Graphics playing cards are an actual ache level for PC gaming. Hell of an intro to a brand new GPU assessment, I do know, however that’s the world we inhabit in 2022. Provide is constrained and demand is as sky-high as the costs of stated GPUS. So, it was with a faint style of one thing akin to hope on my lips I approached the launch of latest mainstream graphics playing cards from each AMD and Nvidia.
In case you’ve peeped the bottom rating I feel I’ve given something in my time since coming again to PC Gamer you then’ll understand how the AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT turned out. Now it is Nvidia’s flip to both save the day or disappoint us all with the GeForce RTX 3050. I imply, there cannot be any center floor, can there? Considerably inevitably, that is going to rely very a lot in your viewpoint.
Nonetheless, I am feeling a bit of higher concerning the budget-conscious finish of the PC gaming market since having fun with the fruits of Intel’s Core i5 12400 labours, and its seemingly unintended overclocking bounty. A $200 chip that may comfortably nail 5.2GHz, with an reasonably priced motherboard platform as well? Effectively, that has the potential to be the proper base to your subsequent gaming rig. All we’d like is an reasonably priced GPU to go along with it.
In steps in Nvidia with the nominally $250 RTX 3050, promising to blow the RX 6500 XT out of the water for simply $50 extra. Because it seems MSRPs evaporate as quickly as the primary wave of GPUs promote out—usually within the first ten minutes—so we’ve got the $280 Gigabyte RTX 3050 Eagle right here, which is definitely marginally cheaper than the $300 Gigabyte RX 6500 XT we reviewed as our first style of AMD’s finances GPU.
And it does certainly blow the RX 6500 XT out of the water. However we’re nonetheless basically speaking a couple of new Nvidia graphics card with GTX 1660 Ti gaming efficiency, although one with the added veneer of ray tracing {hardware} and DLSS assist.
Nvidia RTX 3050 specs
What are the RTX 3050 specs?
The comparisons each AMD and Nvidia have made with their new playing cards usually hides the place they really sit when it comes to relative efficiency. Each have spent an irrelevant period of time placing their new playing cards up towards the GTX 1650, with AMD additionally pitting the RX 6500 XT towards the RX 570, and Nvidia the RTX 3050 against the GTX 1050.
None of those comparisons make sense. The AMD card’s poor efficiency is extra ably highlighted by a comparability with the RX 5500 XT and RX 480—equally specced and priced playing cards from generations again—and it’s extra significant to check the RTX 3050 with the $279 GTX 1660 Ti than the $149 GTX 1650 or GTX 1050.
| RTX 3050 | RTX 2060 | GTX 1660 Ti | |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPU | GA106 | TU106 | TU116 |
| Transistors | 12 billion | 10.8 billion | 6.6 billion |
| Die measurement | 276mm2 | 445mm2 | 284mm2 |
| Streaming multiprocessors (SMs) | 20 | 30 | 24 |
| CUDA cores | 2560 | 1920 | 1526 |
| Tensor Cores | 80 | 240 | NA |
| RT Cores | 20 | 30 | NA |
| ROPs | 48 | 48 | 48 |
| Base clock pace | 1,552MHz | 1,365MHz | 1,500MHz |
| Increase clock pace | 1,777MHz | 1,680MHz | 1,770MHz |
| Reminiscence | 8GB GDDR6 | 6GB GDDR6 | 6GB GDDR6 |
| Reminiscence bus | 128-bit | 192-bit | 192-bit |
| Reminiscence bandwidth | 224GB/s | 336GB/s | 288GB/s |
| TGP | 130W | 160W | 120W |
| Reference worth | $249 | $349 (then $299) | $279 |
The GA106 GPU Nvidia reportedly has on the coronary heart of the RTX 3050 is a smaller model than that used within the RTX 3060 which makes it roughly the identical measurement because the chip used within the outdated GTX 1660 Ti. It does although have nearly double the variety of transistors at its coronary heart and, due to the wonderful Ampere structure it comes with over one thousand extra shaders inside it.
