MSI GeForce RTX 3050 GAMING X 8G Gaming Graphics Card - 8GB GDDR6X, 1845 MHz, PCI Express Gen 4 x 8, 128-bit, 3x DP v 1.4a, HDMI 2.1 (Supports 4K)

Product Information

The RTX 3050 was 52% faster than the 6500 XT at 1080p using the second highest quality preset with 141 fps on average. PCIe 3.0 completely crippled the 6500 XT and now the RTX 3050 is seen to be 114% faster, and I should note I got the exact same result using PCIe 3.0 with the RTX 3050. Finance is only available to permanent UK residents aged >18, subject to status, terms and conditions apply. Though that is a little unfair because the Ampere architecture at the heart of the RTX 3050 is fundamentally better than that of the Turing GPU at the heart of the GTX 1660 Ti. Again, the same can be said of the RDNA 2 tech beating beneath the RX 6500 XT's oversized coolers, when compared to the Graphics Core Next (GCN) of the RX 480. Those margins remained at 1440p. Here the RTX 3050 was 37% faster than the 6500 XT, or 58% faster when using PCIe 3.0. It only managed 41 fps on average, so for this game I'd say the RTX 3050 is better suited for 1080p gameplay. Power Consumption

Even at 1440p, the RTX 3050 managed well over 60 fps and this made it 9% faster than the RTX 2060, and 35% faster than the 6500 XT, a great result given the current market. Those 2,560 CUDA cores in the RTX 3050 are split between 20 SMs which also then delivers 20 RT cores and 80 Tensor cores. It's those last two specs that separate the RTX 3050 from its GTX 1660 Ti brethren and ought to make it a far more tempting choice for the mainstream gamer. The RT cores are what allow for ray tracing and the Tensor Cores then allow you to enable DLSS to make ray tracing actually playable at a decent frame rate, all thanks to the magic of AI-powered super sampling.

Packs a Punch

In Doom Eternal, the RTX 3050 does extremely well matching the RTX 2060 with 178 fps on average. That meant it was 82% faster than the 6500 XT and 287% faster than the PCIe 3.0 configuration. That's all we need to say about that. When compared to the 6500 XT, we're looking at a 37% performance boost, or a massive 74% increase when compared to the PCIe 3.0 result.

Time for the all important cost per frame analysis. We're going to start with the MSRP using the 1080p data, but we'll include 1440p results and other data points (and assumptions) for a more realistic pricing comparison in just a moment. The 6500 XT turns in one of its better figures in Far Cry 6 and as a result the 3050 was just 14% faster, though the issue for the 6500 XT is PCIe 3.0 and when compared to that configuration the 3050 was 37% faster. So, while the benchmarks highlight where the RTX 3050 is more or less akin to the GTX 1660 Ti in terms of its straight gaming performance, there is the promise of DLSS working those Tensor Cores to actually make the card a pretty capable 1440p gaming GPU where the technology is enabled. Next up we have Death Stranding, and this is another game that isn't terribly demanding, despite looking quite nice. The GTX 3050 was good for 108 fps using the default quality preset at 1080p and that placed it directly between the 1660 Super and GTX 2060, a great result. The Watch Dogs: Legion results are quite good for the 6500 XT when using the medium quality preset. Here the RTX 3050 was good for 88 fps and that only made it 17% faster than the 6500 XT, or 28% faster when compared to the PCIe 3.0 configuration, which remains a big win.

Does the RTX 3050 support DLSS?

When compared to the 1660 Super, it was 5% faster and 15% slower than the 5600 XT and RTX 2060, so a little behind when compared to those older models.

It is also notable that AMD's latest GPU, the Navi 24 silicon inside the RX 6500 XT is a 107mm2 chip, while the GA106 is something in the region of 276mm2. That's something which will likely come into play when it comes to manufacturing and the numbers of GPUs that each company can produce to fulfil the demand for their cards.

Clock Speeds

The RTX 3050 does not skimp out on video memory. Even though it is classed as an entry-level graphics card, the RTX 3050 is loaded up with 8GB of super-fast GDDR6 VRAM. This lets you enable high-res textures in games, arguably the most important graphics option, without experiencing judders as new textures are loaded into memory. In a compatible motherboard, the RTX 3050 runs over a PCIe Gen4 interface with eight lanes for high bandwidth. Read more

The RTX 3050 blasted past that result with 87 fps on average, edging it slightly ahead of the GTX 1660 Super this time. That made it 34% faster than the 6500 XT or 85% faster when limiting the 6500 XT to PCIe 3.0. A super easy win here for Nvidia. If that's the case, then you're best off being upsold to the RX 6600, or perhaps the smarter option would be to look for a cheaper second hand option to tie you over.The RTX 3050 does race away with it at 1440p, averaging over 60 fps to make it 28% faster than the 6500 XT or 36% faster than the PCIe 3.0 configuration. It was also 10% faster than the GTX 1660 Super, but 14-15% slower than the RTX 2060 and 5600 XT. This makes the RTX 3050 highly adept for esports on a high refresh rate gaming monitor, and cinematic, big-budget games running at a 1080p resolution as well. Ultra-high resolutions such as 4K in AAA games are off the cards for the RTX 3050, but it is more than adequate for 1080p, the most popular resolution for gaming by far. Does the RTX 3050 support DLSS? Turning on ray tracing with the medium quality setting + DLSS dropped the average frame rate to 60 fps, which is still very playale, but personally I'd rather play the game with a higher quality preset and perhaps leave DLSS enabled.