Can Nvidia RTX 3050 play video games at 4K?

The Nvidia RTX 3050 is an entry-level graphics card that was designed to play games at 1080P resolution. However, did you know it can run titles at 4K? While it can play older games at 4K, other graphics cards can do that too. What about AAA titles? Can it play games like God of War, Cyberpunk 2077, Read Dead Redemption 2, Elden Ring, and others like it?

Yes, it can, but it will not always provide 60 FPS. This article tells you everything you need to know about the Nvidia RTX 3050 playing video games at 4K.

Note: Some aspects of this article are subjective and solely reflect the opinions of the writer

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What does the RTX 3050 bring to the table?

Gigabyte RTX 3050 Eagle 8GB Card (Image via Hardware Canucks/YouTube)

The Nvidia RTX 3050 is from the Ampere generation of Nvidia GPUs. It is an entry-level model in the RTX 3000 series, so it has fewer shader cores, RT cores, and VRAM. It can also play some ray-traced games.

Here's the specs sheet of the graphics card:

Specifications	Details
Shader Units	2560
RT cores	20
TMUs	80
ROPs	32
Base clock	1552 MHz
Boost clock	1777 MHz
VRAM size	8GB
VRAM bus width	128-bit
VRAM bandwidth	224 GB/s
Manufacturing node	8nm
Thermal design power	130W
Price	$199

The specs look good enough, but only real-life tests can confirm if the RTX 3050 can play video games at 4K.

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Can the Nvidia RTX 3050 play video games at 4K?

God of War running at 4K high with DLSS quality at 38 average FPS (Image via ShadowSeven/YouTube)

The RTX 3050 was designed to be played at 1080p with 60 FPS. However, you can't expect the same FPS when you switch the resolution up to 4K. You will have to contend with 30+ FPS, and even that may require you to turn on DLSS.

Here are all the AAA games that your RTX 3050 can run at 4K:

Games	Performance
God of War	38 FPS
Forza Horizon 5	48 FPS
Days Gone	36 FPS
Cyberpunk 2077	33 FPS
Elden Ring	33 FPS
Red Dead Redemption 2	37 FPS
GTA V	51 FPS
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	26 FPS
Fortnite	81 FPS

As you can see, the Nvidia RTX 3050 manages to get 30+ FPS in almost all the games, except Assassin's Creed Valhalla. However, that title was played at high graphical settings. If you play it in medium or low settings, you may get 30+ FPS.

It is also important to note that some games have DLSS enabled, while others don't. This may also help you get 45+ FPS in some games. However, don't expect anything more than that unless the title is older or is an esports title.

Most AAA games provide 30+ FPS, but competitive titles will surely provide 60+ FPS. However, if your goal is to play video games at 4K, we have a better alternative if you haven't bought RTX 3050 yet.

That's none other than the AMD Radeon 6600, which is a better-performing card than the RTX 3050 while costing $10 less.

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Verdict

So, can the Nvidia RTX 3050 play video games at 4K? Yes, it can, and those games play very well above 30+ FPS. However, there's a cost to playing titles at 4K with such entry-level GPUs, and that's the FPS.

You will never get 60 FPS in modern AAA games, at least not at 4K resolution. Even if you turn on DLSS or FSR, you still won't achieve 60 FPS without seriously degrading the graphics.

However, if you consider the alternative Radeon 6600 for 4K gaming, you will get slightly more FPS while you save $10 on the purchase. If your decision is the RTX 3050, you should know that there's a second RTX 3050 model that not only has less VRAM but also has lower performance, so steer clear of that.

Keep these things in mind when you are out in the GPU market to make a new purchase.