NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 GDDR6 vs NVIDIA Quadro K3000M Comparison

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 GDDR6 and the NVIDIA Quadro K3000M occupy opposite ends of the hardware timeline, and the benchmark data reflects that gulf. The RTX 4070 GDDR6 scores 4334.5 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, while the Quadro K3000M scores 4241 in Geekbench OpenCL. These are different tests measuring different workloads, so the raw numbers are not directly comparable, but the relative positioning against shared rivals tells a clearer story. The RTX 4070 GDDR6 sits 0.6% behind the Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200 and 1.2% behind the NVIDIA GeForce 930M, yet it edges out the AMD FirePro W2100 by 0.9% and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M by 1.2%. The Quadro K3000M, meanwhile, trails the AMD Radeon Vega 3 by 0.6%, the GeForce GTX 460M by 1%, and the AMD FirePro W2100 by 1.3%, while beating the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti by 1.2%. Both GPUs land at the 25th percentile among all GPUs, indicating that in their respective benchmark pools, each is positioned at the same quartile boundary.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

There is no direct head-to-head benchmark linking the two cards, so the comparison must be drawn from their nearest-rival clusters. The RTX 4070 GDDR6’s 4334.5 score in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 is a modern DirectX 12 workload that stresses ray tracing and mesh shading. The Quadro K3000M’s 4241 score in Geekbench OpenCL is a compute-oriented test that measures raw throughput on generic workloads. The RTX 4070 GDDR6’s closest rival, the Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200, averages 4360, placing the RTX card just 25.5 points behind it. The Quadro K3000M’s closest rival, the AMD Radeon Vega 3, averages 4268, placing the Quadro card 27 points behind it. In both cases, the margin to the nearest competitor is under 1%, which suggests that each card is tightly clustered with its peers in its respective test environment.

The RTX 4070 GDDR6 shows a positive deltaPct against two of its four nearest rivals. It is 0.9% ahead of the AMD FirePro W2100 and 1.2% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M. The Quadro K3000M also beats the GeForce GTX 460M, but by a smaller margin of 1.2%—identical to the RTX card’s lead over that same GPU. The Quadro K3000M’s 1.2% lead over the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti is noteworthy, as that rival is a much more recent discrete mobile GPU. However, the Quadro K3000M loses to the AMD Radeon Vega 3 and the AMD FirePro W2100, while the RTX 4070 GDDR6 loses only to the Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200 and the NVIDIA GeForce 930M. The data indicates that the RTX 4070 GDDR6 is more competitive within its peer set, with two wins and two losses, whereas the Quadro K3000M has one win and three losses.

The performance gap in absolute terms is stark when considering the underlying hardware. The RTX 4070 GDDR6 delivers 29.15 TFLOPS of FP32 compute, while the Quadro K3000M delivers 753.4 GFLOPS—a 38.7x difference in raw floating-point throughput. Pixel rate tells a similar story: 158.4 GPixel/s versus 7.848 GPixel/s, a 20.2x advantage. Texture rate is 455.4 GTexel/s versus 31.39 GTexel/s, a 14.5x advantage. These are not rival comparisons; they are the two cards’ own specifications. The RTX 4070 GDDR6 also has 5888 shading units against 576, 184 TMUs against 48, and 64 ROPs against 32. The RTX card’s 12 GB GDDR6 memory with 480.0 GB/s bandwidth dwarfs the Quadro’s 2 GB GDDR5 with 89.60 GB/s. Every measurable compute and memory metric favors the RTX 4070 GDDR6 by an order of magnitude or more.

The Verdict

From the data alone, the RTX 4070 GDDR6 is the superior performer in every specification category and in the benchmark context where it appears. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 4334.5, while not directly comparable to the Quadro’s Geekbench score, shows it competing within 1.2% of several modern integrated and entry-level discrete GPUs. The Quadro K3000M’s 4241 Geekbench score places it in a similar percentile, but its specification sheet reveals a GPU from a different era. The RTX 4070 GDDR6 offers 46 RT cores and 184 tensor cores, features entirely absent from the Quadro K3000M. The RTX card supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, while the Quadro supports DirectX 12 (11_0) and Vulkan 1.2.175. For any workload that relies on modern graphics APIs, ray tracing, or AI acceleration, the RTX 4070 GDDR6 is the only viable option.

The Quadro K3000M is a 75 W MXM module with no power connectors, designed for mobile workstations of its generation. Its 654 MHz base and boost clock is fixed, with no boost headroom. The RTX 4070 GDDR6 has a 1920 MHz base clock and a 2475 MHz boost clock, a 28.7% boost delta over base. The Quadro K3000M’s 2 GB memory is a limitation for any modern workload, while the RTX 4070 GDDR6’s 12 GB is sufficient for high-resolution textures and large datasets. The verdict is unambiguous: the RTX 4070 GDDR6 wins on every benchmark-relevant specification and feature set. The Quadro K3000M retains value only as a legacy part for old mobile workstations that require its specific MXM-B form factor.

Architecture Differences

The RTX 4070 GDDR6 is built on the AD104 chip using the Ada Lovelace architecture, manufactured on a 5 nm process at TSMC. The Quadro K3000M uses the GK104 chip with the Kepler architecture, also fabricated by TSMC but on a 28 nm process. The transistor counts differ massively: the AD104 packs 35,800 million transistors into a 294 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 121.8 million transistors per square millimeter. The GK104 die is also 294 mm²—identical in size—but holds only 3,540 million transistors, for a density of 12.0 million per square millimeter. This is a 10.2x density advantage for the newer chip, explaining how the RTX card fits 10.2x more shading units, 3.8x more TMUs, and 2x more ROPs into the same physical area.

