GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile Refresh 6 GB vs GTX 970

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Primary details

GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.

Place in the ranking215not rated
Place by popularity57not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation13.79no data
Power efficiency11.57no data
ArchitectureMaxwell 2.0 (2014−2019)Ampere (2020−2024)
GPU code nameGM204GA107
Market segmentDesktopLaptop
Release date19 September 2014 (10 years ago)6 July 2022 (2 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$329 no data

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

no data

Detailed specifications

General parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores16642560
Core clock speed1050 MHz1237 MHz
Boost clock speed1178 MHz1492 MHz
Number of transistors5,200 million8,700 million
Manufacturing process technology28 nm8 nm
Power consumption (TDP)148 Watt75 Watt
Maximum GPU temperature98 °Cno data
Texture fill rate122.5119.4
Floating-point processing power3.92 TFLOPS7.639 TFLOPS
ROPs5632
TMUs10480
Tensor Coresno data80
Ray Tracing Coresno data20

Form factor & compatibility

Information on compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility).

Bus supportPCI Express 3.0no data
InterfacePCIe 3.0 x16PCIe 4.0 x8
Length267 mmno data
Height4.376" (11.1 cm)no data
Width2-slotno data
Recommended system power (PSU)500 Wattno data
Supplementary power connectors2x 6-pinno data
SLI options+-

VRAM capacity and type

Parameters of VRAM installed: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Integrated GPUs have no dedicated video RAM and use a shared part of system RAM.

Memory typeGDDR5GDDR6
Maximum RAM amount4 GB6 GB
Memory bus width256 Bit96 Bit
Memory clock speed7.0 GB/s1750 MHz
Memory bandwidth224 GB/s168.0 GB/s
Shared memory--

Connectivity and outputs

Types and number of video connectors present on the reviewed GPUs. As a rule, data in this section is precise only for desktop reference ones (so-called Founders Edition for NVIDIA chips). OEM manufacturers may change the number and type of output ports, while for notebook cards availability of certain video outputs ports depends on the laptop model rather than on the card itself.

Display ConnectorsDual Link DVI-I, HDMI 2.0, 3x DisplayPort 1.2Portable Device Dependent
Multi monitor support4 displaysno data
HDMI+-
HDCP+-
Maximum VGA resolution2048x1536no data
G-SYNC support+-
Audio input for HDMIInternalno data

Supported technologies

Supported technological solutions. This information will prove useful if you need some particular technology for your purposes.

GameStream+-
GeForce ShadowPlay+-
GPU Boost2.0no data
GameWorks+-

API compatibility

List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.

DirectX12 (12_1)12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model6.46.8
OpenGL4.44.6
OpenCL1.23.0
Vulkan1.1.1261.3
CUDA+8.6

Pros & cons summary


Recency 19 September 2014 6 July 2022
Maximum RAM amount 4 GB 6 GB
Chip lithography 28 nm 8 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 148 Watt 75 Watt

RTX 3050 Mobile Refresh 6 GB has an age advantage of 7 years, a 50% higher maximum VRAM amount, a 250% more advanced lithography process, and 97.3% lower power consumption.

We couldn't decide between GeForce GTX 970 and GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile Refresh 6 GB. We've got no test results to judge.

Be aware that GeForce GTX 970 is a desktop card while GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile Refresh 6 GB is a notebook one.


Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.

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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970
GeForce GTX 970
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile Refresh 6 GB
GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile Refresh 6 GB

Comparisons with similar GPUs

We selected several comparisons of graphics cards with performance close to those reviewed, providing you with more options to consider.

Community ratings

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4.2 4819 votes

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3.5 55 votes

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Questions & comments

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