NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti vs NVIDIA P104-100 Comparison

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti and the NVIDIA P104-100 occupy different corners of the GPU landscape. The RTX 3080 Ti is a consumer flagship from the Ampere generation, built for high-end gaming and content creation. The P104-100 is a Pascal-based mining card with no display outputs, designed for computational tasks rather than interactive graphics. Benchmark data from the database shows a decisive overall advantage for the RTX 3080 Ti, but the P104-100 still holds relevance in its niche. This analysis breaks down where each card wins, the architectural differences, and the head-to-head numbers that separate them.

Where Each One Wins

The recorded benchmark results show a clean sweep for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti across all three shared tests. The RTX 3080 Ti wins the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test, the Geekbench OpenCL test, and the Geekbench Vulkan test. In each case, the margin is substantial, with the smallest gap being a 224.7% advantage in OpenCL. The RTX 3080 Ti also appears in the database with a broader set of benchmark results, including Passmark tests for DirectX 9, 10, 11, 12, G2D, G3D, and GPU compute, where it posts scores ranging from 110 to 26,896. The P104-100 only has three recorded benchmarks, all of which are the shared tests mentioned above.

The use-case split is clear. The RTX 3080 Ti is the card for gaming, ray tracing, and high-resolution workloads. Its DirectX 12 Ultimate support and 80 RT cores enable hardware-accelerated ray tracing, a feature the P104-100 completely lacks. The P104-100, with no display outputs and a mining-focused design, wins in scenarios where a GPU is used purely for compute or cryptocurrency mining. Its 16 nm Pascal architecture is older, but its 1x 8-pin power connector and 200 W suggested PSU mean it draws less power and requires a less robust power supply than the RTX 3080 Ti, which needs a 750 W PSU and a 12-pin connector. The data shows the RTX 3080 Ti wins every shared benchmark, but the P104-100 has a place in systems where power efficiency and a minimal footprint matter more than raw performance.

Architecture Differences

The two cards are built on completely different architectures. The RTX 3080 Ti uses the GA102 chip on the Ampere architecture, manufactured on an 8 nm process by Samsung. It contains 28,300 million transistors on a 628 mm² die, giving a transistor density of 45.1 million per square millimeter. The P104-100 uses the GP104 chip on the Pascal architecture, built on a 16 nm process by TSMC. It has 7,200 million transistors on a 314 mm² die, with a density of 22.9 million per square millimeter. The newer process node and larger chip explain why the RTX 3080 Ti has more than four times the transistor count.

The memory subsystems differ significantly. The RTX 3080 Ti has 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, delivering 912.4 GB/s of bandwidth. The P104-100 has 4 GB of GDDR5X memory on a 256-bit bus, with 320.3 GB/s of bandwidth. The RTX 3080 Ti also has a higher memory clock, with 19 Gbps effective speed versus 10 Gbps on the P104-100. The compute resources follow the same pattern. The RTX 3080 Ti has 10,240 shading units, 320 texture mapping units, and 112 raster output units, along with 80 RT cores and 320 tensor cores. The P104-100 has 1,920 shading units, 120 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, with no RT cores or tensor cores at all.

Clock speeds tell a different story. The P104-100 has a base clock of 1607 MHz and a boost clock of 1733 MHz, both higher than the RTX 3080 Ti's 1365 MHz base and 1665 MHz boost. The older Pascal card runs faster per clock, but the massive difference in shading units and memory bandwidth means the RTX 3080 Ti still dominates in throughput. The FP32 performance is 34.10 TFLOPS for the RTX 3080 Ti versus 6.655 TFLOPS for the P104-100. FP16 performance is even more skewed: the RTX 3080 Ti does 34.10 TFLOPS (1:1 ratio), while the P104-100 does 104.0 GFLOPS (1:64 ratio). The P104-100's FP16 capability is nearly negligible.

The bus interface also differs. The RTX 3080 Ti uses PCIe 4.0 x16, while the P104-100 uses PCIe 1.0 x4, a massive bottleneck for data transfer. The RTX 3080 Ti has standard display outputs (1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a), while the P104-100 has no outputs. The RTX 3080 Ti supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The P104-100 supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, but lacks the 12_2 feature set, which includes ray tracing and mesh shaders. The P104-100's dimensions are 267 mm in length, with no recorded height or width, while the RTX 3080 Ti is 285 mm long, 112 mm high, and 40 mm wide, both dual-slot cards.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The head-to-head results are unambiguous. In the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test, the RTX 3080 Ti scores 5,077, while the P104-100 scores 1,413. That is a 259.3% advantage for the RTX 3080 Ti. In Geekbench OpenCL, the RTX 3080 Ti scores 170,037 against the P104-100's 52,368, a 224.7% lead. The largest gap comes in Geekbench Vulkan, where the RTX 3080 Ti scores 192,697 and the P104-100 scores 45,165, a 326.7% difference. These are not close contests. The RTX 3080 Ti wins all three head-to-head benchmarks, with zero wins for the P104-100.

