NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 8 GB
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 GTX 1660 | GeForce RTX 3050 8 GB |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 6GB GDDR5 | 8GB GDDR6 |
| Memory Bandwidth | 192 GB/s | 224 GB/s |
| Shaders | 1408 | 2560 |
| Boost Clock | 1785 MHz | 1777 MHz |
| TDP | 120W | 130W |
| Architecture | Turing | Ampere |
| 3DMark Steel Nomad | 1,062 | 1,331 |
| Best Price | $219 | $219 |
| Value Score | 28/100 | 53/100 |
Verdict
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 8 GB is the clear winner — it offers both better performance and better value.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 8 GB: 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 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660's 30.3 fps, a 27% gap. Only pick the slower card if it is dramatically cheaper or you need it for a lower resolution.
Prices are within 0% of each other ($219 and $219), so the faster card is the obvious pick unless a spec below rules it out for your build.
Two things beyond raw speed: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 8 GB is 3 years newer (2022 versus 2019), so it gets longer driver support and newer upscaling and frame generation features.