The budget graphics card market, dormant for several years now, has finally shown green shoots again in the new year with two new GPU families from the major GPU manufacturers. Nvidia launched its GeForce RTX 3050 desktop GPU yesterday, while AMD launched its own Radeon RX 6500 XT last week. Their card partners followed suit with a variety of models (most of which, mind you, are hard to find near their list prices, if at all).
That said, if you can track one down, let it be a GeForce RTX 3050. As a ray-tracing engine, the new GeForce card performs surprisingly well, keeping price-for-performance pace with the GeForce RTX 3060, and it sometimes even clears the 60-frames-per-second limit at 1440p, appealing to many gamers. The AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT, meanwhile, launched to lukewarm reviews, and our testing between the two shows the RTX 3050 to be the performance leader in its class. But how do the two look when stacked side-by-side?
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 vs. AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT: The Basics
GeForce RTX 3050 models will come from Nvidia’s usual card partners. Nvidia hasn’t announced any plans for a discrete Nvidia-branded Founders Edition of the RTX 3050, so a year after its launch, the RTX 3060 Ti Founders Edition remains the lowest-end Founders Edition card issued in the RTX 30 Series lineup. The RTX 3050 is produced on the same 8nm Samsung process as the rest of Nvidia’s Ampere lineup, and it shares GA106 die production with both the mobile and discrete versions of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060.
We tested the dual-slot, dual-fan EVGA GeForce RTX 3050 XC Black Gaming 8G, which is just 7.94 inches long. That size is just fine for builders and upgraders of compact PCs, as well as owners of standard-size rigs. Our test card, though, is just one of many different styles that will be available when RTX 3050 cards go on sale today.
In almost every respect except maximum boost clock, the base specs for the GeForce RTX 3050 GPU showcase a significant lead over the AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT reference version, which shares the same specs with the Gigabyte Eagle model we benchmarked last week. Its 8GB of VRAM sits right at what many consider to be the new standard for modern PC gaming (4GB is workable, but not preferred by desktop gamers); however, that also puts it in the sights of crypto miners.
That increase in specs that comes with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 also means a boost in “MSRP,” or list price for base models of the card: $249 for the RTX 3050, compared to $199 for the RX 6500 XT. Now whether or not either of these prices qualify for the “budget” tier depends on when you’re reading this and the state of the market. But regardless of the 25% difference in list price between the two models we tested, the performance lead for Nvidia (as we’ll dig into shortly) more than bridges the gap. That is especially so in ray-tracing, given the RT core advantage for Nvidia…but we’ll wait until the benchmarks to discuss that blowout result.
The GA106 die has proven flexible for Nvidia, scaling all the way up to its RTX A2000 line of professional-graphics GPUs (successors to the Quadro line), down to some of its mobile RTX laptop GPUs. Meanwhile, speaking of laptop GPUs, the AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT is also based on the Navi 24 die. This design was originally destined for laptops, but was then sidelined to the discrete budget market in a response to the supply shortage. This results in a pretty severe spec disparity between the two cards, which we’ll see play out once we get to the performance blow-by-blow.
Design
As budget cards, our samples don’t show a whole host of differences in design…
No fancy Founders Edition cooling systems, no AMD-specific red branding; just a couple of sub-8-inch, dual-slot GPUs…
If you’ve seen one compact, budget-tier graphics card, you’ve seen about a dozen! That said, a few RTX 3050 designs are triple-fan, and both GPUs come in single-fan variants.
Power
The AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT model we tested runs at just 107 watts, while certain OC options will push that to 120 watts. The model we tested required one six-pin power connector lead from the PSU.
Meanwhile, the EVGA GeForce RTX 3050 XC Black Gaming 8G will share its power requirements with Nvidia’s reference spec at 130 watts, here fed to the card via a single eight-pin connector.
Those buying more powerful models of the RTX 3050 with higher peak clock speeds applied, or more fans, should expect higher power requirements.
