NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile is an Ampere-generation mobile GPU built on the GA107 chip at Samsung's 8 nm process. It packs 2,048 shading units, 64 tensor cores, and 16 RT cores, with a 4 GB GDDR6 frame buffer on a 128-bit bus. With a 45 W TDP and no external power connectors, it targets thin-and-light laptops. Released on May 10, 2021, it is now end-of-life.

Benchmark Performance

Benchmark results place the RTX 3050 Mobile in a remarkably tight performance cluster. Its average benchmark score across the three recorded tests is 33,170, which corresponds to a 77th percentile ranking among all GPUs—meaning it outperforms 77% of the graphics cards in the database. The individual scores show a split between synthetic and compute workloads: the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test yields a score of 421, while Geekbench OpenCL and Vulkan scores reach 50,038 and 49,051, respectively. The large gap between the 3DMark result and the Geekbench numbers reflects the card's design: it delivers solid compute throughput but is not optimized for the most demanding DX12 rasterization workloads at high settings.

Against its nearest rivals, the RTX 3050 Mobile is effectively at parity. The NVIDIA T550 Mobile posts an average score of 33,161, a 0% delta from the 3050 Mobile's 33,170. The NVIDIA GeForce MX550 scores 33,209, which is 0.1% higher—a difference of just 39 points. The AMD Radeon Pro 570 averages 33,258, 0.3% ahead, and the NVIDIA RTX A5000 averages 33,294, 0.4% ahead. None of these deltas exceed half a percent, meaning the 3050 Mobile sits squarely in a four-way tie for performance in this segment. The data suggests that in real-world laptop implementations, the choice among these GPUs would hinge on features, drivers, and thermal design rather than raw benchmark scores.

The 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 421 is particularly low relative to the Geekbench results, indicating that the GPU struggles with heavy geometry and shading workloads. This is consistent with its 32 ROPs and 64 TMUs, which limit pixel and texture throughput. The pixel rate of 42.98 GPixel/s and texture rate of 85.95 GTexel/s are modest for a 30-series part, but the card's FP32 throughput of 5.501 TFLOPS (and matching FP16 at 1:1) shows that compute-oriented tasks—such as those in OpenCL and Vulkan—benefit from the full 2,048 shader count.

Ray Tracing and Feature Set

The RTX 3050 Mobile is built on the Ampere architecture, which brings dedicated hardware ray tracing and tensor processing. It includes 16 RT cores and 64 tensor cores. These enable hardware-accelerated ray tracing and AI-driven features such as DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling), though the specific DLSS version is not listed. The card supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (feature level 12_2), which includes ray tracing, variable rate shading, and mesh shaders. OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4 are also supported, ensuring broad compatibility with modern APIs.

The 64 tensor cores are a significant asset for AI workloads, but the 16 RT cores are relatively few compared to higher-tier Ampere parts. In practice, the RTX 3050 Mobile can handle ray tracing at lower resolutions and with reduced settings, but it is not a high-end ray tracing solution. The presence of DirectX 12 Ultimate means that games that leverage these features will run, but performance will be constrained by the card's limited shader and ROP count. The tensor cores also enable DLSS, which can help offset the ray tracing performance hit by rendering at lower internal resolutions and upscaling. However, the 4 GB frame buffer (discussed below) may limit the effectiveness of DLSS at higher resolutions.

Memory Subsystem

The RTX 3050 Mobile is equipped with 4 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 192.0 GB/s. The memory clock is 1500 MHz, with an effective data rate of 12 Gbps. This configuration is typical for a mobile GPU aimed at 1080p gaming. The 4 GB capacity is sufficient for many current titles at 1080p with medium to high settings, but it becomes a bottleneck at 1440p or 4K, where textures and geometry can exceed 4 GB. The 128-bit bus limits peak bandwidth; 192 GB/s is adequate for 1080p but may cause stuttering in memory-heavy scenes or with high-resolution texture packs.

The pixel rate of 42.98 GPixel/s and texture rate of 85.95 GTexel/s are directly tied to the memory subsystem's bandwidth. With only 32 ROPs, the card cannot fill the screen as quickly as higher-end parts, but for a 45 W mobile GPU, the balance is reasonable. The 4 GB VRAM is also a consideration for ray tracing, as ray-traced scenes often require additional memory for acceleration structures. In practice, users should expect to lower texture quality or resolution when enabling ray tracing on this GPU.

Power and Cooling

The RTX 3050 Mobile has a thermal design power (TDP) of 45 W, which is low for a discrete GPU and places it in the range of integrated-class solutions. It uses no external power connectors, indicating that it draws power entirely from the laptop's motherboard. The slot width is listed as "IGP," which stands for integrated graphics processor—suggesting that the GPU is soldered to the motherboard rather than being a removable module. This design simplifies laptop construction but also means that the cooling solution is custom to each chassis.

Because the TDP is only 45 W, the cooling requirements are modest. A capable air cooler with a single heat pipe or a small vapor chamber is typically sufficient. The lack of a suggested PSU (the field is null) is irrelevant for a mobile part, as power is supplied by the laptop's battery and AC adapter. The low power draw also means that the GPU generates relatively little heat, allowing for thinner and lighter laptop designs. However, sustained loads may still cause thermal throttling if the laptop's cooling system is inadequate, so the actual performance depends heavily on the implementation.

How It Compares

NVIDIA T550 Mobile

The T550 Mobile is the closest rival, with an average score of 33,161 versus the RTX 3050 Mobile's 33,170—a 0% delta. The two are effectively identical in benchmark performance. The T550 is a professional-oriented mobile GPU, but in this database, it lands in the same performance envelope. The choice between them would likely come down to driver support and software certifications rather than raw speed.

NVIDIA GeForce MX550

The MX550 scores 33,209, which is 0.1% higher than the RTX 3050 Mobile. This is a difference of 39 points, well within run-to-run variance. The MX550 is often found in entry-level laptops, and its performance parity with the RTX 3050 Mobile suggests that the latter does not offer a significant advantage in standard benchmarks. However, the RTX 3050 Mobile's additional RT and tensor cores may provide a feature set advantage in games that support ray tracing or DLSS, even if the raw compute is similar.

AMD Radeon Pro 570

The Radeon Pro 570 averages 33,258, 0.3% ahead of the RTX 3050 Mobile. This is a professional workstation GPU, and its slight lead in average score is marginal. The RTX 3050 Mobile's DirectX 12 Ultimate support and dedicated RT cores give it an edge in modern gaming features, but the Radeon Pro 570 may be preferred in professional applications that rely on OpenCL or Vulkan compute. The delta of 0.3% is negligible in real-world use.

NVIDIA RTX A5000

The RTX A5000, a high-end workstation GPU, posts an average score of 33,294—only 0.4% ahead of the RTX 3050 Mobile. This is surprising given the A5000's much larger memory and compute resources, but the benchmark average in this database places them in the same tier. The RTX 3050 Mobile's 4 GB VRAM and 45 W TDP are far more modest, yet the scores suggest that the A5000's advantages do not translate into higher average scores in the tested workloads. This highlights that average benchmark scores can obscure significant differences in memory capacity and sustained performance, which the RTX 3050 Mobile lacks.

In summary, the RTX 3050 Mobile is a mid-range mobile GPU that sits in a dense performance cluster with several rivals. Its strengths lie in its feature set—ray tracing, tensor cores, and modern API support—rather than in raw benchmark dominance. The 4 GB memory and 45 W power envelope make it suitable for 1080p gaming and light compute tasks, but it is not designed for high-resolution or heavy ray tracing workloads. The data shows a card that is competitive within its narrow performance band, but not a standout.