NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 A Mobile vs NVIDIA L20 Comparison

Where Each One Wins

The benchmark data splits these two NVIDIA parts cleanly into separate performance tiers. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 A Mobile is a mobile integrated graphics processor aimed at thin-and-light portables, while the NVIDIA L20 is a dual-slot server accelerator built for compute-heavy workloads. In the single shared benchmark test, the GeForce OpenCL result, the L20 wins decisively. The database records one head-to-head comparison, and the L20 takes it with a delta of -80.7% from the perspective of the RTX 3050 A Mobile, meaning the L20 scores roughly five times higher in that test.

The RTX 3050 A Mobile holds no wins in the direct comparison. Its strongest recorded results come from the PassMark suite: a G3D score of 11664, a GPU compute score of 4419, a DirectX 9 score of 152, and a DirectX 11 score of 94. These place it at the 44th percentile among all GPUs in the database, with an average benchmark score of 8746. That puts it near the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 v2 (average score 8743, delta 0%), the NVIDIA Quadro P2200 (8686, delta 0.7%), the AMD Radeon R9 M265X (8851, delta -1.2%), and the AMD Radeon Pro WX 5100 (8863, delta -1.3%). This is entry-level territory, with performance comparable to decade-old desktop cards.

The L20, by contrast, sits at the 99th percentile of all GPUs. Its Geekbench OpenCL score of 274276 and Vulkan score of 228018 give it an average benchmark score of 251147. Its nearest rivals are the NVIDIA PG506-232 (average 225124, delta 11.6%), the AMD Radeon PRO W7900D (219827, delta 14.2%), the NVIDIA L40 (284111, delta -11.6%), and the NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada Generation (287237, delta -12.6%). The L20 outperforms the PG506-232 by 11.6% and the Radeon PRO W7900D by 14.2%, while trailing the L40 and RTX 6000 Ada Generation by 11.6% and 12.6%, respectively. The use-case split is therefore stark: the RTX 3050 A Mobile serves basic mobile graphics, while the L20 targets server-side compute, AI inference, and professional rendering where massive memory and throughput matter.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA L20 records an average benchmark score of 251147, compared to 8746 for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 A Mobile. The L20 also holds the 99th percentile position among all GPUs, while the RTX 3050 A Mobile sits at the 44th percentile.

Q: How much faster is the L20 in the shared Geekbench OpenCL test?

A: The L20 scores 274276 versus 52998 for the RTX 3050 A Mobile. The delta is -80.7% from the mobile part's perspective, meaning the L20 delivers roughly 5.2 times the OpenCL performance.

Q: What memory configurations do the two GPUs use?

A: The RTX 3050 A Mobile uses 4 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus with 192.0 GB/s bandwidth. The L20 uses 48 GB of GDDR6 on a 384-bit bus with 864.0 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: Are both GPUs based on the same architecture?

A: No. The RTX 3050 A Mobile uses the Ampere architecture with the GA106 chip, manufactured on Samsung's 8 nm process. The L20 uses the Ada Lovelace architecture with the AD102 chip, manufactured on TSMC's 5 nm process.

Q: What is the production status of each GPU?

A: The RTX 3050 A Mobile is marked as end-of-life, released at the end of 2023 with a predecessor of GeForce 20 Mobile. The L20 is active in production, released in November 2023, with a predecessor of Server Ampere and a successor of Server Hopper.

Q: How do the shading units compare?

A: The RTX 3050 A Mobile has 1792 shading units, 56 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs. The L20 has 11776 shading units, 368 TMUs, and 128 ROPs.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only direct benchmark shared by both GPUs in the database is Geekbench OpenCL. The RTX 3050 A Mobile scores 52998, while the L20 scores 274276. That is a delta of -80.7% relative to the mobile part, a gap so large that it defines the entire comparison. The L20's OpenCL result alone is more than five times the mobile GPU's total average benchmark score across all tests.

Looking at the broader benchmark landscape, the RTX 3050 A Mobile's best results are in the PassMark suite. Its G3D score of 11664 is respectable for a 45 W integrated mobile part, and its GPU compute score of 4419 shows modest compute capability. The DirectX 9 score of 152 and DirectX 11 score of 94 indicate that older API workloads fare better than newer ones, with DirectX 12 dropping to 55 and DirectX 10 to 61. The G2D score of 526 reflects basic 2D performance. These numbers place it within a narrow band around the 8746 average, with rivals like the GTX 460 v2 (8743) and Quadro P2200 (8686) essentially matching it.

