NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Mobile vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded data shows a clear overall victory for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile, which takes 7 of the 9 head-to-head benchmark comparisons against the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Mobile. The most decisive win comes in Passmark DirectX 11, where the RTX 5070 Mobile scores 192 versus 164, a 17.1% advantage. That is the largest single delta recorded between the two mobile GPUs in any shared test.

The RTX 5070 Mobile also shows a strong lead in the Geekbench Vulkan test, scoring 116960 against 107502 for the RTX 3080 Ti Mobile, a margin of 8.8%. The Geekbench OpenCL result follows a similar pattern, with the RTX 5070 Mobile scoring 122238 versus 117866, a 3.7% lead. These two synthetic compute workloads indicate that the newer Blackwell-based part holds a consistent edge in cross-platform performance advantages in compute-heavy tasks.

In the Passmark G2D test, the RTX 5070 Mobile wins 896 to 818, a 9.5% margin. The G3D score meanwhile shows a 5.5% spread, with RTX 5070 Mobile scoring 20355 against 19288 for the RTX 3080 Ti Mobile. The DirectX 9 result gives RTX 5070 Mobile 214 versus 201, a 6.5% lead, while DirectX 12 shows a 5.3% edge, 93 versus 88.

The RTX 3080 Ti Mobile does manage two wins, but both are narrow. In Passmark DirectX 10, it edges ahead 131 to 129, a 1.5% delta. The GPU compute test gives it an 8471 to 8279 victory, a 2.3% margin. These are the only two recorded benchmarks where the older Ampere part outperforms the newer model, and neither margin is substantial enough to offset the overall trend.

Looking at the broader database context, the RTX 5070 Mobile sits at the 75th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 29928. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti at 29945, a delta of only -0.1%, and the AMD Radeon RX 6800 at 30095, a -0.6% gap. This places the RTX 5070 Mobile in a performance class where it trades blows with desktop-class cards from the previous generation. The RTX 3080 Ti Mobile, by contrast, sits at the 71st percentile with an average benchmark score of 25740, and its nearest rivals are workstation-oriented parts such as the AMD Radeon Pro W5700 at 25726 and the AMD Radeon RX 6700M at 25633.

The average benchmark score gap between the two mobile GPUs is substantial: 29928 for the RTX 5070 Mobile versus 25740 for the RTX 3080 Ti Mobile, a difference of 4188 points in favor of the newer part. This aligns with the head-to-head results, where the RTX 5070 Mobile wins the majority of tests and often by double-digit margins.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 5070 Mobile is the stronger choice for modern DirectX workloads. It wins DirectX 11 by 17.1%, DirectX 12 by 5.7%, and DirectX 9 by 6.5%. It also dominates in general-purpose compute via OpenCL and Vulkan, with leads of 3.7% and 8.8% respectively. For users running current game engines that rely on DirectX 11 or 12, or for applications that leverage Vulkan, the RTX 5070 Mobile consistently delivers higher frame rates and better compute throughput according to the recorded data.

The RTX 3080 Ti Mobile retains a narrow edge in two specific scenarios. Its Passmark DirectX 10 score of 131 beats the RTX 5070 Mobile's 129, a 1.5% margin that will matter only in legacy DirectX 10 applications. The GPU compute result is similarly close, with 8471 versus 8279, a 2.3% advantage. That compute win is notable because it suggests the RTX 3080 Ti Mobile, despite its older architecture, still holds a slight edge in certain raw compute workloads, likely due to its larger shader array and higher FP32 throughput.

For 2D-focused tasks, the RTX 5070 Mobile is clearly ahead, scoring 896 in Passmark G2D against 818 for the RTX 3080 Ti Mobile, a 9.5% advantage. This could translate to snappier desktop rendering and faster 2D application performance in laptops equipped with the newer GPU.

The overall picture is that the RTX 5070 Mobile wins in every modern API and most synthetic workloads, while the RTX 3080 Ti Mobile claims only a pair of narrow victories in legacy DirectX 10 and raw GPU compute. The data strongly favors the RTX 5070 Mobile for general gaming and compute, with the RTX 3080 Ti Mobile only being preferable in edge-case scenarios where its specific strengths matter most.

The Verdict

The benchmark data is unambiguous: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile is the faster GPU overall. It wins 7 of 9 head-to-head tests, holds a 16.3% higher average benchmark score (29928 versus 25740), and ranks higher in the overall GPU percentile (75th versus 71st). The RTX 5070 Mobile is the better choice for gamers and professionals who prioritize modern API performance, DirectX 11 and 12 workloads, and Vulkan-based applications.

The RTX 3080 Ti Mobile is not without merit. Its wins in DirectX 10 and GPU compute, though narrow, show that it retains some relevance for specific workloads. Users running older DirectX 10 applications or compute-heavy tasks that favor its architecture may still find it adequate. However, the overall data indicates that the RTX 5070 Mobile is the superior mobile GPU for the vast majority of use cases.

