AMD Radeon RX 7600 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM Comparison

The GeForce RTX 3050 OEM and the Radeon RX 7600 are separated by an average benchmark score of just 28 points (15199 vs 15171), placing both at the 57th percentile of all GPUs. Yet the head-to-head data reveals they achieve this near-parity through entirely different means, with the NVIDIA card winning on raw API compute while the AMD card dominates the rasterization and legacy DirectX tests. This split suggests the overall average masks a fundamental divergence in workload suitability.

Where Each One Wins

The Radeon RX 7600 is the clear victor in traditional gaming and compute workloads. It wins 7 of the 9 head-to-head benchmarks, with its largest margins coming in the DirectX 11 test (172 vs 86, a 50% advantage) and the DirectX 9 test (226 vs 137, a 39.4% lead). The PassMark G3D score tells the same story: 16634 vs 11857, a 28.7% gap. This indicates the AMD card is substantially stronger in frame-rate-bound scenarios and older API titles, likely due to its higher pixel rate (169.9 GPixel/s vs 56.16 GPixel/s) and texture rate (339.8 GTexel/s vs 126.4 GTexel/s).

The GeForce RTX 3050 OEM wins only 2 benchmarks, but one is decisive. Its Geekbench Vulkan score of 57103 crushes the RX 7600’s 34401 — a 66% advantage. This is a massive outlier, suggesting NVIDIA’s driver and hardware optimizations for Vulkan give it a commanding lead in that API. The other win is a tie in PassMark DirectX 12 (58 vs 58), where neither card can separate itself. For users prioritizing Vulkan-based titles or compute workloads that leverage that API, the RTX 3050 OEM is the superior choice despite its overall lower gaming throughput.

FAQ

Q: Which card has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM edges ahead with an average score of 15199, compared to the AMD Radeon RX 7600’s 15171. The delta is a mere 0.2%, making them statistically equivalent in aggregate.

Q: How large is the RX 7600’s lead in DirectX 11 performance?

A: The RX 7600 scores 172 in PassMark DirectX 11, exactly double the RTX 3050 OEM’s 86. This represents a 50% performance advantage, the largest single-test margin in the head-to-head data.

Q: Does the RTX 3050 OEM win any benchmark by a significant margin?

A: Yes, in Geekbench Vulkan the RTX 3050 OEM scores 57103 versus the RX 7600’s 34401, a 66% lead. This is the only benchmark where either card wins by more than 50%.

Q: Are these cards comparable in DirectX 12 performance?

A: The PassMark DirectX 12 scores are identical at 58 for both cards, indicating a perfect tie in this API. Neither card demonstrates an advantage in the latest DirectX feature-level tests.

Q: Which card performs better in compute workloads?

A: The RX 7600 leads in PassMark GPU Compute with 8790 versus 5779, a 34.3% advantage. However, the RTX 3050 OEM’s Vulkan score suggests it may be preferable for compute tasks that leverage that API.

Q: What does the G2D score indicate?

A: The RX 7600’s PassMark G2D score of 984 is only 1.1% higher than the RTX 3050 OEM’s 973. This near-tie indicates both cards offer essentially identical 2D desktop acceleration performance.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The most striking result is the Geekbench Vulkan split. The RTX 3050 OEM delivers 57103 points, while the RX 7600 manages just 34401. That is a 66% swing in favor of NVIDIA, a delta so large it must stem from architectural-level differences in how each GPU handles the Vulkan command stream. No other benchmark comes close to this magnitude of separation.

In stark contrast, the DirectX 11 test shows the RX 7600 doubling the RTX 3050 OEM’s output: 172 vs 86. The DirectX 9 test follows a similar pattern, with 226 vs 137 (39.4% advantage). These legacy API results suggest AMD’s RDNA 3.0 architecture retains stronger efficiency in older rasterization pipelines, possibly due to its 128 TMUs and 64 ROPs versus NVIDIA’s 72 TMUs and 32 ROPs.

