The Gilded Age of GPUs appears to be upon us in latest occasions, with thrilling efficiency emanating from Nvidia, AMD, and soon-to-be Intel. Unfortunately, most of those releases additionally carry with them “Vanderbilt level” pricing, making even an oil tycoon blush. This has saved the joy centered solely on high-end gaming fans. But wait, there’s extra! Nvidia and AMD have lastly launched GPU choices that supposedly cater to the entry stage with the GeForce RTX 3050 and the Radeon RX 6500 XT, respectively.
We’re going to check these GPUs based mostly on pricing, availability, and efficiency. We’ll warn you beforehand although, this will likely be a bloody street-level combat, difficult what “entry level” and price range imply in 2022. The aim publish has been moved—is just having the ability to “buy” a GPU that’s obtainable, sufficient to justify its existence? (For our steering on graphics playing cards at each value level, see our full roundup of the best GPUs for PC gaming.)
Nvidia RTX 3050 vs. AMD RX 6500 XT: Price
Nvidia’s RTX 3050 will lure you right into a false sense of safety with the $249 MSRP, as you’ll quickly discover them nearer to $400 to $500 at most retailers. The AMD 6500 XT sounds pleasant at $199, however most fashions will run you $269 to $299 with reasonable pricing.
Yes, each are priced significantly greater than their predecessors had been. Both additionally can have sporadic pricing adjustments relying on the GPU market. This is what we’ve come to count on with the good GPU drought, however there’s a key issue that explains the existence of those playing cards at their respective value ranges.
Availability.
This one phrase dominates the panorama and dictates what choices we’ve to select from. On the Nvidia aspect, any RTX 3000 GPU appears to promote immediately—even when priced above its unique MSRP. AMD pricing has additionally skyrocketed, leaving nothing on the desk for the entry stage.
The Nvidia RTX 3050 follows a extra conventional path of pricing and availability: Everything tiers and scales as you’d count on in respect to the remainder of the RTX 3000 lineup. Yes, it’s additionally able to mining crypto foreign money, albeit not impressively, in order that provides to the pricing stress and lack of availability.
How about on the AMD aspect? The 6500 XT is in a class of its personal fully, with some hard performance sacrifices having been made with the aim of supplying extra GPUs.
The Radeon RX 6500 XT and its pricing exist for one cause solely: To have a GPU obtainable for a considerably cheap value. It isn’t enticing to crypto miners, with solely 4GB of VRAM, theoretically opening it up extra for the gamer market too. Will the ends justify the means, nevertheless? Crypto miners gained’t need it, however ought to avid gamers think about it? Let’s discuss efficiency to raised reply this query.
If you’ve ever seen the meme “This is fine,” the place a canine appears content material to be sitting in what’s a sizzling, burning room—that’s the general state of affairs with graphics playing cards proper now. Is it positive to be paying $300, $400, and even $500 for a 1080p stage GPU in 2022? Not actually.
RTX 3050 vs. 6500 XT: Performance
The genesis and “reason for existing” of the Radeon RX 6500 XT make it a non-suitable competitor for Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3050. Yes, they each are entry-level latest releases, however the similarities cease there. The 6500 XT is competing extra with its personal capacity to be bought out there quite than efficiency metrics. The RTX 3050 is a slimmed-down RTX 3060; the 6500 XT was not initially meant for the discrete GPU market in the identical method, having initially been designed for laptops earlier than the Great GPU Drought commenced. The 6500 XT has many compromises you ought to be conscious of, similar to solely 4GB of VRAM, solely two outputs for displays, PCIe velocity limits, and so forth. It additionally encompasses a very small GPU die dimension, nevertheless which can help manufacturing in higher numbers.
Let’s first talk about the RTX 3050, which is a reliable 1080p-level GPU. It has 8GB of VRAM and permits for some superior expertise similar to ray tracing to be utilized. It additionally retains all the good software program Nvidia has developed for its GPUs, similar to NVENC encoding, DLSS, and so forth.
Brad Chacos/IDG
Looking at efficiency knowledge from Brad Chacos’s wonderful review of the RTX 3050, we will see that it dominates the 6500 XT simply in Watch Dogs Legion—and just about each different title, particularly with our maxed-our testing settings. The 6500 XT is extra restricted to the Medium or High stage settings at most; “highest” and “ultra” usually are not a part of its repertoire.
Brad Chacos/IDG
In Rainbow Six Siege, the efficiency distinction is drastic and illustrates the huge hole in efficiency between the 6500 XT and all the things else.
Interestingly sufficient, the step-up Radeon RX 6600 presents itself as an inexpensive various to the RTX 3050. It’s extra extensively obtainable, and usually inside the value vary of the RTX 3050 in retail. It’s definitely a extra compelling efficiency choice versus the 6500 XT. And higher information—should you’re an proprietor of an AMD RX 5600 XT or RX 5700 from earlier years, there’s no must improve until you are taking a leap to the Nvidia RTX 3060 stage and past.
