NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Mobile vs NVIDIA T400 4 GB Comparison

Where Each One Wins

The recorded benchmark data splits cleanly along generational and architectural lines. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Mobile wins both available head-to-head comparisons, and the margins are substantial, not incremental. In Geekbench OpenCL, the RTX 4050 Mobile scores 74,748 against the T400 4 GB's 17,320, a difference of 331.6%. In Geekbench Vulkan, the gap widens further: 75,235 versus 16,263, a 362.6% advantage. These are not close contests; they represent a different performance class entirely.

The RTX 4050 Mobile also carries a much broader benchmark footprint. The database includes nine recorded tests for the RTX 4050 Mobile, covering DirectX 9, 10, 11, and 12, plus G2D, G3D, and GPU compute workloads. The T400 4 GB only has two recorded tests, both in Geekbench. This means the RTX 4050 Mobile can be assessed across a wider range of scenarios, while the T400 4 GB's dataset is limited to compute-style workloads. For the T400 4 GB, there is no DirectX or PassMark data available, so its behavior in those areas is not quantified in this database.

Looking at the RTX 4050 Mobile's internal scores, its PassMark G3D result of 14,423 and GPU compute score of 5,947 indicate strong rasterization and compute throughput. Its DirectX 9 score of 184 and DirectX 11 score of 130 show it handles legacy and modern APIs, while the DirectX 12 score of 61 and DirectX 10 score of 79 reveal variance across API generations. The G2D score of 633 is comparatively modest, suggesting 2D workloads are not where this chip concentrates its resources.

The T400 4 GB, by contrast, sits in the 60th percentile of all GPUs, while the RTX 4050 Mobile sits in the 63rd percentile. The average benchmark score tells the same story: 19,049 for the RTX 4050 Mobile versus 16,792 for the T400 4 GB. That is a 13.4% difference in average performance, though the head-to-head Geekbench results show much larger deltas because those tests stress compute and memory bandwidth heavily.

For use-case separation, the RTX 4050 Mobile is the clear choice for any workload involving modern graphics APIs, ray tracing, or tensor operations. Its architecture includes 20 RT cores and 80 tensor cores, hardware the T400 4 GB lacks entirely. The T400 4 GB has no RT cores and no tensor cores, so any ray-traced or AI-accelerated workload is simply out of its reach. The T400 4 GB is limited to conventional rasterization and compute, and even there, its 384 shading units versus 2,560 on the RTX 4050 Mobile produce a massive throughput deficit.

The Verdict

The data leaves little room for ambiguity. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Mobile outperforms the NVIDIA T400 4 GB in every recorded benchmark. The RTX 4050 Mobile wins 2 out of 2 head-to-head tests, with deltas of 331.6% and 362.6%. If the decision is purely based on performance, the RTX 4050 Mobile is the only defensible choice.

However, the T400 4 GB does occupy a distinct niche. Its 30 W TDP is 20 W lower than the RTX 4050 Mobile's 50 W. It is a single-slot card with three mini-DisplayPort 1.4a outputs, making it suitable for multi-display workstation setups where space and power are constrained. The RTX 4050 Mobile is an IGP (integrated graphics package) with display outputs described as "Portable Device Dependent," meaning it is designed for laptops and mobile workstations, not desktop deployment. The T400 4 GB is a desktop workstation card, end-of-life status notwithstanding.

For a mobile workstation user, the RTX 4050 Mobile is the clear winner. It delivers 8.986 TFLOPS of FP32 performance versus the T400 4 GB's 1,094.4 GFLOPS, an 8.2x difference. It has 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 96-bit bus with 192.0 GB/s bandwidth, versus 4 GB on a 64-bit bus with 80.00 GB/s. The RTX 4050 Mobile also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the T400 4 GB only reaches DirectX 12 (12_1). For any modern gaming, rendering, or compute workload, the RTX 4050 Mobile wins.

