GeForce RTX 3050 Laptop vs Apple M2 GPU (8-core)
We performed a head-to-head comparison of the GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile 4 GB with 16 pipelines and 2048 shaders against the 1 year and 5 months newer Apple M2 GPU (8-core) that utilizes 128 pipelines and 1024 shaders. Here you will find complete details about specs, efficiency, performance tests, and more.
Some GPUs come in different configurations. For greater precision, pick a specific config below
Review
Gaming
Performance in DirectX, OpenCL, and Vulkan games
Workstation
Perf. in 3D modeling, video editing and rendering apps
AI/ML
Capabilities for machine learning and AI-related tasks
Energy Efficiency
Power consumption efficiency in different scenarios
NanoReview Final Score
Overall video card score
Key differences
Reasons to consider the GeForce RTX 3050 Laptop
- Performs significantly better (up to 2.1x) in 3DMark Steel Nomad Lite
- 2.4x higher maximum theoretical performance (7.1 vs 2.9 TFLOPS)
- Includes 4 GB of dedicated GDDR6 memory
- Supports Nvidia DLSS 2 technology
- Achieves 2x more points in the GeekBench 6 Compute test (58K vs 29K)
- Has 87% higher memory bandwidth: 192 vs 102.4 GB/s
- Has 2x more shading units (2048 vs 1024)
Reasons to consider the Apple M2 GPU (8-core)
- Manufactured using a more efficient 5 nm process technology
Gaming Performance
Frame rate comparison across popular AAA titles at different resolutionsGames
| Forza Horizon 5 | 75 44 34 21 |
- |
| The Witcher 3 | 68 53 38 20 |
- |
| Counter-Strike 2 | 115 80 54 23 |
- |
| Far Cry 6 | 60 52 40 17 |
- |
| Hogwarts Legacy | 37 28 23 12 |
- |
| CoD: Modern Warfare III | 48 37 27 16 |
- |
| Ghost of Tsushima | 37 28 18 10 |
- |
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 36 35 19 - |
- |
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider | 66 62 39 18 |
- |
| 1080p High | 60 | - |
| 1080p Ultra | 47 | - |
| 1440p Ultra | 32 | - |
| 4K Ultra | 16 | - |
| Margin of Error | Low | Low |
Benchmarks
Graphics cards’ performance in recent benchmarking apps3D Mark
Steel Nomad Lite Score
| Time Spy | 4884 | - |
| Solar Bay | 21596 | 7316 |
| Port Royal | 552 | - |
| Fire Strike | 12571 | - |
| Wild Life Extreme | 9400 | 5676 |
| Night Raid | 53685 | - |
GeekBench 6 OpenCL
GB6 Compute Score
| Background Blur | 88.6 img/sec | 58.7 img/sec |
| Face Detection | 57.3 img/sec | 35.2 img/sec |
| Horizon Detection | 2.53 Gpixels/sec | 1.1 Gpixels/sec |
| Edge Detection | 3.33 Gpixels/sec | 1.82 Gpixels/sec |
| Gaussian Blur | 2.55 Gpixels/sec | 1.2 Gpixels/sec |
| Feature Matching | 0.76 Gpixels/sec | 0.37 Gpixels/sec |
| Stereo Matching | 256.5 Gpixels/sec | 96 Gpixels/sec |
| Particle Physics | 7465.5 FPS | 3825.9 FPS |
| API | OpenCL | OpenCL |
Cinebench 2024 GPU
Cinebench 2024 GPU
Passmark Graphics
G3D Mark Score
| G2D Mark | 493 | - |
| DirectX 11 | 71 FPS | - |
| DirectX 12 | 46 FPS | - |
| GPU Compute | 3868 Ops/s | - |
Blender
Blender GPU
Recent User Tests
GeForce RTX 3050 Laptop
