NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile vs NVIDIA Tesla K10 Comparison

# NVIDIA Tesla K10 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile

The NVIDIA Tesla K10 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile represent two very different eras of GPU design, separated by nearly a decade of architectural evolution. The Tesla K10, a dual-GPU compute accelerator from 2012, was built for high-throughput scientific workloads in server racks, while the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile is a modern laptop part from 2021 designed for gaming and general-purpose computing in portable devices. The benchmark data reveals a stark performance divide: in the single shared test (Geekbench OpenCL), the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile scores 57,915 against the Tesla K10's 14,029, a 75.8% advantage for the newer part. The Tesla K10 holds a slightly higher percentile rank among all GPUs (55th vs 53rd), but this reflects its specialized compute-oriented design rather than raw modern-day competitiveness.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU is faster in the shared Geekbench OpenCL benchmark?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile is significantly faster, scoring 57,915 versus the Tesla K10's 14,029, representing a 75.8% performance advantage.

Q: How do these GPUs compare to their nearest rivals?

A: The Tesla K10's closest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 (14,150 average score, 0.9% higher), while the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile's closest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER (12,986 average score, 0.4% higher). Both GPUs sit near their rival clusters within roughly 1.6% margins.

Q: What are the memory specifications of each GPU?

A: Both GPUs have 4 GB of memory, but the Tesla K10 uses GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus providing 160.0 GB/s bandwidth, while the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile uses GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus providing 192.0 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: What is the power consumption difference?

A: The Tesla K10 has a TDP of 225 W and requires a 550 W suggested PSU with dual power connectors (1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin), while the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile has a 75 W TDP with no power connectors, being an integrated-style mobile part.

Q: Which GPU supports newer graphics APIs?

A: The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, whereas the Tesla K10 is limited to DirectX 12 (11_0) and Vulkan 1.2.175. Both support OpenGL 4.6.

Q: When were these GPUs released?

A: The Tesla K10 was released on 2012-04-30, and the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile was released on 2021-05-10. Both are now end-of-life products.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these two GPUs is substantial. The Tesla K10 is built on the Kepler architecture (chip GK104) using a 28 nm process at TSMC, containing 3,540 million transistors on a 294 mm² die. The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile uses the Ampere architecture (chip GA106) fabricated on Samsung's 8 nm node, packing 12,000 million transistors into a 276 mm² die. This represents a transistor density jump from 12.0M per mm² on the Tesla to 43.5M per mm² on the RTX part, a 3.6x increase in density.

The Tesla K10 is fundamentally a dual-GPU card, which explains its 225 W TDP, dual-slot form factor, and dual power connector requirement. It offers 1,536 shading units, 128 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs. Critically, it has no dedicated ray tracing or tensor cores — features that did not exist in consumer hardware at that time. Its FP32 compute is rated at 2.289 TFLOPS, and it has no listed FP16 capability.

The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile, by contrast, is a single-GPU mobile part with 2,560 shading units, 80 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. It includes 20 ray tracing cores and 80 tensor cores, bringing hardware-accelerated ray tracing and AI features to the table. Its FP32 throughput reaches 5.299 TFLOPS, and it also supports FP16 at a 1:1 ratio (5.299 TFLOPS), effectively doubling peak throughput for mixed-precision workloads. The RTX part is an IGP (integrated graphics processor) with no slot width, no power connectors, and portable-device-dependent display outputs, reflecting its laptop-oriented design.

The memory subsystems differ significantly. The Tesla K10 uses 4 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus, yielding 160.0 GB/s bandwidth. The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile also has 4 GB, but of GDDR6 on a narrower 128-bit bus, achieving higher bandwidth at 192.0 GB/s thanks to faster 12 Gbps effective memory clock versus the Tesla's 5 Gbps. The RTX part also benefits from a PCIe 4.0 x16 interface, while the Tesla uses PCIe 3.0 x16.

Where Each One Wins

The Tesla K10's domain is legacy compute acceleration. Its dual-GPU configuration and high 225 W power envelope were designed for server racks and scientific workstations, not desktop gaming or mobile use. It has no display outputs, making it strictly a compute accelerator. In the context of modern workloads, its 2.289 TFLOPS FP32 performance and 160.0 GB/s bandwidth are modest, but its 256-bit memory bus and 128 TMUs provide strong texture throughput for its era (95.36 GTexel/s). The Tesla K10's benchmark presence is limited to a single Geekbench OpenCL score, which places it at the 55th percentile of all GPUs — a respectable position given its age.

