GeForce GT 550M vs Quadro K3100M

Place in the ranking	588	975
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	0.23	no data
Power efficiency	5.42	2.93
Architecture	Kepler (2012−2018)	Fermi (2010−2014)
GPU code name	GK104	GF108
Market segment	Mobile workstation	Laptop
Release date	23 July 2013 (11 years ago)	5 January 2011 (13 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$1,999	no data

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

no data

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 cores	768	96
Core clock speed	706 MHz	475 MHz
Number of transistors	3,540 million	585 million
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	40 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	75 Watt	35 Watt
Texture fill rate	45.18	7.600
Floating-point processing power	1.084 TFLOPS	0.1824 TFLOPS
ROPs	32	4
TMUs	64	16

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 size	large	large
Interface	MXM-B (3.0)	PCIe 2.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors	no data	None

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 type	GDDR5	DDR3
Maximum RAM amount	4 GB	1 GB
Memory bus width	256 Bit	128 Bit
Memory clock speed	800 MHz	900 MHz
Memory bandwidth	102.4 GB/s	28.8 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 Connectors	No outputs	Portable Device Dependent
Display Port	1.2	no data

Supported technologies

Supported technological solutions. This information will prove useful if you need some particular technology for your purposes.

Optimus	+	+
3D Vision Pro	+	no data
Mosaic	+	no data
nView Display Management	+	no data
Optimus	+	no data

API compatibility

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

DirectX	12	12 API
Shader Model	5.1	5.1
OpenGL	4.5	4.5
OpenCL	1.2	1.1
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.

K3100M 5.87
+297%

GT 550M 1.48

Passmark

This is the most ubiquitous GPU benchmark. It gives the graphics card a thorough evaluation under various types of load, providing four separate benchmarks for Direct3D versions 9, 10, 11 and 12 (the last being done in 4K resolution if possible), and few more tests engaging DirectCompute capabilities.

K3100M 2264
+295%

GT 550M 573

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.

K3100M 3581
+268%

GT 550M 974

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.

K3100M 15120
+216%

GT 550M 4782

GeekBench 5 OpenCL

Geekbench 5 is a widespread graphics card benchmark combined from 11 different test scenarios. All these scenarios rely on direct usage of GPU's processing power, no 3D rendering is involved. This variation uses OpenCL API by Khronos Group.

K3100M 6068
+158%

GT 550M 2351

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:

900p	55−60 +267%	15 −267%
Full HD	32 +33.3%	24 −33.3%
4K	15 +400%	3−4 −400%

Cost per frame, $

1080p	62.47	no data
4K	133.27	no data

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

10−11
+150%

4−5

−150%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	14−16 +150%	6−7 −150%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	7−8 +600%	1−2 −600%
Battlefield 5	16−18 +300%	4−5 −300%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	12−14 +200%	4−5 −200%
Cyberpunk 2077	10−11 +150%	4−5 −150%
Far Cry 5	12−14 +550%	2−3 −550%
Far Cry New Dawn	16−18 +300%	4−5 −300%
Forza Horizon 4	35−40 +850%	4−5 −850%
Hitman 3	12−14 +100%	6−7 −100%
Horizon Zero Dawn	35−40 +140%	14−16 −140%
Metro Exodus	14−16 +400%	3−4 −400%
Red Dead Redemption 2	16−18 +433%	3−4 −433%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	20−22 +150%	8−9 −150%
Watch Dogs: Legion	45−50 +48.5%	30−35 −48.5%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	14−16 +150%	6−7 −150%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	7−8 +600%	1−2 −600%
Battlefield 5	16−18 +300%	4−5 −300%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	12−14 +200%	4−5 −200%
Cyberpunk 2077	10−11 +150%	4−5 −150%
Far Cry 5	12−14 +550%	2−3 −550%
Far Cry New Dawn	16−18 +300%	4−5 −300%
Forza Horizon 4	35−40 +850%	4−5 −850%
Hitman 3	12−14 +100%	6−7 −100%
Horizon Zero Dawn	35−40 +140%	14−16 −140%
Metro Exodus	14−16 +400%	3−4 −400%
Red Dead Redemption 2	16−18 +433%	3−4 −433%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	20−22 +150%	8−9 −150%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	46 +318%	10−12 −318%
Watch Dogs: Legion	45−50 +48.5%	30−35 −48.5%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	14−16 +150%	6−7 −150%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	7−8 +600%	1−2 −600%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	12−14 +200%	4−5 −200%
Cyberpunk 2077	10−11 +150%	4−5 −150%
Far Cry 5	12−14 +550%	2−3 −550%
Forza Horizon 4	35−40 +850%	4−5 −850%
Hitman 3	12−14 +100%	6−7 −100%
Horizon Zero Dawn	35−40 +140%	14−16 −140%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	20−22 +150%	8−9 −150%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	7 −57.1%	10−12 +57.1%
Watch Dogs: Legion	45−50 +48.5%	30−35 −48.5%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

16−18
+433%

3−4

−433%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	10−12 +450%	2−3 −450%
Far Cry New Dawn	9−10 +350%	2−3 −350%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	5−6 +400%	1−2 −400%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	1−2	0−1
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	5−6	0−1
Cyberpunk 2077	3−4 +200%	1−2 −200%
Far Cry 5	7−8 +250%	2−3 −250%
Forza Horizon 4	16−18 +325%	4−5 −325%
Hitman 3	10−11 +42.9%	7−8 −42.9%
Horizon Zero Dawn	12−14 +160%	5−6 −160%
Metro Exodus	4−5 +300%	1−2 −300%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	1−2	0−1
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	5−6 +400%	1−2 −400%
Watch Dogs: Legion	35−40 +429%	7−8 −429%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

10−11
+150%

4−5

−150%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	5−6 +400%	1−2 −400%
Far Cry New Dawn	4−5 +300%	1−2 −300%
Hitman 3	2−3	0−1
Horizon Zero Dawn	12−14 +333%	3−4 −333%
Metro Exodus	3−4	0−1
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	5 +400%	1−2 −400%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	4−5 +300%	1−2 −300%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	2−3 +100%	1−2 −100%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	2−3	0−1
Cyberpunk 2077	0−1	0−1
Far Cry 5	3−4	0−1
Forza Horizon 4	6−7 +500%	1−2 −500%
Watch Dogs: Legion	2−3	0−1

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

6−7
+100%

3−4

−100%

This is how K3100M and GT 550M compete in popular games:

K3100M is 267% faster in 900p
K3100M is 33% faster in 1080p
K3100M is 400% faster in 4K

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

in Forza Horizon 4, with 1080p resolution and the Medium Preset, the K3100M is 850% faster.
in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, with 1080p resolution and the Ultra Preset, the GT 550M is 57% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

K3100M is ahead in 48 tests (98%)
GT 550M is ahead in 1 test (2%)

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	5.87	1.48
Recency	23 July 2013	5 January 2011
Maximum RAM amount	4 GB	1 GB
Chip lithography	28 nm	40 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	75 Watt	35 Watt

K3100M has a 296.6% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 2 years, a 300% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 42.9% more advanced lithography process.

GT 550M, on the other hand, has 114.3% lower power consumption.

The Quadro K3100M is our recommended choice as it beats the GeForce GT 550M in performance tests.

Be aware that Quadro K3100M is a mobile workstation card while GeForce GT 550M is a mobile workstation one.

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