[SOLVED] Asus RTX 3050 or Colorful RTX 2060?

Tac 25

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Jul 25, 2021
1,391
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3,890
Hi, today I was at the mall, canvassing for a gpu to buy.

The two RTX gpu that I could afford are RTX 3050 = 331 usd, RTX 2060 = 385 usd.
Could not afford the stronger 30 series, they cost around 700 usd, and the PSU probably can't handle them anyway. Oh, and don't want to get a 6600XT.

Here's the rest of the pc..

PSU: Seasonic Focus GM Gold 550 Watts
CPU: i5-10600k
ram: 16 GB Kingston Fury Beast
Monitor: 27 inch I-O Data
SSD: 480 gb Transcend
one generic cd drive

my games are not heavy on the gpu. The most graphically demanding games here in the house are Genshin Impact and Dead or Alive 6. Even my 1050ti runs them well already at 1080p.

so which one would work better for my pc, the 3050 or the 2060? :)
this would be my last pc project for now. Won't be buying a new rig for 3 years.
 
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Solution
From a performance point of view, they are comparable, and a nice boost over your GTX1050ti.

If you are running well with the GTX1050ti, what is the rush to buying a new GPU now?

Prices are falling, and Intel will enter the market with mid range product soon.

If you have the itch to buy now, I would pick the newer gen product.
If you have a monitor upgrade in the future, the 3050 with hdmi 2.1 support
can drive a hdmi 2.1tv @120hz.
Hi, today I was at the mall, canvassing for a gpu to buy.

The two RTX gpu that I could afford are RTX 3050 = 331 usd, RTX 2060 = 385 usd.
Could not afford the stronger 30 series, they cost around 700 usd, and the PSU probably can't handle them anyway. Oh, and don't want to get a 6600XT.

Here's the rest of the pc..

PSU: Seasonic Focus GM Gold 550 Watts
CPU: i5-10600k
ram: 16 GB Kingston Fury Beast
Monitor: 27 inch I-O Data
SSD: 480 gb Transcend
one generic cd drive

my games are not heavy on the gpu. The most graphically demanding games here in the house are Genshin Impact and Dead or Alive 6. Even my 1050ti runs them well already at 1080p.

so which one would work better for my pc, the 3050 or the 2060? :)
this would be my last pc project for now. Won't be buying a new rig for 3 years.
The 2060 is going to be 10-20% faster than the 3050 depending on the game and the settings used. The 2060 is actually capable of running some ray tracing at 1080p and 60fps when using DLSS or FSR, although it would mainly be shadows. The extra vram on the 3050 is not likely to help much either, because you will be forced to run at 1080p on most games for either card, if you wanted to run mostly higher settings.

If you're buying in USD from the US, you should be able to get a 3060 for around $380-420 from evga.com or on newegg and amazon.

EVGA models for $400 and $420. There is not enough difference in speed to get the $420 model.
https://www.evga.com/products/Produ...eForce+30+Series+Family&chipset=RTX+3060+12GB

All the models sold by newegg for under $450.
https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?N=10000...14&PageSize=96&Order=1&LeftPriceRange=350+450

On sale for $380.
https://www.newegg.com/msi-geforce-rtx-3060-rtx-3060-ventus-2x-12g-oc/p/N82E16814137632
 

Tac 25

Estimable
Jul 25, 2021
1,391
421
3,890
thanks both for the suggestion.

_

@ohio_buckeye

hmm, it does have more vram. Does having more vram mean a gpu is more future proof? Planning to use this as my main gaming pc for at least 3 years.

also, Nvidia mentions about second generation ray tracing cores in their product page for the 3050. It's another thing making me want to buy the 3050, instead of the 2060.

_

@Third-Eye

I appreciate the links, but sorry.. cannot buy gpu's online. My credit card has a cap on how much could be spent, as a security measure in case of theft, and also to prevent me from spending too much.

oh, so the 2060 also has DLSS? I thought only 30 series has that function?

and yeah, the store guy did say that the 2060 is stronger than the 3050. That's why they are selling it for a little higher price.
 
The 2060 could be stronger but I thought they were the same chip. I think they are the same chip actually. At that performance level though you probably are going to take too much of a performance hit to use ray tracing much anyway. So if the 3050 is cheaper it might be a good idea being newer.
 
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From a performance point of view, they are comparable, and a nice boost over your GTX1050ti.

If you are running well with the GTX1050ti, what is the rush to buying a new GPU now?

Prices are falling, and Intel will enter the market with mid range product soon.

If you have the itch to buy now, I would pick the newer gen product.
If you have a monitor upgrade in the future, the 3050 with hdmi 2.1 support
can drive a hdmi 2.1tv @120hz.
 
