While most of the GPUs were costing 100% or even 150% more than their original price during lockdown, few of them rarely returned to stock once out. It was becoming extremely difficult to purchase one at a price that seemed reasonable.
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However, that is not the case today. As of now, most of the GPUs are available at a reasonable price, though still above their original one. That’s why it is the perfect time to buy yourself a graphics card before the price surges again (in case).
The best deal right now is to get a 1080p graphics card that can run all modern AAA titles averaging around 60+ FPS. For that, the RTX 3060, RX 6600, and RTX 3050 are the three best graphics cards at an affordable price. But the question is — which one of them will be better?
To answer your question, I will be comparing all three of them and see how they perform against some of the popular games at present.
RTX 3060 VS RX 6600 VS RTX 3050: Key-Specifications
Before we hop on to the more detailed review of the RTX 3060, RX 6600, and RTX 3050, let’s see how tough they appear on paper itself. The below table will give you an overview of the key specifications.
| Category | RTX 3060 | RX 6600 | RTX 3050 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Architecture | Navi 23 | Ampere | Ampere |
| VRAM | 12GB | 8GB | 8GB |
| Memory Type | GDDR6 | GDDR6 | GDDR6 |
| GPU Cores | 3584 | 1792 | 2560 |
| Base Clock | 1.32GHz | 2.04GHz | 1.55GHz |
| Boost Clock | 1.78GHz | 2.49GHz | 1.78GHz |
| Memory Interface | 192-bit | 128-bit | 128-bit |
| Connectivity | 3 x DisplayPort 1.4a 1 x HDMI 2.1 | 1 x DisplayPort 1.4a 1 x HDMI 2.1 | 2 x DisplayPort 1.4a 1 x HDMI 2.1 |
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| Category | RTX 3060 | RX 6600 | RTX 3050 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Architecture | Navi 23 | Ampere | Ampere |
| VRAM | 12GB | 8GB | 8GB |
| Memory Type | GDDR6 | GDDR6 | GDDR6 |
| GPU Cores | 3584 | 1792 | 2560 |
| Base Clock | 1.32GHz | 2.04GHz | 1.55GHz |
| Boost Clock | 1.78GHz | 2.49GHz | 1.78GHz |
| Memory Interface | 192-bit | 128-bit | 128-bit |
| Connectivity | 3 x DisplayPort 1.4a 1 x HDMI 2.1 | 1 x DisplayPort 1.4a 1 x HDMI 2.1 | 2 x DisplayPort 1.4a 1 x HDMI 2.1 |
| Buy Now |
RTX 3060 VS RX 6600 VS RTX 3050: Benchmarks
From the above table, you can see that the RTX 3060 is a 12GB graphics card compared to the 8GB RX 6600 and RTX 3050. Though it might seem unfair to you, there’s nothing to worry about. Also, 8GB of RAM is more than enough to run games at 1080p on max settings. You will easily get around 100 FPS depending on the game’s intensity.
A 12GB VRAM just adds more FPS to the game, which I bet you wouldn’t notice. But it will definitely give you an edge while running games at 1440p. So if you are targeting this section, the RTX 3060 will be perfect. But again, we are here for 1080 games and that’s what we should be focusing on (while also keeping 1440p in check).
RTX 3060 Benchmarks
The RTX 3060 is a 12GB GDDR6 graphics card and there is no doubt about its performance at 1080p max settings. Starting with God of War, the RTX 3060 managed to get around 100 FPS at 1080p ultra-high quality doing better than its competitors. Even at 1440p, it didn’t fail to impress with its mind-blowing 85 FPS on average.
Moving on to Far Cry 6, which was sponsored by AMD, the game was bound to optimize well for AMD graphics cards. However, the game still performed well on the RTX 3060, averaging around 120 FPS. If you are a fan of the Far Cry series, you will love to play this game at 1080p on your PC. Even if you push it to 1440p, the RTX 3060 will still hold up to that, giving around 91 FPS.
Similarly, playing Apex Legends will be a lot of fun as the performance here was simply remarkable. Staying above 140 FPS at 1080p is the thing the RTX 3060 managed to do pretty well. Also at 1440p, the frame rate didn’t see a significant drop and was still above 100 FPS.
One of the popular online battle-royale games, Fortnite was doing pretty well and managed to pull around 100 FPS at 1080p max settings. However, at 1440p, it went to 70 FPS, which is still above the average frame rate of 60.
On to the next game, Forza Horizon 5, the RTX 3060 stayed between 70 – 75 FPS at 1080p and 60 – 62 FPS at 1440p. As you might know that Forza Horizon 5 is a demanding game with insane graphics, 70 to 75 FPS is a decent frame rate that you can expect at full HD resolution. So if you have been craving this game for a long time, you can easily bank on this GPU that won’t let you down.
