The Zotac GeForce RTX 3050 is one of the few GPUs that you can actually buy right now for retail or at least close to its retail price. But at $400, this particular Twin Edge OC Edition 3050 graphics card is more expensive than the suggested price for a standard RTX 3050 desktop card. For the additional $150, you are essentially getting about 2% overclocked performance, hence the name OC edition. So is it worth buying?
Well, the fact that it’s at least available to buy makes it a very good option, to begin with. You’ll have to spend at least $400 or even upwards of $500 right now on older GPUs like the RTX 2060s. Other RTX 30-series cards like the RTX 3060 are even more expensive, thereby making the Zotac RTX 3050 Twin Edge OC edition look better even at $400. As for the performance, well, the Zotac GeForce RTX 3050 Twin Edge OC edition delivers impressive 1080p gaming performance.
I was able to run a variety of demanding AAA titles at 1080p without any major hiccups. In fact, I even paired with GPU with a relatively low-end CPU by 2022’s standards and the performance was just as good, if not better. I wasn’t expecting this GPU to handle a lot of the games that I tested, but the performance across my test suite was well above 60 fps.
- The Zotac GeForce RTX 3050 Twin Edge OC Edition is one of the GPUs that are actually available to buy right now. It delivers impressive 1080p gaming performance across a variety of different AAA titles.
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Navigate this review:
- Zotac GeForce RTX 3050 Twin Edge OC Edition Review: Pricing & Availability
- Zotac GeForce RTX 3050 Twin Edge OC Edition Review: Specifications
- Zotac GeForce RTX 3050 Twin Edge OC Edition Review: Design & Hardware
- Zotac GeForce RTX 3050 Twin Edge OC Edition Review: Performance
- Zotac GeForce RTX 3050 Twin Edge OC Edition Review: Should you buy this?
Pricing & Availability
- The Zotac GeForce RTX 3050 Twin Edge OC Edition GPU is out right now and you can buy it for around $400.
The Zotac GeForce RTX 3050 Twin Edge OC Edition is out right now and is available to purchase for a suggested retail price of $399. In India, you can buy this graphics card right now for ₹34,999 from various online and offline retail partners. While the suggested MSRP for this GPU is slightly above the launch price of $250 for the RTX 3050, you are essentially getting a factory overclock and a couple of other features. It’s also worth pointing out that this is one of the very few GPUs that are available to purchase right now, at least at the time of writing this article.
Specifications
Before we dive into the performance analysis, hardware, and more; here’s a quick look at the specifications of the Zotac GeForce RTX 3050 Twin Edge OC Edition GPU:
| Specification | Zotac GeForce RTX 3050 Twin Edge OC Edition |
|---|---|
| Architecture | GA106 |
| Transistors (Billion) | 12 |
| GPU Cores | 2560 |
| Tensor Cores | 80 |
| RT Cores | 20 |
| Boost Clock (MHz) | 1807 |
| Memory | 8GB GDDR6 |
| VRAM Speed (Gbps) | 14 |
| VRAM Bus Width | 128 |
| Bandwidth (Gbps) | 224 |
| TDP | 130 |
| MSRP | $399 |
Zotac GeForce RTX 3050 Twin Edge OC Edition Review: Design & Hardware
- Dual 88mm fans for good thermal management
- Comes with a backplate to protect the components at the back
- Three DisplayPort and a single HDMI port
There isn’t a lot to talk about the overall design of this particular Zotac GeForce RTX 3050 GPU. It looks very similar to many other Zotac GPUs on the market. You’ll feel right at home if you’ve ever used any of the recent Zotac graphics cards. You get dual 88mm fans on this card and they were able to handle the thermal output very well during my testing. There’s also no RGB bling on this variant of the RTX 3050, which I really like. You may have to look elsewhere if you prefer having RGB on your PC components, though.
The Zotac RTX 3050 Twin Edge OC Edition GPU has overall dimensions of 222x115x40mm and weighs around 600g. I’d say it’s slightly bigger than many other RTX 3050 graphics cards from other OEMs but it’s very small and compact. It’s no match for the much bigger RTX 3070s and the 3080s that are out there. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, though. Since it has a small form factor, it can easily slide into a variety of PC cases without any clearance issues.
Another thing I wanted to highlight about this particular Zotac RTX 3050 GPU is that it comes with a backplate to protect the components on the back. The backplate is missing on a lot of other RTX 3050 variants out there from other OEMs, so that’s definitely something to consider. I am sure it adds to the overall weight of this card, but that’s not necessarily a deal-breaker even if you have a non-reinforced PCIe slot. The Zotac GeForce RTX 3050 Twin Edge OC Edition uses a single 8-pin PEG connector for power, and it comes with three DisplayPort and a single HDMI for output.
Zotac GeForce RTX 3050 Twin Edge OC Edition Review: Performance
- The Zotac GeForce RTX 3050 Twin Edge OC Edition easily handles 1080p gaming.
- Supports ray-tracing and DLSS.
- Slightly better performance than a GTX 1660 Super.
