NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti vs NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile Comparison

# Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The benchmark data presents a stark contrast between the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti and the NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile. Across the two shared tests, the RTX 3080 Ti wins decisively, with no tests favoring the mobile workstation part.

In Geekbench OpenCL, the RTX 3080 Ti scores 170,037 against the RTX A500 Mobile's 41,263. This represents a 312.1% advantage for the desktop card. The absolute gap of 128,774 points is substantial, placing the two products in entirely different performance tiers.

The Geekbench Vulkan result is even more lopsided. The RTX 3080 Ti posts 192,697, while the RTX A500 Mobile manages 37,873. The delta expands to 408.8% in favor of the desktop GPU. This suggests the RTX 3080 Ti is particularly strong in compute-heavy workloads that leverage Vulkan's low-overhead access to the hardware.

Looking at the average benchmark scores, the RTX 3080 Ti sits at 41,187, while the RTX A500 Mobile averages 39,568. The percentage difference here is only about 4.1%, which is surprising given the massive deltas in the individual tests. This discrepancy stems from the fact that the RTX 3080 Ti has a much broader benchmark suite (10 tests) compared to the RTX A500 Mobile (only 2 tests). The mobile part's average is pulled from fewer data points, making direct comparisons of averages less meaningful than the head-to-head results.

The RTX 3080 Ti's percentile ranking of 83rd among all GPUs is only one point higher than the RTX A500 Mobile's 82nd percentile. Both cards sit in the upper tier of the database, but the percentile metric includes all GPUs ever tested, so a mobile workstation part with limited driver optimizations can still rank highly due to its specialized nature.

When examining the nearest rivals for each card, the RTX 3080 Ti sits within 2% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 (2% ahead), the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 (0.8% ahead), and the NVIDIA Tesla M40 24 GB (1.2% behind). The RTX A500 Mobile's closest competitor is the AMD Radeon Pro 575, with a 0% delta, followed by the AMD Radeon Pro 575X (1.2% ahead), AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100 (1.2% behind), and AMD Radeon Pro 580 (1.9% behind). These rival clusters show that both cards are competitive within their respective market segments, despite the massive raw performance gap between them.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU wins in Geekbench OpenCL, and by how much?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti wins with a score of 170,037 versus the RTX A500 Mobile's 41,263, a 312.1% advantage.

Q: What is the score difference in Geekbench Vulkan?

A: The RTX 3080 Ti scores 192,697 compared to 37,873 for the RTX A500 Mobile, representing a 408.8% delta in favor of the desktop card.

Q: How do the average benchmark scores compare between the two cards?

A: The RTX 3080 Ti has an average benchmark score of 41,187 across 10 tests, while the RTX A500 Mobile averages 39,568 across just 2 tests. The RTX 3080 Ti is about 4.1% higher on average.

Q: What are the percentile rankings for each GPU?

A: The RTX 3080 Ti ranks in the 83rd percentile among all GPUs, while the RTX A500 Mobile ranks in the 82nd percentile.

Q: Which card has a higher memory bandwidth?

A: The RTX 3080 Ti offers 912.4 GB/s bandwidth with 12 GB of GDDR6X on a 384-bit bus, compared to the RTX A500 Mobile's 96.00 GB/s with 4 GB of GDDR6 on a 64-bit bus.

Q: What are the closest rivals for each card based on average score?

A: The RTX 3080 Ti's nearest rival is the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 with a 0.8% delta, while the RTX A500 Mobile's nearest rival is the AMD Radeon Pro 575 with a 0% delta.

The Verdict

The data clearly favors the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti for raw compute performance. In every head-to-head test, it outperforms the RTX A500 Mobile by a factor of 4 to 5. The 312.1% OpenCL advantage and 408.8% Vulkan advantage are decisive. Users who need maximum throughput for GPU-accelerated workloads should choose the RTX 3080 Ti without hesitation.

The RTX A500 Mobile, despite its lower scores, maintains a comparable percentile ranking (82nd versus 83rd). This indicates that within its intended mobile workstation segment, it remains a capable performer. Its nearest rivals are all AMD Radeon Pro workstation parts, suggesting it competes effectively in that niche. However, its 4 GB memory capacity and 64-bit bus severely limit its ability to handle large datasets or high-resolution textures.

The RTX 3080 Ti's 12 GB of GDDR6X memory with 912.4 GB/s bandwidth versus the RTX A500 Mobile's 4 GB GDDR6 with 96.00 GB/s bandwidth is a fundamental architectural difference. For memory-bound workloads, the desktop card has a 9.5x bandwidth advantage. The 384-bit bus versus 64-bit bus further cements this gap.

The RTX 3080 Ti also dominates in raw compute metrics: 34.10 TFLOPS FP32 versus 6.296 TFLOPS, 80 RT cores versus 16, and 320 tensor cores versus 64. These are not marginal differences; they represent entirely different performance classes.