Additionally it is notable that AMD’s newest GPU, the Navi 24 silicon contained in the RX 6500 XT is a 107mm2 chip, whereas the GA106 is one thing within the area of 276mm2. That is one thing which can probably come into play in relation to manufacturing and the numbers of GPUs that every firm can produce to fulfil the demand for his or her playing cards.
These 2,560 CUDA cores within the RTX 3050 are break up between 20 SMs which additionally then delivers 20 RT cores and 80 Tensor cores. It is these final two specs that separate the RTX 3050 from its GTX 1660 Ti brethren, and should make it a much more tempting alternative for the mainstream gamer. The RT cores are what enable for ray tracing and the Tensor Cores then let you allow DLSS to make ray tracing really playable at an honest body price, all due to the magic of AI-powered tremendous sampling.
The RTX 3050 has the same complete graphics energy (TGP) in contrast with the GTX 1660 Ti, too, with 130W vs. 120W for the older card. Together with that further 10W you additionally get one other 2GB of GDDR6 reminiscence for a complete of 8GB. Although that runs on a thinner 128-bit aggregated reminiscence bus in contrast with the GTX 1660 Ti’s 192-bit bus, which is why you find yourself with much less reminiscence bandwidth in consequence.
Nvidia RTX 3050 efficiency
How does the RTX 3050 carry out?
Our customary sport benchmarks are at all times carried out with none type of decision output modifiers to get an concept of the uncooked efficiency of any new GPU. As such we do not historically take a look at with DLSS or FidelityFX Tremendous Decision enabled. Although, as an increasing number of video games are delivery with the know-how, and a wider breadth of {hardware} helps it, it at all times must be a consideration once we speak concerning the total bundle of a brand new launch.
So, whereas the benchmarks spotlight the place the RTX 3050 is kind of akin to the GTX 1660 Ti when it comes to its straight gaming efficiency, there may be the promise of DLSS working these Tensor Cores to really make the cardboard a fairly succesful 1440p gaming GPU the place the know-how is enabled.
The identical was true of the RX 6500 XT, with FidelityFX Tremendous Decision, too. However its severely restricted body buffer means sport efficiency is such that efficiency remains to be fairly weak even with FSR enabled. It is also not as efficient an answer as Nvidia’s hardware-based DLSS tech.
1080p gaming efficiency
New vs. Previous
Upscaling efficiency
System efficiency
Nvidia RTX 3050 evaluation
How does the RTX 3050 stack up?
The GeForce RTX 3050 is a humorous one. You might say Nvidia has pulled the same transfer to AMD in creating a brand new graphics card with the identical efficiency as that of a earlier technology for successfully the identical sum of money. We rightly castigated AMD for basically giving us a worse model of the RX 480 almost six years later, however you could possibly say Nvidia has finished solely marginally higher by simply stepping one technology again to barely higher than GTX 1660 Ti efficiency.
Although that may be a little unfair, as a result of the Ampere structure on the coronary heart of the RTX 3050 is essentially higher than that of the Turing GPU on the coronary heart of the GTX 1660 Ti. Once more, the identical will be stated of the RDNA 2 tech beating beneath the RX 6500 XT’s outsized coolers, when in comparison with the Graphics Core Subsequent (GCN) of the RX 480.
That is the place AMD’s choice for openness and an aversion for fastened operate {hardware} does type of backfire. Whereas FSR is supported on a variety of older AMD graphics playing cards, DLSS is restricted to these with the RTX prefix and the mandatory GPU {hardware}. And that provides the RTX 3050 a particular edge over its Turing forebears and implies that, whereas it’s basically the identical worth and really shut in efficiency, the additional function set makes it nearly a worthy successor.
By a 2022 reckoning anyhow. Which is at all times skewed away from the earlier norms of the GPU world. Although should you’re at present working a GTX 1660 Ti, I might nonetheless say it is in all probability not well worth the improve.
I’m an enormous fan of DLSS, nevertheless, and it does imply that the RTX 3050 is not only a good 1080p gaming GPU, it is really able to working fortunately on a 1440p show too. Although it isn’t in each sport and Nvidia’s new game-agnostic Nvidia Picture Scaling (roughly analogous to FSR) is out there to its older GPUs, too.
