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GeForce RTX 3050 vs GTX 1080

GeForce RTX 3050
VS
GeForce GTX 1080
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050
GA106
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080
GP104

We compared two discrete desktop gaming GPUs: the GeForce RTX 3050 with 20 pipelines and 2560 shaders against the 5 years and 9 months older GTX 1080 that utilizes 20 pipelines and 2560 shaders. Here you will find complete details about specs, efficiency, performance tests, and more.

  1. Review
  2. Differences
  3. Gaming performance
  4. Benchmarks
  5. AI
  6. Specs
  7. Comments (1)

Review

General comparison of performance in games, applications, power efficiency, and other metrics
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

Value for money (Beta)

We use average GPU prices from all manufacturers by default. Enter the current price of a specific card for better accuracy.
Currency
8 GB GDDR6
VS
8 GB GDDR5X
47.6
(Average)
Value Index
20.7
(Mediocre)

Key differences

Key distinctions and advantages of GTX 1080 over RTX 3050
Reasons to consider the GeForce RTX 3050
  • Manufactured using a more efficient 8 nm process technology
  • Ray-tracing support with 20 dedicated RT cores
  • Supports Nvidia DLSS 2 technology
  • Features 80 tensor cores for effective deep learning and AI workloads
Reasons to consider the GeForce GTX 1080
  • Performs slightly better (up to 15%) in 3DMark Steel Nomad Lite
  • Shows 17% higher average frame rate in modern games at QHD resolution – 49 vs 42 FPS
  • Has 43% higher memory bandwidth: 320.3 vs 224 GB/s

Gaming Performance

Frame rate comparison across popular AAA titles at different resolutions
GPU
RTX 3050
vs
GTX 1080

Games

FPS Table
Forza Horizon 5
92
53
43
26
103
60
50
33
The Witcher 3
90
70
49
24
106
84
60
31
Counter-Strike 2
139
101
72
31
160
114
85
38
Far Cry 6
76
66
49
25
85
75
56
29
Hogwarts Legacy
49
38
30
13
58
48
32
18
CoD: Modern Warfare III
59
49
35
22
71
62
43
27
Ghost of Tsushima
46
35
28
15
55
42
31
18
Cyberpunk 2077
48
45
26
11
56
53
31
14
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
80
73
49
25
95
83
57
30
Average FPS by Resolution
1080p High 75 88
1080p Ultra 59 69
1440p Ultra 42 49
4K Ultra 21 26
Margin of Error Low Low

Benchmarks

Graphics cards’ performance in recent benchmarking apps

3D Mark

Multiplatform graphics benchmark suite that directly correlates with performance in modern games
Steel Nomad Lite Score
RTX 3050
6348
GTX 1080 +15%
7282
Time Spy 6235 7592
Solar Bay 30191 19994
Port Royal 3546 1676
Fire Strike 15967 22750
Wild Life Extreme 12795 15147
Night Raid 74854 82345
Sources: 3DMark [1], [2]

GeekBench 6 OpenCL

GPU test for computational tasks (image processing, photography, computer vision, and ML)
GB6 Compute Score
RTX 3050 +5%
67028
GTX 1080
63994
Background Blur 110.4 img/sec 152.4 img/sec
Face Detection 64.4 img/sec 71.6 img/sec
Horizon Detection 2.87 Gpixels/sec 2.73 Gpixels/sec
Edge Detection 3.76 Gpixels/sec 4.15 Gpixels/sec
Gaussian Blur 2.89 Gpixels/sec 5.03 Gpixels/sec
Feature Matching 0.81 Gpixels/sec 0.32 Gpixels/sec
Stereo Matching 270.9 Gpixels/sec 238.9 Gpixels/sec
Particle Physics 9339.7 FPS 6716.4 FPS
API OpenCL OpenCL
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]

Cinebench 2024 GPU

Hardware benchmark using Maxon's Cinema 4D rendering engine
Cinebench 2024 GPU
RTX 3050 +21%
4722
GTX 1080
3895

Passmark Graphics

Videocard test that focuses on compute shaders, multi-texturing, tessellation, and other features
G3D Mark Score
RTX 3050
12471
GTX 1080 +25%
15609
G2D Mark 916 889
DirectX 11 90 FPS 125 FPS
DirectX 12 59 FPS 55 FPS
GPU Compute 6415 Ops/s 7627 Ops/s
Sources: PassMark [5], [6] – 9379 & 42364 samples

