Gigabyte RTX 3050 Gaming OC 8GB Review

The latest Nvidia graphics cards are here at last, as Gigabyte introduce their new RTX 3050 Gaming OC 8GB! These new cards represent the new entry-level model of the RTX series, but also the first time ray-tracing has been available on an xx50 series card too, which also means DLSS, Reflex and other Nvidia technologies are present too. Not only that, but these cards are launching just one week after AMD hit the market with the Radeon RX 6500 XT series of cards. However, AMD launched their new budget cards with just 4GB of memory, a limiting factor in performance, but one that reduces both their appeal to mining operations and their price. On the flip side, Nvidia’s new cards come with 8GB of VRAM, but as a result, will be a little more expensive too, so it’ll be interesting to see how all these stack up.

Gigabyte RTX 3050 Gaming OC

While Gigabyte hasn’t gone too crazy on this card, they certainly didn’t need to. It’s a less powerful card, but they’ve still treated it to one of the familiar-looking triple-fan Windforce 3X GPU coolers. That means the card looks pretty much the same as its big brothers, even up to the 3080 Ti, and we know it to be a decent cooler configuration that isn’t overly expensive, which will keep this card closer to the MSRP. The WINDFORCE 3X cooling system features 3x 80mm unique blade fans, alternate spinning, 2 composite copper heat pipes direct touch GPU, 3D active fan and screen cooling (air blows through the backplate). Overall though, it’s a well-equipped card, and the larger cooler design should make light work of the new chipset, ensuring it can stay at its highest clock speeds while gaming.

Features

• Nvidia Ampere Streaming Multiprocessors
• 2nd Generation RT Cores
• 3rd Generation Tensor Cores
• Powered by GeForce RTX™ 3050
• Integrated with 8GB GDDR6 128-bit memory interface
• WINDFORCE 3X Cooling System with alternate spinning fans
• RGB Fusion 2.0
• Protection metal back plate

For in-depth features and specifications, please check out the official Gigabyte RTX 3050 Gaming OC product page here.

GeForce RTX 3050

“The GeForce RTX 3050 brings the performance and efficiency of the NVIDIA Ampere architecture to more gamers than ever before. Equipped with 2nd generation RT Cores for ray tracing, and 3rd generation Tensor cores for DLSS and AI, the RTX 3050 doesn’t just stop at great performance with ray tracing and DLSS, it also delivers rich features including NVIDIA Reflex, NVIDIA Image Scaling, NVIDIA Encoder, and the NVIDIA Broadcast app. The RTX 3050 is the first desktop RTX GPU in its class, making ray tracing and DLSS more accessible than ever.” – Nvidia