You may want to reconsider picking up Nvidia’s budget RTX 3050 6GB model
Another new GPU, but this one isn't quite up to par of the 40 series releases
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Nvidia’s latest budget card, the RTX 3050 6GB is arriving this month. Targeting those who fancy a new card but don’t want to shell out the big bucks, the 3050 boasts Nvidia’s Ampere architecture and, unsurprisingly, supports DLSS, but not the 3rd gen. For those thinking about picking one up, you may want to reconsider.
That’s because, according to Videocardz who reported on the tests concluded by Computerbase, the 6GB variant of the RTX 3050 is actually 20% slower than the currently available 8GB model. The good news is that the 6GB version of the card does seem to use less power than the beefier version, so your electricity bill will be thanking you.
While the reduced power draw may win over a few fans, the Nvidia community on Reddit is less than impressed, with some claiming it should have launched as an RTX 3040.
“For roughly 30% faster than my 1650 I’d rather stay with it than pay extra 200. Too little – too late…,” wrote one. “96-bit memory bus, for $170. This GPU is basically premium e-waste,” wrote another.
Others were more sympathetic to Nvidia, blaming the name of the card rather than the hardware itself. “No one is hating on the card,” said one. “A mobo-powered card is always appreciated by many. It’s the stupid misleading name that irks everyone.”
The RTX 3050 6GB comes after a handful of decent launches for Nvidia, from the RTX 4070 Super to the more powerful RTX 4070 TI Super and RTX 4080 Super. The latter card in particular has been well received, while we reviewed the 4070 Ti Super and were impressed by the boost over the standard model it replaces.
Who is the new card even for?
At this point, you may wonder why even bother, with the older generation not really on many people’s radar it does provide something for someone. It does provide a good upgrade for those on a budget and keeps processors out of the bin, much like we expect from AMD’s recently released 5700X3D.
But it does get rid of any pesky power connectors you need to power it. Instead, you get all you need from the board itself, allowing the card to be more in line with some of the best low profile GPUs instead. That does bring some options when looking to upgrade that small office PC with some stronger graphics.
It’s certainly not for mainstream gaming, which is suggested by the lack of any big announcement of it and the other releases seemingly covering up the news of the 3050. With such a lower performance you would rely on DLSS or upscaling for any true performance which makes the card a miss for those after any sort of heavy use from the GPU even if it might be appealing under $200.
