GeForce RTX 3050 vs Apple M3 GPU (10-core)
We performed a head-to-head comparison of the GeForce RTX 3050 8 GB with 20 pipelines and 2560 shaders against the 1 year and 9 months newer Apple M3 GPU (10-core) that utilizes 160 pipelines and 1280 shaders. Here you will find complete details about specs, efficiency, performance tests, and more.
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
DeviceFacts Final Score
Overall video card score
The "Energy Efficiency" metric has less impact on the DeviceFacts Score for desktop GPU.
Key differences
Reasons to consider the GeForce RTX 3050
- Performs significantly better (up to 82%) in 3DMark Steel Nomad Lite
- 2.6x higher maximum theoretical performance (9.1 vs 3.5 TFLOPS)
- Includes 8 GB of dedicated GDDR6 memory
- Has 2.2x higher memory bandwidth: 224 vs 102.4 GB/s
- Achieves 2.2x more points in the GeekBench 6 Compute test (67K vs 30K)
- Supports Nvidia DLSS 2 technology
- Has 2x more shading units (2560 vs 1280)
Reasons to consider the Apple M3 GPU (10-core)
- Manufactured using a more efficient 3 nm process technology
Gaming Performance
Frame rate comparison across popular AAA titles at different resolutionsGames
| Forza Horizon 5 | 92 53 43 26 |
- |
| The Witcher 3 | 90 70 49 24 |
- |
| Counter-Strike 2 | 139 101 72 31 |
- |
| Far Cry 6 | 76 66 49 25 |
- |
| Hogwarts Legacy | 49 38 30 13 |
- |
| CoD: Modern Warfare III | 59 49 35 22 |
- |
| Ghost of Tsushima | 46 35 28 15 |
- |
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 48 45 26 11 |
- |
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider | 80 73 49 25 |
- |
| 1080p High | 75 | - |
| 1080p Ultra | 59 | - |
| 1440p Ultra | 42 | - |
| 4K Ultra | 21 | - |
| Margin of Error | Low | High |
Benchmarks
Graphics cards’ performance in recent benchmarking apps3D Mark
Steel Nomad Lite Score
| Time Spy | 6235 | - |
| Solar Bay | 30191 | 13531 |
| Port Royal | 3546 | - |
| Fire Strike | 15967 | - |
| Wild Life Extreme | 12795 | 8237 |
| Night Raid | 74854 | - |
GeekBench 6 OpenCL
GB6 Compute Score
| Background Blur | 110.4 img/sec | 60.3 img/sec |
| Face Detection | 64.4 img/sec | 40.8 img/sec |
| Horizon Detection | 2.87 Gpixels/sec | 1.21 Gpixels/sec |
| Edge Detection | 3.76 Gpixels/sec | 1.64 Gpixels/sec |
| Gaussian Blur | 2.89 Gpixels/sec | 1.2 Gpixels/sec |
| Feature Matching | 0.81 Gpixels/sec | 0.37 Gpixels/sec |
| Stereo Matching | 270.9 Gpixels/sec | 102.6 Gpixels/sec |
| Particle Physics | 9339.7 FPS | 3293.3 FPS |
| API | OpenCL | OpenCL |
Cinebench 2024 GPU
Cinebench 2024 GPU
Passmark Graphics
G3D Mark Score
| G2D Mark | 916 | - |
| DirectX 11 | 90 FPS | - |
| DirectX 12 | 59 FPS | - |
| GPU Compute | 6415 Ops/s | - |
Blender
Blender GPU
Recent User Tests
GeForce RTX 3050
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 📘 2026-04-21 -> DmitryDmitry | Cinebench 2024 | 4722 |
| 📘 2026-04-21 -> DmitryDmitry | Steel Nomad Light | 6237 |
Apple M3 GPU (10-core)
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 📘 2025-04-24 (Alex) | Geekbench 6 OpenCL | 31004 |
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) | 4958 | 1579 |
| Image Segmentation (HP) | 12747 | 2944 |
| Image Super Resolution (Q) | 9816 | 4425 |
| Face Detection (HP) | 22467 | 6661 |
| Pose Estimation (Q) | 41362 | 15020 |
| Text Classification (SP) | 2563 | 2984 |
| Machine Translation (HP) | 3721 | 5876 |
| Object Detection (SP) | 5929 | 1826 |
| Depth Estimation (Q) | 18361 | 9339 |
| Style Transfer (SP) | 84665 | 22291 |
| Framework | ONNX | Core ML |
| Backend | DirectML | CPU |
Results were compared using different ML frameworks
Specifications
Technical specifications of GeForce RTX 3050 and Apple M3 GPU (10-core)General
| Vendor | Nvidia | Apple |
| Build | Discrete | Integrated |
| Released | January 27, 2022 | October 31, 2023 |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $249 | - |
| Case | Desktop | Laptop |
| Purpose | Gaming | Professional |
| Segment | Entry-level | Mid-range |
| Architecture | Ampere | Apple M GPU |
| GPU Codename | GA106 | - |
| Rival Equivalent | - | - GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop |
| Successor | - | - Apple M5 GPU (10-Core) |
| Recommended CPU | - Intel Core i5 12400 or above | - Apple M3 or above |
| Used in CPUs | - | - Apple M3 |
Desktop GPU rating (#71st place)
Laptop GPU ranking (#81st place)
Graphics Processing Unit
| Base Clock | 1552 MHz | 500 MHz |
| Boost Clock | 1777 MHz | 1380 MHz |
| Shading Units | 2560 | 1280 |
| Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) | 80 | 80 |
| Render Output Units (ROPs) | 32 | 40 |
| Compute Units (Pipelines) | 20 | 160 |
| Tensor Cores | 80 | - |
| Ray-tracing Cores | 20 | - |
| L1 Cache | 128KB per cluster | - |
| L2 Cache | 2MB shared | - |
| Instructions Per Cycle | 2 IPC | 2 IPC |
Raw Performance
| Pixel Fill Rate | 57 GPixel/s | 55 GPixel/s |
| Texture Fill Rate | 142 GTexel/s | 110 GTexel/s |
FLOPS (FP32)
Physical
| Interface | PCIe 4.0 x8 | Custom |
| TGP | 130 W | 15 W |
| Manufacturing | Samsung | TSMC |
| Fabrication Process | 8 nm | 3 nm |
| Die Size | 276 mm² | - |
| Transistor Count | 12 billion | 13.8 billion |
| Transistor Density | 43.48 MTr/mm² | - |
| Max. Temperature | - | 100°C |
Memory
| Memory Type | GDDR6 | System Shared |
| Memory Size | 8 GB | - |
| Memory Clock | 1750 MHz | 6400 MHz |
| Effective Memory Speed | 14000 Mbps | 12800 Mbps |
| Bus | 128-bit | 128-bit |
| ECC | No | No |
Memory Bandwidth
API
| DirectX | 12 | - |
| Vulkan | 1.3 | - |
| OpenGL | 4.6 | - |
| OpenCL | 3.0 | - |
| CUDA | 8.6 | - |
| Ray Tracing | Yes | Yes |
| DLSS | DLSS 2 | No |
| DisplayPort | 1.4a | - |
Cast your vote
Total votes: 13