The concept of a $250 graphics card looks as if a pipe dream in the present day, when unprecedented demand, scalpers and the worldwide chip scarcity have pushed GPU costs into the stratosphere. Still, that is not stopping NVIDIA from making an attempt with the brand new RTX 3050. It’s the corporate’s least expensive GPU but with ray tracing, and it is meant to tackle AMD’s even cheaper Radeon RX 6500 XT, which has a instructed retail value of $200. While it is unclear if the 3050 will really promote for $250 as soon as it hits shops, it will at the least are available lower than the RTX 3060, which launched at $329 however now goes for round $1,000 (not a typo) at Newegg and different retailers.

Like NVIDIA’s wildly well-liked GTX 1050 and its different 50-class GPUs, the 3050 is supposed to be an reasonably priced solution to attain 1080p/60fps whereas taking part in trendy video games. With newer titles like Control demanding extra energy from our programs, it is sensible for NVIDIA to lastly ship a finances 30-series entry. The 3050 options 2,560 CUDA cores, a lift pace of 1,777 MHz and 8GB of GDDR6 RAM, placing it effectively beneath the 3060’s 3,584 CUDA cores and 8GB of RAM (to not point out its vastly quicker reminiscence interface). Still, as a 30-series GPU, it additionally has ray tracing and tensor cores, permitting it to faucet into extra real looking lighting, in addition to the corporate’s DLSS know-how to spice up efficiency.

NVIDIA is positioning the brand new card as a serious replace to the GTX 1650, which had simply 896 CUDA cores and no ray tracing or tensor capabilities. (There was no RTX 2050 desktop GPU, although the corporate shocked us all when it introduced a laptop computer model at CES this yr.) The RTX 3050 can be extra compelling on paper than the Radeon 6500 XT, which solely has 4GB of reminiscence, a a lot slower reminiscence bus, and solely faucets into 4 PCIe lanes as a substitute of the standard 16. AMD clearly minimize as a lot because it might to create a reasonable GPU for entry-level players, however that additionally makes it much less future-proof than the marginally costlier RTX 3050.

During my testing, the EVGA RTX 3050 XC Black GPU (NVIDIA is not making any Founder’s Editions this time) was ready sort out each recreation I threw at it in 1080p, even once I cranked up the graphics settings all the way in which up. It averaged 140fps in Hitman 3’s Dubai benchmark, making it well-suited for 144Hz refresh charge screens. Bumping the decision as much as 1,440p halved efficiency to 74fps, which was a major dip from the 3060’s 110fps common. That larger decision is unquestionably playable, nevertheless it’s clear the 3050 is best-suited to 1080p gaming, particularly should you’re making an attempt to get sufficient efficiency to justify a high-refresh charge monitor.

All benchmarks examined on a system powered by a Ryzen 7 5800X, 32GB of RAM and Samsung 970 EVO Plus SSD.

In Destiny 2, the 3050 hit a 90fps common in 1080p and 65fps in 1,440p with the best graphics settings. Those are respectable scores if you’d like the entire finest visible prospers, however I’d wager many players would step a few of these settings down for higher framerates. I used to be most impressed with how the GPU dealt with Control, which remains to be one of many extra demanding video games round. It reached 65fps on common in 1080p with maxed out graphics (however no ray tracing). When I flipped on DLSS, which rendered the sport at 720p and used AI to upscale it to 1080p, the framerate jumped to a silkier 90fps. And surprisingly sufficient, it was completely playable at 70fps once I turned on medium ray tracing settings together with DLSS. Not unhealthy for a (supposedly) $250 video card!

As for typical benchmarks, like 3DMark’s suite, it is best you do not take a look at these. The 3050 is clearly a lot slower than the remainder of NVIDIA’s lineup, so that you’re higher off ignoring what you are lacking. What’s essential is that it is an reasonably priced card that may play demanding video games effectively in 1080p, and in some instances it will even get you to 1440p. And due to its comparatively tame efficiency, it additionally would not generate a lot warmth or noise. It stayed at a surprisingly cool 60 Celsius below load.

I did not have an RTX 6500 XT to match it to, however judging from the reviews and its specs, you may have a tough time reaching any Ultra-level 1080p gaming with that GPU. AMD purposefully hampered its reminiscence to make it much less interesting to cryptominers. That plan could have really succeeded, as its value is now hovering between $250 and $300 on Newegg.

It’ll be fascinating to see simply how far the RTX 3050’s value jumps after its launch. But based mostly on what we all know to date, it is an absolute steal should you can nab it for $250, and for a lot of players it will be price paying a number of hundred extra. At the second, it is the one solution to get an NVIDIA 3000-series card with out paying over $1,000.