ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3050 OC Edition Review

TweakTown's Rating: 100%

The Bottom Line

ASUS shines with its ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3050 OC Edition, providing some of the best performance from the RTX 3050... but with a second HDMI 2.1 connector. Something its competitors lack, big time. Nice work once again, ASUS.

Introduction

I've been busy reviewing as many custom versions of NVIDIA's new mid-range GeForce RTX 3050 graphics card as I can, flowing through into many lab as they do, with ASUS hitting me up for their new ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3050 OC Edition.

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The company also sent over their higher-end ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3080 Ti OC Edition, a graphics card that I've already reviewed, only realizing as I put it into the test bench. I thought I would re-review that card as well since I am shifting over to the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X processor... up from the Ryzen 7 3800X that I've been using.

ASUS has quite the beefy mid-range card with its ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3050 OC Edition graphics card, and while performance won't be that different between custom RTX 3050 cards, ASUS always gives you all the frills with its ROG Strix variant.

ASUS puts in the whole nine yards here, with a mean triple-fan cooler and super-beefy cooler design that feels far too good for a mid-range GPU. But, if you can find the ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3050 OC Edition somewhere for a reasonable price... ASUS has one of the very best.

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Everything You Need to Know About Ampere

Page 2 [Everything You Need to Know About Ampere]

RTX 3050 8GB Tech Specs

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Detailed Look

As usual, ASUS provides the usual premium retail packaging experience... even with its mid-range ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3050 OC Edition graphics card. Remember, I spent over 10 years working in a small IT retailer here in my home city of Adelaide, South Australia -- and man -- the ASUS ROG Strix RTX 3050 would look fantastic on the shelf. It would pull all eyes to it.

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From the front, you know it's an ASUS ROG Strix graphics card -- and once you start playing around -- it's only then you'll realize you've got mid-range RTX 3050 performance. Aesthetics -- well, ASUS can never be attacked for making a 'meh' looking product.

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It's a pity that ASUS didn't use a dual-slot design.

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ASUS does something different here, and is very welcomed: 2 x HDMI 2.1 ports versus the regular 1 x HDMI 2.1 port on everything else these days, as well as 3 x DisplayPort 1.4 connectors. That's a mass amount of display connectivity for a mid-range RTX 3050, but that's what the ROG Strix is known for.

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It's nice to see that there is a single 8-pin PCIe power connector required, as I was expecting ASUS to use a 6-pin connector as well, but thankfully they didn't.

Test System Specs

Latest upgrade:

Sabrent sent over their huge Rocket Q 8TB NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 SSD, which will be my new Games install SSD inside of my main test bed.

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I've got a new upgrade inside of my GPU test bed before my change to a next-gen test bed, where I will be preparing for NVIDIA's next-gen Ampere graphics cards and AMD's next-gen RDNA 2 graphics cards.

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Sabrent helped out with some new storage for my GPU test beds, sending over a slew of crazy-fast Rocket NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 SSDs. I've got this installed into my GPU test bed as the new Games Storage drive, since games are so damn big now. Thanks to Sabrent, I've got 2TB of super-fast M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 SSD storage now.

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Anthony's GPU Test System Specifications

I've recently upgraded my GPU test bed -- at least for now, until AMD's new Ryzen 9 5950X processor is unleashed then the final update for 2020 will happen and we'll be all good for RDNA 2 and future Ampere GPU releases. You can read my article here: TweakTown GPU Test Bed Upgrade for 2021, But Then Zen 3 Was Announced.

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3800X (buy from Amazon)
• Motherboard: ASUS ROG X570 Crosshair VIII HERO (buy from Amazon)
• Cooler: CoolerMaster MasterLiquid ML360R RGB (buy from Amazon)
• RAM: G.SKILL Trident Z NEO RGB 32GB (4x8GB) (F4-3600C18Q-32GTZN) (buy from Amazon)
• SSD: Sabrent 2TB Rocket NVMe PCIe 4.0 M.2 2280 (buy from Amazon)
• PSU: be quiet! Dark Power Pro 11 1200W (buy from Amazon)
• Case: InWin X-Frame 2.0
• OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Professional x64 (buy from Amazon)

Benchmarks - Synthetic

3DMark Fire Strike

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3DMark has been a staple benchmark for years now, all the way back to when The Matrix was released and Futuremark had bullet time inspired benchmarks. 3DMark is the perfect tool to see if your system - most important, your CPU and GPU - is performing as it should. You can search results for your GPU, to see if it falls in line with other systems based on similar hardware.