The compute-focused tests reinforce the AMD card’s dominance. PassMark GPU Compute shows 8790 vs 5779 (34.3% lead), and Geekbench OpenCL shows 88051 vs 60740 (31% lead). The RX 7600 also wins the DirectX 10 test (84 vs 61, 27.4% lead) and the G3D aggregate (16634 vs 11857, 28.7% lead). The only non-Vulkan benchmark where NVIDIA doesn’t lose is DirectX 12, which is a dead heat at 58 apiece. The G2D test is nearly tied as well, with 984 vs 973.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ most dramatically in their clock speeds and resulting throughput. The RX 7600 boosts to 2655 MHz with a game clock of 2250 MHz, while the RTX 3050 OEM boosts to just 1755 MHz. This clock advantage translates into a massive FP32 compute gap: 21.75 TFLOPS for the AMD card versus 8.087 TFLOPS for the NVIDIA card. The pixel rate tells a similar story, with the RX 7600 achieving 169.9 GPixel/s compared to 56.16 GPixel/s.

Memory bandwidth also favors AMD, with 288.0 GB/s versus 224.0 GB/s, despite both cards using 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus. The RX 7600 runs its memory at 18 Gbps effective, while the RTX 3050 OEM runs at 14 Gbps. Power requirements differ as well: the RX 7600 has a 165W TDP and suggests a 450W PSU, while the RTX 3050 OEM has a 130W TDP and suggests a 300W PSU. Physical dimensions vary, with the NVIDIA card measuring 242mm in length versus 204mm for the AMD card.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gulf between these GPUs is substantial. The RTX 3050 OEM uses the GA106 chip built on Samsung’s 8nm process, while the RX 7600 uses the Navi 33 chip on TSMC’s 6nm node. The RX 7600 packs more transistors (13,300 million vs 12,000 million) into a smaller die (204 mm² vs 276 mm²), yielding a transistor density of 65.2M/mm² versus 43.5M/mm².

The NVIDIA card is based on Ampere architecture with 2304 shading units, 72 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. It also includes 18 RT cores and 72 tensor cores, providing dedicated ray tracing and AI acceleration. The AMD card uses RDNA 3.0 with 2048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. It has 32 RT cores but no tensor cores, relying on shader-based compute for AI workloads. The AMD card is codenamed "Hotpink Bonefish" and belongs to the Navi III generation, while the NVIDIA card is part of the GeForce 30-series.

Display outputs differ slightly: the RTX 3050 OEM offers 1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a, while the RX 7600 offers 1x HDMI 2.1a and 3x DisplayPort 2.1. Both support DirectX 12 Ultimate, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The AMD card is currently in active production, while the NVIDIA card is end-of-life.

The Verdict

The Radeon RX 7600 is the choice for gamers and compute users who prioritize raw rasterization performance. Its 50% lead in DirectX 11, 39.4% lead in DirectX 9, and 34.3% lead in GPU compute make it the stronger card for the majority of titles and workloads. The 28.7% G3D advantage reinforces this, indicating better real-world gaming performance across a broad spectrum of applications.

The GeForce RTX 3050 OEM is the pick for Vulkan-centric workloads. Its 66% lead in Geekbench Vulkan is an outlier that suggests NVIDIA’s implementation of this API is significantly more efficient, potentially benefiting specific game engines or compute frameworks that rely heavily on Vulkan. The tie in DirectX 12 means users targeting that API won’t lose anything by choosing the NVIDIA card.

The average scores are within 0.2% of each other, so neither card is objectively "better" in aggregate. The decision hinges on the API distribution of the target workload. For DirectX-heavy gaming, the RX 7600’s higher pixel rate and texture rate deliver clear benefits. For Vulkan-based applications, the RTX 3050 OEM’s architectural advantages provide a substantial edge. The RX 7600 also offers a longer production lifecycle, being actively manufactured, and its launch MSRP was 269 USD.