Brad Chacos/IDG
What if ray tracing is enabled? This is a notoriously punishing choice, however the RTX 3050 surprisingly handles Shadow of the Tomb Raider competently. The 6500 XT with its many restrictions doesn’t carry out effectively right here, as anticipated, however the RX 6600 as soon as once more exhibits promise.
Yes, the Radeon RX 6500 XT is technically the most affordable ray tracing succesful GPU, however it’s not usable in a sensible sense.
Keep in thoughts you may additionally need to allow Nvidia’s DLSS or AMD’s FSR applied sciences, which may give you a pleasant bump in efficiency in video games that assist it. (They weren’t energetic throughout these benchmarks as a way to make the checks truthful.)
Power and different issues to know
The RTX 3050 doesn’t want a nuclear energy plant to run, in contrast to its huge brethren (I’m you, RTX 3090). The AMD 6500 XT is much more environment friendly, so which means each are cooled simply and usually quiet.
The Radeon RX 6500 XT has a really restricted collection of video ports.
Brad Chacos/IDG
The RTX 3050 will provide you with the Nvidia choices and applied sciences you’re used to, however the 6500 XT has many extra limitations which are unusual.
First, you’ll be restricted to only a single HDMI port and a single DisplayPort on the Radeon RX 6500 XT. You’ll even have solely 4 PCIe lanes, and hampered efficiency on PCIe Gen 3 because of this. Most GPUs use 16 PCIe lanes because the norm. (Our Radeon RX 6500 XT review contains each PCIe 3.0 and PCIe 4.0 efficiency benchmarks at Medium graphics settings should you’d prefer to know extra.) 4GB of VRAM and lack of any {hardware} encoders imply that this GPU is a no-go for content material creators, too.
The verdict of David vs. Goliath: Sorry, Goliath gained
No sugar coating is important. Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3050 is a far superior GPU to the Radeon RX 6500 XT on virtually each single measurable metric. It’s like evaluating Jupiter to Pluto. Sorry bud, you’re not an actual planet.
Is the AMD RX 6500 XT an actual GPU, although? Actually, it’s. It’s not an excellent one, however it does serve some function, for some folks. Even contemplating that you just’re extra prone to discover it for $250 to $300 as an alternative of $199, there could also be actually no different choice till you recover from $400. And even should you do, these choices might not even be in inventory at these costs.
Yes, the Radeon RX 6500 XT is controversial. But we should step away from the numbers and analyze extra components out there and the actual world.
Imagine this situation: You’re constructing a PC however have a price range you’re sticking to. Your GPU choice is both a $199 to $250 RX 6500 XT that’s in inventory, or spending a whole bunch extra on a extremely inflated, however better-performing GPU (should you may even discover it). Some folks don’t need to double their GPU budgets, so the 6500 XT may be an choice for them in the event that they plan to stay to 1080p and Medium to High settings. It isn’t a whole potato, in spite of everything. It can run video games at 1080p simply positive should you’re cautious about how onerous you push it.
The $300 Xbox Series S should still be the most suitable choice for avid gamers on a price range, and Microsoft’s Xbox ecosystem spans PCs and consoles.
Thiago Trevisan/IDG
The RTX 3050 flew out of inventory in all places shortly, and it’s presently promoting for over $400, way more than its ostensible $250 MSRP. The Radeon RX 6500 XT continues to be obtainable, but additionally for $50 to $100 greater than MSRP normally until you could find a $199 unicorn.
If you can stretch your price range, the way more wise answer that appears to have good inventory could be stepping as much as the AMD RX 6600 or 6600 XT. These are definitely significantly better than the 6500 XT, and in most eventualities surpass the RTX 3050. They may be discovered within the $400 to $550 vary way more simply, definitely.
Still, for many individuals this nonetheless isn’t an choice—going from $199 to over $400 is a substantial value hike. That’s why for a choose group of individuals, the 6500 XT can tide them over till an improve is less complicated sooner or later. Unfortunately, it appears excessive GPU costs are right here to remain for now, so upping one’s price range is required.
The high-end GPU market could also be in a Gilded Age by way of efficiency, however the price range PC gaming market is at nighttime age proper now. If not one of the above choices make sense to you at their present costs, you’re not alone. The greatest recommendation for price range avid gamers could also be this:
You can….”gasp”….simply buy an Xbox Series S for $299 and get some fairly good gaming efficiency for the buck. Microsoft’s console is hands-down the perfect worth for the greenback in as we speak’s market. It’s nonetheless a PC technically too, proper?