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3DMark TimeSpy

Heaven - 1080p

Heaven is an intensive GPU benchmark that really pushes your silicon to its limits. It's another favorite of ours as it has some great scaling for multi-GPU testing, and it's great for getting your GPU to 100% for power and noise testing.

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Benchmarks - 1080p

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Assassin's Creed: Valhalla is the latest game to be inserted into our benchmark suite, with Ubisoft Montreal using its AnvilNext engine to power the game. It scales really well across the cards, and has some surprising performance benefits with AMD's new Big Navi GPUs.

You can buy Assassins Creed: Valhalla at Amazon.

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Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a sequel to the popular Shadow of Mordor, which was powered by the Lithtech engine. When cranked up to maximum detail, it will chew through your GPU and its VRAM like it's nothing.

You can buy Middle-earth: Shadow of War at Amazon.

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Metro Exodus is one of the hardest tests that our graphics cards have to go through, with 4A Games' latest creation being one of the best looking games on the market. It is a serious test that pushes GPUs to their limits, and also features RTX technologies like DLSS.

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Shadow of the Tomb Raider is one of the latest games to join our graphics card benchmark lineup, with the game built using the Foundation engine as a base, the same engine in Rise of the Tomb Raider. Eidos Montreal R&D department made lots of changes to the engine during the development of Shadow of the Tomb Raider to make it one of the best-looking games out right now.

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1080p Benchmark Performance Thoughts

1080p 60FPS+ in AAA games on the ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3050 OC Edition graphics card pulls it in line with every other RTX 3050 out there. It's not going to do anything special, but it will beat most of the regular ones and come out on top.

Benchmarks - 1440p

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Assassin's Creed: Valhalla is the latest game to be inserted into our benchmark suite, with Ubisoft Montreal using its AnvilNext engine to power the game. It scales really well across the cards, and has some surprising performance benefits with AMD's new Big Navi GPUs.

You can buy Assassins Creed: Valhalla at Amazon.

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Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a sequel to the popular Shadow of Mordor, which was powered by the Lithtech engine. When cranked up to maximum detail, it will chew through your GPU and its VRAM like it's nothing.

You can buy Middle-earth: Shadow of War at Amazon.

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Metro Exodus is one of the hardest tests that our graphics cards have to go through, with 4A Games' latest creation being one of the best looking games on the market. It is a serious test that pushes GPUs to their limits, and also features RTX technologies like DLSS.

73

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Shadow of the Tomb Raider is one of the latest games to join our graphics card benchmark lineup, with the game built using the Foundation engine as a base, the same engine in Rise of the Tomb Raider. Eidos Montreal R&D department made lots of changes to the engine during the development of Shadow of the Tomb Raider to make it one of the best-looking games out right now.

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1440p Benchmark Performance Thoughts

I wouldn't recommend the new GeForce RTX 3050 for 1440p gaming, but with DLSS set to "Performance" mode you will at least see 60FPS in decent titles.

Benchmarks - 4K

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Assassin's Creed: Valhalla is the latest game to be inserted into our benchmark suite, with Ubisoft Montreal using its AnvilNext engine to power the game. It scales really well across the cards, and has some surprising performance benefits with AMD's new Big Navi GPUs.

You can buy Assassins Creed: Valhalla at Amazon.

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Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a sequel to the popular Shadow of Mordor, which was powered by the Lithtech engine. When cranked up to maximum detail, it will chew through your GPU and its VRAM like it's nothing.

You can buy Middle-earth: Shadow of War at Amazon.

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Metro Exodus is one of the hardest tests that our graphics cards have to go through, with 4A Games' latest creation being one of the best looking games on the market. It is a serious test that pushes GPUs to their limits, and also features RTX technologies like DLSS.

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Shadow of the Tomb Raider is one of the latest games to join our graphics card benchmark lineup, with the game built using the Foundation engine as a base, the same engine in Rise of the Tomb Raider. Eidos Montreal R&D department made lots of changes to the engine during the development of Shadow of the Tomb Raider to make it one of the best-looking games out right now.

