Palit GeForce RTX 3050 StormX graphics card 6 GB GDDR6, NE63050018JE-1072F

StormX is made for small computers: the card is 162 mm long, 117 mm tall and 40 mm thick, and it occupies two expansion slots. That puts GeForce RTX graphics inside a Mini-ITX case or a compact office PC where a long triple-fan card would never fit. The card weighs 0.5 kg and has no lighting.

The GeForce RTX 3050 has ray tracing and Tensor cores, so it supports real-time ray tracing and NVIDIA DLSS, which uses AI to raise frame rates in supported games. NVIDIA Reflex reduces system latency in competitive titles, and G-SYNC support gives smooth, tear-free motion on a compatible monitor. DirectX 12 and OpenGL 4.6 are supported.

The card has 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 96-bit bus, with a 14 Gbps data rate and 168 GB/s of bandwidth. That is enough for esports and less demanding games, while the highest texture settings in the newest releases call for more video memory. Resizable BAR lets the processor access the entire video memory at once, which lifts frame rates in games that support it.

Under light load the fan stops and the card runs silently; it only spins up when the GPU warms up or the workload grows. According to Palit, the honeycomb bracket lets up to 15% more hot air out of the case. The Palit ThunderMaster utility shows the card status and lets you adjust clocks and fan speed.

The card has HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 1.4a and DVI-D outputs, so up to three monitors can be used at once, at resolutions up to 7680 × 4320. DVI-D is handy for an older monitor, and HDCP support allows playback of protected video content. The seventh-generation NVENC encoder and fifth-generation NVDEC decoder with AV1 decode help with streaming and video playback, and NVIDIA Broadcast cleans up audio and webcam video.

Owners of a Mini-ITX or other small PC whose case cannot take a long card; users moving from integrated graphics to an RTX card who only have a 300 W power supply; players of esports and less demanding games; and streamers who need the NVENC encoder and support for three monitors.