GeForce GT 420M vs RTX 3050 4GB Mobile

Aggregate performance score

We've compared GeForce RTX 3050 4GB Mobile and GeForce GT 420M, covering specs and all relevant benchmarks.

RTX 3050 4GB Mobile
2021
4 GB GDDR6, 60 Watt
24.46
+2275%

RTX 3050 4GB Mobile outperforms GT 420M by a whopping 2275% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.

Place in the ranking2221096
Place by popularity74not in top-100
Power efficiency29.443.23
ArchitectureAmpere (2020−2024)Fermi (2010−2014)
GPU code nameGN20-P0GF108
Market segmentLaptopLaptop
Release date11 May 2021 (3 years ago)3 September 2010 (14 years 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 cores204896
Core clock speed1238 MHz500 MHz
Boost clock speed1500 MHzno data
Number of transistorsno data585 million
Manufacturing process technology8 nm40 nm
Power consumption (TDP)60 Watt (35 - 80 Watt TGP)23 Watt
Texture fill rateno data8.000
Floating-point processing powerno data0.192 TFLOPS
ROPsno data4
TMUsno data16

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 sizelargemedium sized
Interfaceno dataPCIe 2.0 x16

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 typeGDDR6DDR3
Maximum RAM amount4 GB1 GB
Memory bus width128 Bit128 Bit
Memory clock speed12000 MHz800 MHz
Memory bandwidthno data25.6 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 Connectorsno dataNo outputs

API compatibility

List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.

DirectX12_212 API
Shader Modelno data5.1
OpenGLno data4.5
OpenCLno data1.1
Vulkan-N/A
CUDA-+

Synthetic benchmark performance

Non-gaming benchmark results comparison. The combined score is measured on a 0-100 point scale.


Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark score. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.

RTX 3050 4GB Mobile 24.46
+2275%
GT 420M 1.03

3DMark Vantage Performance

3DMark Vantage is an outdated DirectX 10 benchmark using 1280x1024 screen resolution. It taxes the graphics card with two scenes, one depicting a girl escaping some militarized base located within a sea cave, the other displaying a space fleet attack on a defenseless planet. It was discontinued in April 2017, and Time Spy benchmark is now recommended to be used instead.

RTX 3050 4GB Mobile 43216
+1316%
GT 420M 3051

3DMark 11 Performance GPU

3DMark 11 is an obsolete DirectX 11 benchmark by Futuremark. It used four tests based on two scenes, one being few submarines exploring the submerged wreck of a sunken ship, the other is an abandoned temple deep in the jungle. All the tests are heavy with volumetric lighting and tessellation, and despite being done in 1280x720 resolution, are relatively taxing. Discontinued in January 2020, 3DMark 11 is now superseded by Time Spy.

RTX 3050 4GB Mobile 15712
+2194%
GT 420M 685

Gaming performance

Let's see how good the compared graphics cards are for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in FPS.

Average FPS across all PC games

Here are the average frames per second in a large set of popular games across different resolutions:

900p280−290
+2233%
12
−2233%
Full HD63
+271%
17
−271%
1440p43
+4200%
1−2
−4200%
4K28
+2700%
1−2
−2700%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 66
+2100%
3−4
−2100%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 55−60
+1000%
5−6
−1000%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 58
+2800%
2−3
−2800%
Battlefield 5 80−85
+2633%
3−4
−2633%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 50−55
+1175%
4−5
−1175%
Cyberpunk 2077 52
+1633%
3−4
−1633%
Far Cry 5 55−60
+5600%
1−2
−5600%
Far Cry New Dawn 65−70
+3150%
2−3
−3150%
Forza Horizon 4 140−150 0−1
Hitman 3 57
+1040%
5−6
−1040%
Horizon Zero Dawn 110−120
+785%
12−14
−785%
Metro Exodus 126
+2420%
5−6
−2420%
Red Dead Redemption 2 87
+8600%
1−2
−8600%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 80−85
+1100%
7−8
−1100%
Watch Dogs: Legion 186
+481%
30−35
−481%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 55−60
+1000%
5−6
−1000%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 32
+3100%
1−2
−3100%
Battlefield 5 80−85
+2633%
3−4
−2633%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 50−55
+1175%
4−5
−1175%
Cyberpunk 2077 41
+1267%
3−4
−1267%
Far Cry 5 55−60
+5600%
1−2
−5600%
Far Cry New Dawn 65−70
+3150%
2−3
−3150%
Forza Horizon 4 140−150 0−1
Hitman 3 55
+1000%
5−6
−1000%
Horizon Zero Dawn 110−120
+785%
12−14
−785%
Metro Exodus 95
+2275%
4−5
−2275%
Red Dead Redemption 2 63
+6200%
1−2
−6200%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 94
+1243%
7−8
−1243%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 50−55
+391%
10−12
−391%
Watch Dogs: Legion 180
+463%
30−35
−463%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 55−60
+1000%
5−6
−1000%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 24
+2300%
1−2
−2300%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 50−55
+1175%
4−5
−1175%
Cyberpunk 2077 34
+1033%
3−4
−1033%
Far Cry 5 55−60
+5600%
1−2
−5600%
Forza Horizon 4 140−150 0−1
Hitman 3 51
+920%
5−6
−920%
Horizon Zero Dawn 74
+469%
12−14
−469%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 81
+1057%
7−8
−1057%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 46
+318%
10−12
−318%
Watch Dogs: Legion 26
−23.1%
30−35
+23.1%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 72
+7100%
1−2
−7100%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5 45−50
+4600%
1−2
−4600%
Far Cry New Dawn 35−40
+3700%
1−2
−3700%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 24−27
+2500%
1−2
−2500%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 22 0−1
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 27−30
+2700%
1−2
−2700%
Cyberpunk 2077 18
+1700%
1−2
−1700%
Far Cry 5 27−30
+2800%
1−2
−2800%
Forza Horizon 4 140−150
+2283%
6−7
−2283%
Hitman 3 37
+429%
7−8
−429%
Horizon Zero Dawn 59
+1375%
4−5
−1375%
Metro Exodus 52
+2500%
2−3
−2500%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 56
+2700%
2−3
−2700%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 30−35 0−1
Watch Dogs: Legion 166
+4050%
4−5
−4050%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 53
+1225%
4−5
−1225%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5 24−27
+2400%
1−2
−2400%
Far Cry New Dawn 18−20 0−1
Hitman 3 15 0−1
Horizon Zero Dawn 120−130
+2460%
5−6
−2460%
Metro Exodus 37
+3600%
1−2
−3600%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 29
+2800%
1−2
−2800%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 14−16
+1400%
1−2
−1400%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 12−14 0−1
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 14−16 0−1
Cyberpunk 2077 6 0−1
Far Cry 5 14−16 0−1
Forza Horizon 4 30−35
+3300%
1−2
−3300%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 34
+3300%
1−2
−3300%
Watch Dogs: Legion 10−12 0−1

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 25
+1150%
2−3
−1150%

This is how RTX 3050 4GB Mobile and GT 420M compete in popular games:

  • RTX 3050 4GB Mobile is 2233% faster in 900p
  • RTX 3050 4GB Mobile is 271% faster in 1080p
  • RTX 3050 4GB Mobile is 4200% faster in 1440p
  • RTX 3050 4GB Mobile is 2700% faster in 4K

Here's the range of performance differences observed across popular games:

  • in Red Dead Redemption 2, with 1080p resolution and the Medium Preset, the RTX 3050 4GB Mobile is 8600% faster.
  • in Watch Dogs: Legion, with 1080p resolution and the Ultra Preset, the GT 420M is 23% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

  • RTX 3050 4GB Mobile is ahead in 42 tests (98%)
  • GT 420M is ahead in 1 test (2%)

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 24.46 1.03
Recency 11 May 2021 3 September 2010
Maximum RAM amount 4 GB 1 GB
Chip lithography 8 nm 40 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 60 Watt 23 Watt

RTX 3050 4GB Mobile has a 2274.8% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 10 years, a 300% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 400% more advanced lithography process.

GT 420M, on the other hand, has 160.9% lower power consumption.

The GeForce RTX 3050 4GB Mobile is our recommended choice as it beats the GeForce GT 420M in performance tests.


Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.

Vote for your favorite

Do you think we are right or mistaken in our choice? Vote by clicking "Like" button near your favorite graphics card.


NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 4GB Mobile
GeForce RTX 3050 4GB Mobile
NVIDIA GeForce GT 420M
GeForce GT 420M

Comparisons with similar GPUs

We selected several comparisons of graphics cards with performance close to those reviewed, providing you with more options to consider.

Community ratings

Here you can see the user ratings of the compared graphics cards, as well as rate them yourself.


4 1215 votes

Rate GeForce RTX 3050 4GB Mobile on a scale of 1 to 5:

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
2.7 121 vote

Rate GeForce GT 420M on a scale of 1 to 5:

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Questions & comments

Here you can ask a question about this comparison, agree or disagree with our judgements, or report an error or mismatch.