However, the RTX A500 Mobile's 30 W TDP versus the RTX 3080 Ti's 350 W TDP makes the comparison context-dependent. For portable workstations or battery-constrained environments, the mobile part is the only viable option. The RTX 3080 Ti requires a 750 W suggested PSU and a dual-slot cooling solution, while the RTX A500 Mobile is an IGP with no power connectors. The physical dimensions also differ dramatically: the RTX 3080 Ti measures 285 mm in length, while the RTX A500 Mobile has no published dimensions due to its integrated nature.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ across nearly every specification field. The RTX 3080 Ti uses the GA102 chip, while the RTX A500 Mobile uses the GA107S. Both are built on Samsung's 8 nm process, but the RTX 3080 Ti packs 28,300 million transistors on a 628 mm² die, whereas the RTX A500 Mobile has 8,700 million transistors on a 200 mm² die. Transistor density is similar: 45.1M / mm² versus 43.5M / mm².

Clock speeds diverge significantly. The RTX 3080 Ti runs at 1365 MHz base and 1665 MHz boost, while the RTX A500 Mobile operates at 832 MHz base and 1537 MHz boost. Memory clocks also differ: 1188 MHz with 19 Gbps effective for the desktop card, versus 1500 MHz with 12 Gbps effective for the mobile part.

Memory configuration is a major differentiator. The RTX 3080 Ti has 12 GB of GDDR6X on a 384-bit bus, delivering 912.4 GB/s. The RTX A500 Mobile has 4 GB of GDDR6 on a 64-bit bus, delivering 96.00 GB/s. This represents a 9.5x bandwidth difference.

Shader resources are equally disparate. The RTX 3080 Ti has 10,240 shading units, 320 TMUs, 112 ROPs, 80 RT cores, and 320 tensor cores. The RTX A500 Mobile has 2,048 shading units, 64 TMUs, 32 ROPs, 16 RT cores, and 64 tensor cores. Pixel rate is 186.5 GPixel/s versus 49.18 GPixel/s, and texture rate is 532.8 GTexel/s versus 98.37 GTexel/s.

Power and physical characteristics differ enormously. The RTX 3080 Ti has a 350 W TDP, dual-slot width, 1x 12-pin power connector, and 750 W suggested PSU. The RTX A500 Mobile has a 30 W TDP, IGP slot width, no power connectors, and no suggested PSU. Bus interface is PCIe 4.0 x16 for the desktop card versus PCIe 4.0 x8 for the mobile part.

Display outputs also differ: the RTX 3080 Ti has 1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a, while the RTX A500 Mobile is portable device dependent. Release dates are separated by roughly 10 months: May 2021 for the RTX 3080 Ti and March 2022 for the RTX A500 Mobile. The RTX 3080 Ti has a launch MSRP of 1,199 USD; the RTX A500 Mobile has no listed launch MSRP.

Architecture Differences

Both GPUs share the Ampere architecture, but they target different market segments within that design. The RTX 3080 Ti is part of the GeForce 30-series, while the RTX A500 Mobile belongs to the Ampere-MW (Ax000) workstation generation.

The chip designs reflect their different purposes. The GA102 in the RTX 3080 Ti is a full-scale desktop silicon, while the GA107S in the RTX A500 Mobile is a mobile-optimized variant. The transistor count difference of 28,300 million versus 8,700 million indicates entirely different silicon budgets.

Both support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, so API feature sets are identical. The FP16 to FP32 ratio is 1:1 for both cards, indicating no consumer-versus-workstation compute bias in that regard.

The RTX 3080 Ti's predecessor is the GeForce 20 series, and its successor is the GeForce 40 series. The RTX A500 Mobile's predecessor is the Quadro Turing-M, and its successor is the Ada-MW generation. Both are end-of-life products, but their lineage points to different product families: consumer gaming versus mobile workstation.

The RTX A500 Mobile's 16 RT cores and 64 tensor cores are proportionally similar to the RTX 3080 Ti's 80 and 320, respectively (both at a 5:1 ratio). However, the absolute counts are vastly different, which directly impacts ray tracing and AI-accelerated workload performance.

The die size difference — 628 mm² versus 200 mm² — is a fundamental architectural distinction. The RTX 3080 Ti has over three times the silicon area, allowing for the massive increase in shader units, memory interface width, and cache capacity. The RTX A500 Mobile's smaller die is optimized for power efficiency and thermal constraints inherent to mobile form factors.

Both cards use GDDR6-family memory, but the RTX 3080 Ti's GDDR6X offers higher bandwidth per pin. The 384-bit memory bus versus 64-bit is the single most impactful architectural difference for memory-bound tasks, as it directly determines how much data can be moved per clock cycle.