RTX 3050 vs. 6500 XT: Can they handle God of War and more?
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Nvidia and AMD have each launched mainstream graphics cards to kick off the new year. The GeForce RTX 3050 and Radeon RX 6500 XT are both available now — as long as your definition of “available” is flexible. These video cards are both ideal for gamers who are still using 1080p 60Hz monitors, and they are priced to match. The 3050 starts at $250 while the 6500 XT is $200. The price and the stats, which I’ll get into, emphasize a difference in strategy for Nvidia and AMD. For gamers, however, the old wisdom holds true: you should spend as much as you can on your GPU.
The 6500 XT was exciting because it marked the return of the competent $200 GPU. Even before AMD’s recent resurgence, it was already a dominant player in the affordable GPU space. The $200 RX 480 from 2016 had (and still has) really good 1080p60 performance. And to this day, I would recommend a 480 or 580 to someone looking to build a budget rig. The expectations with the 6500 XT were that it would take the place of those now-ancient RX 400/500-series recommendations.
The RTX 3050, meanwhile, is coming from a slightly different lineage and reputation. Nvidia’s XX50 cards are often something you settle for reluctantly. Or, at least, that was my personal perception. They are good for free-to-play esports titles and not much else, right? Well, the 3050 flips that script slightly.
The variances in price and components between AMD and Nvidia emphasize how the market is shifting. Global supply-chain shortages continue to push up the price of memory, so
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