There are a lot of graphics cards being announced from AMD, Nvidia, and newcomers Intel, and it can be difficult to keep up with them. When choosing a GPU, some people would prefer a budget card and, fortunately, tech giants have seen to cater to such a market. With AMD recently launching its $200 RX 6500 XT, its oldest rival is hot on its heels with its own cheap hardware, and a recent benchmark test suggests that team green's outshines team red's.
In a recent hardware test conducted by Videocardz, it looks as though the upcoming budget card from Nvidia outperforms AMD's latest equivalent by around 24%. The test was performed though 3DMark Time Spy, a piece of benchmark software for Windows 10, and it shows that the RTX 3050 is somewhat faster than the RX 6500 XT. Given that the former is said to launch with an MSRP of $250, making it $50 more expensive than the latter, it would make sense for Nvidia's card to outperform its rival in some respects.
As it stands, Nvidia is expected to release the RTX 3050 this Thursday and will, as stated above, aim for the lower end of the market. Even though it's a budget card, it will still be able to deliver decent gaming on a budget with 8GB of GDDR6. Comparing it to the AMD equivalent makes sense, and it seems as though it will be a better card, but the biggest concern for many will be whether or not there will be any, or enough, available from launch day.
Given that AMD's RX 6500 XT was difficult to come across from day one, there's every possibility that Nvidia will run into similar issues. While the company is hoping to promise more supplies of this card, there may still be no guarantee that consumers will be able to source one easily come January 27. The market is still not looking good, more than a year after the shortages brought the tech world to its knees.
While Nvidia believes the deficit could start to ease mid-2022 onwards, Intel suggests the chip shortages could rage on until 2023. At this stage, it's difficult to know what to expect, but from what's been seen, it doesn't bode well. Still, for those who have had their eye on the RTX 3050, it may bring some degree of comfort to see that it seems to be a better card than the RX 6500 XT. It's just whether or not anyone can buy it.
Source: Videocardz