EVGA GeForce RTX 3050 XC BLACK GAMING Review

[Brent_Justice]

Introduction



NVIDIA’s answer to the entry-level to mainstream desktop PC gaming market at 1080p is here, today NVIDIA is launching the GeForce RTX 3050 GPU.  We have a full retail boxed version of the EVGA GeForce RTX 3050 XC BLACK GAMING video card (with a factory overclock) for review today.  We’ll dive into the new GPU, go over its specifications, talk about how it compares to the Radeon RX 6500 XT, and dive into performance.  Oh yes, we will overclock it as high as we can as well. 



This review will show what level of gameplay settings the GeForce RTX 3050 is playable at in games and what kind of gameplay experience it delivers.  We will utilize various game quality settings at 1080p plus DLSS, FSR, and Ray Tracing.  We will compare performance against the new...

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[Brian_B]

Nice review.

In addition, we have PCI-Express 4.0 x8 support

So this doesn't have PCI 3 x16 support either? I mean, 8 is better than 4, but it's not as good as 16, so there have been some concessions made for budget, just not as many as the 6500 cut back on. That said, would it even need 16 on PCI 3?

Commentary not aimed at any review content, just me bitching in general:
Entry Level: $329.99 MSRP, Street Price: $699.99

PC gaming is getting waaaay too expensive.

 

[Brent_Justice]

6600 and 6600 XT are only PCie 4.0 x8 also

all gtx 1600 series are PCIe 3.0 x16

PCie 4.0 x8 is the same as PCie 3.0 x16

3050 on PCIe 3 would be x8 (half of x16) whereas 6500 XT is x4

PCie 4.0 x8 doesn't hold it back, on Gen 4 or 3, especially since it also has an 8GB framebuffer, so it's a non-issue with the 3050, whereas it does matter on the 6500 xt

 

[Dan_D]

EVGA's obsession with tiny E's over everything makes me cringe every time I see it. Otherwise, it's better than the 6500XT at least.

 

[Stoly]

EVGA's obsession with tiny E's over everything makes me cringe every time I see it. Otherwise, it's better than the 6500XT at least.

Better is an huge understatement. It's a completely different league.

It's much better than I anticipated. From what I've seen in different reviews, it stands between a GTX1070Ti and a RTX2070 depending on the game.
Not too shabby.

But as Neo would say, the problem is choice... I mean price.

IMO for the MSRP its a very compelling card, well worth the extra dough compared to the RX6500XT. Not just performance wise, but feature wise.
Unfortunately its anyone's guess when (if) you will be able to get any card anywhere near MSRP. Besides many OEMs are taking advantage of this and I already see several cards at over $400 for OC models.

 

[kcthebrewer]

Just a heads up for Forza Horizon 5. Ray tracing only is applied during the 'Vista' mode. Essentially when your car is in the garage or at owned house.

There shouldn't be any difference during gameplay with RT enabled.

Amazing review. So many different graphical settings compared.

 

[Stoly]

Just a heads up for Forza Horizon 5. Ray tracing only is applied during the 'Vista' mode. Essentially when your car is in the garage or at owned house.

There shouldn't be any difference during gameplay with RT enabled.

Amazing review. So many different graphical settings compared.

I think there is a mod to enable RT in normal gameplay. But I don't have the game to try.