**NVIDIA's 3050 Card: A Promising Entry-Level Option**

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 card has shown its muscle in various benchmarks and games, demonstrating impressive performance while staying within the budget-friendly range. In terms of raw power, the 3050 is significantly less powerful than the more expensive 3060 and 3060 Ti models. However, this doesn't necessarily mean it's a weak card - its strengths lie in its ability to deliver high frame rates at 1080p resolutions, making it an excellent option for entry-level gaming builds.

**Competing with AMD Cards**

In head-to-head comparisons with AMD cards, the 3050 has shown impressive results. In some games, such as Fortnite and Valorent, the 3050 has performed better than AMD's offerings, including the popular Radeon RX 6500 XT. This is particularly notable in titles like Call of Duty: Warzone, where the 3050 actually outperformed the more expensive GTX 1660 Super and was only slightly behind the 2060 Super. While not quite matching the performance of the 3060, the 3050 has still managed to deliver impressive results in these games.

**DLSS and Other Features**

One of the standout features of the 3050 is its support for NVIDIA's DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) technology. In tests, the card was able to achieve high frame rates with DLSS enabled, making it an excellent option for those looking to boost performance in supported games. Additionally, the 3050 has other notable features like ray tracing and variable rate shading, which are designed to enhance the visual fidelity of games.

**Battlefield 2042 and Forza Horizon 5 Testing**

In tests of Battlefield 2042 with DLSS enabled, the 3050 achieved an impressive 106 frames per second at 1080p high settings. This is a remarkable result, especially considering that the card is not as powerful as some of its more expensive counterparts. Similarly, in Forza Horizon 5, the 3050 yielded around 98 frames per second on average at 1080p high settings. These results demonstrate the 3050's ability to deliver smooth performance in a variety of games.

**A New Standard for Budget Gaming**

While not as powerful as some other NVIDIA cards, the 3050 has set a new standard for budget gaming. With its ability to deliver high frame rates at 1080p resolutions and support for DLSS and other key features, it's an excellent option for those looking to upgrade their entry-level gaming build without breaking the bank. The fact that the card is also reportedly less vulnerable to GPU mining, making it a safer choice for gamers, is another major plus.