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4K Benchmark Performance Thoughts

Nah, the RTX 3050 isn't for 4K gaming.

What's Hot, What's Not

What's Hot

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• The best display connectivity on an RTX 3050 yet: ASUS has the best display connectivity of any GeForce RTX 3050 on the market, simply for the second HDMI 2.1 connector.
• 2 x HDMI 2.1 connectors FTW: The additional HDMI 2.1 connector lets you plug in a second monitor or TV to your RTX 3050, so if you had an HDMI 2.1-enabled monitor and an HDMI 2.1-enabled TV (that doubles as your TV for your PS5 or Xbox Series X/S console) the ROG Strix RTX 3050 can do that for you.
• The usual ASUS ROG Strix style: If you want a mean-looking RTX 3050, then ASUS has your back with the ROG Strix RTX 3050 OC Edition.

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• 8GB of GDDR6 memory: AMD is new Radeon RX 6500 XT throws 4GB of GDDR6, where in a world of 8GB, 16GB, and even 24GB VRAM on cards, the 8GB of GDDR6 on the GeForce RTX 3050 is very welcomed. You won't be gaming at 1440p or 4K, but it gives you wiggle room for RT and DLSS.
• HDMI 2.1 connectivity, great for HTPC: Another win here is the HDMI 2.1 connectivity over HDMI 2.0 on older-gen cards, as HDMI 2.1 allows a single cable to drive 4K 120Hz (and above) even on the entry-level GeForce RTX 3050. This is great for HTPC users.

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• Single 8-pin PCIe power connector: It would be nice to do away with the PCIe power connector, maybe with the Ada Lovelace-powered GeForce RTX 4050 and its PCIe 5.0 connector, then we'll see no PCIe power connector on a 50-series card.
• Entry-level ray tracing + DLSS: This is a serious win for NVIDIA over AMD, and while you wouldn't want to run out and buy the RTX 3050 for ray tracing... DLSS on the other hand, will super-pump your FPS in games that you want over 120FPS. Alternatively, older games can be enjoyed with DLSS set to Quality, with higher fidelity graphics.

What's Not

• The dual HDMI 2.1 connectors: They're great to have, but ASUS doesn't even include HDMI 2.1 connectivity on some of its most expensive, feature-laden gaming monitors. Yet, a mid-range ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3050 OC Edition graphics card -- so too do the other RTX 30 series ROG Strix GPUs -- has dual HDMI 2.1 connectors, and 3 x DP 1.4 connectors... yet their flagship monitors don't.

Alrighty then.

Final Thoughts

If you are in the market for one of the best custom GeForce RTX 3050 graphics cards, then ASUS is the path you will want to walk down with their ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3050 OC Edition graphics card. You've got the same mid-range performance as the other custom RTX 3050s, but with the usual ASUS ROG Strix flair.

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But it's the dual HDMI 2.1 connectors that is impressive, as you could buy the ROG Strix RTX 3050 for an HTPC and enjoy multiple 4K 120Hz TVs or monitors. ASUS providing the additional HDMI 2.1 connector makes it stand out from the crowd, so it could be the tipping point for you to buy the ROG Strix RTX 3050 over another custom RTX 3050.

ASUS always delivers with its custom ROG Strix cards, and the ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3050 OC Edition is no different. If you are after a 1080p 120FPS gaming card, then you can do that here -- alternatively, if you want some gaming on the side -- and use it as an HTPC system, the second HDMI 2.1 connector could be the clincher.

The custom ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3050 OC Edition graphics card is a great mid-range RTX 3050, something that lets you get a taste of ray tracing (RT) and can super-power your games with Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS).

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Games like Warzone for example, can be enjoyed at 1080p 120FPS thanks to DLSS... while rocking a second HDMI 2.1 connector. Funny... ASUS includes dual HDMI 2.1 ports on their mid-range ROG Strix RTX 3050, but doesn't include the new connectivity on some of its highest-end ROG Strix gaming monitors. Heh.

Still, the ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3050 OC Edition is a stellar mid-range Ampere GPU, is ready for you.