Gameplay Performance
We are going to focus on 1080p gameplay performance with the MSI GeForce RTX 3050 GAMING X video card. DLSS and FSR are included in the graphs in the games supported. We will test Ray Tracing on a separate page. For video card comparisons we are using a GIGABYTE Radeon RX 6500 XT EAGLE video card and a SAPPHIRE PULSE Radeon RX 6600 GAMING video card. This is the AMD competing video card right below the 3050, and right above the 3050.
Dying Light 2
Dying Light 2 was released in February 2022 on the PC. It uses Techland’s C-Engine and supports Ray Tracing for various environmental effects including Ray Traced Soft Shadows, Ray Traced Ambient Occlusion, Ray Traced Global Illumination, and Ray Traced Reflections. It also supports both DLSS and FSR upscaling technologies. For our benchmark, we are using a custom manual run-through at the end of the game hopping between many rooftops, as well as free-roaming ground running among the zombies, a forested area, and downtown city scenes.
In the above graph, we have Dying Light 2 running in DX12 API mode and have all the in-game graphics settings at their highest value, except for Ray Tracing, Ray Tracing is not enabled. The game is running at the highest settings, sans Ray Tracing. For Ray Tracing results see our Ray Tracing performance page. We are also utilizing upscaling as shown on the graph, we are using DLSS in Quality mode on the NVIDIA GPUs and FSR in Ultra Quality mode on the AMD GPUs.
At 1080p the MSI GeForce RTX 3050 GAMING X performs around 47FPS, which is just playable enough. It’s 44% faster than the Radeon RX 6500 XT, which is its closest competition by MSRP. The MSI GeForce RTX 3050 GAMING X is 20% slower than the Radeon RX 6600 which produces the highest framerates almost at 60FPS. Overclocking the MSI GeForce RTX 3050 GAMING X has increased performance by 7%.
DLSS greatly helps the MSI GeForce RTX 3050 GAMING X in this game as it improves performance by 34% bringing it above 60FPS. The Radeon RX 6500 XT can’t even come close to this with FSR, and even with FSR, the Radeon RX 6500 XT is not playable. The Radeon RX 6600 with FSR can reach 76FPS which is impressive.
Forza Horizon 5
Forza Horizon 5 was released on PC in November of 2021. It uses the ForzaTech game engine. For our evaluation, we raise the in-game graphic settings beyond the “Extreme” preset to the maximum game settings. The “Extreme” preset does not actually utilize the highest possible settings. We, therefore, raise the rest of the settings to their highest graphics quality for our testing, this includes: SSAO Quality to Ultra, Reflection Quality to Extreme, SSR Quality to Ultra, and we disable MSAA and use FXAA instead. We also test AMD FidelityFX Contrast Adaptive Sharpening (CAS) performance from the Resolution Scaling option. We utilize the built-in benchmark for testing.
In Forza Horizon 5 at the maximum game settings, with FXAA, at 1080p the MSI GeForce RTX 3050 GAMING X is playable at 54FPS. This is 80% faster than the Radeon RX 6500 XT. Overclocking the MSI RTX 3050 GAMING X improves performance by 7% bringing us closer to 60FPS. Enabling CAS does provide a little bit more performance, it’s near 60FPS without overclocking and with overclocking above 60FPS. CAS seems to improve performance by about 7%, the same as overclocking. It isn’t enough to help the poor 6500 XT though. The MSI RTX 3050 GAMING X is 29% slower than the Radeon RX 6600 which is up around 76FPS and with CAS above 80FPS.
Far Cry 6
Far Cry 6 was released in October of 2021 and uses the Dunia Engine. We utilize the built-in benchmark for testing. We have the HD Texture pack installed and turned on. We utilize the “Ultra” graphics preset which sets all options to the highest game settings. This game supports Ray Tracing via two DXR settings, one for Reflections and the other for Shadows. We enable this in our Ray Tracing testing. We also test the game’s support of AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 1.0 known as FSR to improve performance on all GPUs.