Ports
On the port selection for the RTX 3050 model we tested, there’s simply no comparison to the RX 6500 XT. The Radeon card is stripped down…
Where the Radeon card has just two ports, the back of our EVGA card upholds the RTX 30 Series standard with three DisplayPort 1.4b outputs and one HDMI 2.1 port. That’s a higher-end port selection on a lower-end card. And so, onward to testing!
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 vs. AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT Performance
PC Labs ran both the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 and the AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT through a series of DirectX 11- and 12-based synthetic and real-world benchmarks. Our test rig, used for all cards in the charts below, is based on an Intel Core i9-10900K processor and employs a PCI Express 3.0, not 4.0, motherboard (an Asus ROG Maximus XII Hero Wi-Fi). It’s equipped with 16GB of G.Skill DDR4 memory and a solid-state boot drive. If you’d like complete details on our GPU testing methodology, head on over to our how we test page.
That out of the way, let’s jump into the GPU duel!
With a 4GB difference in their VRAM configurations, it’s no surprise that the RTX 3050 walks away with all the wins here, but attention should be paid in particular to the ray-tracing trial, Port Royal, on 3DMark. Here we saw very strong ray-tracing performance versus the Radeon RX 6500 XT…by a matter of multiples. If you want ray-tracing at this price level (which we’re still not totally sold on without DLSS or RSR thrown into the mix, truth be told), though the RTX 3050 commands a $50 premium over the RX 6500 XT, its RT performance is close enough to the $329-list AMD Radeon RX 6600 to warrant a double-take.
In many of the AAA tests we ran, the RTX 3050 straddled an odd line where it was regularly pushing above the 1080p/60fps minimum barrier we were expecting out of it, but short of the 1080p/120fps we were hoping for it. Overall, you can expect a 60fps experience with a few settings turned down, but those looking for a high-refresh AAA experience will want to look toward step-up options like the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti instead. (Note the under-60fps scores at 1080p with demanding games like Red Dead Redemption 2 and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey.)
Meanwhile, in many of the AAA tests we ran, the Radeon RX 6500 XT was only able to stay competitive with Nvidia’s last true launch in this tier, the GeForce GTX 1650 Super. Whether in Red Dead Redemption 2 or Far Cry 5, we saw regular shootouts and win exchanges between those two GPUs. Most were photo-finishes, or close to it, regardless of the tested resolution.
Scroll through the list and the narrative is clear: Even considering their differences in MSRP, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 enjoys a clear lead over the AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT in both raster and ray-tracing performance (the latter by a considerable margin).
Both the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 and AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT performed admirably in multiplayer/esports game testing, but we don’t make that too difficult a bar to clear these days. The main determination here should be the refresh rate on your gaming monitor, and if the RX 6500 XT just reaches your preferred frame rate (166fps in Rainbow Six Siege, for example), then save yourself the extra cash and only spend on what you need—especially in supply-constrained times like these.
Next are a few “golden oldies,” ahem, legacy games. On these tests, because RDNA-based AMD cards are challenged at getting competitively high frame rates with legacy games due to driver-level issues, Nvidia has walked away with the results in this section for going on three years now. I mean, just look at those Sleeping Dogs numbers…
Verdict: A GeForce Triumph (Though Card Makers and Miners Are the Real Winners)
Put these two head-to-head in the arena, and it’s clear: Between the Nvidia RTX 3050 and the AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT, the RTX 3050’s performance is a walk-off winner.
Though Nvidia and AMD trading blows in the GPU space is nothing new, it’s been a long time since the battle ended so lopsided. In the war between the two manufacturers’ latest releases, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 and AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT, respectively, Nvidia tops its rival GPU on almost every front.
If you have the option to choose between the two when stock levels are rational, the choice is clear. (The RTX 3050 went on sale the morning of Jan. 27 and summarily sold out on Newegg; a few models of the AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT remain on shelves here and there.) There’s little debate over which of the two is right for you and your next budget PC gaming build: This time it’s Green, Team Green. The only question is whether you can prise one from the hands of an etailer at a reasonable price before a miner or a speculator does.
