RTX 3500 Mobile Ada Generation vs GeForce RTX 3060 Max-Q
Primary details
GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.
| Place in the ranking | not rated | not rated |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Architecture | Ampere (2020−2024) | Ada Lovelace (2022−2024) |
| GPU code name | GA106 | AD104 |
| Market segment | Laptop | Mobile workstation |
| Release date | 12 January 2021 (3 years ago) | 21 March 2023 (1 year ago) |
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 cores | 3840 | 5120 |
| Core clock speed | 817 MHz | 1110 MHz |
| Boost clock speed | 1282 MHz | 1545 MHz |
| Number of transistors | 13,250 million | 35,800 million |
| Manufacturing process technology | 8 nm | 5 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 60 Watt | 100 Watt |
| Texture fill rate | 153.8 | 247.2 |
| Floating-point processing power | 9.846 TFLOPS | 15.82 TFLOPS |
| ROPs | 48 | 64 |
| TMUs | 120 | 160 |
| Tensor Cores | 120 | 160 |
| Ray Tracing Cores | 30 | 40 |
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).
| Laptop size | large | no data |
| Interface | PCIe 4.0 x16 | PCIe 4.0 x16 |
| Supplementary power connectors | None | no data |
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 type | GDDR6 | GDDR6 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 6 GB | 12 GB |
| Memory bus width | 192 Bit | 192 Bit |
| Memory clock speed | 1500 MHz | 2250 MHz |
| Memory bandwidth | 288.0 GB/s | 432.0 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 Connectors | No outputs | Portable Device Dependent |
API compatibility
List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.
| DirectX | 12 Ultimate (12_2) | 12 Ultimate (12_2) |
| Shader Model | 6.5 | 6.8 |
| OpenGL | 4.6 | 4.6 |
| OpenCL | 2.0 | 3.0 |
| Vulkan | 1.2 | 1.3 |
| CUDA | 8.6 | 8.9 |
Pros & cons summary
| Recency | 12 January 2021 | 21 March 2023 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 6 GB | 12 GB |
| Chip lithography | 8 nm | 5 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 60 Watt | 100 Watt |
RTX 3060 Max-Q has 66.7% lower power consumption.
RTX 3500 Mobile Ada Generation, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 2 years, a 100% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 60% more advanced lithography process.
We couldn't decide between GeForce RTX 3060 Max-Q and RTX 3500 Mobile Ada Generation. We've got no test results to judge.
Be aware that GeForce RTX 3060 Max-Q is a notebook graphics card while RTX 3500 Mobile Ada Generation is a mobile workstation one.
Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.
Comparisons with similar GPUs
We selected several comparisons of graphics cards with performance close to those reviewed, providing you with more options to consider.
