Conclusion
NVIDIA launched the GeForce RTX 3050 GPU in January of 2022 with an MSRP of $249. As we are all aware of today, the MSRP set by manufacturers is often wide and far apart from the actual street pricing you will end up paying for your video card. The GeForce RTX 3050 is one of those video cards where this is true. Though the MSRP is set at a reasonable price for what is offered, the actual street price of RTX 3050s has been much higher.
It is such that the pricing has been so inflated beyond MSRP in fact that it has pushed the GeForce RTX 3050 close to pricing with AMD’s next tier of graphics card, the Radeon RX 6600. With pricing as it is AMD Radeon RX 6600s are in the same price range. Since this is so we needed to compare the two video cards in performance.
Performance
Starting with Dying Light 2 it was very clear from playing with both video cards that the Radeon RX 6600 had a gameplay advantage and a pretty big one. The Radeon RX 6600 was playable near 60FPS at the highest game settings at 1080p, which was 25% faster than the GeForce RTX 3050. Turning on DLSS greatly helped the RTX 3050, bringing it to 60FPS and making the game playable. Turning on FSR on the RX 6600 helped it greatly as well, bringing it to 76FPS and creating a very smooth gameplay experience that beat the RTX 3050.
In Forza Horizon 5 both video cards offered a playable experience, but the Radeon RX 6600 far and away took home the crown of smooth gameplay. In a game like this high framerates help. The Radeon RX 6600 was 41% faster than the GeForce RTX 3050 and gave us near 80FPS. With CAS enabled it was above 80FPS.
In Far Cry 6, both video cards were playable at the highest game settings. Thanks to the 8GB of VRAM neither one bottlenecked, and HD Textures were possible. The Radeon RX 6600 held the performance advantage by being 33% faster. Turning on FSR brought the RX 6600 to over 100FPS.
Cyberpunk 2077 was not really playable on either video card at “Ultra” settings. However, the RX 6600 did maintain a 25% performance lead over the RTX 3050. Turning on DLSS made the RTX 3050 playable, but then so did FSR on the RX 6600 and by a larger margin. MS Flight Sim was just slightly faster on the RX 6600.
In Watch Dogs Legion only the Radeon RX 6600 was playable without any upscaling help. It was 31% faster than the GeForce RTX 3050. Once we turned on DLSS the RTX 3050 was playable, but then only matching, or close to, RX 6600 performance.
When it comes to Ray Tracing performance it’s a bit of a back-and-forth affair. It comes down to the game, to be honest. In Dying Light 2 it is clear the GeForce RTX 3050 is superior in Ray Tracing performance, by 42% compared to the RX 6600. However, the game wasn’t actually playable, even with DLSS or FSR. In Far Cry 6 the reverse was true, we actually saw the Radeon RX 6600 perform faster with DXR Ray Tracing in that game. The RX 6600 was 23% faster than the RTX 3050. In this game, the Radeon RX 6600 with DXR offered a better gameplay experience, without upscaling. However, with FSR enabled both video cards were equally as playable.
Cyberpunk 2077 is very demanding even with Low Ray Tracing enabled, neither card was playable. However, once again very interestingly the Radeon RX 6600 was technically faster with Ray Tracing, by 16%. Turning on DLSS and FSR was the answer to making that game playable with Low Ray Tracing and the Radeon RX 6600 came out on top in performance. Finally, in Watch Dogs Legion it was not playable with Ray Tracing on the RTX 3050 even with DLSS. The Radeon RX 6600 choked for some reason.
Final Points
There are a few points we want to make clear from the resulting testing. First and foremost, the AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT is NOT the competition for the GeForce RTX 3050. The Radeon RX 6500 XT may be priced at a competitive MSRP, but it’s so bottlenecked and backwards that it really is a joke. The Radeon RX 6500 XT has proven to be absolutely terrible in two reviews [HERE] and [HERE] that we have published. Even if the Radeon RX 6500 XT is closer to its MSRP pricing than the RTX 3050 the RX 6500 XT is just really a bad deal all around.
Now to the real competition for the GeForce RTX 3050, the AMD Radeon RX 6600. The AMD Radeon RX 6600’s street pricing today is closer to its MSRP than the GeForce RTX 3050’s street pricing is to its MSRP. That’s just the facts as they are. The facts are, the AMD Radeon RX 6600 and GeForce RTX 3050 can be purchased in retail at similar pricing, they are within each other’s range. In fact, you may even be able to find Radeon RX 6600’s priced cheaper than some GeForce RTX 3050s. But even if the Radeon RX 6600 was $20-$50 more expensive than the GeForce RTX 3050 it’d still be a good deal.
Our conclusion is simply this, the AMD Radeon RX 6600 is an incredible value right now for gamers. It’s closer to its MSRP, and similarly priced to GeForce RTX 3050 but offers a lot more performance in games. We saw 25%-40% gains in performance with the RX 6600 versus the RTX 3050. The GeForce RTX 3050 still has the advantage of being able to run DLSS, but it’s almost required for the RTX 3050 for it to come close to RX 6600 performance. The Radeon RX 6600 can also run FSR in games, and that just pushes it further. Though we only showed 1080p gameplay performance in this review, the Radeon RX 6600 is a very capable 1440p card with FSR.
With street pricing as it is today, the Radeon RX 6600 is the better value versus the GeForce RTX 3050 at similar pricing, it offers a better gameplay experience. If you can get an RX 6600 for cheaper than an RTX 3050, you’ve got yourself a really good deal, but even if you had to pay a little extra money for it, it’s still a much better value for your money, you get a better gameplay experience comparatively for a similar range of money.