The Zotac GeForce RTX 3050 Twin Edge OC Edition, as I mentioned earlier, focuses primarily on 1080p gaming. It’s essentially trying to replace the older 16-series graphics cards in the budget space. This OC Edition of the RTX 3050 has slightly higher boost clocks coming in at 1807MHz as opposed to 1777MHz on the reference RTX 3050. That’s not a huge bump over the standard edition, so it leaves more room for overclocking too if that’s something you’d be interested in exploring with a potent cooling solution.
Just to touch base with the specifications, the Zotac GeForce RTX 3050 Twin Edge OC Edition has 2560 GPU cores, 80 Tensor cores, and 20 RT cores. This GA106 Ampere graphics card is capable of doing both ray-tracing and DLSS for supported titles. While I won’t bet my money on the ray-tracing performance, I’d say the addition of DLSS support makes this a great graphics card. That’s one of the main reasons for recommending any RTX 3050 graphics card over something like the GTX 1660 Super, for instance. Here’s a quick look at the 3DMark scores I was able to get with a system using the Zotac GeForce RTX 3050 Twin Edge OC Edition GPU and an Intel Core i7-12700 CPU:
| 3DMark Test | Zotac GeForce RTX 3050 Twin Edge OC Edition Score |
|---|---|
| Port Royal | 3343 |
| Time Spy | 6005 |
| Fire Strike | 12901 |
Now, moving on to the gaming performance section, I ended up running a lot of AAA titles on this graphics card mainly to see how it performs in some of the modern, and more demanding titles in 2022. We’re looking at games like Microsoft Flight Simulator, Far Cry 6, and more. I believe this performance analysis should give you an understanding of the overall performance of the Zotac GeForce RTX 3050 Twin Edge OC Edition.
I’ve added the Avg. FPS numbers that I was able to record using Nvidia’s FrameView software to the table below. I’ve also added the Avg. FPS recorded using a GTX 1660 Super graphics card to show you how this one compares against the older card. The Zotac RTX 3050 was able to handily beat the older GPU with over 60FPS at 1080p. You may not be able to run at maxed settings for most games with this GPU, but you should be able to get over 60FPS with a little bit of tweaking.
| Game | Zotac GeForce RTX 3050 Twin Edge OC Edition (FPS) | MSI GeForce GTX 1660 Super XS OC (FPS) |
|---|---|---|
| Far Cry 6 (1080p Medium) |
82 | 73 |
| Microsoft Flight Simulator (1080p Medium) |
68 | 51 |
| Apex Legends (1080p Medium) |
121 | 113 |
| Horizon Zero Dawn (1080p Medium) |
79 | 71 |
| Red Dead Redemption 2 (1080p Medium) |
83 | 73 |
| Borderlands 3 (1080p Medium) |
111 | 93 |
The ray-tracing performance of the Zotac GeForce RTX 3050 Twin Edge OC Edition wasn’t too bad. Thanks to the help of DLSS, I was able to get a decent RT performance out of this GPU in titles like Control, Cyberpunk 2077, and more. I don’t recommend turning RT setting all the way up to high, though. Medium RT settings with DLSS set to performance mode seem to be the sweet spot in many of the modern titles.
I also tried running a few games at 1440p, but it wasn’t particularly an enjoyable experience. That’s not really a surprise because the RTX 3050 is a 1080p card. You can only expect borderline performance at 1440p out of this particular graphics card. Your best bet would be to upgrade to either an RTX 3060 or an RTX 3070 for superior 1440p gaming performance.
Moving on to the thermal performance of the GPU, I was able to record a peak temperature of around 65C while the GPU was under heavy load. I also noticed that the fans were running at relatively low RPMs throughout, which is also the reason why this graphics card runs quietly. It is, however, worth pointing out that I didn’t add any manual overclocking, so there’s probably more room for this GPU to spread inside the thermal envelope.
Is it worth buying?
The Zotac GeForce RTX 3050 Twin Edge OC Edition, as you can see, is definitely great when it comes to overall performance. It’s not winning any competition but it works as advertised when it comes to 1080p gaming.
Who should buy the Zotac GeForce RTX 3050 Twin Edge OC Edition?
- Perfect for those who are looking to buy a GPU for casual 1080p gaming.
- GeForce RTX 3050 is a solid option for those upgrading from GPUs like GTX 1650 or even GTX 1660 Super.
- If you want a GPU with support for DLSS for better performance
Who should not buy the Zotac GeForce RTX 3050 Twin Edge OC Edition?
- Don’t buy this GPU for 1440p gaming.
- Also, don’t buy expecting a significantly better performance due to factory overclock.
So that pretty much sums up my review of the Zotac GeForce RTX 3050 Twin Edge OC Edition. It’s a good option to consider if you want a good 1080p gaming experience, but don’t expect it to go above and beyond. You will have to upgrade to one of the better cards in the 30-series for better performance. We suggest you take a look at our collection of the best graphics cards to find some good options in there.
- The Zotac GeForce RTX 3050 Twin Edge OC Edition is one of the GPUs that are actually available to buy right now. It delivers impressive 1080p gaming performance across a variety of different AAA titles.
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Features: |
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Pros: Cons: |
The post Zotac GeForce RTX 3050 Twin Edge OC Edition Review: The best GPU for 1080p gaming? appeared first on xda-developers.
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