Blender

Rendering performance test for 3D modeling
Blender GPU
RTX 3050 +141%
1463.42
GTX 1080
606.47
Sources: Blender [9], [10] – 1082 & 1005 samples
Add your GPU benchmark result

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
GeForce RTX 3050
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-04-21 -> DmitryDmitryCinebench 20244722
📘 2026-04-21 -> DmitryDmitrySteel Nomad Light6237
Add View all (2)
GeForce GTX 1080
No benchmark results yet
Add

Artificial Intelligence Tests

Performance in machine learning and artificial intelligence tasks

GeekBench 6 ML

Tests throughput of AI operations in single, half, and quantized precision
GB6 ML Single Precision
RTX 3050 +27%
11848
GTX 1080
9341
GB6 ML Half Precision
RTX 3050 +135%
21368
GTX 1080
9110
GB6 ML Quantized
RTX 3050 +16%
7905
GTX 1080
6830
Image Classification (SP) 4958 2591
Image Segmentation (HP) 12747 5497
Image Super Resolution (Q) 9816 11914
Face Detection (HP) 22467 9841
Pose Estimation (Q) 41362 53922
Text Classification (SP) 2563 1732
Machine Translation (HP) 3721 2662
Object Detection (SP) 5929 3255
Depth Estimation (Q) 18361 16431
Style Transfer (SP) 84665 112226
Framework ONNX ONNX
Backend DirectML DirectML
Sources: Geekbench [9], [10]

Specifications

Technical specifications of GeForce RTX 3050 and GTX 1080

General

Vendor Nvidia Nvidia
Build Discrete Discrete
Released January 27, 2022 May 27, 2016
Launch price (MSRP) $249 $599
Case Desktop Desktop
Purpose Gaming Gaming
Segment Entry-level High-end
Architecture Ampere Pascal
GPU Codename GA106 GP104
Rival Equivalent - - Radeon RX 5600 XT
Successor - - GeForce RTX 5080
Recommended CPU - Intel Core i5 12400 or above - Intel Core i7 7700K or above
Desktop GPU rating (70th and 71st place)

Graphics Processing Unit

Base Clock 1552 MHz 1607 MHz
Boost Clock 1777 MHz 1733 MHz
Shading Units 2560 2560
Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) 80 160
Render Output Units (ROPs) 32 64
Compute Units (Pipelines) 20 20
Tensor Cores 80 No
Ray-tracing Cores 20 No
L1 Cache 128KB per cluster 48KB per cluster
L2 Cache 2MB shared 2MB shared
Instructions Per Cycle 2 IPC 2 IPC

Raw Performance

Pixel Fill Rate 57 GPixel/s 111 GPixel/s
Texture Fill Rate 142 GTexel/s 277 GTexel/s
FLOPS (FP32)
RTX 3050 +2%
9.1 TFLOPS
GTX 1080
8.9 TFLOPS

Physical

Interface PCIe 4.0 x8 PCIe 3.0 x16
TGP 130 W 180 W
Manufacturing Samsung TSMC
Fabrication Process 8 nm 16 nm
Die Size 276 mm² 314 mm²
Transistor Count 12 billion 7 billion
Transistor Density 43.48 MTr/mm² 22.29 MTr/mm²

Memory

Memory Type GDDR6 GDDR5X
Memory Size 8 GB 8 GB
Memory Clock 1750 MHz 1251 MHz
Effective Memory Speed 14000 Mbps 10000 Mbps
Bus 128-bit 256-bit
ECC No No
Memory Bandwidth
RTX 3050
224 GB/s
GTX 1080 +43%
320.3 GB/s

API

DirectX 12 12
Vulkan 1.3 1.3
OpenGL 4.6 4.6
OpenCL 3.0 3.0
CUDA 8.6 6.1
Ray Tracing Yes No
DLSS DLSS 2 No
DisplayPort 1.4a 1.4a

Cast your vote

Choose between two graphics cards
43 (49.4%)
44 (50.6%)
Total votes: 87

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User opinions

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Avatar
Tom March 26, 2025 at 06:03 AM
I would choose the 1080 but Nvidia dropped drive support for the LEGENDARY CRAD! That why I went team RED for my new PC. RIP GTX1080/ti
+2 Reply
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