In lieu of a successor, GeForce RTX 3050 remains Nvidia’s cheapest graphics cards. This could soon change with GeForce RTX 50 series just around the corner, but the card will enjoy at least one new variant before production ceases. This new look for the pixel pusher comes courtesy of MSI, with the company turning its Ventus 2X XS design white.
Aptly dubbed ‘GeForce RTX 3050 Ventus 2X XS White 8G OC’, this is the same card that’s been on the market for nearly three years albeit with a new paint job. In other words, you get the same old GA106 GPU packing 2,560 CUDA cores alongside 8GB of 14Gbps GDDR6 memory. But, due to its factory OC, this version has a slight frequency boost of 1,807MHz instead of Nvidia’s reference 1,777MHz.
A graphics card isn’t devoid of value because of its age, and the same is true here. For instance, it’s one of the few models on the market that still sport a DVI connector, if you’re still rocking that legacy port. In terms of performance, you can expect decent if unimpressive frame rates at 1080p in demanding games like Cyberpunk 2077. Of course, DLSS Super Resolution will help boost performance further. For an esports system, though, this pixel pusher has plenty enough power. It has more oomph than a GeForce RTX 3050 6GB in any case.
As for the design itself, there’s little to report past the colour swap. It’s a well-made dual-fan cooler, packing a single DisplayPort 1.4 connector, as well as a HDMI 2.1 port and the aforementioned DVI. Note, however, that this card will be incompatible with analogue monitors of old.
There’s no official word on pricing for this card, but I did spot two listings with pre-orders starting at €249.95. For context, the same retailers list the black version for €224.95, making the new model €25 more expensive. Whether that premium is worth the price is entirely subjective.
It’s worth noting that stretching your budget further to GeForce RTX 4060 will prove a better value purchase. Not only is it a more modern graphics card, but it also support DLSS Frame Generation to further improve its gaming performance.
