NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile vs NVIDIA T400 Comparison

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile and the NVIDIA T400 are both end-of-life NVIDIA parts, but they target completely different segments of the market. The RTX 3060 Mobile is a high-performance laptop GPU from the Ampere generation, while the T400 is a low-profile desktop workstation card based on the older Turing architecture. The benchmark data reveals a massive performance gulf, but the T400 has its own niche where its specific characteristics matter more than raw speed.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only two benchmarks shared between these cards are Geekbench OpenCL and Geekbench Vulkan, and the results are decisively one-sided. In Geekbench OpenCL, the RTX 3060 Mobile scores 79,483 points versus the T400's 17,039 points. That is a 366.5% advantage for the mobile part. In Vulkan, the gap is even wider: the RTX 3060 Mobile scores 80,344 points against the T400's 15,976 points, a 402.9% lead. These are not incremental differences; they represent completely different performance tiers.

To put the RTX 3060 Mobile's score in context, the database shows its average benchmark score is 18,159, which places it at the 62nd percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon Pro 5700 (avg score 18,189, delta -0.2%), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER (avg score 18,093, delta +0.4%), and the AMD Radeon RX 460 (avg score 18,373, delta -1.2%). The RTX 3060 Mobile is essentially trading blows with desktop GPUs from a higher tier, which is remarkable for a mobile part. It edges out the RTX 2060 SUPER by 0.4% and trails the Radeon Pro 5700 by just 0.2%. This places it squarely in the upper-midrange of desktop-class performance.

The T400, by contrast, has an average benchmark score of 16,508, which puts it at the 60th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals are a strange mix: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D V2 (avg score 16,504, delta 0%), the AMD Radeon PRO W7500 (avg score 16,415, delta +0.6%), the NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell (avg score 16,408, delta +0.6%), and the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT (avg score 16,361, delta +0.9%). The T400 is essentially neck-and-neck with these cards, but that is because its average is dragged down by the fact that it only has two benchmark entries, both of which are compute-oriented tests where it scores low. The T400's percentile of 60 is misleading; its real-world gaming and graphics performance is far below its average score suggests, since it lacks the raw shader throughput of those rivals.

The head-to-head data is unambiguous: the RTX 3060 Mobile wins both shared tests, and the wins are massive. There are no tests where the T400 comes out ahead. This is a foundational fact for any comparison between the two.

Architecture Differences

The RTX 3060 Mobile is built on the GA106 chip using Samsung's 8 nm process, while the T400 uses the TU117 chip on TSMC's 12 nm node. The RTX 3060 Mobile packs 12,000 million transistors on a 276 mm² die, giving it a transistor density of 43.5 million transistors per mm². The T400 has only 4,700 million transistors on a 200 mm² die, with a density of 23.5 million transistors per mm². This means the RTX 3060 Mobile has more than twice the transistor count in a die that is only 38% larger. The architectural generation gap is significant: the RTX 3060 Mobile is Ampere, while the T400 is Turing. Ampere brings support for DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and hardware ray tracing cores, while the T400 is limited to DirectX 12 (12_1) and has no ray tracing cores at all.

The compute resources are starkly different. The RTX 3060 Mobile has 3,840 shading units, 120 texture mapping units, and 48 raster output pipelines. It also includes 30 ray tracing cores and 120 tensor cores. The T400 has just 384 shading units, 24 TMUs, and 16 ROPs. It has no dedicated ray tracing or tensor cores. The FP32 compute throughput tells the story: the RTX 3060 Mobile delivers 10.94 TFLOPS, while the T400 delivers 1,094.4 GFLOPS, which is exactly one-tenth of the mobile part's output. The FP16 performance is also different in character: the RTX 3060 Mobile has 1:1 FP16 to FP32 ratio at 10.94 TFLOPS, while the T400 has a 2:1 ratio, meaning it can do 2.189 TFLOPS of FP16 but only half that in FP32.

Memory is another major divider. The RTX 3060 Mobile has 6 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus, yielding 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The T400 has 2 GB of GDDR6 on a 64-bit bus, yielding just 80.00 GB/s. The memory clock speeds also differ: 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective) for the RTX 3060 Mobile versus 1250 MHz (10 Gbps effective) for the T400. The pixel and texture rates reflect the same gulf: 68.40 GPixel/s and 171.0 GTexel/s for the RTX 3060 Mobile, versus 22.80 GPixel/s and 34.20 GTexel/s for the T400.

The Verdict

The data is clear: if you need raw graphics performance, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile is the only choice. It is anywhere from 366% to 403% faster in the shared benchmarks, and it brings modern features like ray tracing and DirectX 12 Ultimate support. The RTX 3060 Mobile is a legitimate gaming and content-creation GPU that can handle demanding 3D workloads. Its average benchmark score of 18,159 places it in the same league as desktop cards like the RTX 2060 SUPER, which is impressive for a mobile part.

