GeForce RTX 3050 vs Apple M4 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 2 years and 3 months newer Apple M4 GPU (10-Core) that utilizes 160 pipelines and 1280 shaders. Here you will find complete details about specs, efficiency, performance tests, and more.

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
DeviceFacts Final Score
Overall video card score
The "Energy Efficiency" metric has less impact on the DeviceFacts Score for desktop GPU.

Key differences

Key distinctions and advantages of M4 GPU (10-Core) over RTX 3050
Reasons to consider the GeForce RTX 3050
  • Performs significantly better (up to 55%) in 3DMark Steel Nomad Lite
  • 2.4x higher maximum theoretical performance (9.1 vs 3.8 TFLOPS)
  • Includes 8 GB of dedicated GDDR6 memory
  • Supports Nvidia DLSS 2 technology
  • Has 87% higher memory bandwidth: 224 vs 120 GB/s
  • Achieves 78% more points in the GeekBench 6 Compute test (67K vs 37K)
  • Has 2x more shading units (2560 vs 1280)
Reasons to consider the Apple M4 GPU (10-Core)
  • Manufactured using a more efficient 3 nm process technology

Gaming Performance

Frame rate comparison across popular AAA titles at different resolutions

Games

FPS Table
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
-
Average FPS by Resolution
1080p High 75 -
1080p Ultra 59 -
1440p Ultra 42 -
4K Ultra 21 -
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 +55%
6348
Time Spy 6235 -
Solar Bay 30191 16554
Port Royal 3546 -
Fire Strike 15967 -
Wild Life Extreme 12795 9610
Night Raid 74854 -
Sources: 3DMark [1], [2]

GeekBench 6 OpenCL

GPU test for computational tasks (image processing, photography, computer vision, and ML)
GB6 Compute Score
RTX 3050 +78%
67028
Background Blur 110.4 img/sec 72.2 img/sec
Face Detection 64.4 img/sec 48.3 img/sec
Horizon Detection 2.87 Gpixels/sec 1.4 Gpixels/sec
Edge Detection 3.76 Gpixels/sec 1.94 Gpixels/sec
Gaussian Blur 2.89 Gpixels/sec 1.5 Gpixels/sec
Feature Matching 0.81 Gpixels/sec 0.53 Gpixels/sec
Stereo Matching 270.9 Gpixels/sec 123.3 Gpixels/sec
Particle Physics 9339.7 FPS 4938.4 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 +6%
4722

Passmark Graphics

Videocard test that focuses on compute shaders, multi-texturing, tessellation, and other features
G3D Mark Score
G2D Mark 916 -
DirectX 11 90 FPS -
DirectX 12 59 FPS -
GPU Compute 6415 Ops/s -
Sources: PassMark [5] – 9379 samples

Blender

Rendering performance test for 3D modeling
Blender GPU
RTX 3050 +37%
1462.18
Sources: Blender [9], [10] – 1092 & 551 samples

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
Apple M4 GPU (10-Core)
No benchmark results yet

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 +15%
11848
GB6 ML Half Precision
RTX 3050 +80%
21368
GB6 ML Quantized
7905
11036
Image Classification (SP) 4958 4874
Image Segmentation (HP) 12747 8168
Image Super Resolution (Q) 9816 11983
Face Detection (HP) 22467 17036
Pose Estimation (Q) 41362 31171
Text Classification (SP) 2563 2964
Machine Translation (HP) 3721 3410
Object Detection (SP) 5929 5112
Depth Estimation (Q) 18361 22700
Style Transfer (SP) 84665 60872
Framework ONNX Core ML
Backend DirectML GPU
Sources: Geekbench [9], [10]
Results were compared using different ML frameworks

Specifications

Technical specifications of GeForce RTX 3050 and Apple M4 GPU (10-Core)

General

Vendor Nvidia Apple
Build Discrete Integrated
Released January 27, 2022 May 7, 2024
Launch price (MSRP) $249 -
Case Desktop Laptop
Purpose Gaming Professional
Segment Entry-level Mid-range
Architecture Ampere Apple M GPU
GPU Codename GA106 Custom
Rival Equivalent - - Adreno X1-85
Successor - - Apple M5 GPU (10-Core)
Recommended CPU - Intel Core i5 12400 or above - Apple M4 (10-Core) or above
Used in CPUs - - Apple M4 (10-Core)
Desktop GPU rating (#71st place)
Laptop GPU ranking (#73rd place)

Graphics Processing Unit

Base Clock 1552 MHz 500 MHz
Boost Clock 1777 MHz 1470 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 59 GPixel/s
Texture Fill Rate 142 GTexel/s 118 GTexel/s
FLOPS (FP32)
RTX 3050 +139%
9.1 TFLOPS
3.8 TFLOPS

Physical

Interface PCIe 4.0 x8 Custom
TGP 130 W 18 W
Manufacturing Samsung TSMC
Fabrication Process 8 nm 3 nm
Die Size 276 mm² -
Transistor Count 12 billion 28 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 7500 MHz
Effective Memory Speed 14000 Mbps 15000 Mbps
Bus 128-bit 128-bit
ECC No No
Memory Bandwidth
RTX 3050 +87%
224 GB/s
120 GB/s

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 -

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Total votes: 99

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