Running our final game, Dying Light 2, which was released this year in February, is the best game to test the performance of the RTX 3060. While running, the game was averaging around 70 FPS at 1080p but went below 50 FPS at 1440p which shows how demanding the game was even for a 12GB graphics card.
RX 6600 Benchmarks
The RX 6600 is an 8GB GDDR6 graphics card and being the cheapest one out of the three, it will be interesting to see how it gets around these games. Starting with God of War, the RX 6600 was averaging around 98 FPS at 1080p, which is close to the RTX 3060’s performance. But at 1440p, it fell to 60 FPS.
On Far Cry 6, it was getting around 126 FPS, which is better this time than the RTX 3060. Not to mention that this game was sponsored by AMD, so it was pretty well optimized with the GPU. Even at 1440p, it was giving a tough fight to the 12GB graphics card with 88 FPS on average.
Similarly, the RX 6600 impressed a lot while playing Apex Legends at 1080p. With an average of 135 FPS, it holds onto the game pretty well without dropping the frame rate. At 1440p, the frame rate dropped down to 96 FPS, which was still pretty decent considering the fact that the RX 6600 isn’t meant for 1440p gaming.
For battle-royale fans, when testing this graphics card on Fortnite at 1080p, it was averaging around 80 FPS, even sometimes crossing the 100 mark. But, at 1440p, it went below 50 FPS at max settings. So if you are a serious Fortnite player, I won’t recommend pushing beyond 1080p resolution.
Even though the RX 6600 did not impress me with its performance on Fortnite, it did destroy the PUBG game where it was giving around 220 FPS at 1080p and 140 FPS at 1440p. So if you are a PUBG lover, you would love to play this game.
On to our final game for the RX 6600, I tested it on Dying Light 2 at 1080p resolution. Since this is a new game, I didn’t expect the performance to be extraordinary. But the game still holds on to the 60 FPS mark, which was quite good. At 1440p, the game struggled to remain above 50 FPS and averaged between 40 to 45 FPS.
RTX 3050 Benchmarks
Now it was the turn of our last graphics card to be tested, the RTX 3050. This time, I started with Dying Light 2 and ran the game at 1080p resolution. Unfortunately, the RTX 3050 struggled to run the game smoothly. It was averaging around 50 FPS, thus performing below average than the RX 6600. And considering the fact that the latter is the cheaper one, it is the point to be noted.
While playing Apex Legends, the RTX 3050 didn’t disappoint me. It managed to pull around 117 FPS at 1080p resolution giving a tough fight to the RX 6600. At 1440p, it still holds on to the 89 FPS mark. So it concludes that any of these graphics cards can run Apex Legends pretty smoothly without any significant frame drop.
The Far Cry 6 also ran smoothly on the RTX 3050, averaging around 88 frames per second at 1080p. However, at 1440p, it drops to 63 FPS, which was kind of a disappointment to me. In God of War, the RTX 3050 again struggled at 60 FPS at 1080p, which got worse at 1440p as it went below 40 frame rates. For a GPU with 8GB of VRAM, it is quite hard to imagine such kind of performance.
Moving on to the next game, PlayerUnknown’s Battleground (PUBG), the RTX 3050 was performing magnificently, pushing above 200 FPS at 1080p ultra-high settings. At 1440p, frame rates dropped to 127 FPS on average. Even though the performance was won by the RX 6600 here, the margin was still narrow.
RTX 3060 VS RX 6600 VS RTX 3050: Price
Now to the best part — about the prices of the respective graphics cards. Well, it’s obvious to say that the RTX 3060 is priced much higher than the RTX 6600 and RTX 3050. The RTX 3060, which was launched at the price of $330, is currently available on Amazon (as I write this) at a price of $369, which is still better than the inflated price of $400 or above.
Talking about the RX 6600, it was launched with a price tag of $329 but luckily, it is available at an affordable price of $239 and is currently the best deal to get your hands on a 1080p graphics card. On the other hand, the RTX 3050 is available at a price of $299, a mere $60 above the RX 6600.
Now it completely depends on your budget and preferences to pick any of them. More or less, you are likely to pay between $200 to $400 for any of these graphics cards.
Which One Is Best For 1080p Gaming In 2022?
It depends on which two we are comparing. No doubt the RTX 3060 is much better than the RX 6600 and RTX 3050. Its 12GB VRAM, 192-bit memory interface, 3584 CUDA Cores, and superior ray tracing are some of the best features that you’ll get on this graphics card. But again, it’s your budget that will decide your product. If you can spend $400 on a graphics card, I would strongly recommend you go for the RTX 3060.
But if you can’t spend that much money, without a doubt, I would ask you to go for the RX 6600. It is much better in performance compared to the RTX 3050 at a lower price. As you can see from the benchmarks, the RX 6600 was averaging more FPS than the RTX 3050, even competing with the RTX 3060 in some games.
Having said that, the above review makes it clear that you either go for the RTX 3060 if you have the budget or go for the RX 6600 if you don’t.
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