GeForce RTX 3050 vs GTX 1660 Ti

We compared two discrete desktop gaming GPUs: the GeForce RTX 3050 8 GB with 20 pipelines and 2560 shaders against the 3 years older GTX 1660 Ti 6 GB that utilizes 24 pipelines and 1536 shaders. Here you will find complete details about specs, efficiency, performance tests, and more.

Review

General comparison of performance in games, applications, power efficiency, and other metrics
Gaming
Performance in DirectX, OpenCL, and Vulkan games
Workstation
Perf. in 3D modeling, video editing and rendering apps
AI/ML
Capabilities for machine learning and AI-related tasks
Energy Efficiency
Power consumption efficiency in different scenarios
NanoReview Final Score
Overall video card score

Value for money (Beta)

We use average GPU prices from all manufacturers by default. Enter the current price of a specific card for better accuracy.
Currency
8 GB GDDR6
VS
6 GB GDDR6
47.6
(Average)
Value Index
25.7
(Mediocre)

Key differences

Key distinctions and advantages of GTX 1660 Ti over RTX 3050
Reasons to consider the GeForce RTX 3050
  • 69% higher maximum theoretical performance (9.1 vs 5.4 TFLOPS)
  • Manufactured using a more efficient 8 nm process technology
  • Ray-tracing support with 20 dedicated RT cores
  • Includes 2 GB more video memory
  • Supports Nvidia DLSS 2 technology
  • Has 67% more shading units (2560 vs 1536)
  • Features 80 tensor cores for effective deep learning and AI workloads
Reasons to consider the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti
  • Has 29% higher memory bandwidth: 288 vs 224 GB/s

Gaming Performance

Frame rate comparison across popular AAA titles at different resolutions

Games

FPS Table
Forza Horizon 5
92
53
43
26
89
51
44
24
The Witcher 3
90
70
49
24
88
70
46
24
Counter-Strike 2
139
101
72
31
140
95
71
30
Far Cry 6
76
66
49
25
73
63
49
22
Hogwarts Legacy
49
38
30
13
49
40
26
15
CoD: Modern Warfare III
59
49
35
22
58
47
35
24
Ghost of Tsushima
46
35
28
15
45
35
24
14
Cyberpunk 2077
48
45
26
11
46
41
25
10
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
80
73
49
25
78
75
50
25
Average FPS by Resolution
1080p High 75 74
1080p Ultra 59 57
1440p Ultra 42 41
4K Ultra 21 21
Margin of Error Low Low

Benchmarks

Graphics cards’ performance in recent benchmarking apps

3D Mark

Multiplatform graphics benchmark suite that directly correlates with performance in modern games
Steel Nomad Lite Score
RTX 3050 +7%
6348
Time Spy 6235 6339
Solar Bay 30191 20515
Port Royal 3546 1649
Fire Strike 15967 16654
Wild Life Extreme 12795 13006
Night Raid 74854 76387
Sources: 3DMark [1], [2]

GeekBench 6 OpenCL

GPU test for computational tasks (image processing, photography, computer vision, and ML)
GB6 Compute Score
67028
72340
Background Blur 110.4 img/sec 124.8 img/sec
Face Detection 64.4 img/sec 69.4 img/sec
Horizon Detection 2.87 Gpixels/sec 2.67 Gpixels/sec
Edge Detection 3.76 Gpixels/sec 3.48 Gpixels/sec
Gaussian Blur 2.89 Gpixels/sec 3.52 Gpixels/sec
Feature Matching 0.81 Gpixels/sec 0.92 Gpixels/sec
Stereo Matching 270.9 Gpixels/sec 355.9 Gpixels/sec
Particle Physics 9339.7 FPS 9094.4 FPS
API OpenCL OpenCL
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]

Cinebench 2024 GPU

Hardware benchmark using Maxon's Cinema 4D rendering engine
Cinebench 2024 GPU
RTX 3050 +35%
4722

