ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3050 OC, ROG-STRIX-RTX3050-O8G-GAMING, 8GB GDDR6, 2x HDMI, 3x DP

The ASUS RTX 3050 STRIX OC is totally overbuilt for what the GeForce RTX 3050 requires. Its large triple-fan, triple-slot cooler achieves impressive temperatures and noise levels: 56°C and 25 dBA—almost whisper quiet. ASUS is also including a dual BIOS feature with their card, which easily lets you switch the default "Performance BIOS" to a "Quiet BIOS". Unfortunately there's only minimal differences between both BIOSes. The quiet BIOS runs 1°C warmer and 1 dBA quieter. Given the massive cooler I feel like this would have been an interesting opportunity to create an ultra-quiet RTX 3050 that can rival the noise levels of the Sapphire RX 6500 XT Pulse. ASUS also includes two fan headers that run at speeds synchronized to the GPU fan. If you hook up case fans here, they'll be stopped when not gaming and only run when heat from the graphics card has to be exhausted. As expected, the ASUS STRIX supports fan stop, too, and shuts off its fans completely during idle, desktop work and media playback.

Last week's release of the Radeon RX 6500 XT from AMD was a drama, vital choices made by AMD were the wrong ones for that card series. This week the GeForce RTX 3050 launches, for 50 bucks more (MSRP) you'll receive a product with double the graphics memory, double the memory bus double the bandwidth, double the number of shaders, double the Raytracing performance. And where it can be applied, nearly double the performance thanks to DLSS as this card has Tensor cores as well. In that respect, the 6500 XT is shot down and p0wned by NVIDIA with the release of the 3050. There is a problem though, the board partners will want to push the more premium designs, and they can easily pass 300 even 350 USD. The proof is in the pudding, as the first 3050 that we received was actually an ASUS STRIX. The card oozes premium in design and cooling, but that does come at a price, and let's not forget this, ... a 3050 is supposed to be entry-level to mainstream domain gaming. We'll have to wait and see how prices pan out and what model actually will become available. The reality is that the world is a place where component shortages and cryptocurrency both miners and gamers have hogged every GPU they can get their hands on, also COVID is driving higher demand for home PC gaming. All of these elements combine to create an absurd concoction of shortages and price increases. The GeForce RTX 3050 as a product series compared to the competition, is a complete win though. We are happy to recommend the card series if that price is right, we would not recommend you to spend more than 300 to 350 USD.