**Conclusion**

Overall, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 card has shown itself to be a promising and powerful option for entry-level gaming builds. While not as expensive as some other NVIDIA cards, its ability to deliver high frame rates at 1080p resolutions and support for key features like DLSS make it an excellent choice for those looking to upgrade their build without overspending. As always, we'll continue to monitor the performance of this card and provide updates as more information becomes available.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwhat is up guys welcome back to another geeko op video in this video i'm going to be taking a look at the brand new newly released rtx 3050. nvidia's latest gpu offering for the budding 1080p gamer has landed and i figured we'd put together a system to check out if it's really worth it as if nvidia's latest budget gpu wasn't enough though i've also picked up intel's latest budget cpu the 1200. could this be the best budget gaming combo in 2022 i guess we're about to find out i've also picked up one of intel's latest b660 motherboards and some ddr4 memory to see just how much price to performance we can get with some of the latest hardware on the market without further ado though let's kick things off by actually getting the thing put together and we'll test out the performance a little bit later the rtx 3050 looks to be a very exciting proposition we've missed out on gpus at this tier for quite some time the old 1650 1660 super are probably the closest thing we've had and this should perform significantly better than them with eight gigabytes of video memory support for the latest ray tracing and dlss technology remember this is an rtx card not a gtx card an important bonus and distinction to make this looks to compete directly with amd's new 6500xt a gpu that actually has a slightly lower msrp but is rumored to have worse availability meaning these two could be pretty level peg in the word on the street here in the uk at least is that stock and availability of these should be better than the previous launches we've seen from nvidia as of late though of course demand for gpus is still huge the verdict is still out on that one i'll talk more about this asus design specifically the strix cooler and whether it's really necessary later in the video but first i think it's about time we take the motherboard and install as many components onto this now this right here is asus's prime b660 d4 the brand new b660 chipset looks to compete directly with b550 amd's current offering and actually shows a good amount of progression over intel's previous b560 not only do you get memory overclocking support gen 4 ssd support and you can see on this board we've got three expansion slots as well the top is reinforced helping to prevent gpu sag and strain on the motherboard over time i'm really excited though to couple up the i5 12 400. i don't want this video to be too overshadowed by the 3050 as this is just an important launch for the budget gamer intel have been pretty weak when it comes to value propositions over the last few years and with how strong 12th gen has been already a cheap 12th gen chip is exactly what the market needs right now you can get it with or without graphics the f version doesn't come with those included and of course this isn't an overclockable cpu but it doesn't matter the clock speeds are more than good enough and the combination of intel's performance and efficiency cores gives a solid multi-threaded performance too things have just got a bit more interesting so here we can see the 12 400 itself we'll come back to that because i've just spotted the intel have included a new and improved black stock cooler okay now i was originally planning to pair our cpu with something like a hyper 212 rgb black edition but if we're not overclocking the cpu this makes more sense and saves us another 30 or 40 dollars let's go with this aesthetically i think it looks good and i really like the progress intel have made here their older generation included callers were rubbish so i am so happy to see this included it looks really cool as well one thing that has changed with the new intel chips is the installation process you still have to pull up the retention arm but it kind of opens away from each other so just something to bear in mind now on your cpu your intel cpu which is a bit more square than the last generation a bigger chip actually you will find yourself a triangle you want to match this up with the triangle on the bottom left hand corner of the cpu socket for us that just means dropping the cpu in like so give it a little bit of a wiggle but you shouldn't feel any pins breaking or anything like that pop your retention cover down and the black plastic will pop off secure the arm and that's basically it the stock cooler that comes included actually has pre-applied thermal paste so that's always really really good to see it means you haven't got to worry about adding on any of your own we can then go ahead and literally just place it on the cpu and push each of these plastic pins through the four holes on the motherboard here we go hear that little click sound do that again there's the second one there's the third one let me just show you that nice and close all you got to do is put your finger on it apply a nice piece of downward pressure and it clicks nice and easily give them all another little bit of a push to make sure they're all in and then locate your cpu fan header on the top of the motherboard take the included cable pop this up to your fan header and that's basically it now these new intel cpus support either ddr5 or ddr4 memory i'm not exactly sure how many b660 boards will favor ddr4 over ddr5 but you should definitely pick those there's no point buying stupidly expensive memory for an i5 12 400. ddr5 is great tech and i'm glad intel supported it on the new architecture but it's just not ready yet for the more budget oriented gamer locate your ram dim slots we've got four on this board great for upgrades great for dual channel just better than two overall and then line your memory up apply a bit of pressure click it into place and that's basically it i've gone for a white memory kit as it'll match the case choice today and also plays into the hands of our silver accents really nice to see i'm just a bit obsessed with this caller yes intel come on whoever at intel is pushing this like 12th gen new architecture new caller i love you whoever you are finally you know how long do these things take to wrap things up on the motherboard front we've got one more component to go and it's the component that installs kia it is of course our m.2 ssd drive when it comes to picking suitable storage for a build like this you need to keep in mind just how many gaming titles you're looking to play but also the speed the new hardware is so powerful that using something like a hard drive can actually become a bottleneck where it can't read game files quick enough and slows down the frame rate that is the last thing that we want to happen a gen 3 ssd though will be fine gen 4 drives are