The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile wins in virtually every measurable category. Its 5.299 TFLOPS FP32 is over 2.3x the Tesla's compute throughput, and its 192.0 GB/s memory bandwidth exceeds the Tesla despite a narrower bus. The inclusion of ray tracing and tensor cores opens up entirely new application domains — DLSS, ray-traced gaming, and AI inference — that the Tesla physically cannot handle. Its 75 W TDP makes it suitable for thin-and-light laptops, and its 12,000 million transistors on a smaller die demonstrate the efficiency gains of modern manufacturing. The RTX part's benchmark suite is far more extensive, with scores across 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 (469), PassMark DirectX 9/10/11/12 tests (120/60/76/49), PassMark G3D (10,093), G2D (498), and GPU compute (4,305), alongside Geekbench OpenCL and Vulkan scores (57,915 and 55,812 respectively).

For modern users, the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile is the clear choice for gaming, content creation, and any workload that can leverage its tensor or ray tracing cores. The Tesla K10's only advantage lies in its dual-GPU parallel compute capability, which was relevant for certain scientific workloads a decade ago but is now superseded by far more efficient architectures.

Specification Differences

| Specification | NVIDIA Tesla K10 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile |

|---|---|---|

| Architecture | Kepler | Ampere |

| Process Node | 28 nm (TSMC) | 8 nm (Samsung) |

| Transistors | 3,540 million | 12,000 million |

| Die Size | 294 mm² | 276 mm² |

| Transistor Density | 12.0M / mm² | 43.5M / mm² |

| Shading Units | 1,536 | 2,560 |

| TMUs | 128 | 80 |

| ROPs | 32 | 32 |

| RT Cores | None | 20 |

| Tensor Cores | None | 80 |

| FP32 | 2.289 TFLOPS | 5.299 TFLOPS |

| FP16 | None listed | 5.299 TFLOPS (1:1) |

| Memory Type | GDDR5 | GDDR6 |

| Memory Bus | 256 bit | 128 bit |

| Memory Bandwidth | 160.0 GB/s | 192.0 GB/s |

| Memory Clock | 1250 MHz (5 Gbps effective) | 1500 MHz (12 Gbps effective) |

| TDP | 225 W | 75 W |

| Slot Width | Dual-slot | IGP |

| Power Connectors | 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin | None |

| Suggested PSU | 550 W | None |

| Bus Interface | PCIe 3.0 x16 | PCIe 4.0 x16 |

| Display Outputs | No outputs | Portable Device Dependent |

| DirectX Support | 12 (11_0) | 12 Ultimate (12_2) |

| Vulkan Support | 1.2.175 | 1.4 |

| Release Date | 2012-04-30 | 2021-05-10 |

| Launch MSRP | 5,099 USD | None listed |

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only directly comparable benchmark between these two GPUs is Geekbench OpenCL, where the results are decisively one-sided. The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile scores 57,915, while the Tesla K10 manages 14,029. This translates to a 75.8% delta in favor of the RTX part — meaning the Tesla K10 achieves only 24.2% of the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile's performance in this compute test. This is a massive generational leap, especially considering the Tesla was a dual-GPU product with 225 W power draw versus the RTX's 75 W single-GPU mobile design.

The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile's additional benchmark results provide context for its performance profile. Its PassMark G3D score of 10,093 indicates strong DirectX gaming performance for a mobile part, while its GPU compute score of 4,305 shows competent general-purpose compute. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 469 reflects modern DirectX 12 Ultimate workload handling. Its Geekbench Vulkan score of 55,812 is nearly identical to its OpenCL score, suggesting balanced performance across different compute APIs.

The Tesla K10's single benchmark score of 14,029 places it at the 55th percentile of all GPUs, a surprisingly high ranking for a 2012 product. However, its nearest rivals — the GTX 680 (14,150, 0.9% higher), RX 570X (13,871, 1.1% lower), RTX A2000 Mobile (13,821, 1.5% lower), and Radeon 660M (13,812, 1.6% lower) — are all modern or near-modern parts with far better feature sets. This suggests the Tesla K10's raw compute throughput remains competitive in synthetic OpenCL tests, but it lacks the architectural features needed for modern workloads.

The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile's nearest rivals — RX 580 (12,928, 0.1% lower), GTX 1660 SUPER (12,986, 0.4% higher), Radeon 740M (12,870, 0.5% lower), and FirePro W5100 (12,847, 0.7% lower) — are all desktop or high-end mobile parts, indicating the RTX part punches above its mobile weight class. The fact that a 75 W laptop GPU matches or exceeds desktop GPUs from the same era underscores the efficiency of the Ampere architecture.

In the head-to-head comparison, the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile wins the single benchmark contest, and the data suggests it would dominate any additional tests. The Tesla K10's 2.289 TFLOPS FP32 and lack of ray tracing, tensor cores, or modern API support make it a niche product today, while the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile remains a competent general-purpose GPU for laptops. The benchmark delta of 75.8% in OpenCL is stark, but the architectural differences — particularly the 5.299 TFLOPS FP32, FP16 support, and dedicated AI hardware — paint an even more complete picture of the RTX part's superiority.