NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile vs NVIDIA TITAN Xp Comparison

The data shows a clear generational clash between a desktop flagship and a mobile mid-range part. Across ten head-to-head benchmarks, the NVIDIA TITAN Xp secures nine wins against the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile, with the mobile chip taking only a single victory. The average benchmark score for the TITAN Xp is 19,177, placing it at the 64th percentile of all GPUs, while the RTX 3060 Mobile averages 18,159, sitting at the 62nd percentile. These overall numbers are close, but the individual test deltas reveal a story of differing strengths and architectural priorities.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The most decisive victory for the TITAN Xp comes in the Passmark GPU compute test, where it scores 9,430 against the RTX 3060 Mobile's 5,718. That is a 64.9% advantage, a massive gap that highlights the raw compute throughput of the older Pascal architecture in this specific workload. The desktop card also dominates legacy DirectX tests; in Passmark DirectX 9, it posts a score of 226 versus 146, a 54.8% lead. The pattern continues in Passmark DirectX 11, with a score of 152 against 110, a 38.2% delta, and in DirectX 10, where the TITAN Xp leads 119 to 90, a 32.2% difference.

In the more modern 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test, the TITAN Xp again wins, scoring 2,372 versus 1,821. The 30.3% delta here is substantial and suggests that even in a contemporary DirectX 12 workload, the older card's brute-force approach holds up. The 2D performance is also lopsided; the Passmark G2D score of 883 for the TITAN Xp versus 588 for the RTX 3060 Mobile represents a 50.2% lead. The Vulkan API test shows a closer margin, with the TITAN Xp scoring 87,180 against 80,344, an 8.5% advantage. Even in Passmark DirectX 12, the TITAN Xp wins, scoring 69 versus 58, a 19% delta.

The single benchmark where the RTX 3060 Mobile comes out ahead is Geekbench OpenCL. Here, the mobile part scores 79,483, beating the TITAN Xp's 72,585 by 8.7%. This is the lone data point that suggests the newer architecture can leverage its features for a specific compute task more effectively. The overall Passmark G3D score reinforces the desktop card's dominance in gaming-centric rasterization, with the TITAN Xp at 18,750 versus 13,230, a 41.7% difference. The data consistently shows the TITAN Xp winning by wide margins in most legacy and raster workloads, while the RTX 3060 Mobile's sole victory points to a niche strength in OpenCL compute.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs represent fundamentally different design philosophies separated by nearly four years of development. The TITAN Xp is built on the Pascal architecture using a 16 nm process at TSMC, while the RTX 3060 Mobile uses the Ampere architecture on Samsung's 8 nm node. This node shrink allows for a much higher transistor density; the TITAN Xp packs 11,800 million transistors into a 471 mm² die, yielding a density of 25.1 million transistors per square millimeter. The RTX 3060 Mobile, by contrast, crams 12,000 million transistors into a much smaller 276 mm² die, achieving a density of 43.5 million per square millimeter.

The chip configuration differs significantly. The TITAN Xp uses the GP102 chip with 3,840 shading units, 240 texture mapping units, and 96 ROPs. The RTX 3060 Mobile uses the GA106 chip with the same count of 3,840 shading units but only 120 TMUs and 48 ROPs. This halving of texture and pixel processing hardware explains why the TITAN Xp achieves a pixel rate of 151.9 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 379.7 GTexel/s, while the RTX 3060 Mobile manages just 68.40 GPixel/s and 171.0 GTexel/s. The TITAN Xp also has a higher boost clock at 1582 MHz versus 1425 MHz, and a base clock of 1405 MHz against 900 MHz.

Memory architecture is another major divergence. The TITAN Xp comes with 12 GB of GDDR5X on a 384-bit bus, delivering 547.6 GB/s of bandwidth. The RTX 3060 Mobile has 6 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus, resulting in 336.0 GB/s. The compute capabilities reflect the generational shift; the TITAN Xp offers 12.15 TFLOPS of FP32 performance but only 189.8 GFLOPS of FP16 (a 1:64 ratio), whereas the RTX 3060 Mobile provides 10.94 TFLOPS of FP32 and a matching 10.94 TFLOPS of FP16 (1:1). Crucially, the RTX 3060 Mobile introduces 30 RT cores and 120 tensor cores, features entirely absent from the TITAN Xp. The power envelope is also starkly different, with the TITAN Xp rated at 250 W and requiring a 600 W power supply, while the RTX 3060 Mobile is a 80 W part with no power connectors, designed for portable devices.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA TITAN Xp has an average benchmark score of 19,177, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile has an average score of 18,159, giving the TITAN Xp a lead of about 1,018 points.

Q: In which benchmark does the RTX 3060 Mobile outperform the TITAN Xp?