great a lot more expensive and frankly too quick for what we need today perfect though if you're doing something like video editing or you're going for an i9 but in a build like this one to be honest with you a gen 3 drive is not going to cause you any issues whatsoever still be pretty quick this seagate one is in the region of about three gigabytes a second on the read and the right making it an awesome choice we've done a review of it on our website and i'd urge you to go and check that one out take your ssd slide it into the slot sort of a 45 degree angle you don't want to pop it in completely flat and then push it down that downward pressure will hold it into place you then want to pop the cover back down and the screws on the cover will stop your drive from going anywhere plus there's a thermal pad on the bottom which will help to transfer heat away from the drive keeping it nice and cool once you've done that you can grab your case and move the motherboard into place that was a bit of rhyming for you there now this right here is corsair's iq 4000 x but to be honest with you anything on their 4000 series including the cheaper 4000d airflow will work well when it comes to a case this really is an area you can save yourself loads and loads of money but i figured we've got quite a large graphics card we've got a nice aesthetic going on and the case is all part of that you can find some great deals on these as well from corsair at the moment but if it doesn't quite take you fancy or you want to save yourself some cash take a look at our recent video where we rounded up the top 10 cases for all the different budgets for 2022 a really great video so go and check that out if you're in a bit of doubt as to what chassis is best for you i've just gone ahead and prepped things a little bit by taking off the side panel and just flipping the case round to this side because this is a micro atx motherboard we will need to adjust some of the standoffs the standoffs are the black stoppers in the case that you install the motherboard onto and they basically stop it from grounding out on the bottom of your motherboard if you can see here we can lay the case down flat and you'll be able to see what i mean more easily we'll circle all of the standoffs on your screen now and that will show you where they are what we need to do is get them to match up to the holes on the bottom of the motherboard in our instance we've got three at the top so they're all in the right place a further thrill on the middle they're in the right place too this is going well and then just two along the bottom one of these is in the correct location the other needs moving up very slightly so we'll go ahead and do that and you'll see the difference on your screen too clipping the rear i o shield to the back of the case before sliding the motherboard in and securing it down through the three six eight screw hole locations through the top three across the middle two along the bottom nice and simple love it love it love it once we've done that we can then go ahead and install the graphics card now the 3050 is the bit i'm sure you've all been waiting for and we'll check out detailed performance numbers including some comparisons to the other gpus on the market in a few moments time this acer strix cooler in particular looks fantastic triple fan design loads of rgb really really nice but you will pay a fairly hefty price premium for it a price premium that arguably during the current climate and with the gpu that's on the lower end is maybe not quite so clever you will get great overclock speeds you'll get some fantastic temperatures and it'll be great for like water cooling with that really really enhanced pcb but i would argue something like an asus dual card would be a better choice so go and take a look at those but either way we'll be evaluating the 3050 performance on merit it's not going to change a huge deal depending on the cooler you go for it's always quite scary opening a gpu for the first time very often on the channel we'll get loan graphics cards that have already been to other youtubers other media that asus very kindly sent this over before launch brand new never been touched by a single soul my heart rate's through the roof right now i really do not want to be that guy who goes ahead and rips the box for the graphics card i'll leave that job to somebody else here we go and then we can open it up oh what a tease there's an aces card on the top i can't see the gpu oh beautiful what a good looking card and i was saying something like an asus jewel would be more value oriented but this does look pretty sick this has got to be up there with one of the most insane 3050s on the market basically full stop now in our chassis today we need to remove a couple of pcie covers these are the little metal covers that go to the left of the motherboard to find out which ones hover the gpu over your slot you can see here why we needed such a large case and then go ahead and remove the second and third slot covers i've only gone and got the wrong slots haven't it's actually the top two not the second and the third let's rewind that back again pretend those slots were never out and then try and insert the graphics card oh dear push the retention clip on the socket back making it easier to slide in and then insert the gpu into place a nice satisfying click followed by a couple of screws to fasten it down and then we can move on to the power supply specifically this right here is corsair cx 750 frgb really really nice power supply this one fully modular has all the bells and whistles we could possibly want allowing us to only plug in the cables that we really actually genuinely need to use you can see here we've got a big selection of them that come as standard the first of those is the one that powers up our motherboard this just plugs up to the top left of the power supply with the other end going to the motherboard like so we've also got our pcie power connector this is dual six plus eight pin to power up the lovely rtx 3050 a sata power harness for those old style sata hard drives is never a bad idea either the reason for this one being that it will allow you to power up any rgb holes or anything along those lines and then finally a cpu power connection one end of course goes to the power supply the other up to the cpu in the top left corner this particular power supply includes white cables which i think will look quite nice in this build but if you prefer black and you want to pick up a black case they do this power supply in the black colorway as well so plenty of options for you there as we go ahead and remove the side panel it's then a fairly simple case of sliding the psu into the rear of the chassis like so spinning it round for 180 degrees and lining the unit up we can then install it through the four screw hole locations on each corner there's actually eight screw holes on the back of the case that's to account for the power supply being the right way up or upside down both are very viable configurations it just gives you plenty of options and once that's been done we've got ourselves a really