Conclusion
Today the GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3050 Gaming OC 8G was evaluated. This card represents the second from the top-of-the-line GIGABYTE offering in the 3050 class. It’s a gaming GPU, says so in the title. This GPU has a full-sized cooler with the Windforce fans and a metal backplate with slots designed to vent exhaust air.
The card has a nice sturdy feel and is well constructed. Since it’s also overclocked, again says so in the name, it has a boost clock that is 45 MHz above the factory baseline out of the box. As was demonstrated, the GPU is nicely overclockable.
Performance
In performance, the focus was at 1080p gameplay. The settings were always at their highest for each game. DLSS and FSR were evaluated and Ray Tracing was enabled for a look at those effects visually and dynamically. For most games, the GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3050 Gaming OC 8G accomplished the tasks well.
In Dying Light 2 the game was surprisingly smooth and capable when DLSS was enabled. Even with Ray Tracing at Low. If you try anything without DLSS, the performance will suffer. The game makes excellent use of Ray Tracing effects and was simply stunning.
Forza Horizon 5 gameplay was quite good at the highest settings with no added help. Enabling CAS did add a few frames.
Far Cry 6, with all the bells and whistles performed well. The game was smooth and enjoyable with all the Ray Tracing effects enabled. Memory capacity did not affect the performance.
Cyberpunk 2077 is a beautiful game and demanding, to say the least. The GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3050 Gaming OC 8G was up to the task as long as DLSS was enabled. Performance was nearly 60 FPS. With Ray Tracing enabled the frame rate did dip a bit, but overall was minimally playable. Not to be too harsh, you still get Ultra settings and RayTracing with DLSS enabled.
Lastly, WatchDogs Legion seems to be the most difficult game for this GPU. At highest settings even with DLSS things were jumpy. Medium Ray Tracing was likewise hard on performance. It seems that you would need to dial down the settings across the board to maintain a smooth frame rate and enjoy this game with all its effects.
The one item that makes all the difference for this class of GPU is DLSS or FSR. In every game we tested, the gain in subjective and objective findings was obvious. This one setting is a real game changer…..always wanted to say that. The nice bonus with a GeForce RTX GPU is that you can utilize DLSS or FSR whichever is available in your game. You can play the more popular games out today in 1080p (the most widely used resolution according to Steam Survey) with the settings at their highest.
Overclocking
The GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3050 Gaming OC 8G overclocked easily to a setting that matched the other 3050 GPUs that have been reviewed to date. The performance gained 5 to 10 percent at +170. The memory was also overclocked without a hitch. Honestly, we think it could be higher. Our testing did show that this card was capable of more, that said to run each game in the testing suite these are the settings that worked every time. Although we run fans at 100% for overclocking, this GPU could be set to automatic and the temperatures would stay in range easily. I did just this during testing, the card performed well and was whisper quiet.
The Aorus Engine software was downloaded from GIGABYTE. It was fairly easy to use. It includes all the overclocking selections, monitoring, fan controls, and RGB Fusion control. My only suggestion is for GIGABYTE to add a framerate monitor to their software and perhaps some detailed written instructions on the use of the engine software. The instructional videos available are not very complete.
Unfortunately, we had no success in using the RGB Fusion software with the GeForce RTX 3050 Gaming OC 8G. The RGB Fusion software would not recognize the graphics card, no matter what I tried. My research revealed this is a problem with some users of GIGABYTE GPUs. There are many different suggestions for correction, but none was successful. The testbench motherboard is a GIGABYTE board and it is recognized, displaying RGB functionality without incident.
Final Points
The GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3050 Gaming OC 8G is a very capable GPU in 1080p gaming. The impressive part of this review is the ability to play games at their highest settings. As was stated, NVIDIA GPUs offer up DLSS which makes a big difference in the performance, especially Ray Tracing.
Finally, the price of this GPU has come back down to earth. This GPU is in stock at both Amazon and Newegg for $349, which is smack dab in the middle of the range for the 3050 segment. Given this GPU has a full-sized heatsink, a metal backplate, DLSS capability, and overclocks well it is worth a hard look if you utilize 1080p.