However you do additionally get a bit of 1080p ray tracing assist with the brand new RTX 3050. Once more, that is due to DLSS now providing assist for 1080p as a local decision and rendering beneath that native res. There’s much less element out there, so it is more durable to get an important picture, however DLSS nonetheless does a powerful job at permitting video games corresponding to Management and Wolfenstein Youngblood to supply playable ray tracing on a sub-$300 GPU.
The powerful factor is our conventional expectations, although. We at all times need extra from successive generations, and meaning we wish extra efficiency, not simply entry to extra options from our GPUs. At a minimal I’d have wished RTX 2060 ranges of uncooked gaming efficiency, particularly as that was a $299 card at first 2020 and we’re taking a look at $280 playing cards proper right here with the RTX 3050.
Then there’s the thorny situation of inventory, and the way a lot Nvidia is ready to get to its companions to make graphics playing cards and for them to get them into the channel for us to purchase. We have been instructed that there’s wholesome inventory out there at launch, and that there will certainly be reference-priced models there, too. However we’re at all times instructed that, and inventory at all times vanishes.
It can this time, too, and the $250 reference-price models will final so long as the preliminary inventory does, then I’d wager we by no means see one other MSRP card out there once more. That is a part of the issue with Nvidia not creating reference-priced Founders Version playing cards at this degree of the GPU stack—there is no competitors for producers eager to pump out larger priced choices, and in order that’s all we’ll see in retail after tomorrow’s launch.
The place I wished not less than RTX 2060 efficiency, I’ve bought GTX 1660 Ti body charges with a bit of RTX frosting on prime
The hope is that, just like the RX 6500 XT, there’ll proceed to be RTX 3050 playing cards out there weeks after launch and, even when they are not at MSRP, aren’t topping the $300 mark. Please.
Whether or not that occurs stays to be seen. AMD has lower the RX 6500 XT GPU to shreds, so it is lower than half the dimensions of the GA106 GPU within the RTX 3050, which implies it could theoretically manufacture way more in the identical period of time as a result of it will get extra chips out of the identical measurement silicon wafer. Perhaps that is why there are more Radeon cards available a week on from launch, perhaps AMD’s gamble has paid off.
We have to hope that Nvidia remains to be capable of maintain the chips flowing from Samsung’s 8nm fabs so the RTX 3050 stays in inventory at an affordable worth. As a result of, whereas it is perhaps not the stellar finances GPU we have been hoping for, it is nonetheless an efficient sub-$300 graphics card able to utilising the most effective GPU tech of a technology and delivering a gaming improve for these on lower-spec silicon than a GTX 1660 Ti.
Nvidia RTX 3050 verdict
Must you purchase an RTX 3050?
AMD and Nvidia have taken totally different approaches to the conundrum of making a high-volume finances GPU in a chip scarcity. AMD slashed the dimensions of its silicon, betting on excessive clock speeds to offer it simply sufficient efficiency to supply some mainstream 1080p gaming chops, whereas its teeny tiny GPU meant it may manufacture extra GPUs than the competitors and successfully develop into the one possibility at this worth.
Nvidia has gone for a extra performance-first tactic. The place the RTX 3050 and RX 6500 XT are successfully sitting in the identical worth bracket, you’d completely reasonably have the Nvidia card for the cash. At worst it is 20% quicker than the Radeon GPU, and might really ship 1440p gaming in locations the place the 4GB body buffer of the RX 6500 XT will not enable it to tread foot. Throw the magic of DLSS into the combo—nonetheless a more practical answer than FSR—and the RTX 3050 seems to be like a sure winner on this head-to-head.
However, the place I wished not less than RTX 2060 efficiency, I’ve bought GTX 1660 Ti body charges with a bit of RTX frosting on prime. Certain, that is tasty the place it sticks, however is one other instance of a card designed and priced throughout the limits of a pandemic and a GPU scarcity, reasonably than displaying off Nvidia’s silicon wizardry to its fullest.
