NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Mobile Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded data shows a decisive overall win for the desktop-class NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, taking 8 of the 9 head-to-head benchmarks. The RTX 4050 Mobile claims only a single, but spectacular, victory. That win comes in the Geekbench Vulkan test, where the mobile part scores 75235 against the RTX 3060 Ti's 47784, a massive 57.4% advantage. This suggests the Ada Lovelace architecture's Vulkan driver path is exceptionally strong, or that the benchmark itself favors the newer GPU's feature set.

Everywhere else, the RTX 3060 Ti asserts its dominance. The most significant gap is in the Passmark GPU Compute test, where the RTX 3060 Ti scores 10006 versus the RTX 4050 Mobile's 5947, a 40.6% lead. This is a clear indicator of raw compute throughput, where the older card's larger chip and higher power envelope pay dividends. The Passmark DirectX 10 test shows a similar 40.2% deficit for the mobile chip (79 vs 132).

The pattern continues across the DirectX 11 and 12 API tests, though the margins narrow. In DirectX 11, the RTX 3060 Ti leads by 20.2% (163 vs 130). In DirectX 12, the lead is 21.8% (78 vs 61). The DirectX 9 result is nearly identical in percentage terms, with the RTX 3060 Ti winning 234 to 184, a 21.4% gap. These consistent double-digit leads across all legacy and modern rasterization APIs paint a clear picture: the RTX 3060 Ti is significantly faster in traditional rendering workloads.

The 2D performance gap is also notable. The Passmark G2D score for the RTX 3060 Ti is 989, which is 36% higher than the RTX 4050 Mobile's 633. This is likely a function of the desktop card's higher memory bandwidth and different display output architecture. The marquee gaming benchmark, Passmark G3D, shows the RTX 3060 Ti winning 20349 to 14423, a 29.1% advantage. This is the headline number for gaming performance, and it strongly favors the desktop part.

The only other benchmark where the RTX 4050 Mobile comes close is Geekbench OpenCL. Here, the RTX 3060 Ti still wins, but by a slim 5.3% margin (78927 vs 74748). This indicates that in some compute APIs, the efficiency of the Ada Lovelace architecture can nearly overcome the raw hardware disadvantage of fewer cores and less memory bandwidth.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Mobile has a higher average benchmark score of 19049, compared to the RTX 3060 Ti's 16129. However, this average is skewed by the RTX 4050 Mobile's single massive Vulkan win and does not reflect the majority of test results.

Q: How does the RTX 4050 Mobile compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The database places the RTX 4050 Mobile at the 63rd percentile of all GPUs. Its closest competitor is the AMD Radeon RX 6600, which scores 19036, a negligible 0.1% difference. It is also within 0.5% of the NVIDIA RTX 2000 Ada Generation (18954) and 0.2% of the NVIDIA Tesla K20m (19089).

Q: Is the RTX 3060 Ti a better gaming card based on the data?

A: Yes, the Passmark G3D score, a strong indicator of gaming performance, shows the RTX 3060 Ti at 20349, which is 29.1% higher than the RTX 4050 Mobile's 14423. The RTX 3060 Ti also wins all DirectX 9, 10, 11, and 12 tests.

Q: Where does the RTX 3060 Ti rank among all GPUs?

A: The RTX 3060 Ti sits at the 59th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival is the AMD Radeon RX 9060, which is only 0.7% faster (16014 vs 16129). It is also closely matched with the AMD Radeon Pro 5600M and AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT, both of which are 1.4% faster.

Q: What is the biggest performance gap between the two cards?

A: The largest gap is in the Geekbench Vulkan test, where the RTX 4050 Mobile leads by 57.4%. The largest gap in favor of the RTX 3060 Ti is 40.6% in the Passmark GPU Compute test.

Q: Does the RTX 4050 Mobile beat the RTX 3060 Ti in any DirectX tests?

A: No. The RTX 3060 Ti wins every Passmark DirectX test, including DirectX 9 (234 vs 184), DirectX 10 (132 vs 79), DirectX 11 (163 vs 130), and DirectX 12 (78 vs 61).

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs represent distinct generations of NVIDIA design. The RTX 4050 Mobile is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture using the AD107 chip, fabricated on a 5 nm process at TSMC. In contrast, the RTX 3060 Ti uses the Ampere architecture with the GA104 chip, manufactured on an 8 nm process at Samsung. This process difference is the root of many performance and efficiency disparities.

The transistor counts are surprisingly close, with the AD107 containing 18,900 million transistors and the GA104 containing 17,400 million. However, the die size tells a different story. The Ada Lovelace chip packs its transistors into a 159 mm² die, resulting in a transistor density of 118.9M per mm². The Ampere chip is much larger at 392 mm², with a density of only 44.4M per mm². This highlights the significant manufacturing advantage of the newer 5 nm process.

