Nvidia RTX 3050 vs Intel Arc A580: Which is the best budget GPU?

The budget video card market is scarce, yet both AMD and Nvidia mostly focus on higher-end options. Intel is the only company that released not one but three GPUs under $200. The Intel Arc A580 is one of the best graphics cards at this price bracket.

That said, can the Arc A580 beat the RTX 3050? That's what we plan to find in this article. Read on to find which is the better budget GPU.

Note: Some aspects of this article are subjective and reflect the writer's opinions.

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Nvidia RTX 3050 vs Intel Arc A580

The Nvidia RTX 3050 is based on the Ampere architecture that significantly improved performance over its predecessor. On the other hand, the Arc A580 is designed on a brand-new architecture from Intel called Alchemist. It was the company's first attempt at making a discrete GPU.

Due to its immature drivers, Intel had a very rocky launch. That said, there have been significant improvements since its first release. Before we start comparing the two graphics cards, let's look at their specs first.

Specs comparison

The Intel Arc A580 graphics cards (Image via Intel)

Here are all the specs of the Nvidia RTX 3050 and Intel Arc A580:

Note: There's a 6GB variant of the RTX 3050 that was released later, but for this article, we are focusing on the standard 8GB version.

Specifications	Nvidia RTX 3050	Intel Arc A580
Shader cores	2560	3072
RT cores	20	24
TMUs	80	192
ROPs	32	96
Base clock speed	1552 MHz	1700 MHz
Boost clock speed	1777 MHz	2000 Mhz
VRAM size	8 GB	8 GB
VRAM bus width	128-bit	256-bit
VRAM bandwidth	224 GB/s	512 GB/s
Manufacturing process	8nm	6nm
Thermal design power (TDP)	130W	175W
Price	$199	$159

As you see, the specs between these two graphics cards vary widely. The shader cores are close, but the texture mapping units (TMUs) and Render Output Units (ROPs) are much higher on the Arc A580. On top of that, the VRAM configuration and the bandwidth of the Intel card are double the RTX video card.

Will it give the Intel card an advantage over the Nvidia GPU? It might, but only a proper gaming benchmark will reveal that.

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Performance comparison

The RTX 3050 vs Intel Arc A580 (Image via Testing Games/YouTube)

With the specs out of the way, let's look at the real-world comparisons between the two cards. All the FPS numbers have been sourced from the Testing Games channel on YouTube.

Note: The two video cards were tested at 1080p resolution with high/ultra settings.

Games	Nvidia RTX 3050	Intel Arc A580
Hitman 3	80 FPS	108 FPS
Cyberpunk 2077	50 FPS	66 FPS
Resident Evil 4 Remake	52 FPS	65 FPS
Assassin's Creed Mirage	58 FPS	60 FPS
Starfield	28 FPS	35 FPS
Red Dead Redemption 2	49 FPS	68 FPS
Hogwarts Legacy	70 FPS	87 FPS
The Last of Us: Part 1	49 FPS	48 FPS
Spider-Man	74 FPS	92 FPS
Forza Horizon 5	69 FPS	86 FPS

On average, the Intel Arc A580 is 23% faster than the RTX 3050. The difference in performance is even wider in Hitman 3, Hogwarts Legacy, and Forza Horizon 5. The performance of the Nvidia card often drops below 60 FPS in many games, while Intel's offering mostly maintains over 60.

Only in Starfield, which is a demanding game, does the performance drop drastically, but even then, the Arc A580 is faster. Their performance is also lower in The Last of Us: Part 1, but it's a VRAM-hungry game that often troubles 8GB cards at higher graphical settings.

They are great gaming cards, but Intel pulls ahead in almost every title. However, the RTX 3050 is still very capable of playing most games, even if the FPS is lower. It can even play some older offerings at 4K.

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Pricing

The MSI Gaming GeForce RTX 3050 8GB (Image via MSI)

The Intel GPU pulls another win here, which is fairly expected given its insistence on the budget market. The Arc A580 ($159) is about 20% cheaper than the RTX 3050 ($199).

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Verdict

The Intel Arc A580 is the better GPU out of the two. It is around 23% faster than the RTX 3050 but costs 20% less. It is honestly a great deal and makes the Arc graphics card an easy recommendation. Even in demanding games, it will perform above the RTX card. However, there are a few caveats. The Nvidia GPU supports DLSS upscale technology, which is better than Intel's XESS.

Besides that, Intel Arc GPUs' drivers still aren't as good as Nvidia and AMD, but they have definitely improved since launch. The company continues to improve its drivers with regular updates that bring performance improvements every time. So, keep that in mind when choosing between the two, but the Arc A580 is the best in terms of pure performance.

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Check out our other GPU comparisons:

• AMD RX 7900 XT vs Nvidia RTX 4070 Ti Super
• Radeon RX 7800 XT vs Radeon RX 7900 GRE
• Intel Arc A750 vs RTX 4060