The RTX 4070 GDDR6 introduces dedicated hardware that the Quadro K3000M lacks entirely: 46 ray tracing cores and 184 tensor cores. These enable hardware-accelerated ray tracing and AI-based features like DLSS, which the Kepler architecture cannot support. The Quadro K3000M has no RT cores and no tensor cores, limiting it to traditional rasterization and compute. The memory subsystem also differs fundamentally: the RTX card uses 12 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus, while the Quadro uses 2 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus. The RTX card’s 480.0 GB/s bandwidth is 5.4x higher despite the narrower bus, a direct result of the faster memory clock (2500 MHz at 20 Gbps effective versus 700 MHz at 2.8 Gbps effective). The API support reflects the architectural gap, with the RTX card supporting DirectX 12 Ultimate (feature level 12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, versus the Quadro’s DirectX 12 (feature level 11_0) and Vulkan 1.2.175.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ in nearly every specification field. The RTX 4070 GDDR6 has a base clock of 1920 MHz and a boost clock of 2475 MHz; the Quadro K3000M has a fixed 654 MHz for both. Memory size is 12 GB versus 2 GB, and memory type is GDDR6 versus GDDR5. The RTX card’s memory bus is 192-bit, while the Quadro’s is 256-bit, but the RTX card’s bandwidth is 480.0 GB/s versus 89.60 GB/s. Shading units are 5888 versus 576, TMUs are 184 versus 48, and ROPs are 64 versus 32. The RTX card has 46 RT cores and 184 tensor cores; the Quadro has none. FP32 compute is 29.15 TFLOPS versus 753.4 GFLOPS. The RTX card has a 200 W TDP, while the Quadro has 75 W. Power connectors are 1x 16-pin for the RTX card versus none for the Quadro. The RTX card uses a PCIe 4.0 x16 interface, while the Quadro uses MXM-B (3.0). Display outputs are 1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a for the RTX card, versus "Portable Device Dependent" for the Quadro. The RTX card measures 240 mm by 110 mm by 40 mm, while the Quadro has no listed dimensions. The RTX card has a launch MSRP of 599 USD; the Quadro has no launch MSRP listed.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has a higher benchmark score in its respective test?

A: The RTX 4070 GDDR6 scores 4334.5 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, while the Quadro K3000M scores 4241 in Geekbench OpenCL. These are different tests, so the scores are not directly comparable.

Q: How does each card compare to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M?

A: The RTX 4070 GDDR6 is 1.2% ahead of the GeForce GTX 460M, and the Quadro K3000M is also 1.2% ahead of the GeForce GTX 460M. Both cards beat that rival by the same margin.

Q: What is the transistor density difference between the two chips?

A: The RTX 4070 GDDR6’s AD104 chip has a density of 121.8 million transistors per square millimeter, while the Quadro K3000M’s GK104 chip has 12.0 million per square millimeter. Both dies are 294 mm² in size.

Q: Does the Quadro K3000M support ray tracing?

A: No. The Quadro K3000M has no RT cores or tensor cores. The RTX 4070 GDDR6 includes 46 RT cores and 184 tensor cores.

Q: Which card has more memory bandwidth?

A: The RTX 4070 GDDR6 has 480.0 GB/s of bandwidth from 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus. The Quadro K3000M has 89.60 GB/s from 2 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus.

Q: What is the FP32 compute performance difference?

A: The RTX 4070 GDDR6 delivers 29.15 TFLOPS of FP32 compute, while the Quadro K3000M delivers 753.4 GFLOPS. The RTX card is roughly 38.7 times higher.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 4070 GDDR6 wins in every scenario that requires modern graphics features, high resolution, or compute-heavy workloads. Its 12 GB of GDDR6 memory and 480.0 GB/s bandwidth support large textures and high-resolution rendering. The 46 RT cores enable hardware ray tracing, and the 184 tensor cores accelerate AI workloads. The DirectX 12 Ultimate support with feature level 12_2 means it can run the latest games with mesh shaders and variable rate shading. The 29.15 TFLOPS of FP32 compute makes it suitable for scientific computing, video rendering, and machine learning inference. The 200 W TDP and PCIe 4.0 x16 interface indicate a desktop card designed for performance, with a 240 mm length fitting standard ATX cases.

The Quadro K3000M wins only in scenarios that require its specific form factor and power envelope. As an MXM-B (3.0) module with a 75 W TDP and no power connectors, it is designed for older mobile workstations that accept this socket. Its 2 GB of GDDR5 memory and 89.60 GB/s bandwidth are adequate for legacy CAD or professional visualization workloads that predate modern API requirements. Its DirectX 12 (11_0) support means it can run some modern titles at reduced settings, but its 753.4 GFLOPS of FP32 compute and 7.848 GPixel/s pixel rate limit it to low-resolution, low-detail tasks. The Quadro K3000M’s advantage is purely situational: it is the only one of the two that can fit into an MXM-B laptop. For any user building a new system or upgrading an existing desktop, the RTX 4070 GDDR6 is the only card in this comparison that delivers contemporary performance. The Quadro K3000M’s 28 nm Kepler architecture, fixed 654 MHz clock, and absence of RT and tensor cores place it firmly in a legacy role. The data shows a clear generational divide, with the RTX 4070 GDDR6 winning on every metric that matters for current software.