nice looking system but of course that's not exactly why you came here you want to see how well the 3050 performs and detailed benchmarking is to follow but before that it's time to boot the system up get all of our rgb going and see how good it looks when it's all powered up i'll see you in a second but first roll that montage awesome stuff now that we've seen just how good the system looks when it's all powered up it's time to evaluate its performance and to do so we've tested a wide variety of titles on the 3050 and we'll also be comparing it with graphs like these against loads of other relevant gpus that we think are worth considering before any of that though on your screen now is a summary a snapshot view of all the different games we tested and the frame rates we achieved it's not a very contextual view but it does give you all the raw data so if there's a particular frame rate you need to achieve at 1080p this would indicate whether or not that's possible you'll also be able to find max cpu and gpu temperatures for this build on your screen now as well let's kick things off by taking a closer look at gta 5. this is our first title today we tested out at 1080p high settings in the game's inbound benchmarking mode and achieved a healthy 135 fps on average when compared to the 2060 from last gen we got more frames per second which is great to see and it also beat out the 6600 xt from amd a more expensive card than the new 3050. it didn't sit far below the 3060e there and the 2060 super while it showed a lead on the 3050 something we've seen across the board it was all within the same roof ballpark to be clear the general rule of thumb with the gpu is that a new card should perform about the same as its bigger brother from the previous generation aka a 30-70 should be a roughly equivalent to a 2080. a 30-60 should be roughly equivalent to a 2050 or 1660 super that came before it and in this case that rule seems to bear true as we achieve two frames per second more than a 26 d but remarkably but interestingly a few less than the refreshed 2060 super let's see if this pattern continues in apex legends where we tested out once again at 1080p high settings here we didn't get quite as much mileage on the 3050 as i hoped we might it sat at around 103 frames per second on average which was actually lower than the 2060 higher of course than the 1660 super thank goodness and markedly lower than the 30 60. apex often throws around some interesting results and typically favors amd cards something we saw here where the 6600 xt pulled out a pretty strong lead it was a fairly similar story in fortnight where we tested at 1080p high and then competitive settings which we'll come on to next the 3050 actually stacked up better here sitting once again above the 2060 and 6600 xt but below the 2060 super although the amd cards showed their muscle as the 6600 xt came far closer to the 3050 and of course the 3060 than it has done in our previous tests tuning up to competitive settings where everything basically gets scaled down except the render distance which stays at far admittedly your bottleneck will be more cpu-bound something which will be disadvantaged in some of the higher-end cars interestingly here the 3050 pulled a significant lead over the 2060 and even beat out by one frame per second the 2060 super a card that we've seen on the whole to be outperforming the 3050. the amd cards were sort of outliers in this instance similarly with amd's own apu you get some impressive results with that in fortnight and i think it's down to game and driver optimization even still the 3050 slotted perfectly into the nvidia lineup as we thought it would just below the 3060 and of course a good chunk below the more expensive 3060 ti but what about a game like valorent sticking with the high frame rate theme for a few moments we'll hear the 3050 gave us some really really solid results once again slotting just below the 3060 beating out the 2060 and even the 2060 super amd cards flagged far behind while the frame rate difference of the 3050 over something like a gtx 16 series was also remarkably impressive the 6600xt performed well although the gap between it and the 3050 cards which i must admit are not actually designed to compete with one another was far smaller than you might expect admittedly though the results weren't always this clear curve call of duty warzone is a great example the 3050 actually lags behind the 2060 by 6 frames per second and behind the 2060 super by 16 frames per second this is a really really interesting result where the 30 50 in some titles performs extraordinarily well and i know this doesn't quite slot in as you might expect now to be clear it's still below the 30 60 which is south was below the 30 60 ti but even still an interesting result it's the same story in the new call of duty vanguard a title you might expect to be better optimized for newer gpus but no the 3050 beat out the 1660 super thank goodness but didn't quite hit the marks of the 2060 super at 101 frames per second it was then sizably below the 3060 which appears for all intensive purposes to be a far more powerful gpu that's not to say the 3050 didn't give us some great performance numbers it did and there's some huge selling points in the card i'm gonna come on to in a moment which actually leave me quite impressed with nvidia's latest offerings we also tested out the likes of battlefield 2042 where with dlss enabled we achieved 106 frames per second on average that is an incredibly good result actually at 1080p high settings while forza horizon 5 yielded around 98 frames per second on average at 1080p high settings once again a good result tested in the game's inbuilt benchmarking mode the likes of halo infinite also stacked up well with 87fps on average at 1080p high settings once again the 3050 is definitely nvidia's latest budget offering it's markedly less powerful than something like a 3060 or 3060 ti the 360 ti is more akin to a 30 70 than it is a budget gpu and you won't be gaming at 1440p on the 3050 but that's not the point this is designed to be an entry level but still a very strong entry-level 1080p gpu capable of running all the latest aaa titles at 1080p 60fps and if it could do that while sticking roughly to the msrp that nvidia has designated or at least in stock then in my book it's actually a success it blows the new 6500 xt out of the water interesting because it's the only card we've not been able to get hold of before a launch in the last 12 or 18 months hmm either way though the 3050 shows itself to be an incredibly promising proposition it's also reportedly particularly awful at gpu mining even without any low hashrate versions considered which is very very good news for gamers once again though i just hope nvidia can make enough of them that we can actually buy them and use them and suddenly start getting back to a bit of normality with seven eight nine hundred or a thousand dollar builds you can actually buy right now if you enjoyed this video make sure to give it a big old like rating thanks a lot for watching and as always we'll see you in the next one\n"