NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB vs NVIDIA Quadro 4000M Comparison

# NVIDIA Quadro 4000M vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB

The NVIDIA Quadro 4000M and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB occupy opposite ends of the GPU market. The Quadro 4000M is a professional mobile workstation part from the Fermi generation, aimed at stability and certification. The RTX 3080 12 GB is a high-end desktop consumer card from the Ampere generation, built for maximum raw performance. The database contains a single overlapping benchmark result for these two cards, a Geekbench OpenCL score of 5211 for the Quadro and 4791 for the RTX 3080 12 GB. While this single data point does not constitute a full head-to-head comparison, it allows for a preliminary analysis of their relative performance capabilities.

FAQ

Q: What is the NVIDIA Quadro 4000M?

A: The Quadro 4000M is a mobile professional workstation GPU based on the GF104 chip, using the Fermi architecture. It features 336 shading units, 56 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs. It has 2 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus with a bandwidth of 80.00 GB/s. The card operates at a TDP of 100 W and uses an MXM Module (MXM-B 3.0) interface.

Q: What is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB?

A: The RTX 3080 12 GB is a desktop consumer GPU built on the GA102 chip using the Ampere architecture. It includes 8960 shading units, 280 texture mapping units, and 96 ROPs. The card has 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 912.4 GB/s. It has 70 RT cores and 280 Tensor Cores.

Q: How do their architectures differ?

A:** The Quadro 4000M uses the 40 nm GF (TSMC) node, with 1,950 million transistors on a 332 mm² die, giving a density of 5.9 million transistors per mm². The RTX 3080 12 GB, by contrast, uses the 8 nm Samsung process, packing 28,300 million transistors onto a 628 mm² die, for a density of 45.1 million transistors per mm².

Q: What is the production status of each card?

A:** The Quadro 4000M is listed as end-of-life, released on 2011-02-21. The RTX 3080 12 GB is also listed as end-of-life, released on 2022-01-10.

Q: What APIs do these cards support?

A:** The Quadro 4000M lists DirectX 12 (11_0) and OpenGL 4.6 support. The RTX 3080 12 GB lists DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4 support.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these two GPUs is generational. The Quadro 4000M is a Fermi-architecture chip (GF104), built on a 40 nm process at TSMC, integrating 1,950 million transistors on a 332 mm² die. In contrast, the GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB uses the Ampere architecture (GA102), manufactured at 8 nm by Samsung, with 28,300 million transistors on a 628 mm² die. The transistor density scales from 5.9 million per mm² on Fermi to 45.1 million per mm² on Ampere, a 7.6x geometric improvement.

The memory subsystems are very different. The Quadro 4000M is equipped with 2 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit interface, providing a bandwidth of 80.00 GB/s. The RTX 3080 12 GB ships with 12 GB of GDDR6X on a 384-bit bus, yielding 912.4 GB/s of bandwidth. That is an 11.4x advantage in raw memory throughput for the RTX card.

The feature set also differs strongly. The Quadro carries 336 shading units, 56 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. The RTX 3080 has 8960 shading units, 280 texture mapping units, and 96 render output units. It also includes 70 RT cores and 280 tensor cores, which are hardware features entirely absent from the Fermi-era Quadro. These cores enable accelerated ray tracing and AI workloads.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database has one recorded benchmark result that covers both cards: Geekbench OpenCL score. The Quadro 4000M scored 5211 while the RTX 3080 12 GB scored 4791. This gives the Quadro a +0.9% higher score, a modest lead in this particular test. The result, however, does not represent a strong overall performance win for the professional part, as the GeForce card is designed for a different workload.

Looking at the nearest rivals in the database, the Quadro 4000M sits in a cluster with the GeForce GTX 760M (5236, 0.5% faster), the AMD Radeon R7 M260X (5161, 1.0% slower), and the Quadro K3100M (5154, 1.1% slower). Its own score of 5211 places it above the 30th percentile of all recorded GPUs, meaning that 70% of the GPUs in the database are slower in this test.

The RTX 3080 12 GB, with a score of 4791, is in the 28th percentile, meaning 72% of GPUs score higher. Its closest recorded rivals are the AMD Radeon R5 M255 (4788, 0.1% slower), AMD Radeon R5 M335 (4752, 0.8% slower), GeForce 940MX (4844, 1.1% faster), and GeForce GTX 560M (4855, 1.3% faster). These differences, all within 1.3% of each other, show that the RTX card in this specific test is roughly on par with a set of older entry-level mobile parts, which is consistent with its comparatively lower percentile rank.

The data only gives one overlapping test, so the general performance difference is not fully established. What is clear is that the RTX 3080 12 GB is built to handle rendering tasks, AI acceleration and high-resolution game workloads, while the Quadro 4000M is built for professional driver certification and stable rendering over long periods in mobile workstations.

Specification Differences

The two parts differ in almost every major specification field. The Quadro 4000M uses a MXM Module (MXM-B 3.0) slot width and has no power connectors. The RTX 3080 12 GB uses a dual-slot, 12-pin power connector and a PCIe 4.0 x16 interface. The Quadro's display output is "portable device dependent", while the RTX card outputs 1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a.

The Quadro 4000M, with a TDP of 100 W, has no suggested PSU wattage listed. The RTX 3080 12 GB has a TDP of 350 W and a suggested PSU of 750 W. The physical dimensions also differ: the Quadro has no published length, height or width data, while the RTX card measures 285 mm (11.2 inches) in length, 112 mm (4.4 inches) in height, and 40 mm (1.6 inches) in width.

Memory specifications are similarly divergent. The Quadro 4000M uses 2 GB GDDR5 and 80.00 GB/s, while the RTX 3080 12 GB uses 12 GB GDDR6X and 912.4 GB/s. Clock speeds are also different. The Quadro has a memory clock of 625 MHz. The RTX has a memory clock of 1188 MHz, with an effective data rate of 19 Gbps.

The RTX 3080 12 GB also has much newer API support: DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4, compared to DirectX 12 (11_0) and OpenGL 4.6 for the Quadro. The production status is similar: both are marked end-of-life. The Quadro was released on 2011-02-21, while the RTX 3080 12 GB was released on 2022-01-10. The Quadro's predecessor is the Quadro FX Mobile, and its successor is the Quadro Kepler-M. The RTX 3080's predecessor is the GeForce 20, and its successor is the GeForce 40.

The Verdict

The data supports a clear division of purpose. The NVIDIA Quadro 4000M is a low-power, mobile workstation GPU with 336 shading units and 2 GB GDDR5 memory. It is best suited for certified mobile workstations where the task is compatibility and predictable rendering, not peak absolute performance. Its single Geekbench score of 5211 places it in the 30th percentile, meaning it outperforms 30% of all GPUs in that specific OpenCL test, and it runs 0.5% faster than its closest database rival, the GeForce GTX 760M.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB, on the other hand, is a high-powered desktop card with massive resources: 8960 shading units, 12 GB GDDR6X, 912.4 GB/s bandwidth and dedicated Tensor and RT cores. Its recorded Geekbench score of 4791 is in the 28th percentile, but this runs in a completely different class of workloads, including ray-traced 3D rendering and AI inference.

For users who need a compact, low-power, mobile workstation part, the Quadro 4000M is the appropriate choice based on its end-of-life product cycle and its recorded benchmark result. Users whose priority is raw performance and modern API features such as Vulkan and DirectX 12 Ultimate should consider the GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB, which is the fastest card in the data package we have. The data is not sufficient to call one a winner across all possible tasks; the verdict depends on the intended use.