For those choosing between the two in a laptop purchase, the RTX 5070 Mobile is the recommended pick based on recorded performance. It delivers higher scores across virtually every benchmark category that matters for modern gaming and content creation. The RTX 3080 Ti Mobile, being end-of-life and based on an older architecture, is best suited for niche scenarios where its specific compute strengths are required. The data does not support choosing the older GPU for general-purpose use.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU wins more head-to-head benchmarks?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile wins 7 of the 9 shared tests, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Mobile wins 2.

Q: What is the largest performance gap between the two?

A: The largest gap is in Passmark DirectX 11, where the RTX 5070 Mobile scores 192 versus 164, a 17.1% lead.

Q: In which tests does the RTX 3080 Ti Mobile outperform the RTX 5070 Mobile?

A: The RTX 3080 Ti Mobile wins Passmark DirectX 10 by 1.5% (131 versus 129) and Passmark GPU Compute by 2.3% (8471 versus 8279).

Q: How do the average benchmark scores compare?

A: The RTX 5070 Mobile has an average benchmark score of 29928, while the RTX 3080 Ti Mobile averages 25740.

Q: What are the nearest rivals to the RTX 5070 Mobile in the database?

A: The nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti at 29945 (delta -0.1%), the AMD Radeon RX 6800 at 30095 (delta -0.6%), and the AMD Radeon RX 6700 at 30433 (delta -1.7%).

Q: Which GPU has a higher percentile ranking?

A: The RTX 5070 Mobile ranks at the 75th percentile among all GPUs, while the RTX 3080 Ti Mobile ranks at the 71st percentile.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from different generations and use entirely different architectures. The RTX 5070 Mobile is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with the GB206 chip, manufactured on a 5 nm process at TSMC. The RTX 3080 Ti Mobile uses the Ampere architecture with the GA103 chip, fabricated on an 8 nm process at Samsung. The process node difference is significant, with the RTX 5070 Mobile's 5 nm process enabling a much higher transistor density of 121.0 million transistors per square millimeter, versus 44.4 million for the RTX 3080 Ti Mobile.

The RTX 5070 Mobile packs 21,900 million transistors on a die size of 181 mm², while the RTX 3080 Ti Mobile has 22,000 million transistors on a much larger 496 mm² die. Despite having a similar transistor count, the RTX 5070 Mobile achieves this in roughly a third of the silicon area, a direct result of the denser 5 nm process. The RTX 3080 Ti Mobile was released on 2022-01-24 and is now marked as end-of-life, while the RTX 5070 Mobile was released on 2025-04-14 and remains active in production.

Memory configurations differ substantially. The RTX 5070 Mobile comes with 8 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 128 bit bus, delivering 384.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The RTX 3080 Ti Mobile offers 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256 bit bus, providing 512.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The older GPU thus has double the memory capacity and 33.3% more memory bandwidth, which explains its competitive compute performance in certain tests despite the architectural generation gap.

Core counts also favor the RTX 3080 Ti Mobile on paper. It has 7424 shading units, 232 TMUs, 96 ROPs, 58 RT cores, and 232 tensor cores. The RTX 5070 Mobile has 4608 shading units, 144 TMUs, 48 ROPs, 36 RT cores, and 144 tensor cores. The RTX 3080 Ti Mobile also has higher theoretical rates: 121.0 GPixel/s pixel rate, 292.3 GTexel/s texture rate, and 18.71 TFLOPS FP32. The RTX 5070 Mobile posts 68.40 GPixel/s, 205.2 GTexel/s, and 13.13 TFLOPS FP32.

Clock speeds tell a different story. The RTX 5070 Mobile has a base clock of 907 MHz and a boost clock of 1425 MHz, compared to 810 MHz base and 1260 MHz boost for the RTX 3080 Ti Mobile. The newer GPU also runs its memory at 1500 MHz with 24 Gbps effective speed, versus 2000 MHz with 16 Gbps effective for the older part. The power envelope is dramatically different: the RTX 5070 Mobile has a TDP of 50 W and is classified as an IGP, while the RTX 3080 Ti Mobile has a TDP of 115 W. The RTX 5070 Mobile also uses PCIe 5.0 x16, while the RTX 3080 Ti Mobile uses PCIe 4.0 x16.

Both GPUs support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. Display outputs are portable-device dependent for both. The RTX 5070 Mobile's predecessor is the GeForce 40 Mobile series, while the RTX 3080 Ti Mobile's predecessor is the GeForce 20 Mobile series. These architectural differences explain why the RTX 5070 Mobile can achieve competitive or superior performance in most benchmarks despite having fewer cores and less memory bandwidth, thanks to its newer architecture, higher clocks, and much more efficient 5 nm process node.