The T400 4 GB's only advantages are its lower power draw, its single-slot form factor, and its fixed display outputs. For a headless compute node or a basic multi-display workstation where the GPU is not the bottleneck, the T400 4 GB could suffice. But the benchmark data shows it is not competitive with the RTX 4050 Mobile in raw throughput, and the lack of RT and tensor cores further limits its utility. The verdict is straightforward: choose the RTX 4050 Mobile for performance, choose the T400 4 GB only if the physical form factor or power envelope is the deciding constraint.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The two recorded head-to-head tests both favor the RTX 4050 Mobile by overwhelming margins. In Geekbench OpenCL, the RTX 4050 Mobile scores 74,748 against the T400 4 GB's 17,320. The delta is 331.6%, meaning the RTX 4050 Mobile is roughly 4.3 times faster. This test stresses raw compute throughput, and the RTX 4050 Mobile's 2,560 shading units and 80 tensor cores simply overwhelm the T400 4 GB's 384 shading units.

In Geekbench Vulkan, the RTX 4050 Mobile scores 75,235, while the T400 4 GB manages 16,263. The delta here is 362.6%, an even larger gap. Vulkan is a low-level API that benefits from architectural efficiency, and the Ada Lovelace architecture's 5 nm process node versus the T400 4 GB's 12 nm node explains a significant portion of this gap. The RTX 4050 Mobile also has a boost clock of 1755 MHz versus the T400 4 GB's 1425 MHz, and its memory bandwidth of 192.0 GB/s is 2.4 times the T400 4 GB's 80.00 GB/s.

The RTX 4050 Mobile's average benchmark score of 19,049 places it within 0.1% of the AMD Radeon RX 6600 (19,036) and within 0.5% of the NVIDIA RTX 2000 Ada Generation (18,954). It is 0.2% behind the NVIDIA Tesla K20m (19,089). These are tight margins, indicating the RTX 4050 Mobile sits in a competitive performance band for its class. The T400 4 GB's average of 16,792 is 0.6% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 7600S (16,696) and 1.3% behind the AMD Radeon HD 7970M (17,019). It is 0.8% behind the NVIDIA Tesla M4 (16,932) and 1.4% behind the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 (17,037). The T400 4 GB is clustered with much older hardware, while the RTX 4050 Mobile is grouped with modern mid-range parts.

The PassMark scores for the RTX 4050 Mobile, while not directly comparable to the T400 4 GB (which has no such scores), show its performance profile. The G3D score of 14,423 is the highest among its PassMark results, indicating strong 3D rendering capability. The GPU compute score of 5,947 is substantial but lower than the G3D score, suggesting the chip is more optimized for graphics than general compute. The DirectX 9 score of 184 is the highest of its DirectX results, which is interesting given the architecture's focus on modern APIs; this may reflect driver optimizations for legacy titles.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has more shading units, and what does that mean for performance?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Mobile has 2,560 shading units, while the NVIDIA T400 4 GB has 384. This 6.7x difference is the primary driver of the RTX 4050 Mobile's 331.6% and 362.6% leads in Geekbench OpenCL and Vulkan respectively.

Q: Does the T400 4 GB support ray tracing or tensor operations?

A: No. The T400 4 GB has no RT cores and no tensor cores. The RTX 4050 Mobile has 20 RT cores and 80 tensor cores, enabling hardware-accelerated ray tracing and AI workloads that the T400 4 GB cannot handle.

Q: What is the memory configuration difference between the two?

A: The RTX 4050 Mobile has 6 GB of GDDR6 on a 96-bit bus with 192.0 GB/s bandwidth. The T400 4 GB has 4 GB of GDDR6 on a 64-bit bus with 80.00 GB/s bandwidth. The RTX 4050 Mobile has 50% more memory and 140% more bandwidth.

Q: Which GPU consumes less power?

A: The T400 4 GB has a TDP of 30 W, while the RTX 4050 Mobile has a TDP of 50 W. The T400 4 GB also lists a suggested PSU of 200 W, while the RTX 4050 Mobile has no suggested PSU listed, consistent with its IGP form factor.

Q: Are these GPUs from the same architecture generation?

A: No. The RTX 4050 Mobile uses the Ada Lovelace architecture on a 5 nm process node. The T400 4 GB uses the Turing architecture on a 12 nm process node. The RTX 4050 Mobile was released in January 2023, while the T400 4 GB was released in May 2021.

