NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM is an end-of-life desktop graphics card built on the Ampere architecture, utilizing the GA106 chip fabricated on Samsung's 8 nm process. It houses 12,000 million transistors on a 276 mm² die, resulting in a transistor density of 43.5 million per mm². The card operates with a base clock of 1515 MHz and a boost clock of 1755 MHz, featuring 2304 shading units, 72 texture mapping units, and 32 raster output pipelines. Its compute capabilities include 18 ray tracing cores and 72 tensor cores, delivering 8.087 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and an identical 8.087 TFLOPS for FP16 (1:1 ratio). The card supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, and connects via a PCIe 4.0 x8 interface. Display outputs include one HDMI 2.1 and three DisplayPort 1.4a connectors.

Benchmark Performance

The aggregate benchmark data positions the RTX 3050 OEM at an average score of 15199, placing it in the 56th percentile of all GPUs tracked. This percentile ranking indicates that the card sits slightly above the median performance tier, making it a capable entry-level solution for modern gaming workloads. The individual benchmark results reveal a mixed profile across different API generations and workload types. In Geekbench compute tests, the card scores 60740 in OpenCL and 57103 in Vulkan, demonstrating robust general-purpose compute performance that scales well across heterogeneous workloads. These scores suggest the architecture handles both synchronous and asynchronous compute tasks efficiently, with the Vulkan result trailing OpenCL by roughly 6%, a typical pattern for NVIDIA hardware in cross-API comparisons.

The Passmark suite provides more granular insight into legacy and contemporary rendering paths. The DirectX 11 score of 86 is notably strong, indicating that the card excels in the most widely used gaming API for current titles. DirectX 12 performance drops to 58, reflecting the increased overhead and more complex draw call handling in Microsoft's latest API, though this remains a functional score for modern games. DirectX 10 and DirectX 9 scores of 61 and 137 respectively show a clear generational regression — the card is optimized for newer APIs, with older ones yielding lower relative performance. The Passmark G3D score of 11857 and G2D score of 973 further contextualize the card's capabilities, with the 3D score dominating the 2D result as expected for a dedicated gaming GPU. The GPU compute score of 5779 highlights the card's parallel processing strength, which trails its graphics performance but remains adequate for light compute tasks.

Memory Subsystem

The RTX 3050 OEM is equipped with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory operating on a 128-bit bus interface, yielding a memory bandwidth of 224.0 GB/s. The memory clock runs at 1750 MHz, translating to 14 Gbps effective data rate. This configuration represents a balanced approach for the card's target resolution and settings envelope. The 8 GB capacity is sufficient for textures and geometry at 1080p and 1440p in most current titles, though ultra-high-resolution texture packs for newer games may approach the limit. The 128-bit bus width is the primary constraint, as it directly limits memory bandwidth compared to wider buses on higher-tier cards.

At 1080p, the 224.0 GB/s bandwidth is generally adequate, allowing the card to feed its 2304 shading units without significant bottlenecking in most scenarios. However, at 1440p and above, the bandwidth becomes a more critical factor. High-resolution rendering demands larger framebuffers and more frequent memory accesses, and the 128-bit bus can struggle to keep pace with the compute throughput in memory-intensive scenes. The pixel rate of 56.16 GPixel/s and texture rate of 126.4 GTexel/s further illustrate this balance — the card can generate pixels and sample textures at rates that outpace its memory bandwidth in certain workloads. This suggests that while the card handles 1080p gaming smoothly, pushing to 1440p with high-quality settings may introduce stutter or frame rate dips in scenes with heavy texture streaming or large draw distances.

Who Should Consider It

The RTX 3050 OEM is best suited for gamers targeting 1080p resolution with medium to high settings in contemporary titles. Its benchmark scores, particularly the strong DirectX 11 result of 86, indicate it can maintain playable frame rates in esports and less demanding AAA games at this resolution. The 56th percentile ranking places it ahead of roughly half of all GPUs, meaning it outperforms integrated graphics and older discrete cards by a wide margin, but it is not designed for high-refresh-rate 1440p or 4K gaming. Users with 1440p monitors should consider this card only for lower settings or older titles, as the memory bandwidth constraints will likely reduce performance in modern, graphics-intensive games.

For content creation tasks, the OpenCL score of 60740 suggests reasonable acceleration in GPU-accelerated applications such as video encoding or photo editing, though the 8 GB memory capacity may limit work on very large projects. The card supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, making it compatible with ray tracing and DLSS features in supported games, though the 18 RT cores and 72 tensor cores are modest in number, meaning ray tracing should be used sparingly — likely at low or medium quality settings to maintain acceptable frame rates. The 1:1 FP16 ratio and 8.087 TFLOPS compute throughput also make it a passable option for lightweight machine learning inference tasks or scientific computing workloads that leverage Vulkan or OpenCL.

How It Compares

Against the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580, the RTX 3050 OEM shows a 0% delta in average benchmark score, with the GTX 580 scoring 15201 versus the RTX 3050 OEM's 15199. This places the two cards on nearly identical performance footing, which is remarkable given the architectural differences — the GTX 580 is a much older Fermi-based card, while the RTX 3050 OEM benefits from modern features like ray tracing and tensor cores. The RTX 3050 OEM's advantage lies in API support and feature set, not raw rasterization speed.

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M holds an average score of 15109, putting the RTX 3050 OEM 0.6% ahead. This is a marginal lead that falls within typical benchmark variance, meaning the two are effectively equivalent in raw performance. However, the GTX 965M is a mobile GPU, so the comparison highlights that the RTX 3050 OEM delivers desktop-class performance roughly on par with a high-end laptop GPU from an older generation, but with the added benefits of newer architecture and memory capacity.

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti posts an average score of 15303, which is 0.7% higher than the RTX 3050 OEM's 15199. This indicates the RTX 3050 OEM trails the GTX 660 Ti by a hair in pure computational throughput. The delta is small enough to be negligible in real-world gaming, but it does suggest that the RTX 3050 OEM's modern architecture does not translate into a raw performance advantage over this older Kepler card, despite significant improvements in efficiency and feature support.

The AMD Radeon R9 M380 has an average score of 15504, placing it 2% ahead of the RTX 3050 OEM. This is the largest performance gap among the nearest rivals, yet still within a range that would be imperceptible in most gaming scenarios. The R9 M380 is another mobile GPU, and its lead suggests that the RTX 3050 OEM is positioned competitively against mid-range mobile parts from the previous generation, though it lacks the raw speed to outclass them decisively.

Power and Cooling

The RTX 3050 OEM has a thermal design power (TDP) of 130 W, which is modest for a desktop GPU with 2304 shading units. This power envelope allows for a dual-slot cooling solution, and the card's physical dimensions of 242 mm in length and 112 mm in height make it compatible with most mid-tower cases. The cooling design is sufficient to manage the heat generated from the 8.087 TFLOPS of compute throughput, though the card's end-of-life status means no active thermal innovations are present — it relies on a standard heatsink and fan configuration.

The card requires a single 8-pin power connector, which is a standard requirement for GPUs in this power class. NVIDIA recommends a 300 W power supply unit, which is a conservative figure that accounts for the rest of the system's draw. This recommendation aligns with the card's 130 W TDP, leaving ample headroom for a typical CPU and peripherals. Users with older or lower-wattage PSUs should ensure their unit meets this 300 W recommendation, as insufficient power delivery can cause instability or system shutdowns under load. The PCIe 4.0 x8 interface also draws power from the motherboard slot, though this is standard and does not add complexity to the installation process.