SeekerGeForce RTX 3050
Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3050 delivers great 1080p gaming performance with modern features, including capable ray tracing chops and DLSS. It has plenty of memory and doesn’t make any unusual technical compromises, unlike AMD’s rival Radeon RX 6500 XT, but that potentially makes it a target for GPU miners—which could mean bad things for price and availability.
-- As reviewed by PCWorld
Product details
- NVIDIA Ampere Streaming Multiprocessors: The all-new Ampere SM brings 2X the FP32 throughput and improved power efficiency.
- 2nd Generation RT Cores: Experience 2X the throughput of 1st gen RT Cores, plus concurrent RT and shading for a whole new level of ray-tracing performance.
- 3rd Generation Tensor Cores: Get up to 2X the throughput with structural sparsity and advanced AI algorithms such as DLSS. These cores deliver a massive boost in game performance and all-new AI capabilities.
- Axial-tech fan design has been newly tuned with a reversed central fan direction for less turbulenceAvoid using unofficial software
- A 2-slot Design maximizes compatibility and cooling efficiency for superior performance in small chassis.
PROS
+ Great 1080p gaming with high visual settings
+ 8GB of GDDR6 RAM
+ Cool and quiet
+ Playable ray tracing performance, especially with DLSS enabled
+ Support for modern features like DLSS, Nvidia Reflex, AV1 decode, Nvidia Broadcast, PCIe Resizable BAR, and more
+ No weird technical sacrifices like in Radeon RX 6500 XT
CONS
- $100 more than last generation's xx50-class card
- No frills on EVGA XC Black model tested
- Mining-friendly configuration doesn't bode well for price or availability on the streets; $250 price feels very optimistic
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Expert reviews and ratings
By PCWorld on January 26, 2022
Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3050 delivers great 1080p gaming performance with modern features, including capable ray tracing chops and DLSS. It has plenty of memory and doesn’t make any unusual technical compromises, unlike AMD’s rival Radeon RX 6500 XT, but that potentially makes it a target for GPU miners—which could mean bad things for price and availability.
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