Core configuration differs dramatically. The RTX 4050 Mobile has 2560 shading units, 80 texture mapping units, and 48 ROPs. It also features 20 RT cores and 80 tensor cores. The RTX 3060 Ti nearly doubles these resources, with 4864 shading units, 152 TMUs, and 80 ROPs, plus 38 RT cores and 152 tensor cores. This hardware disparity explains the RTX 3060 Ti's dominance in raw throughput tests.

Both cards support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, so feature-level API support is identical. The key architectural difference is efficiency: the RTX 4050 Mobile achieves its performance at a 50 W TDP, while the RTX 3060 Ti requires 200 W. The newer process node and architecture allow the mobile chip to deliver competitive compute results in certain APIs while consuming a quarter of the power.

Specification Differences

The memory subsystems are a major point of divergence. The RTX 4050 Mobile has 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 96-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 192.0 GB/s. The RTX 3060 Ti has 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, delivering 448.0 GB/s. This bandwidth advantage is critical for high-resolution textures and compute workloads.

Clock speeds are similar, with the RTX 4050 Mobile boosting to 1755 MHz and the RTX 3060 Ti boosting to 1665 MHz. The base clocks are 1455 MHz and 1410 MHz, respectively. The memory clocks differ, with the mobile part running at 2000 MHz (16 Gbps effective) and the desktop part at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective).

The physical and power profiles are entirely different. The RTX 4050 Mobile is an IGP (integrated graphics processor) with no power connectors and a 50 W TDP. The RTX 3060 Ti is a dual-slot card with a 1x 12-pin power connector, a 200 W TDP, and a suggested PSU of 550 W. The desktop card measures 242 mm in length and 112 mm in height. The RTX 4050 Mobile's display outputs are portable device dependent, while the RTX 3060 Ti offers 1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a.

The bus interface also differs: the RTX 4050 Mobile uses PCIe 4.0 x8, while the RTX 3060 Ti uses the full PCIe 4.0 x16. The RTX 4050 Mobile's FP32 performance is rated at 8.986 TFLOPS, with a texture rate of 140.4 GTexel/s and a pixel rate of 84.24 GPixel/s. The RTX 3060 Ti is rated at 16.20 TFLOPS, 253.1 GTexel/s, and 133.2 GPixel/s.

Production status and release dates also differ. The RTX 4050 Mobile is Active and was released on 2023-01-02, while the RTX 3060 Ti is End-of-life and was released on 2020-11-30. The RTX 3060 Ti has a launch MSRP of 399 USD.

The Verdict

The data is unambiguous. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is the superior performer in almost every measurable category. It wins the majority of the benchmarks by significant margins, particularly in gaming and compute workloads. The RTX 4050 Mobile's single Vulkan victory is impressive but does not compensate for the 29.1% deficit in Passmark G3D or the 40.6% deficit in compute.

This is a comparison between a desktop GPU and a mobile GPU, and the power envelope difference is stark. The RTX 3060 Ti is a 200 W dual-slot card that requires a 550 W power supply. The RTX 4050 Mobile is a 50 W IGP designed for portable devices. These are fundamentally different products for different use cases.

The RTX 3060 Ti is the choice for a desktop build where performance is the sole priority. Its higher memory bandwidth (448.0 GB/s vs 192.0 GB/s), double the shading units (4864 vs 2560), and higher fill rates make it the better card for gaming, rendering, and compute tasks. The RTX 4050 Mobile is for a laptop where power efficiency and integration are paramount. Its 5 nm process and Ada Lovelace architecture deliver respectable performance at a fraction of the power draw.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 3060 Ti wins in every rasterization-based workload. The Passmark DirectX 9, 10, 11, and 12 tests all favor the desktop card by margins between 20.2% and 40.2%. The Passmark G3D score of 20349 versus 14423 makes it the clear choice for traditional gaming. Its GPU compute score of 10006 is 40.6% higher, making it better suited for GPGPU tasks, video encoding, and other compute-heavy applications. The 2D performance lead of 36% also indicates faster desktop compositing and display output handling.

The RTX 4050 Mobile wins in the Geekbench Vulkan test by a staggering 57.4%. This suggests that in Vulkan-based games or applications, the Ada Lovelace architecture has a significant advantage. The database also shows its average benchmark score is higher (19049 vs 16129) due to this outlier result. Its lower TDP of 50 W makes it the only viable option for thin-and-light laptops, and its 5 nm process provides superior efficiency per watt. For a user whose primary workload is Vulkan-based and who requires mobile form factor, the RTX 4050 Mobile is the better pick. For everything else, the RTX 3060 Ti is the superior hardware.