Given the GPU shortage still persisting into 2022, PC players looking to upgrade may be finding more appeal in budget cards compared to any other generation of GPUs beforehand. Even RTX 3060 cards, the former lowest card in the 3000 series GPUs, averages around $700 on sites like eBay and StockX. Considering that's almost $400 above expected MSRP (starting at $329), fans will take any deal they can get when it comes to graphics card prices, even if it requires Nvidia and AMD making entirely new GPUs to satisfy demand ever-growing demand. That's largely the reason why Nvidia and AMD are both developing brand new budget GPUs to introduce this year.
Two new entry-level GPUs are being introduced by both companies: The Nvidia RTX 3050, and the AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT. Both are targeting a very similar budget-friendly demographic of PC players; whether that's brand-new players looking to build their first rig, or those who are upgrading years-old cards with something more fresh. Both cards are meant to offer high fidelity graphics aimed primarily at 1080p gaming, while attempting to push out entry level ray tracing, all working to increase graphics fidelity at a comparatively low barrier of entry. Despite being at a similar MSRP, the reality is that one card is significantly better than the other at raw performance.
Specs Overview: RTX 3050
Starting with Nvidia's offering, the RTX 3050 is a genuinely impressive card for the price, assuming players can even get the card at its expected $249 MSRP. The RTX 3050 is an 8 GB VRAM GPU built under the Ampere architecture, operating at a 1.55 GHz base clock speed (1.78 GHz boost clock speed) with GDDR6 memory. Paired with 2,560 CUDA cores to tap into, Nvidia's entry-level card is capable of outputting 9 Shader TFlops, 18 RT TFlops, and 73 Tensor TFlops of performance. According to Nvidia, the RTX 3050 is capable of 60+ FPS on games like Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Control at 1080p, high settings, with RTX on.
In terms of raw performance, the RTX 3050 evidently delivers on its promise of budget performance for 1080p gaming. In tandem with Nvidia's DLSS AI rendering technology, this card certainly has the potential to deliver more than enough horsepower to run modern games at 60 FPS. Especially at a starting MSRP of $249, the potential value proposition from a cheap Nvidia card capable of this performance is excellent. Compared to the next available Nvidia GPU, the RTX 3050 operates at about a 40% difference in power between it and the RTX 3060. Especially if reports of higher supply of the RTX 3050 are true, Nvidia's budget card could be very popular.
Specs Overview: AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT
From AMD's camp, the latest budget Radeon card is taking a conservative approach to its entry-level GPU. Priced at $199, the AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT is a 4 GB VRAM GPU operating at a base clock speed of 2.61 GHz (2.82 GHz boost clock speed) with GDDR6 memory. The 6500 XT card has 1,024 shader cores, 64 texture mapping units, 32 render output units, and 16 dedicated ray tracing cores as well. AMD boasts 60+ FPS in similarly demanding games like Call of Duty: Vanguard, Halo Infinite, Resident Evil Village, and several more, all at high settings at a 1080p resolution.
At the intended price, AMD is clearly aiming for the majority of players who are still running old hardware like RX 570 or GTX 1650 graphics cards. Upgrading to a RX 6500 XT isn't a staggering improvement, but does provide an affordable option for many with AMD rigs. Similar to Nvidia, AMD's budget card is also capable of taking advantage of FidelityFX, AMD's own AI supersampling rendering technology. That should be able to extend the lifespan of many players' rigs, if only for the short-term. In comparison to the next available AMD GPU, the RX 6600 offers 4 GB of additional VRAM, and around 40% more rendering units on average.
Nvidia's Budget Card Offers a Greater Upgrade Than AMD
Overall, while Nvidia DLSS and AMD FidelityFX supersampling can potentially level the performance between both cards, there is one clear winner in terms of raw hardware performance. The Nvidia RTX 3050 hardware is far superior to the AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT, with twice as much VRAM for raw rendering, as well as the CUDA cores and DLSS to boost performance on higher graphics settings. The RX 6500 XT could potentially outpace the RTX 3050 with some overclocking, thanks to the higher base/boost clock speed, but out-of-the-box performance gets edged out slightly by Nvidia's hardware. These cards are comparable, but Nvidia's offering is slightly better.
With benchmarks available for the RX 6500 XT already, soon players will be able to compare it to Nvidia's budget GPU once reviews are up (the RTX 3050 isn't set to go on sale until January 27). Then the true difference in performance can be determined, but as it stands, Nvidia's card could potentially be the better option here. Especially when the price differential is only $50 at MSRP, the benefit of additional VRAM could potentially help future-proof the hardware as well. That being said, this all depends on whether players will be able to even find these GPUs at MSRP (they won't), and whether the performance difference is justified by benchmarks.