Solution

Tac 25

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Jul 25, 2021
1,391
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3,890
@geofelt

there is actually no rush... I own 3 pc as of now... the current gaming pc is an i7-2006k with a 1050ti... a Q9500 with a 1650 that mostly serves as backup storage (I gave it a 1650 so it could play Dead or Alive VI at 1600 x 900 resolution). And lastly, my newest pc is an i5-10600k that currently uses a GT 1030 as placeholder until I could buy any RTX gpu. Honestly, there was no immediate need to buy the 10600k pc, I just gave in to the impulse buy and put it together (lol). The 2600k + 1050ti pc still plays the games I like to play at high resolution with no lag.... so I could wait for GPU prices to go down some more.

created this thread because the 3050 and the 2060 are the RTX cards I'm most likely to buy as they are within what my PSU can handle.. so the opinion of other people on these two is appreciated. :)
 
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The 2060 could be stronger but I thought they were the same chip. I think they are the same chip actually.
The 3050 was first released using the GA106 die used in the 3060, because they didn't have the GA107 ready for when nvidia decided they needed to "counter" the RX 6500 XT. They've switched to the intended GA107 die for currently sold cards.

@Tac 25
If you're not in a rush, I would wait and keep saving up the cash for an even better deal when RTX 40 series releases, which is currently rumored to release in September with the 4090 coming first and then followed by the 4080 in October and 4070 in November. People may be dumping even more RTX 30 series cards on the used market in anticipation of the next GPU series release from AMD and nvidia, which could drive the prices down even lower than now on new or used cards.

If you're only playing at 1080p, having 6 or 8GB vram won't make a difference on a 3050 since it's not really powerful enough to take advantage of that 8GB vram. For most games, you will only be using 3.5-4.5GB vram at 1080p, with some games using around 5.5-5.6GB. If you do start running out of vram, you're probably using settings that will make your fps drop to unplayable. DLSS on either card can help mitigate low vram issues in addition to he increase in FPS, because the rendered output resolution is lower than your set resolution.
 
Ah yes, new cards are coming out. If you need a place holder, I'm seeing rx 5600 xt cards used on ebay around 200. So that might be an option if you were in a hurry but wanted to wait on newer cards. But it might be worth waiting to see what cards are released since AMD's new line should be coming out soon as well, so if you do buy this year you might want to buy into the 70 series or higher since you can usually count on the higher cards being mid range in the next release. For example, a 970 was equivalent to a 1060, In more recent memory, on AMD's side, the 5700 xt is now equal to about a 6600xt. So if you can it's a good idea to buy up if buying the previous generation of cards.
 

Tac 25

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Jul 25, 2021
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did a little more thinking..

oh, and these are the 3050 and 2060 present at the mall. Have also narrowed down the reason why want to buy.

3050 https://www.asus.com/Motherboards-Components/Graphics-Cards/Dual/DUAL-RTX3050-8G/techspec/

why I want it..

  1. Second Generation rtx cores sound attractive
  2. Only 200mm long, can fit into all the case in the house if I want to use it on other pc
  3. More vram than the 2060
  4. hdmi 2.1 (as mentioned by Geofelt)
  5. Cheaper by 50 usd
___

2060 https://en.colorful.cn/product_show.aspx?mid=102&id=1746

why I want it..

1. stronger than the 3050, so it feels more future proof even though it's slightly older.

https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-RTX-3050-vs-Nvidia-RTX-2060/4127vs4034
 
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did a little more thinking..

oh, and these are the 3050 and 2060 present at the mall. Have also narrowed down the reason why want to buy.

3050 https://www.asus.com/Motherboards-Components/Graphics-Cards/Dual/DUAL-RTX3050-8G/techspec/

why I want it..

  1. Second Generation rtx cores sound attractive
  2. Only 200mm long, can fit into all the case in the house if I want to use it on other pc
  3. More vram than the 2060
  4. hdmi 2.1 (as mentioned by Geofelt)
  5. Cheaper by 50 usd
___

2060 https://en.colorful.cn/product_show.aspx?mid=102&id=1746

why I want it..

1. stronger than the 3050, so it feels more future proof even though it's slightly older.

https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-RTX-3050-vs-Nvidia-RTX-2060/4127vs4034

Theres no such thing as future proof between this two GPUs, unless you count the video extra-specs in the equation.

Both GPUs are going to be decent in 1080p, but thats it. Don't get me wrong you could play a few games in 1440p with decent frame rates.

At 1440p "AAA titles" may become playable using DLSS or FSR, and thus have a few more games added to the list.

All RTX cards launched this far supoot DLSS, DLSS 2.0 and FSR (as long as the game have support for it too).

About Ray Tracing, I would not care for it too much. It does bring a nice display effect to games, the refelctions look awesome, but at the end of the day I preffer better 1% low FPS which will result in a smoother gameplay.

But hey thats my opinion.

Cheers!
 

