NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 vs AMD Radeon RX 6600 Gaming Performance

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Ray Tracing Performance

We are going to focus on Ray Tracing 1080p gameplay performance with the MSI GeForce RTX 3050 GAMING X and SAPPHIRE PULSE Radeon RX 6600 GAMING video cards.  We will include DLSS and FSR performance on the same graph in the games that are supported.  We will use DLSS on NVIDIA GPUs and FSR on AMD GPUs in games that support both technologies.

Dying Light 2

Dying Light 2 was released in February 2022 on the PC and uses Techland’s C-Engine.  The game supports both DLSS and FSR upscaling technologies.  This game supports Ray Tracing for various environmental effects including Ray Traced Soft Shadows, Ray Traced Ambient Occlusion, Ray Traced Global Illumination, and Ray Traced Reflections.  We are running the game in DX12 Ultimate, and with ASYNC Compute turned on in the game.  We will set the graphics options at the highest settings with Ray Tracing.  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 on the ground running among the zombies, a forested area, and downtown city scenes in the daylight.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 vs AMD Radeon RX 6600 Gaming Performance Dying Light 2 Ray Tracing Performance Graph

In Dying Light 2 the Ray Tracing effects are fantastic, and in the graph above we have all of them enabled at the highest possible settings at 1080p. Neither of the video cards delivers a playable gameplay experience at all with Ray Tracing at 1080p in this game, it’s just too demanding. Technically the GeForce RTX 3050 is faster though, by 42% which goes to show the advantage in Ray Tracing performance NVIDIA GPUs have at the moment.

Now, this game does use DLSS and FSR. With DLSS turned on it brings performance up to 40FPS on the RTX 3050, a 54% performance improvement. Though performance is better, it is still not playable because the minimums dip too low, and it’s not very smooth. We can enable FSR on the Radeon RX 6600 which brings performance up 45%, but it’s still not playable and under 30FPS.

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.  This game supports FSR upscaling.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 vs AMD Radeon RX 6600 Gaming Performance Far Cry 6 Ray Tracing Performance Graph

In Far Cry 6 we have all the DXR Ray Tracing options turned on, reflections and shadows, at 1080p, with HD Textures. Both video cards handle this rather well, but the Radeon RX 6600 for a change clearly has a performance and gameplay experience advantage. The gameplay is just smoother and runs faster. The Radeon RX 6600 is 23% faster than the GeForce RTX 3050. Turning on FSR on both video cards definitely helps performance. It really makes a big difference on the RTX 3050, which is now playable at 70FPS. FSR has improved performance on the 3050 by 30% and on the 6600 by 12%.

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 Graphics Preset option to set graphics settings.  We use the Ray Tracing Graphics Preset of: Low, or Medium or Ultra.  This game supports DLSS and FSR.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 vs AMD Radeon RX 6600 Gaming Performance Cyberpunk 2077 Ray Tracing Performance Graph

New with the patch 1.5 version in Cyberpunk 2077 is the addition of a “Low” Ray Tracing preset option. This only enables Ray Tracing on Local Shadows, but is the easiest and fastest Ray Tracing option. With Ray Tracing: “Low” the game is not playable on either video card, it’s just too demanding. However, interestingly, the Radeon RX 6600 is faster by 16%. This breaks from the tradition of NVIDIA GPUs dominating Ray Tracing performance.

Turning on DLSS and or FSR is what really makes the game usable though with Low Ray Tracing. The GeForce RTX 3050 with DLSS improves performance by 53% and is borderline playable. However, the Radeon RX 6600 with FSR beats it by averaging over 60FPS. FSR has improved performance on the RX 6600 by 50%. The 6600 with FSR is 14% faster than the RTX 3050 with DLSS, and that’s with Ray Tracing enabled.

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 the preset quality option for Ray Tracing.  This game supports DLSS upscaling.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 vs AMD Radeon RX 6600 Gaming Performance Watch Dogs Legion Ray Tracing Performance Graph

In Watch Dogs Legion we have enabled the “Ultra” quality level of Ray Tracing. Neither video card is playable, and even with DLSS the RTX 3050 is still not playable at the highest level of Ray Tracing. The Radeon RX 6600 however completely chokes in this game at “Ultra” Ray Tracing. It could be a bug, but whatever the case neither are playable. This was the only game where that happened with the RX 6600.

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Brent Justicehttps://www.thefpsreview.com
Former managing editor of GPUs at HardOCP for 18 years, Brent Justice has been reviewing computer components since the late 90s, educated in the art and method of the computer hardware review, he brings experience, knowledge, and hands-on testing with a gamer-oriented and hardware enthusiast perspective. You can follow him on Twitter - @Brent_Justice You can sub to his YouTube channel - Justice Gaming https://www.youtube.com/c/JusticeGamingChannel You can check out his computer builds on KIT - @BrentJustice https://kit.co/BrentJustice

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