A: The RTX 3060 Mobile wins the Geekbench OpenCL test, scoring 79,483 against the TITAN Xp's 72,585, a margin of 8.7%.

Q: How do the memory bandwidth figures compare?

A: The TITAN Xp has a memory bandwidth of 547.6 GB/s using 12 GB of GDDR5X on a 384-bit bus, whereas the RTX 3060 Mobile has 336.0 GB/s using 6 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus.

Q: What are the process node and die size differences?

A: The TITAN Xp is fabricated on a 16 nm process at TSMC with a 471 mm² die, while the RTX 3060 Mobile uses an 8 nm process at Samsung with a 276 mm² die.

Q: Does the RTX 3060 Mobile support ray tracing?

A: Yes, the RTX 3060 Mobile includes 30 RT cores and 120 tensor cores, features that the TITAN Xp does not have at all.

Q: What is the DirectX support level for each card?

A: The TITAN Xp supports DirectX 12 (12_1), while the RTX 3060 Mobile supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), indicating a more advanced feature set on the newer part.

The Verdict

The data points to a clear performance hierarchy in most traditional benchmarks. The TITAN Xp is the stronger choice for users prioritizing raw rasterization performance, legacy DirectX compatibility, and high-bandwidth memory operations. Its wins in Passmark G3D, all legacy DirectX tests, and the 3DMark DX12 test show that it remains a formidable desktop part. The RTX 3060 Mobile, however, is the only one of the two that offers hardware-accelerated ray tracing and tensor cores, making it the more future-proof option for workloads that leverage those features. Its single OpenCL victory suggests that in certain compute scenarios, the newer architecture's efficiency can overcome the TITAN Xp's raw power. For a desktop user seeking maximum performance in the tested benchmarks, the TITAN Xp is the clear winner. For a mobile user who needs dedicated ray tracing hardware and lower power consumption, the RTX 3060 Mobile is the only viable option, despite its lower scores in most tests. The choice is not simply about speed; it is about the specific feature set required for the target use case.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ in nearly every measured specification. The TITAN Xp uses the GP102 chip, while the RTX 3060 Mobile uses the GA106. The process node is 16 nm for the TITAN Xp and 8 nm for the RTX 3060 Mobile. Transistor counts are close, with the TITAN Xp at 11,800 million and the RTX 3060 Mobile at 12,000 million, but the die size is far larger on the TITAN Xp at 471 mm² versus 276 mm². The TITAN Xp has a base clock of 1405 MHz and a boost of 1582 MHz, compared to 900 MHz base and 1425 MHz boost on the RTX 3060 Mobile. Memory size is 12 GB versus 6 GB, type is GDDR5X versus GDDR6, bus width is 384-bit versus 192-bit, and bandwidth is 547.6 GB/s versus 336.0 GB/s. The shading unit count is identical at 3840, but the TITAN Xp has 240 TMUs and 96 ROPs, while the RTX 3060 Mobile has 120 TMUs and 48 ROPs. The TITAN Xp has no RT or tensor cores, whereas the RTX 3060 Mobile has 30 and 120, respectively. FP32 performance is 12.15 TFLOPS for the TITAN Xp and 10.94 TFLOPS for the RTX 3060 Mobile; FP16 performance is 189.8 GFLOPS versus 10.94 TFLOPS. The TITAN Xp is a 250 W dual-slot card with 1x 6-pin and 1x 8-pin connectors and a 600 W suggested PSU, while the RTX 3060 Mobile is 80 W with no connectors and no suggested PSU. The PCIe interface is 3.0 x16 versus 4.0 x16, and the TITAN Xp has 1x HDMI 2.0 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a outputs, while the RTX 3060 Mobile's outputs are portable-device dependent.

Where Each One Wins

The TITAN Xp wins decisively in all rasterization and legacy API benchmarks. It excels in DirectX 9, 10, 11, and 12 legacy tests, with deltas ranging from 19% to 54.8%. Its 41.7% lead in Passmark G3D and 30.3% lead in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 make it the superior choice for traditional gaming workloads. The 64.9% advantage in GPU compute indicates that for general-purpose compute tasks in the Passmark suite, the TITAN Xp is far stronger. Its 50.2% lead in 2D performance also makes it better suited for desktop applications that rely on 2D acceleration.

The RTX 3060 Mobile's only win is in Geekbench OpenCL, where it leads by 8.7%. This suggests that in certain OpenCL compute workloads, the newer Ampere architecture with its 1:1 FP16 ratio and tensor cores can be more efficient. Its primary advantage, however, lies outside the benchmark scores: it is the only card with hardware ray tracing and tensor core support. For applications that utilize these features, such as ray-traced rendering or AI inference, the RTX 3060 Mobile is the only option between the two, despite its lower raw scores. Its 80 W TDP also makes it suitable for laptop integration, a use case the 250 W TITAN Xp cannot serve.