GeForce GTX 980 vs GeForce RTX 3050

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce RTX 3050, which uses a 8 nm design. nVidia has set the core frequency at 1552 MHz. The GDDR6 memory is set to run at a frequency of 1750 MHz on this specific model. It features 2560 SPUs along with 80 TAUs and 32 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce RTX 3050		130 Watts
GeForce GTX 980		165 Watts
	Difference: 35 Watts (27%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce RTX 3050 should in theory perform a small bit faster than the GeForce GTX 980 overall. (explain)

GeForce RTX 3050		229376 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 980		224000 MB/sec
	Difference: 5376 (2%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 980 is just a bit (more or less 16%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce RTX 3050. (explain)

GeForce GTX 980		144128 Mtexels/sec
GeForce RTX 3050		124160 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 19968 (16%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 980 should be quite a bit (approximately 45%) faster with regards to AA than the GeForce RTX 3050, and also will be able to handle higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce GTX 980		72064 Mpixels/sec
GeForce RTX 3050		49664 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 22400 (45%)

Please note that the above 'benchmarks' are all just theoretical - the results were calculated based on the card's specifications, and real-world performance may (and probably will) vary at least a bit.

Price Comparison

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the largest amount of data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics card could possibly record to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.