Q: How do their average benchmark scores compare to their nearest rivals?

A: The RTX 4050 Mobile's average score of 19,049 is within 0.1% of the AMD Radeon RX 6600 and within 0.5% of the NVIDIA RTX 2000 Ada Generation. The T400 4 GB's average of 16,792 is 0.6% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 7600S and 1.4% behind the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from entirely different architectural lineages. The RTX 4050 Mobile is built on Ada Lovelace, NVIDIA's latest generation, using the AD107 chip. It is fabricated on a 5 nm process at TSMC, with a transistor count of 18,900 million on a die size of 159 mm². This yields a transistor density of 118.9 million transistors per square millimeter. The T400 4 GB uses the Turing architecture with the TU117 chip, fabricated on a 12 nm process, also at TSMC. It has 4,700 million transistors on a 200 mm² die, giving a density of 23.5 million per square millimeter. The RTX 4050 Mobile packs 4 times the transistors into a smaller die, which explains its massive performance advantage.

The RTX 4050 Mobile includes dedicated hardware for ray tracing and tensor operations: 20 RT cores and 80 tensor cores. The T400 4 GB has none. This is not a minor feature difference; it fundamentally changes what workloads each GPU can accelerate. The RTX 4050 Mobile also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the T400 4 GB only supports DirectX 12 (12_1). The Vulkan support is identical at 1.4, and OpenGL is also identical at 4.6.

The memory subsystem differs in width and capacity. The RTX 4050 Mobile uses a 96-bit bus, while the T400 4 GB uses a 64-bit bus. This, combined with the higher memory clock (2000 MHz versus 1250 MHz) and effective data rate (16 Gbps versus 10 Gbps), gives the RTX 4050 Mobile 192.0 GB/s of bandwidth versus 80.00 GB/s. The RTX 4050 Mobile also has more texture mapping units (80 versus 24) and more render output units (48 versus 16), enabling higher pixel and texture fill rates: 84.24 GPixel/s and 140.4 GTexel/s versus 22.80 GPixel/s and 34.20 GTexel/s.

The bus interface also differs. The RTX 4050 Mobile uses PCIe 4.0 x8, while the T400 4 GB uses PCIe 3.0 x16. The newer PCIe 4.0 standard offers more bandwidth per lane, so the x8 link on the RTX 4050 Mobile is likely sufficient for its needs, while the T400 4 GB relies on more lanes of an older standard. The power delivery also differs: the RTX 4050 Mobile is an IGP with no power connectors, while the T400 4 GB is a single-slot card with no power connectors but a suggested PSU of 200 W.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ across nearly every measurable specification. The RTX 4050 Mobile has a base clock of 1455 MHz and a boost clock of 1755 MHz. The T400 4 GB has a base clock of 420 MHz and a boost clock of 1425 MHz. The memory clock is 2000 MHz on the RTX 4050 Mobile versus 1250 MHz on the T400 4 GB. The RTX 4050 Mobile has 6 GB of GDDR6 memory; the T400 4 GB has 4 GB. The bus width is 96-bit versus 64-bit.

The shading units are 2,560 versus 384, TMUs are 80 versus 24, and ROPs are 48 versus 16. The FP32 performance is 8.986 TFLOPS versus 1,094.4 GFLOPS. The FP16 performance is 8.986 TFLOPS (1:1) on the RTX 4050 Mobile versus 2.189 TFLOPS (2:1) on the T400 4 GB. The TDP is 50 W versus 30 W. The slot width is IGP versus single-slot. The display outputs are portable device dependent versus 3x mini-DisplayPort 1.4a.

The production status differs: the RTX 4050 Mobile is active, while the T400 4 GB is end-of-life. The release dates are January 2023 versus May 2021. The RTX 4050 Mobile's predecessor is GeForce 30 Mobile and its successor is GeForce 50 Mobile; the T400 4 GB's predecessor is Quadro Volta and its successor is Workstation Ampere. Neither GPU has a launch MSRP recorded, so no price comparison is possible. The RTX 4050 Mobile is a mobile part with no fixed dimensions, and the T400 4 GB also lacks recorded dimensions, but its single-slot form factor and display outputs make it a desktop-oriented card.