In Far Cry 6 at 1080p and “Ultra” settings the MSI GeForce RTX 3050 GAMING X is very playable in this game at a wonderful and smooth 75FPS. This cannot be said for the Radeon RX 6500 XT which chokes in performance. This is due to the limited VRAM capacity on it in combination with the HD Textures we have enabled in the game. The MSI GeForce RTX 3050 GAMING X can handle it because it has 8GB of VRAM, and has no problem performing greatly with these higher resolution textures at 1080p.
Overclocking the MSI RTX 3050 GAMING X improves performance by 8%. FSR also helps further improve performance, on the MSI RTX 3050 GAMING X FSR improves performance by 23%. The MSI RTX 3050 GAMING X is 25% slower than the Radeon RX 6600.
Cyberpunk 2077
Cyberpunk 2077 was released in December of 2020 and uses the REDengine 4. We have the game patched to version 1.52 for our testing and perform a long manual run-through driving in the game’s open world. We test using the Preset options for quality, and for Ray Tracing. The game now has three Ray Tracing modes, Low, Medium, and Ultra. This game also supports DLSS and AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution FSR. We test DLSS Quality on NVIDIA GPUs and FSR Ultra Quality on AMD GPUs.
In Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p and the graphics preset of “Ultra” the MSI GeForce RTX 3050 GAMING X is not playable at nearly 40FPS. However, it is 85% faster than the Radeon RX 6500 XT. What saves the MSI RTX 3050 here is DLSS, with Quality DLSS enabled the game is now near 60FPS and very smooth and playable. DLSS makes the game playable by increasing performance by 48%. This lets you play the game at “Ultra” quality on a 3050. Otherwise, without DLSS, you will have to drop the game to “Medium” settings.
Overclocking the MSI GeForce RTX 3050 GAMING X improves performance by 9%, and with DLSS brings performance above 60FPS. Even the Radeon RX 6600 struggles at “Ultra” at 1080p at only 50FPS, but with FSR enabled performance increases by 55% and performance is at 76FPS which is impressive. The MSI RTX 3050 GAMING X is 20% slower than the Radeon RX 6600.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 Game of the Year Edition
MS Flight Sim 2020 was released in August of 2020 but has received a big update in November 2021 called the Game of the Year Edition update. This brought with it support for the DX12 API which we have enabled for testing. We are utilizing the game’s “Ultra” preset for graphics settings and live terrain is enabled. We perform a manual run-through of an activity landing in New York with an outside view camera.
At 1080p in MS Flight Sim 2020 GOTY Edition in “Ultra” the MSI GeForce RTX 3050 GAMING X is playable, but just barely. The Radeon RX 6500 XT is completely unplayable and very choppy in this game. The MSI GeForce RTX 3050 GAMING X is 135% faster than the Radeon RX 6500 XT in this game and therefore offers a vastly superior gameplay experience. Overclocking does help the MSI RTX 3050 GAMING X in this game and improves performance by 6%.
The MSI RTX 3050 GAMING X is only 7% slower than the Radeon RX 6600 in this game. It seems that the 3050 and 6600 catch up to each other in this game, the RX 6600 is not as far apart as other games. Overclocking the MSI RTX 3050 GAMING X brings performance up to the level of the Radeon RX 6600 in this game, so that’s good for the 3050’s gameplay experience here.
Watch Dogs Legion
Watch Dogs Legion was released on the PC in October of 2020 and uses the Disrupt game engine. We utilize the built-in benchmark for testing. We have the HD Texture pack installed and enabled for testing. We use the built-in graphics preset of “Ultra” for testing. We utilize Ray Tracing in our testing and also DLSS in Quality mode.
In Watch Dogs Legion at 1080p, the MSI GeForce RTX 3050 GAMING X is barely playable at 48FPS. It’s not exactly a smooth gameplay experience. However, once you enable DLSS that changes, with DLSS, enabled we are now hitting near 60FPS and performance is smooth. DLSS improves performance by 23%. The MSI RTX 3050 GAMING X is 109% faster than the Radeon RX 6500 XT, which is not playable at all. Overclocking the MSI RTX 3050 GAMING X improves performance by 8% and with DLSS takes us over 60FPS. The MSI RTX 3050 GAMING X is 24% slower than the Radeon RX 6600 which gives us above 60FPS.