Gameplay Performance
We have selected a suite of games to test the PNY GeForce RTX 3050 8G VERTO Dual Fan at 1080p. All our selections were set at the maximum in-game graphic settings or custom combinations. We will run the video card with and without Ray Tracing enabled in-game. DLSS and/or FSR are utilized in games that support the technology. Our video card will be compared to the Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 6600. The Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 6600 is reviewed here. One can also compare performance results to a recent RTX 3050 review using the same game suite here.
F1 2022
F1 2022 was released on June 28th, 2022 on the PC and uses Codemasters Ego engine. The game supports Ray Tracing, DLSS, AMD FidelityFX, and FSR. We ran the game with the highest quality settings of “Ultra High” and TAA+FidelityFX. DLSS and FSR were enabled as needed at the Quality setting for both. The built-in benchmark was used at the Imola track, in dry conditions with a far chasing cam.
This game is very well done and provides fast frame rates. There is roughly a 10% increase when the PNY GeForce RTX 3050 8G VERTO is overclocked. DLSS adds a nice FPS increase. The RX 6600 is the winner in this round, being 21 to 33% faster than the overclocked VERTO.
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 2.0 upscaling technologies. For our benchmark, we are using a custom manual run-through.
Here the 10% margin is again seen when overclocked. Both cards gave a reasonable showing in this demanding game, but the Sapphire 6600 bettered the PNY 3050 VERTO once again. For best gameplay, DLSS and FSR 2.0 should be used. The FPS gains with upscaling in this game are in the 30-40% range and the image quality is preserved.
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 utilize AMD FidelityFX Contrast Adaptive Sharpening (CAS) from the Resolution Scaling option. The built-in benchmark is used for testing.
FarCry 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. We also test the game’s support of AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 1.0 to improve performance on both GPUs.
Both video cards do well in this game. The frame rates are high and the gameplay is smooth. The overclocking gain of 10% is preserved. The PNY 3050 VERTO is essentially the same performance level as the RX 6600 once FSR is enabled, but lags by 15% without it. The widest FSR advantage is seen in the default 3050 VERTO gaining 28%.
Cyberpunk 2077
Cyberpunk 2077 was released in December 2020 and uses the REDengine 4. We have the game patched to version 1.61 for our testing and perform a long manual run-through driving in the game’s open world. We test using the Preset options for Ultra 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 2.1. We test DLSS Quality on NVIDIA GPUs and FSR 2.1 Ultra Quality on AMD GPUs. Testing on our AMD video card shows no frame rate advantage FSR 1.0 versus FSR 2.1.
Both our video cards performed nearly identically without upscaling help. Cyberpunk is demanding. Neither of our video cards was playable without upscaling. We see a 7% overclocking increase. Once again in the rasterized games, the Sapphire RX 6600 is the faster card. Upscaling shows a big gain in this game, especially with the AMD card.
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. Only DLSS is available in this game as an upscaling option.
Watch Dogs is also very demanding. Our PNY RTX 3050 VERTO is not playable without help. The Sapphire RX 6600 again is the top dog by 18%. Overclocking gains are 9%. The VERTO is playable and just edges out the non-upscaled RX 6600 once DLSS is enabled.