NVIDIA L4 vs NVIDIA RTX A3000 Mobile Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded data shows a decisive victory for the NVIDIA L4 across both benchmark tests included in the database. In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the L4 scores 140,838, while the RTX A3000 Mobile trails at 79,091. This represents a 78.1% difference in favor of the L4, a substantial margin that reflects the gap in raw compute throughput between the two designs.

The Vulkan test tells a similar story, with the L4 posting 121,306 against the RTX A3000 Mobile's 61,189. Here the delta is even larger, reaching 98.2%. The L4 is nearly twice as fast in this API-level workload. The head-to-head summary shows two wins for the L4 and zero for the RTX A3000 Mobile.

Contextualizing these scores against each card's nearest rivals helps clarify what these numbers actually mean. The L4's average benchmark score is 131,072, placing it within 0.7% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti (131,938) and 3.1% behind the RTX 4000 Ada Generation (135,218). The L4 also sits 3.1% behind the NVIDIA A10M and 3.2% behind the AMD Radeon PRO W6800. Its 95th percentile ranking among all GPUs indicates that it performs in the top tier of the database's tested hardware.

The RTX A3000 Mobile, by contrast, averages 70,140 across its benchmark runs. Its nearest rivals cluster tightly around this figure: the NVIDIA Quadro P6000 scores 69,986, a 0.2% difference; the AMD Radeon Pro WX 8200 scores 69,870, a 0.4% difference; the AMD Radeon RX 6600 LE scores 70,829, a 1% difference; and the NVIDIA CMP 90HX scores 69,000, a 1.7% difference. The RTX A3000 Mobile's 91st percentile ranking is respectable, but the absolute performance gap to the L4 is enormous.

When interpreting the two head-to-head deltas, note that the OpenCL margin of 78.1% is actually the smaller of the two victories. The Vulkan margin of 98.2% indicates that the L4's architectural advantages are particularly visible in workloads that exercise the graphics and compute pipeline through Vulkan's lower-level abstractions. The RTX A3000 Mobile's Ampere architecture, while competent, simply cannot match the throughput of the L4's Ada Lovelace design in these recorded tests.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs belong to different architectural generations, and the data makes clear how much that matters. The NVIDIA L4 uses the AD104 chip built on Ada Lovelace architecture, fabricated by TSMC on a 5 nm process. The RTX A3000 Mobile uses the GA104 chip on Ampere architecture, fabricated by Samsung on an 8 nm process. This process node difference alone accounts for a large portion of the performance gap, as the L4 packs 35,800 million transistors into a 294 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 121.8 million per square millimeter. The RTX A3000 Mobile contains 17,400 million transistors spread across a 392 mm² die, for a density of just 44.4 million per square millimeter.

The core configurations diverge sharply. The L4 has 7,424 shading units, 240 texture mapping units, and 80 raster output pipelines. The RTX A3000 Mobile has 4,096 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. The L4 also fields 60 ray tracing cores and 240 tensor cores, while the RTX A3000 Mobile has 32 ray tracing cores and 128 tensor cores. Every major compute block is roughly doubled in the L4, which explains the benchmark delta.

Clock speeds differ as well, though in an unexpected direction. The L4's base clock is 795 MHz with a boost of 2040 MHz. The RTX A3000 Mobile's base is 600 MHz with a boost of 1230 MHz. The L4's substantially higher boost clock, combined with its larger shader count, produces a theoretical FP32 throughput of 30.29 TFLOPS versus 10.08 TFLOPS for the RTX A3000 Mobile. FP16 performance follows the same 1:1 ratio on both cards: 30.29 TFLOPS for the L4, 10.08 TFLOPS for the RTX A3000 Mobile.

Memory configurations also favor the L4. It carries 24 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus, providing 300.1 GB/s of bandwidth. The RTX A3000 Mobile has 6 GB of GDDR6 on the same 192-bit bus, yielding 264.0 GB/s. The memory clock differs: 1563 MHz (12.5 Gbps effective) for the L4 versus 1375 MHz (11 Gbps effective) for the RTX A3000 Mobile. The L4's larger frame buffer and higher bandwidth are significant for large model inference and rendering workloads.

Pixel and texture rates mirror the core disparity. The L4 achieves 163.2 GPixel/s and 489.6 GTexel/s, while the RTX A3000 Mobile manages 78.72 GPixel/s and 157.4 GTexel/s. Both cards support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, so API compatibility is not a differentiator.

The Verdict

The data is unambiguous. The NVIDIA L4 outperforms the RTX A3000 Mobile by 78.1% in OpenCL and 98.2% in Vulkan, wins both head-to-head tests, and carries a 95th percentile ranking versus the RTX A3000 Mobile's 91st. The L4 is the superior compute device in every recorded measurement.

The RTX A3000 Mobile is an end-of-life product, having been released in April 2021, while the L4 remains active in production and launched in March 2023. The L4's predecessor is listed as Server Ampere, with Server Hopper as its successor, placing it in a linear progression of server-grade hardware. The RTX A3000 Mobile's predecessor is Quadro Turing-M and its successor is Ada-MW, marking it as a mobile workstation part.

