NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 8 GB vs AMD Radeon RX 590
Side-by-side benchmark comparison, specs, pricing, and value analysis.
Benchmark Comparison
Gaming figures are average frames per second, measured by Tom's Hardware GPU hierarchy. Geometric mean of 15 games, ultra settings, no upscaling. Ray tracing figures are DXR-enabled at 1440p. A dash means the card was not tested at that resolution. Productivity and Steel Nomad are synthetic scores on their own scales and are not comparable to the fps columns.
Specifications
| Spec | GeForce RTX 3050 8 GB | Radeon RX 590 |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 8GB GDDR6 | 8GB GDDR5 |
| Memory Bandwidth | 224 GB/s | 256 GB/s |
| Shaders | 2560 | 2304 |
| Boost Clock | 1777 MHz | 1545 MHz |
| TDP | 130W | 175W |
| Architecture | Ampere | GCN 4.0 |
| 3DMark Steel Nomad | 1,331 | 1,080 |
| Best Price | $219 | $279 |
| Value Score | 53/100 | 21/100 |
Verdict
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 8 GB is the clear winner — it offers both better performance and better value.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 8 GB vs AMD Radeon RX 590: Which Should You Buy?
This is not a close race. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 8 GB delivers 38.5 fps at 1440p ultra to the AMD Radeon RX 590's 29 fps, a 33% gap. Only pick the slower card if it is dramatically cheaper or you need it for a lower resolution.
Pricing settles it: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 8 GB is both faster and 27% cheaper at $219 versus $279. There is no scenario in this pairing where the AMD Radeon RX 590 is the better buy at these prices.
Two things beyond raw speed: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 8 GB draws 45W less (130W versus 175W), which can mean a smaller PSU and a quieter case; and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 8 GB is 4 years newer (2022 versus 2018), so it gets longer driver support and newer upscaling and frame generation features.