The average benchmark score reinforces this. The RTX 3080 Ti has an average score of 41,187 across all its recorded benchmarks, while the P104-100 has an average of 32,982. The percentile rankings show the RTX 3080 Ti sits in the 83rd percentile of all GPUs, while the P104-100 sits in the 77th percentile. The nearest rivals for the RTX 3080 Ti include the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 (average score 40,870, a 0.8% difference), the NVIDIA Tesla M40 24 GB (41,707, a -1.2% difference), the NVIDIA Tesla M40 (41,897, a -1.7% difference), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 (40,377, a 2% difference). For the P104-100, the nearest rivals are the NVIDIA T600 Mobile (32,849, a 0.4% difference), the NVIDIA T550 Mobile (33,161, a -0.5% difference), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile (33,170, a -0.6% difference), and the AMD Radeon Pro 570 (33,207, a -0.7% difference). These comparisons show that the P104-100 performs at a level similar to modern mobile GPUs, while the RTX 3080 Ti trades blows with high-end workstation and desktop cards.

The RTX 3080 Ti's individual benchmark scores are also informative. Its Passmark G3D score is 26,896, which is a strong result for a single GPU. Its Passmark G2D score is 1,091, and its Passmark GPU compute score is 15,282. The Passmark DirectX scores vary: 274 for DirectX 9, 184 for DirectX 10, 223 for DirectX 11, and 110 for DirectX 12. The low DirectX 12 score relative to DirectX 9 is unusual, but the overall picture is one of a card that excels in modern workloads. The P104-100 has no comparable scores in the database, so its performance in older DirectX tests is unknown.

FAQ

Q: Which card has more memory bandwidth?

A: The RTX 3080 Ti has 912.4 GB/s of bandwidth from its 12 GB GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus. The P104-100 has 320.3 GB/s from 4 GB GDDR5X on a 256-bit bus.

Q: Does the P104-100 support ray tracing?

A: No. The P104-100 has no RT cores and no tensor cores. The RTX 3080 Ti has 80 RT cores and 320 tensor cores, and it supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), which includes ray tracing features.

Q: Can the P104-100 be used for display output?

A: No. The P104-100 has no display outputs. The RTX 3080 Ti has 1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a.

Q: What is the performance gap in the shared benchmarks?

A: The RTX 3080 Ti leads by 259.3% in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, 224.7% in Geekbench OpenCL, and 326.7% in Geekbench Vulkan. The RTX 3080 Ti wins all three head-to-head tests.

Q: How do the cards compare in terms of power requirements?

A: The RTX 3080 Ti has a 350 W TDP, a 1x 12-pin power connector, and a suggested PSU of 750 W. The P104-100 has no recorded TDP, but uses a 1x 8-pin connector and has a suggested PSU of 200 W.

Q: Which card has a higher boost clock?

A: The P104-100 has a 1733 MHz boost clock, higher than the RTX 3080 Ti's 1665 MHz boost. The P104-100 also has a higher base clock at 1607 MHz versus 1365 MHz.

The Verdict

The data makes the choice straightforward for most users. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is the superior card in every measurable way from the database. It wins all three shared benchmarks by margins between 224.7% and 326.7%. It has a higher average benchmark score (41,187 versus 32,982), a higher percentile ranking (83rd versus 77th), and a much larger feature set. The 80 RT cores, 320 tensor cores, 34.10 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, and 912.4 GB/s of memory bandwidth make it a capable choice for gaming, ray tracing, and compute workloads. Its 12 GB of GDDR6X memory is four times the capacity of the P104-100, and its PCIe 4.0 x16 interface is far ahead of the P104-100's PCIe 1.0 x4.

The P104-100 is a different kind of product. It is a mining GPU from 2017, with no display outputs and a 16 nm Pascal architecture. Its strengths are relative: a lower power draw (suggested 200 W PSU versus 750 W), a smaller physical footprint (267 mm versus 285 mm length), and a higher clock speed (1733 MHz boost versus 1665 MHz). For a system that only needs compute power without any video output, the P104-100 can still function. Its nearest rivals are mobile GPUs like the T600 Mobile and RTX 3050 Mobile, which shows it performs at a level comparable to entry-level laptop graphics.

The verdict depends on the use case. For anyone who needs a GPU for gaming, content creation, or any workload that requires display output or ray tracing, the RTX 3080 Ti is the clear choice. The benchmark data shows it outperforms the P104-100 by a factor of three to four in the shared tests. For a niche mining or headless compute setup where power consumption and cost are primary concerns, the P104-100 has a role, but its performance ceiling is far lower. The RTX 3080 Ti is end-of-life, and the P104-100 is also end-of-life, but the RTX 3080 Ti remains the more relevant product in the database's recorded measurements. The 83rd percentile ranking versus the 77th percentile ranking quantifies the gap: the RTX 3080 Ti sits comfortably above most GPUs, while the P104-100 is closer to the middle of the pack. The data does not support any other conclusion.