Power consumption tells a nuanced story. The L4 has a TDP of 72 W, while the RTX A3000 Mobile is rated at 70 W. Despite consuming nearly the same power, the L4 delivers dramatically more performance. This efficiency gap is a direct result of the 5 nm versus 8 nm process node difference. The L4 also runs within a single-slot form factor at 169 mm length, while the RTX A3000 Mobile has no recorded slot width or dimensions, being a mobile component.

For users choosing between these two, the decision depends entirely on form factor and deployment context. The L4 is a server card with no display outputs, meaning it requires a separate GPU for any video output. The RTX A3000 Mobile is portable-device dependent for display outputs, meaning it is designed to be integrated into a laptop or mobile workstation. If the workload requires a server accelerator with a large 24 GB buffer, the L4 is the clear choice. If the requirement is a mobile workstation GPU with modest compute needs, the RTX A3000 Mobile serves that role, but the performance sacrifice is substantial.

FAQ

Q: How much faster is the NVIDIA L4 in OpenCL compared to the RTX A3000 Mobile?

A: The L4 scores 140,838 versus 79,091, a delta of 78.1%.

Q: What is the difference in Vulkan performance between the two cards?

A: The L4 scores 121,306 and the RTX A3000 Mobile scores 61,189, giving the L4 a 98.2% advantage.

Q: How do the memory configurations compare?

A: The L4 has 24 GB of GDDR6 with 300.1 GB/s bandwidth, while the RTX A3000 Mobile has 6 GB of GDDR6 with 264.0 GB/s bandwidth. Both use a 192-bit bus.

Q: Which card has higher transistor density?

A: The L4 uses a 5 nm TSMC process with 121.8 million transistors per mm², while the RTX A3000 Mobile uses an 8 nm Samsung process with 44.4 million per mm².

Q: Are both cards still in production?

A: No. The L4 is listed as Active, while the RTX A3000 Mobile is listed as End-of-life.

Q: What is the FP32 compute throughput of each card?

A: The L4 delivers 30.29 TFLOPS, while the RTX A3000 Mobile delivers 10.08 TFLOPS.

Where Each One Wins

The NVIDIA L4 wins in every category where the database records a measurement. It dominates in raw compute, memory capacity, bandwidth, pixel rate, texture rate, and ray tracing core count. Its 24 GB frame buffer is four times larger than the RTX A3000 Mobile's 6 GB, making it suitable for massive datasets, large language model inference, and high-resolution rendering tasks that would exhaust the mobile card's memory.

The L4 also wins on efficiency per watt in the recorded data. Both cards have nearly identical power envelopes, 72 W versus 70 W, yet the L4 produces roughly three times the FP32 throughput. The 95th percentile ranking places it in the top tier of all tested GPUs.

The RTX A3000 Mobile's advantages are narrower but real for specific deployment scenarios. Its 70 W TDP allows it to operate in mobile workstations where the L4's server form factor is impossible. The RTX A3000 Mobile has no recorded dimensions, reflecting its integration into laptops, while the L4 requires a 169 mm single-slot server chassis. The RTX A3000 Mobile's display outputs are portable-device dependent, meaning it can drive laptop displays directly, whereas the L4 has no outputs at all.

In terms of competitive positioning, the RTX A3000 Mobile sits among workstation and mining-class GPUs like the Quadro P6000 and CMP 90HX, with scores within 1.7% of those parts. The L4 competes with high-end desktop and workstation accelerators like the RTX 3090 Ti and RTX 4000 Ada Generation, and it is within 3.2% of all its nearest rivals.

Specification Differences

| Feature | NVIDIA L4 | NVIDIA RTX A3000 Mobile |

|---|---|---|

| GPU chip | AD104 | GA104 |

| Architecture | Ada Lovelace | Ampere |

| Process node | 5 nm | 8 nm |

| Foundry | TSMC | Samsung |

| Transistors | 35,800 million | 17,400 million |

| Die size | 294 mm² | 392 mm² |

| Transistor density | 121.8M / mm² | 44.4M / mm² |

| Base clock | 795 MHz | 600 MHz |

| Boost clock | 2040 MHz | 1230 MHz |

| Memory size | 24 GB | 6 GB |

| Memory clock | 1563 MHz, 12.5 Gbps effective | 1375 MHz, 11 Gbps effective |

| Memory bandwidth | 300.1 GB/s | 264.0 GB/s |

| Shading units | 7424 | 4096 |

| Texture mapping units | 240 | 128 |

| Raster output pipelines | 80 | 64 |

| Ray tracing cores | 60 | 32 |

| Tensor cores | 240 | 128 |

| Pixel rate | 163.2 GPixel/s | 78.72 GPixel/s |

| Texture rate | 489.6 GTexel/s | 157.4 GTexel/s |

| FP32 performance | 30.29 TFLOPS | 10.08 TFLOPS |

| FP16 performance | 30.29 TFLOPS (1:1) | 10.08 TFLOPS (1:1) |

| TDP | 72 W | 70 W |

| Slot width | Single-slot | Not recorded |

| Display outputs | No outputs | Portable Device Dependent |

| Bus interface | PCIe 4.0 x16 | PCIe 4.0 x16 |

| Production status | Active | End-of-life |

| Release date | March 2023 | April 2021 |

The shared traits include the 192-bit memory bus, GDDR6 memory type, PCIe 4.0 x16 interface, and identical API support for DirectX 12 Ultimate, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. Both cards draw power through no external connectors, and neither has a recorded launch MSRP in the database.