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 📘 2026-08-31 (bobschieffer) | Geekbench 6 OpenCL | 61418 |
| 📘 2026-08-29 (bobschieffer) | Cinebench 2024 | 3654 |
| 📘 2026-08-13 -> Kushagra_Aggarwal | Steel Nomad Light | 5735 |
| 📘 2026-01-26 (rar) | Geekbench 6 OpenCL | 68364 |
Apple M2 GPU (8-core)
No benchmark results yet
Artificial Intelligence Tests
Performance in machine learning and artificial intelligence tasksGeekBench 6 ML
GB6 ML Single Precision
GB6 ML Half Precision
GB6 ML Quantized
| Image Classification (SP) | 4349 | 3242 |
| Image Segmentation (HP) | 11416 | 4890 |
| Image Super Resolution (Q) | 8973 | 7149 |
| Face Detection (HP) | 18927 | 10340 |
| Pose Estimation (Q) | 34631 | 21268 |
| Text Classification (SP) | 2269 | 2268 |
| Machine Translation (HP) | 3539 | 1122 |
| Object Detection (SP) | 5046 | 3007 |
| Depth Estimation (Q) | 15772 | 13941 |
| Style Transfer (SP) | 75260 | 35943 |
| Framework | ONNX | Core ML |
| Backend | DirectML | GPU |
Results were compared using different ML frameworks
Specifications
Technical specifications of GeForce RTX 3050 Laptop and Apple M2 GPU (8-core)General
| Vendor | Nvidia | Apple |
| Build | Discrete | Integrated |
| Released | January 1, 2021 | June 6, 2022 |
| Case | Laptop | Laptop |
| Purpose | Gaming | Professional |
| Segment | Mid-range | Mid-range |
| Architecture | Ampere | Apple M GPU |
| GPU Codename | GA107 | - |
| Successor | - GeForce RTX 5050 Laptop | - Apple M5 GPU (10-Core) |
| Recommended CPU | - | - Apple M2 or above |
| Used in CPUs | - | - Apple M2 |
Laptop GPU ranking (93rd and 90th place)
Graphics Processing Unit
| Base Clock | 712-1530 MHz (configurable) | 500 MHz |
| Boost Clock | 1057-1740 MHz (configurable) | 1398 MHz |
| Shading Units | 2048 | 1024 |
| Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) | 64 | 64 |
| Render Output Units (ROPs) | 40 | 32 |
| Compute Units (Pipelines) | 16 | 128 |
| Tensor Cores | 64 | - |
| Ray-tracing Cores | 16 | - |
| L1 Cache | 128KB per cluster | - |
| L2 Cache | 2MB shared | - |
| Instructions Per Cycle | 2 IPC | 2 IPC |
Raw Performance
| Pixel Fill Rate | 42-70 GPixel/s | 45 GPixel/s |
| Texture Fill Rate | 68-111 GTexel/s | 89 GTexel/s |
FLOPS (FP32)
Physical
| Interface | PCIe 4.0 x16 | Custom |
| TGP | 35-95 W (configurable) | 15 W |
| Manufacturing | Samsung | TSMC |
| Fabrication Process | 8 nm | 5 nm |
| Die Size | 200 mm² | - |
| Transistor Count | 8.7 billion | 11.6 billion |
| Transistor Density | 43.5 MTr/mm² | - |
| Max. Temperature | - | 94°C |
Memory
| Memory Type | GDDR6 | System Shared |
| Memory Size | 4 GB | - |
| Memory Clock | 1500 MHz | 6400 MHz |
| Effective Memory Speed | 12000 Mbps | 12800 Mbps |
| Bus | 128-bit | 128-bit |
| ECC | No | No |
Memory Bandwidth
API
| DirectX | 12 | - |
| Vulkan | 1.2 | - |
| OpenGL | 4.6 | - |
| OpenCL | 3.0 | - |
| CUDA | 8.6 | - |
| Ray Tracing | Yes | No |
| DLSS | DLSS 2 | No |
| DisplayPort | 1.4a | - |
Cast your vote
Total votes: 60