Tac 25

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Jul 25, 2021
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3,890
@RodroX

thanks for the input. Gave me some additional info.

____

@DRagor

first of all, no offense to 6600Xt users. It's a combination of several things why I decided to avoid it.

a. Bad review at gpu bench.

b. does not have DLSS function that RTX cards have.
c. I saw several forum threads on people being disappointed or have problem with their 6600xt, some still unresolved

there's actually one more thread, but I can't find it anymore, this user who upgraded his RTX 2060 to a 6600 xT - but the 6600 performed poorly, and his "upgrade" became a "downgrade" instead.

all these factors combined make me not want to buy the amd gpu.
 
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Tac 25

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whoa.. a coincidence, over here it's cheaper for almost that amount as well. There is a Fighter 6600xT at the same store where I saw the 2060 and 3050 RTX cards. And the 6600 XT is priced at approximately 25-30 usd lower than the 2060. Which is strange, considering that 6600XT is supposed to be stronger than the 2060..

_

Anyway, back to the 3050 vs 2060. Today is Friday night, I might come back to the mall on Sunday. Would be taking home a gpu, if cannot resist the temptation. lol

but if I manage to resist the urge, would just be taking home another SSD. hehe :)
 
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The 6600xt is actually more comparable to a 3060. Benchmarks I’d seen previously put it between a 3060 and 3060ti. Much better than the 2060 out 3050. If it’s cheaper that’s how I’d go.

I did own a powercolor 6600xt that I had lots of issues with, but that was at launch as well. Plus there seemed to be something up with that card. I ended up returning it for an asus card and things were fine after that. Though I did sell it during the mining craze.

However some prices have dropped I bought a 6700xt, zero issues so far with that. As long as the shop has a good return policy that is the way to go in my opinion.
 
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Have a look at this review of the 6600xt. This was from august last year around launch, but it gives an idea how much better of a card it is than the 2060 or 3050. I don’t think the benchmarks on that review show the 3050, but you know the 2060 is pretty close to a 3050, so that should get an idea.

 

Tac 25

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Jul 25, 2021
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update to thread. Getting delayed a little more, because I ordered a GPU bracket online which will approximately arrive on July 8. After that I can buy the gpu at the mall.

would post here what GPU I was able to get.

GT 1030 of my 10600k would have to hold on a few weeks more.
 
update to thread. Getting delayed a little more, because I ordered a GPU bracket online which will approximately arrive on July 8. After that I can buy the gpu at the mall.

would post here what GPU I was able to get.

GT 1030 of my 10600k would have to hold on a few weeks more.
You really only need GPU brackets on heavy and long cards unless you want it for RGB or the aesthetics. RTX 3050 or 2060 are really not that heavy and usually not that long. The flexing and sagging should not affect the cards functionality, if that is what you're worried about. That flexing and sagging is caused by the display output plate on the GPU not being reinforced. The manufacturer is just cheaping out on the design and cost.
 
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Tac 25

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Jul 25, 2021
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final update to the thread. Purchased an Asus Phoenix RTX 3050 today for 17,995 pesos (approx 320 USD). :)
took more than two weeks of back and forth thinking whether to buy or not, because money is hard to obtain these days. It's a Sunday today, so I passed by the church to give thanks for this blessing.

pic of new gpu on our dining table. lol

https://imgbox.com/puoTwxsk

reasons for buying.

  1. GT 1030 currently paired with a 10600k on my new pc, cannot handle full screen of Dead or Alive VI and some other PS4 games.
  2. My monitor is a 1080p monitor, so the 3050 should have no problems ray tracing on it. I'm content with just 1080p, no plans to buy a 4k monitor.
  3. It's short length gives it universal compatibility with all three pc in the house. Can move it to other pc, if a few years fron now I manage to get a stronger gpu
gpu buying quest is now over. Not gonna buy for 2 or 3 years.
thanks to everyone who made suggestions.
 
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both are a terrible buy for the price... you can easily get a 6600 for less than either for 15% more performance at the least

if you need nvidia, I get that. please still dont buy either of them.. its just a bad buy.

Save until you can get a 3060 or get a used gtx 1080ti for that price... more ram more brute strength... those owners take care of their stuff... i bet you can find one for 300
 

Tac 25

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Jul 25, 2021
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today is the 7th day of the limited "for one week, we will replace it if it has problems" store warranty. Thankfully, the 3050 is performing well.

ray tracing with King of Fighters XV



one of the best surprise the 3050 gave me, is that Dead or Alive VI is now finally playable at 3840 x 2160 in-game resolution. My 1650 lags so hard when I try to set graphics that high. Now even at 3840 x 2160, the characters move so fast. No lag at all.






overall, I'm satisfied. Purchased it to be able to ray trace with King of Fighters XV, but the 3050 gave me some boost in other games too. :)
 
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