GeForce RTX 3050 vs RTX 2060

We compared two discrete desktop gaming GPUs: the GeForce RTX 3050 8 GB with 20 pipelines and 2560 shaders against the 3 years and 1 month older RTX RTX 2060 6 GB that utilizes 30 pipelines and 1920 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
33.6
(Mediocre)

Key differences

Key distinctions and advantages of RTX 2060 over RTX 3050
Reasons to consider the GeForce RTX 3050
  • Manufactured using a more efficient 8 nm process technology
  • 40% higher maximum theoretical performance (9.1 vs 6.5 TFLOPS)
  • Includes 2 GB more video memory
  • Has 33% more shading units (2560 vs 1920)
Reasons to consider the GeForce RTX 2060
  • Performs slightly better (up to 16%) in 3DMark Steel Nomad Lite
  • Shows 19% higher average frame rate in modern games at QHD resolution – 50 vs 42 FPS
  • Features 160 more tensor cores for effective ML and AI workloads
  • Has 50% higher memory bandwidth: 336 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
99
62
49
35
The Witcher 3
90
70
49
24
107
86
62
34
Counter-Strike 2
139
101
72
31
157
117
82
41
Far Cry 6
76
66
49
25
84
74
57
29
Hogwarts Legacy
49
38
30
13
59
47
33
15
CoD: Modern Warfare III
59
49
35
22
69
59
44
30
Ghost of Tsushima
46
35
28
15
53
42
30
18
Cyberpunk 2077
48
45
26
11
58
52
32
13
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
80
73
49
25
92
85
58
33
Average FPS by Resolution
1080p High 75 86
1080p Ultra 59 69
1440p Ultra 42 50
4K Ultra 21 28
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
6348
RTX 2060 +16%
7385
Time Spy 6235 7564
Solar Bay 30191 34157
Port Royal 3546 4133
Fire Strike 15967 19777
Wild Life Extreme 12795 15551
Night Raid 74854 85132
Sources: 3DMark [1], [2]

GeekBench 6 OpenCL

GPU test for computational tasks (image processing, photography, computer vision, and ML)
GB6 Compute Score
67028
RTX 2060 +18%
78934
Background Blur 110.4 img/sec 144.4 img/sec
Face Detection 64.4 img/sec 75.2 img/sec
Horizon Detection 2.87 Gpixels/sec 3.08 Gpixels/sec
Edge Detection 3.76 Gpixels/sec 4.25 Gpixels/sec
Gaussian Blur 2.89 Gpixels/sec 4.21 Gpixels/sec
Feature Matching 0.81 Gpixels/sec 0.93 Gpixels/sec
Stereo Matching 270.9 Gpixels/sec 354.4 Gpixels/sec
Particle Physics 9339.7 FPS 8559.4 FPS
API OpenCL OpenCL
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]

Cinebench 2024 GPU

Hardware benchmark using Maxon's Cinema 4D rendering engine
Cinebench 2024 GPU
4722
RTX 2060 +4%
4901

Passmark Graphics

Videocard test that focuses on compute shaders, multi-texturing, tessellation, and other features
G3D Mark Score
12471
RTX 2060 +13%
14078
G2D Mark 916 743
DirectX 11 90 FPS 112 FPS
DirectX 12 59 FPS 53 FPS
GPU Compute 6415 Ops/s 5427 Ops/s
Sources: PassMark [5], [6] – 9379 & 33708 samples

Blender

Rendering performance test for 3D modeling
Blender GPU
1462.18
RTX 2060 +11%
1626.82
Sources: Blender [9], [10] – 1092 & 2415 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 RTX 2060
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-03-15 (MrRayeen)Geekbench 6 OpenCL82889

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
11848
RTX 2060 +5%
12466
GB6 ML Half Precision
21368
RTX 2060 +2%
21712
GB6 ML Quantized
7905
RTX 2060 +11%
8757
Image Classification (SP) 4958 5453
Image Segmentation (HP) 12747 12449
Image Super Resolution (Q) 9816 11020
Face Detection (HP) 22467 24511
Pose Estimation (Q) 41362 47746
Text Classification (SP) 2563 2000
Machine Translation (HP) 3721 3360
Object Detection (SP) 5929 6343
Depth Estimation (Q) 18361 20909
Style Transfer (SP) 84665 101870
Framework ONNX ONNX
Backend DirectML DirectML
Sources: Geekbench [9], [10]

Specifications

Technical specifications of GeForce RTX 3050 and RTX 2060

General

Vendor Nvidia Nvidia
Build Discrete Discrete
Released January 27, 2022 January 15, 2019
Launch price (MSRP) $249 $349
Case Desktop Desktop
Purpose Gaming Gaming
Segment Entry-level Mid-range
Architecture Ampere Turing
GPU Codename GA106 TU106
Rival Equivalent - - Radeon RX 5600 XT
Successor - - GeForce RTX 5060
Recommended CPU - Intel Core i5 12400 or above - Intel Core i5 9600K or above
Desktop GPU rating (71st and 69th place)

Graphics Processing Unit

Base Clock 1552 MHz 1365 MHz
Boost Clock 1777 MHz 1680 MHz
Shading Units 2560 1920
Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) 80 120
Render Output Units (ROPs) 32 48
Compute Units (Pipelines) 20 30
Tensor Cores 80 240
Ray-tracing Cores 20 30
L1 Cache 128KB per cluster 64KB per cluster
L2 Cache 2MB shared 3MB shared
Instructions Per Cycle 2 IPC 2 IPC

Raw Performance

Pixel Fill Rate 57 GPixel/s 81 GPixel/s
Texture Fill Rate 142 GTexel/s 202 GTexel/s
FLOPS (FP32)
RTX 3050 +40%
9.1 TFLOPS
6.5 TFLOPS

Physical

Interface PCIe 4.0 x8 PCIe 3.0 x16
TGP 130 W 160 W
Manufacturing Samsung TSMC
Fabrication Process 8 nm 12 nm
Die Size 276 mm² 445 mm²
Transistor Count 12 billion 10 billion
Transistor Density 43.48 MTr/mm² 22.47 MTr/mm²

Memory

Memory Type GDDR6 GDDR6
Memory Size 8 GB 6 GB
Memory Clock 1750 MHz 1750 MHz
Effective Memory Speed 14000 Mbps 14000 Mbps
Bus 128-bit 192-bit
ECC No No
Memory Bandwidth
224 GB/s
RTX 2060 +50%
336 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 Yes
DLSS DLSS 2 DLSS 2
DisplayPort 1.4a 1.4a

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86 (31.6%)
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Total votes: 272

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