The T400, however, is not meant for gaming or heavy compute. Its 30 W TDP and single-slot design make it ideal for low-profile workstation builds where space and power are at a premium. It has 3x mini-DisplayPort 1.4a outputs, which is a feature the RTX 3060 Mobile lacks entirely, as it is portable-device dependent. The T400 supports a 200 W suggested PSU, making it easy to drop into existing office machines. If the workload is basic 2D acceleration, multi-monitor desktop productivity, or light CUDA tasks that do not stress the GPU, the T400's low power draw and compact form factor are valid reasons to choose it over a much more powerful but bulkier mobile chip.

For anyone who wants to play games, render 3D scenes, or run machine learning inference, the RTX 3060 Mobile is the obvious pick. The T400's performance is simply too low for those tasks. But the data does not support calling the T400 a bad card; it is a specialized tool for a narrow use case, and within that use case, its 60th percentile standing and single-slot form factor are adequate.

FAQ

Q: Which card is faster in Geekbench Vulkan?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile scores 80,344, while the NVIDIA T400 scores 15,976, giving the RTX 3060 Mobile a 402.9% lead.

Q: Does the T400 support ray tracing?

A: No. The T400 has no ray tracing cores in its specification, while the RTX 3060 Mobile has 30 RT cores and supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2).

Q: How much memory bandwidth does each card have?

A: The RTX 3060 Mobile has 336.0 GB/s from 6 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus. The T400 has 80.00 GB/s from 2 GB of GDDR6 on a 64-bit bus.

Q: What is the power draw difference?

A: The RTX 3060 Mobile has a TDP of 80 W, while the T400 has a TDP of 30 W. The T400 also lists a 200 W suggested PSU, while the RTX 3060 Mobile has no suggested PSU listed.

Q: Which card has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The RTX 3060 Mobile has an average benchmark score of 18,159, compared to the T400's 16,508. The RTX 3060 Mobile sits at the 62nd percentile of all GPUs, while the T400 is at the 60th.

Q: Are both cards still in production?

A: No. Both are marked as end-of-life in the database. The RTX 3060 Mobile was released in January 2021, and the T400 was released in May 2021.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 3060 Mobile wins in every measurable performance category. It has 10 times the FP32 throughput (10.94 TFLOPS versus 1,094.4 GFLOPS), 4.2 times the memory bandwidth (336.0 GB/s versus 80.00 GB/s), and 10 times the shading units (3,840 versus 384). It also wins on raw pixel rate (68.40 GPixel/s versus 22.80 GPixel/s) and texture rate (171.0 GTexel/s versus 34.20 GTexel/s). In the shared benchmarks, it wins both Geekbench OpenCL and Vulkan by margins of 366.5% and 402.9% respectively. The RTX 3060 Mobile also has the advantage of 30 ray tracing cores and 120 tensor cores, which the T400 lacks entirely. For any workload that involves 3D rendering, gaming, or compute-heavy tasks, the RTX 3060 Mobile is the clear winner.

The T400 wins in efficiency and form factor. It has a TDP of just 30 W, which is less than half of the RTX 3060 Mobile's 80 W. It is a single-slot card, whereas the RTX 3060 Mobile is a laptop chip with no defined slot width. The T400's display outputs are specified as 3x mini-DisplayPort 1.4a, whereas the RTX 3060 Mobile's outputs are portable-device dependent. The T400 also runs on a PCIe 3.0 x16 interface, while the RTX 3060 Mobile uses PCIe 4.0 x16, but for the T400's intended workloads, the older interface is not a bottleneck. The T400's 2 GB of VRAM is small, but its 200 W suggested PSU requirement means it can be installed in systems with modest power supplies, making it a drop-in upgrade for basic office workstations.

Specification Differences

| Specification | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile | NVIDIA T400 |

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

| Architecture | Ampere | Turing |

| Process Node | 8 nm (Samsung) | 12 nm (TSMC) |

| Transistors | 12,000 million | 4,700 million |

| Die Size | 276 mm² | 200 mm² |

| Base Clock | 900 MHz | 420 MHz |

| Boost Clock | 1425 MHz | 1425 MHz |

| Memory Size | 6 GB GDDR6 | 2 GB GDDR6 |

| Memory Bus | 192 bit | 64 bit |

| Memory Bandwidth | 336.0 GB/s | 80.00 GB/s |

| Shading Units | 3840 | 384 |

| TMUs | 120 | 24 |

| ROPs | 48 | 16 |

| RT Cores | 30 | None |

| Tensor Cores | 120 | None |

| FP32 Performance | 10.94 TFLOPS | 1,094.4 GFLOPS |

| TDP | 80 W | 30 W |

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

| Display Outputs | Portable Device Dependent | 3x mini-DisplayPort 1.4a |

| DirectX Support | 12 Ultimate (12_2) | 12 (12_1) |

| Suggested PSU | None listed | 200 W |