When NVIDIA appear the RTX 3050, many people were delighted that the visitor was releasing a more affordable, entry-level card to help gamers on a budget.

Still, when they released the specifications, many said information technology was amend simply to get the previous generation RTX 2060 instead. True plenty, when the carte was released and testers got their hands on it, the results spoke for themselves.

Then, here are seven reasons why yous should salvage your coin and go for the last-gen RTX 2060 instead.

Specifications

Before going in-depth, information technology'south good to await at the numbers on both cards. These are the specs for both cards, compiled from data on the NVIDIA website and TechPowerUp.

GeForce RTX 3050 GeForce RTX 2060
NVIDIA CUDA Cores 2,560 1,920
Base of operations Clock (GHz) 1.55 i.37
Boost Clock (GHz) 1.78 1.68
VRAM 8GB GDDR6 6GB GDDR6
Memory Interface Width 128-bit 192-flake
Tensor Cores 80 240
Ray Tracing Cores 20 30
L2 Enshroud 2MB 3MB
Slots 1x HDMI 2.ane, 2x DisplayPort 1.4a 1x DVI, 1x HDMI 2.0, 2x DisplayPort 1.4a, 1x USB Blazon-C
SRP $249 $300

i. Raw Ability

a GeForce RTX 3050 video card

The spec canvass shows that the RTX 3050 has a college base and boosts clock speed, clocking in at 1,545 MHz and 1,780 MHz, respectively. The RTX 2060 merely delivers a 1,365 MHz base clock speed and a ane,680 MHz boosted operation.

Despite that, the latter notwithstanding defeats the former in processing power, measured in TFLOPS. The base of operations model RTX 2060, with only 6GB RAM, can procedure x.483 TFLOPS in half-precision format. When boosted, the values increase to 12.902 TFLOPS. It can also process 25.2 TFLOPS in ray tracing operation.

On the other manus, the RTX 3050 can just manage 7.946 TFLOPS in half-precision format and 9.098 TFLOPS when additional. It also but has eighteen.2 TFLOPS ray tracing performance. The RTX 2060'southward processing power is 32% greater than the RTX 3050'south. When boosted, this performance gap increases to 42%. It too has 38% more ray tracing adequacy, making the RTX 2060 more capable, despite having less RAM and CUDA Cores.

2. Theoretical Performance

performance comparison RTX 3050 vs RTX 3060

The pixel and texel fillrate measure a graphics menu'southward theoretical functioning. This metric measures the pixels or texture map elements (texels) the card can return and write to memory in i 2nd.

The RTX 2060 tin can deliver 65.52 GPixels and 163.eight GTexels, while the RTX 3050 only has 49.6 GPixels and 124.ane GTexels. This means the RTX 2060 tin render scenes and textures much faster than the 3050.

Y'all can as well see the greater omnibus width of the RTX 2060 delivers meliorate performance over the RTX 3050, despite the latter having more VRAM. The older GPU's retentiveness bandwidth is 336 GB/s, while the newer i only has 224 GB/s. This results in faster read/write speeds, allowing the video card to process more information speedily.

3. Bodily FPS Output

a kid playing a game in front of multi-monitor gaming PC

Despite the greater theoretical output of the Nvidia RTX 2060, the greater numbers volition not matter if the graphics card cannot translate that into bodily frames. Just, every bit we've seen in the previous result, the older video bill of fare yet outclasses the new 1.

Several benchmark results consistently testify the RTX 2060 posting better results across different tests. For example, it returns 114 fps in lighting tests, 117 fps in reflection tests, 134 fps in rendering tests, and 101 fps in particle system tests.

The RTX 3050 only delivered 103 fps, 86.6 fps, 84.5 fps, and 73.four fps, respectively. That's an boilerplate of 35% improve performance for the last generation video card over the latest entry-level offer. And when both cards are overclocked, this difference further increases to 41%.

4. Use in Crypto Mining

GPUs on a dedicated mining rig

While the RTX 3050'due south 8GB VRAM does allow it to accept ameliorate functioning, it also makes it more ideal for mining. When you compare it confronting the RTX 2060, which only has 6GB VRAM, this makes the RTX 3050 more desirable for crypto mining operations.

Given that, miners are more inclined to use the RTX 3050, as the additional RAM tin can help with the raw computation work required to mine Bitcoin. Every bit such, you tin can expect demand for the carte du jour to increase. And if Nvidia can't scale its product to the demand, the RTX 3050's market place price will skyrocket and overtake the RTX 2060'south SRP.

v. SRP vs. Actual Cost

Why is there a graphics card shortage?

Although the GeForce RTX 3050 has a lower SRP compared with the RTX 2060, GPUs are insanely expensive nether the current marketplace conditions. For example, you lot can notice an ASUS GeForce RTX 2060 for $389.99, while a comparable ASUS GeForce RTX 3050 costs more, at $434.50.

When prices normalize and render to their pre-shortage levels, it makes sense to purchase the RTX 3050, particularly as it costs around the same as the GTX 1660 graphics cards, which accept less performance due to their limited ray tracing capability. Withal, under current weather, the RTX 2060 offers better performance and a lower cost than the RTX 3050.

half dozen. More Port Options

GPU ports
Paradigm source: Nick Stathas/Wikimedia Commons

The stock port options for Nvidia for the 3050 simply give you lot a unmarried HDMI two.one port and two DisplayPort 1.4a ports. On the other hand, the RTX 2060 has an actress DVI and a USB-C port.

This gives yous more options, especially if you have an older monitor that only uses a DVI plug. Its USB-C port as well allows you lot to plug other devices on it—not just monitors. This allows you to add the newer standard on a relatively quondam PC that only has USB-A ports.

The Older Bill of fare Is Still Ameliorate

While some people say that newer is better, that is not always the example. This is especially truthful with the RTX 3050 and the RTX 2060. If the GPU shortage does not be, the RTX 3050 is an excellent upgrade from the GTX 1650 and GTX 1160 GPUs. Information technology's an entry-level video card for gamers that exercise non have the resources to spare for a $329 GeForce RTX 3060.

But if you're upgrading your not-RTX video card in today'due south market, you should skip the RTX 3050 birthday and get for an RTX 2060. Despite coming into the market in 2019, this three-year-sometime GPU model still performs improve than the latest 3050.