 1.786 TFLOPS for the Quadro versus 5.299 TFLOPS for the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile, which also offers FP16 at 5.299 TFLOPS. The pixel rate favors the Quadro at 37.22 GPixel/s versus 33.12 GPixel/s, while the texture rate favors the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile at 82.80 GTexel/s versus 55.82 GTexel/s.

The bus interfaces differ: PCIe 3.0 x16 for the Quadro versus PCIe 4.0 x16 for the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile. Both have a 75 W TDP, but the Quadro is a single-slot desktop card with four DisplayPort 1.2 outputs and no power connectors, while the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile is an IGP with portable-device-dependent outputs. The DirectX support differs as well: 12 (12_1) for the Quadro versus 12 Ultimate (12_2) for the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile. Both support OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4. The Quadro requires a 250 W suggested PSU, while the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile has no such requirement listed. Release dates are April 2016 for the Quadro and May 2021 for the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile, and both are marked as end-of-life products.