The L20's benchmark profile is entirely different. Its Geekbench Vulkan score of 228018, while lower than its OpenCL score, still dwarfs the RTX 3050 A Mobile's entire benchmark output. The L20's nearest rivals in the database are all high-end professional or server parts. It beats the PG506-232 by 11.6% and the Radeon PRO W7900D by 14.2%, while the L40 and RTX 6000 Ada Generation sit 11.6% and 12.6% ahead of it, respectively. The L20's 99th percentile ranking means it outperforms the vast majority of GPUs in the database, whereas the RTX 3050 A Mobile's 44th percentile places it below the median.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ in nearly every measurable specification. The RTX 3050 A Mobile has a base clock of 1065 MHz and a boost clock of 1343 MHz, while the L20 runs at 1440 MHz base and 2520 MHz boost. Memory speed also diverges: the mobile part uses 1500 MHz (12 Gbps effective), while the L20 uses 2250 MHz (18 Gbps effective).

Memory capacity and bandwidth show the largest gap. The RTX 3050 A Mobile offers 4 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, yielding 192.0 GB/s. The L20 offers 48 GB of GDDR6 on a 384-bit bus, yielding 864.0 GB/s, which is 4.5 times the bandwidth. The L20's memory size is 12 times larger.

Compute resources follow the same pattern. The RTX 3050 A Mobile has 1792 shading units, 56 TMUs, 32 ROPs, 14 RT cores, and 56 tensor cores. The L20 has 11776 shading units, 368 TMUs, 128 ROPs, 92 RT cores, and 368 tensor cores. Pixel rate and texture rate scale accordingly: the mobile part produces 42.98 GPixel/s and 75.21 GTexel/s, while the L20 produces 322.6 GPixel/s and 927.4 GTexel/s. FP32 throughput is 4.813 TFLOPS for the mobile part versus 59.35 TFLOPS for the L20, a 12.3 times difference. Both have 1:1 FP16 to FP32 ratios.

Power and physical specifications also differ sharply. The RTX 3050 A Mobile has a TDP of 45 W, is marked as an IGP slot width, and uses no power connectors. The L20 has a TDP of 275 W, is dual-slot, uses a single 16-pin power connector, and has a suggested PSU of 600 W. The L20 measures 267 mm in length and 111 mm in height, while the mobile part has no listed dimensions. The bus interface is PCIe 4.0 x8 for the mobile part and PCIe 4.0 x16 for the L20. Display outputs are portable-device-dependent for the mobile part, while the L20 provides 4x DisplayPort 1.4a.

Architecture Differences

The RTX 3050 A Mobile is built on the Ampere architecture, using the GA106 chip. It is fabricated on Samsung's 8 nm process with 12,000 million transistors on a 276 mm² die, giving a transistor density of 43.5M per mm². The L20 uses the Ada Lovelace architecture with the AD102 chip. It is fabricated on TSMC's 5 nm process with 76,300 million transistors on a 609 mm² die, giving a transistor density of 125.3M per mm². The L20 packs over six times the transistor count and nearly three times the density.

The generation labels reflect their intended markets. The RTX 3050 A Mobile belongs to the GeForce 30 Mobile generation, with a predecessor of GeForce 20 Mobile and no listed successor. The L20 belongs to the Server Ada generation, with a predecessor of Server Ampere and a successor of Server Hopper. Both GPUs support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, so API compatibility is identical even though the underlying architectures differ by one generation.

Ray tracing and tensor core counts scale with the architectural leap. The Ampere part has 14 RT cores and 56 tensor cores, while the Ada Lovelace part has 92 RT cores and 368 tensor cores, a 6.6 times increase in both categories. The L20's higher boost clock of 2520 MHz, combined with its larger shader count, drives the massive FP32 throughput advantage. The 5 nm process also enables the L20 to fit 76,300 million transistors within a 609 mm² die, whereas the 8 nm process limits the GA106 to 12,000 million transistors on a smaller 276 mm² die. These architectural differences explain the benchmark gap: the L20 is a dedicated server compute accelerator with Ada Lovelace's improved efficiency and scaling, while the RTX 3050 A Mobile is a low-power Ampere part for portable devices.