Passmark Graphics

Videocard test that focuses on compute shaders, multi-texturing, tessellation, and other features
G3D Mark Score
12471
12581
G2D Mark 916 769
DirectX 11 90 FPS 103 FPS
DirectX 12 59 FPS 51 FPS
GPU Compute 6415 Ops/s 5020 Ops/s
Sources: PassMark [5], [6] – 9379 & 14541 samples

Blender

Rendering performance test for 3D modeling
Blender GPU
RTX 3050 +84%
1462.18
792.56
Sources: Blender [9], [10] – 1092 & 795 samples

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
GeForce RTX 3050
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-04-21 -> DmitryDmitryCinebench 20244722
📘 2026-04-21 -> DmitryDmitrySteel Nomad Light6237
GeForce GTX 1660 Ti
No benchmark results yet

Artificial Intelligence Tests

Performance in machine learning and artificial intelligence tasks

GeekBench 6 ML

Tests throughput of AI operations in single, half, and quantized precision
GB6 ML Single Precision
RTX 3050 +10%
11848
10788
GB6 ML Half Precision
RTX 3050 +144%
21368
GB6 ML Quantized
RTX 3050 +4%
7905
Image Classification (SP) 4958 4272
Image Segmentation (HP) 12747 6435
Image Super Resolution (Q) 9816 9635
Face Detection (HP) 22467 10867
Pose Estimation (Q) 41362 41061
Text Classification (SP) 2563 1737
Machine Translation (HP) 3721 3301
Object Detection (SP) 5929 5600
Depth Estimation (Q) 18361 18914
Style Transfer (SP) 84665 83427
Framework ONNX ONNX
Backend DirectML DirectML
Sources: Geekbench [9], [10]

Specifications

Technical specifications of GeForce RTX 3050 and GTX 1660 Ti

General

Vendor Nvidia Nvidia
Build Discrete Discrete
Released January 27, 2022 February 22, 2019
Launch price (MSRP) $249 $279
Case Desktop Desktop
Purpose Gaming Gaming
Segment Entry-level Entry-level
Architecture Ampere Turing
GPU Codename GA106 TU116
Rival Equivalent - - Radeon RX 5600 XT
Recommended CPU - Intel Core i5 12400 or above - Intel Core i5 9500 or above
Desktop GPU rating (71st and 73rd place)

Graphics Processing Unit

Base Clock 1552 MHz 1500 MHz
Boost Clock 1777 MHz 1770 MHz
Shading Units 2560 1536
Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) 80 96
Render Output Units (ROPs) 32 48
Compute Units (Pipelines) 20 24
Tensor Cores 80 No
Ray-tracing Cores 20 No
L1 Cache 128KB per cluster 64KB per cluster
L2 Cache 2MB shared 1536KB shared
Instructions Per Cycle 2 IPC 2 IPC

Raw Performance

Pixel Fill Rate 57 GPixel/s 85 GPixel/s
Texture Fill Rate 142 GTexel/s 170 GTexel/s
FLOPS (FP32)
RTX 3050 +69%
9.1 TFLOPS
5.4 TFLOPS

Physical

Interface PCIe 4.0 x8 PCIe 3.0 x16
TGP 130 W 120 W
Manufacturing Samsung TSMC
Fabrication Process 8 nm 12 nm
Die Size 276 mm² 284 mm²
Transistor Count 12 billion 6 billion
Transistor Density 43.48 MTr/mm² 21.13 MTr/mm²

Memory

Memory Type GDDR6 GDDR6
Memory Size 8 GB 6 GB
Memory Clock 1750 MHz 1500 MHz
Effective Memory Speed 14000 Mbps 12000 Mbps
Bus 128-bit 192-bit
ECC No No
Memory Bandwidth
224 GB/s
288 GB/s

API

DirectX 12 12
Vulkan 1.3 1.3
OpenGL 4.6 4.6
OpenCL 3.0 3.0
CUDA 8.6 7.5
Ray Tracing Yes No
DLSS DLSS 2 No
DisplayPort 1.4a 1.4a

Cast your vote

Choose between two graphics cards
64 (38.3%)
103 (61.7%)
Total votes: 167

User opinions

You can share your opinion or ask a question in the comments below
🌐 Register your profile and become part of NanoReview community!