2024-04-10 08:15:00
The year is 2024. The modern plagues of crypto mining and COVID-19 have largely been defeated, and the hardware community is looking forward. The silhouettes of Blackwell (Geforce RTX 5000), RDNA 4 (Radeon RX 8000) and Battlemage (Arc B series) can already be seen there. Today, however, it’s about these high-tech toys not – but rather a much smaller, more economical and, in the case of our test sample, quieter device. We are pleased to be able to present you the test of the Geforce RTX 3050 6GB, thanks to the active support of Zed Up, who have already helped us out several times with interesting graphics cards.
Source: PCGH Nvidia Geforce RTX 3050 6GB: Hwinfo overview (tested: Palit KalmX from www.zed-up.de)
Budget graphics cards: overview
Anyone looking for a graphics card for little money has a much harder time these days than before the mining hysteria. Neither AMD nor Nvidia serve the price range below 250 euros with their latest GPU architectures; in the economy segment you can only find old goods in various colors, shapes and vintages. PCGH has tested some of these graphics cards in the past few weeks, including when comparing gaming graphics cards for around 200 euros and when testing the Radeon rarity RX 6500 XT 8GB. With the Geforce RTX 3050 6GB, a new model is now entering the budget stage and has to compete with the other graphics cards around the popular 200 euro mark.
Graphics card connoisseurs may be raising an eyebrow at this point. How can it be that we are testing a Geforce RTX 3050 in spring 2024 even though it has already been on the market for two years? In contrast to the already mentioned 8 GiByte model of the Radeon RX 6500 XT 8GB, it is actually a newly released graphics card: The Geforce RTX 3050 6GB officially launched in February 2024 and complements the Nvidia portfolio at the lower end. The Geforce RTX 3050 was previously waiting there – the original, the 8 GiByte version launched at the beginning of 2022. This has since been relaunched based on the small GA107 processor with reduced consumption, but this change did not change the performance. Let’s take a look at the graphics card midgets tested below; You can find further comparison models in our well-maintained GPU database:
Graphics cardGeforce RTX 3050 8GBGeforce RTX 3050 6GBArc A580Radeon RX 6600Radeon RX 6500 XT 8GBTested modelGigabyte EaglePalit KalmXSparkle OrcSapphire PulsePowercolor FighterMarket launch01/27/202202/02/202410/10/202313.1 0.2021Summer 2022ArchitectureNvidia AmpereNvidia AmpereIntel (mm²)276 or 200200406237107Transistors Graphics chip (Billion)12.0 or 8,78,721,711,065.4Manufacture (Foundry)8N (Samsung)8N (Samsung)N6 (TSMC)N7P (TSMC)N6 (TSMC)Shader clusters (CUs/SMs )2018242816FP32-ALUs/TMUs/ROPs2,560/80/482,304/72/323,072/192/1281,792/112/641,024/64/32Ray tracing units2018242816Matrix units8072384––Level 2 cache (Mi B)321621Level 3 cache ( MiB)–––3216Type. GPU clock speed in games (MHz)1,8801,6802,3302,5402,860FP16 performance ALUs (TFLOPS)9,67,714,318,211,7FP32 performance ALUs (TFLOPS)9,67,714,39,15,9Fill rate (Mtex/Mpix per sec.)150, 4/90,2121,0/53,8447,4/298,2284,5/162,6183,0/91.5Memory connection (bit)1289625612864Speed RAM (GTs/MHz)14.0/7,00014.0/7,00016.0 /8.00014.0/7.00018.0/9.000Memory typeGDDR6GDDR6GDDR6GDDR6GDDR6Memory transfer rate (GB/s)224168512224144Memory capacity (MiB)8.1926.1448.1928.1928.192PCI Express standard4.0 ×84.0 ×84.0 × 164.0 ×84.0 ×4Power supply1× 8-pinNoneEach 1×8 -/6-pin1× 8-pin1× 8-pinPower consumption (board power)130 or 115 watts70 watts200 watts132 watts113 wattsDLSS frame generationNoNoNoNoNoDriver frame generationNoNoNoYesYesDisplay connectivityDP 1.4a, HDMI 2.1DP 1.4a, HDMI 2.1, DL-DVIDP 2.0, HDMI 2.0DP 1.4a, HDMI 2.1DP 1.4a, HDMI 2.1Approx. price at the time of testing215 Euro190 Euro190 Euro210 EuroNo longer available
Performance information based on the graphics cards we tested extensively (average GPU boost across all benchmarks) – the manufacturer’s information is sometimes significantly lower and therefore unrealistic. Depending on the model, deviations of up to 200 MHz are possible.
The key technical data reveals it: The Geforce RTX 3050 6GB is a new graphics card, but it uses old technology. Then as now, Ampere silicon is used, which comes off the Samsung production line inexpensively using the 8N process. In order to address the price range below 200 euros, Nvidia is focusing on the GPU and VRAM: The RTX 3050 6GB has to make do with 2,304 FP32 computing units, and the memory interface also shrinks from 128 to 96 bits. This not only reduces the memory transfer rate by 25 percent, but also the capacity. That’s not all, Nvidia squeezes all of this into a 70-watt corset – and it’s exactly this twist that makes the Geforce RTX 3050 6GB an interesting product despite the ancient basis. In fact, the Geforce RTX 3050 6GB is almost always faster than you would expect given the small power budget.
That’s enough of the preamble. On the following pages you will find out who the Geforce RTX 3050 6GB is suitable for – and for whom it is not. You can expect rasterizing and ray tracing benchmarks in full high definition, an energy efficiency analysis and, of course, a categorizing conclusion.
1712738638
#Worthy #replacement #RTX #electronic #waste