The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 might be the first GPU to benefit, in a roundabout way, from the bonkers price gouging that’s been spoiling the fun of graphics cards for nearly two years. In normal times, it wouldn’t make much sense to buy this £239 / $249 GPU – not because it’s the lowest in the RTX range, but because the much more powerful RTX 3060 would only cost a few notes more.
And yet, these are not normal times. While the MSI GeForce RTX 3050 Gaming X 8G model I’ve tested has already ballooned to £380 / $450, this leaves it looking like much more of a genuine alternative to RTX 3060, which is generally around £500 in the UK. And while it’s ultimately still a 1080p specialist, the RTX 3050 takes a big step up from previous GTX XX50 GPUs by offering DLSS and ray tracing support.