Nvidia has simply formally launched a brand new price range GPU, however you’ll need to steer nicely away from it when you truly need to play video games at half-decent settings. The brand new GeForce RTX 3050 6GB isn’t simply primarily based on the identical last-gen Ampere structure because the earlier RTX 3050 8GB, however it additionally has a lesser spec, and we’re not simply speaking in regards to the reminiscence.
On the plus facet, the RTX 3050 6GB worth is just $169.99 on NewEgg proper now, however that’s nonetheless a good bit of cash for a GPU that’s going to wrestle within the newest video games. Let’s face it, this Nvidia GPU isn’t going to finish up on our greatest graphics card information. You’ll be a lot better off paying $199 for a faster AMD Radeon RX 6600 or, even higher, saving up for the brand new Radeon RX 7600. That’s an actual disgrace, as there’s an enormous hole available in the market for a stable new GPU that prices underneath $200.
Again to the RTX 3050 6GB, this “new” GPU has now been formally listed on Nvidia’s web site, after a couple of months of rumors. As we anticipated, it has 2GB much less reminiscence than the usual RTX 3050, however this VRAM is connected to a really slender 96-bit reminiscence interface, in comparison with the 128-bit bus on the 8GB card. That brings the reminiscence bandwidth proper right down to a pitiful 168GB/s, in comparison with 224GB/s on the unique card, which could have a big influence on gaming efficiency.
Not solely that, however the variety of CUDA cores has dropped right down to 2,304 from 2,560, and the enhance clock has fallen all the best way from 1.78GHz to only 1.47GHz. Technically, the RTX 3050 6GB additionally helps ray tracing, however because it now solely has 18 streaming multiprocessors enabled, meaning you solely get 18 RT cores, in contrast with 20 on the 8GB card.
To make issues worse, the unique RTX 3050 8GB was already a disappointment when it launched two years in the past – in my checks, it solely averaged 42fps in Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p, and that’s with out ray tracing enabled. The brand new Radeon RX 7600 averages 78fps in the identical check. There’s the same distinction between the Radeon RX 7600 and RTX 3050 8GB in different video games too, with 48fps vs 87fps in Metro Exodus, and 55fps vs 103fps in Murderer’s Creed Valhalla. The brand new GPU goes to be even slower than this.
On the plus facet, the RTX 3050 6GB doesn’t require a separate PCIe energy cable, getting all its juice out of your motherboard’s PCIe slot. It additionally has a graphics card energy score of simply 70W, in comparison with 130W for the 8GB card. This can make it a possible contender for slender, mini-ITX gaming desktops the place thermal headroom and low energy necessities are mandatory and MSI has already unveiled a low-profile card primarily based on the brand new GPU.
It’s not a lot use for anybody else, although. We have been actually hoping to have seen a brand new price range GPU primarily based on the Nvidia Ada structure by this time, however there’s nonetheless no signal of the rumored RTX 4050 on the horizon. That’s a pity, because the market is basically crying out for a price range 1080p gaming GPU that may deal with half-decent gaming settings. This worth bracket was once occupied by the likes of the Radeon RX 570 and GeForce GTX 1060 3GB, and there’s a giant gap in it proper now.
Within the meantime, when you’re in search of the most cost effective technique to get a present Nvidia GPU with all the brand new options, take a look at our RTX 4060 assessment, in addition to our Radeon RX 7600 XT assessment when you’re in search of a card with extra VRAM.
