News Nvidia's new entry-level gaming GPU is slow but very power-efficient — RTX 3050 6GB benchmarks show 20% lower performance than RTX 3050 8GB but dra...

[Admin]

Some of the first RTX 3050 6GB benchmarks shows that the GPU's lower performance is offset by much higher efficiency.

Nvidia's new entry-level gaming GPU is slow but very power-efficient — RTX 3050 6GB benchmarks show 20% lower performance than RTX 3050 8GB but dra... : Read more

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

So it's like I said in the other thread: 20% less performance than the 8GB version, more memory and performance than its only competitor (RX 6500 XT 4GB) for a small price premium.

 

[AgentBirdnest]

No power cable is cool!
The name is NOT cool, though. Why not just call this thing the RT 3030?

 

[Amdlova]

That card it's made for make 4060 feel greater. Diminishing returns from the original 3050/3060
But has no power needs.

 

[PEnns]

"is slow but very power-efficient"

Captain Obvious agrees 100%!!

 

[35below0]

The 4060 draws 115w vs 70w for this 3050. Miniscule savings compared to the performace advantage of the 4060. Price difference is $170 vs $300 MSRP.

Idk. It's an option. If i don't need a powerful GPU but don't want to be stuck with only on-board graphics, this is a choice?

 

[thisisaname]

30 series card so no Nvidia frame gen to boost its performance.

 

[35below0]

30 series card so no Nvidia frame gen to boost its performance.

Would it benefit from the FSR 3 mod though?

 

[jlake3]

So it's like I said in the other thread: 20% less performance than the 8GB version, more memory and performance than its only competitor (RX 6500 XT 4GB) for a small price premium.

Remind me why this card's "only competitor" is the RX 6500 XT that costs 20% less (while only being 5% slower), and why the RX 6600 that only costs 5% more (while being 64% faster) isn't considered a competitor?

 

[cryoburner]

30 series card so no Nvidia frame gen to boost its performance.

Frame Gen does not boost performance. It smooths motion for high-refresh rate displays while actually hurting latency and image quality. If you are not already getting good 60fps+ performance before enabling the feature, then the more noticeable increase in latency and artifacting will tend to make the feature not worth enabling. As such, it's questionable how much value it would have on a lower-end card at this performance level, since the feature is mostly only available in newer games that tend to be more demanding.

As for the card though, it's another scammy cut-down version of a card that's been given the same name as the existing 2 year old card it was based off of, only with significantly lower performance and VRAM. There's no good excuse for why they didn't call this card a "3040" or something. It was simply done to con unsuspecting customers into thinking they are getting a better card than they actually are.

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

Remind me why this card's "only competitor" is the RX 6500 XT that costs 20% less (while only being 5% slower), and why the RX 6600 that only costs 5% more (while being 64% faster) isn't considered a competitor?

Because the 3050 is the ultra-entry level card from nVidia, and the 6500XT is AMD's ultra-entry level (as there is no RX 7500 on the market yet). Also in terms of performance the RX 6600 and RTX 3050 8GB perform on par, it is not "64% faster". With the creation of this 20% slower 3050 6GB variant it will compete against the RX 6500XT with the 8GB version remaining to compete against the 6600XT, with $180 pricing for the 3050 6GB confirmed via listings (including one on Newegg), and $140-$200 for the RX 6500XT 4GB.

 

[subspruce]

Remind me why this card's "only competitor" is the RX 6500 XT that costs 20% less (while only being 5% slower), and why the RX 6600 that only costs 5% more (while being 64% faster) isn't considered a competitor?

framing

 

[jlake3]

Because the 3050 is the ultra-entry level card from nVidia, and the 6500XT is AMD's ultra-entry level (as there is no RX 7500 on the market yet). Also in terms of performance the RX 6600 and RTX 3050 8GB perform on par, it is not "64% faster". With the creation of this 20% slower 3050 6GB variant it will compete against the RX 6500XT with the 8GB version remaining to compete against the 6600XT, with $180 pricing for the 3050 6GB confirmed via listings (including one on Newegg), and $140-$200 for the RX 6500XT 4GB.

Those are mixed raster and "DXR Ultra" results. The 8gb version of the 3050 struggles to pull 30FPS at 1080p in ray traced titles that came out in 2022, so neither card is likely to deliver a good RT experience in 2024.

In non-RT results, the RTX 3050 8gb scored ~85FPS in a purely raster average. Minus 20% for the 6gb would be ~68FPS. 111.2/68=163.5%.

And you can declare the 6500XT and the 3050 6gb to both be "Ultra-entry level", but when you fill in the other matchups that puts Nvidia about $40 off in pricing at each tier. It's easy to "win" the tier if you're priced closer to the next card up than to the one you've decided you want to be compared to. I'd say tiers fall more like so?:

RX 6400 ($125) versus Nvidia no-show* versus Arc A380 ($120)
RX 6500XT ($140) versus GTX 1650 ($160)
RX 6600 ($200) versus RTX 3050 6gb ($180) versus Arc A580 ($180)
RX 6600XT ($240) versus RTX 3050 8gb ($247) versus Arc A750 ($220)

* There's technically a single model of GTX 1630 for $135, but that card seems to have never been stocked in meaningful numbers.

Prices are from Newegg for the lowest priced new version of the card as of today.

No power connector is nice, but unless you're up against the limits of a PSU that you can't upgrade, this is a regression in price/performance over cards that launched 2 years ago, and doesn't make sense outside that niche.

 

[35below0]

I see no conspiracy.

The RX 6600 is not the rock bottom card in the line up. There are two beneath it.
3050 6Gb *is* the very rock bottom of nVidia's line up. There is nothing beneath it. It's even a last gen card...
If they called it 3040 like some suggest they should have, would it be better or worse from your point of view?

Buyers consider what's on offer in their price range, or they look at their "team" if they have affinity for one or the other, or maybe they just want to match CPU/chipset to their GPU.

It's not like the 6600 doesn't exist just because it's not a direct competitor.

 

[kal326]

Seriously Nvidia learned nothing from the 4080 12GB? Granted this is bottom end card so the overall outcry will be minimal. I'm guessing the only reason this was named this way was there wasn't a 3040 to make a TI model and it's still not cut down enough to be a 3030GT.