GTX 1660 Ti vs. GeForce RTX 3050: Two GPUs for two distinct uses

Photo Credit: PC Gamer The GTX 1660 Ti or RTX 3050 are likely to be two common possibilities on many laptops whether you're a gamer or video maker on a low budget. As the RTX 3050's gaming performance is at best adequate, it becomes easier to promote the GPU as a graphics editing accelerator. We observed in our most recent assessment of the Lenovo Slim 7 Pro that the GeForce RTX 3050 GPU will only offer marginal advantages over the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti. However, as no laptop can accurately represent a GPU, we were curious to see how the RTX 3050 and 1660 Ti would stack up against one another. The solution is based on your usage circumstances. In terms of raw frame rate, the GTX 1660 Ti outperforms the RTX 3050 by 20 to 25 percent on average thanks to faster clock rates and a bigger bus (192-bit vs. 128-bit). Most GTX 1660 Ti laptops aim for an 80 W TGP, however the RTX 3050 can operate between 40 W and 80 W, enabling the higher clocks. Owners of the RTX 3050 would have to use DLSS in order to close the performance gap between the GTX 1660 Ti and the RTX 3050 in terms of gaming. Photo Credit: UBG The RTX 3050 is a superior deal when it comes to content creation. Since the GPU doesn't have enough performance overhead to offset the drawbacks of enabling RT, its specialized RT cores are practically useless when playing games. On the other hand, it helps with acceleration. Similar to this, it offers GTX 1660 Ti users greater rendering acceleration thanks to its significantly larger CUDA core count (2560 vs. 1536). For precisely this reason, the majority of laptops with the RTX 3050 are promoted as studio laptops rather than gaming laptops. Only the RTX 3050 can support HDMI 2.1, but the GTX 1660 Ti can support up to 2.0b. Since the majority of modern computers either support DisplayPort 1.4a or don't have HDMI at all, the difference is slight but noticeable. Also Read: Dual EVGA RTX 3090 Ti GPUs sets 3DMark Port Royal world record (again) If you mostly game, it would be best to remain with the GTX 1660 Ti or choose a laptop with an RTX 2060 or 3060 graphics card instead. The RTX 3050 balances performance and thinness better than the GTX 1660 Ti when it comes to solely content creation. According to our research and findings, the RTX 3050 and its Ti variants are therefore best viewed as a studio GPU rather than a gaming GPU.