Recently an ASRock Phantom Gaming Arc A770 8GB hit a super low price and we
picked one up to compare it to a couple other GPUs in that price range. So,
if you had less than $280, which GPU would you pick? Red, green, or blue? Let’s test them out!
Sales on GPUs are becoming pretty common, and the low end isn’t an exception. So
even though this specific model of the A770 isn’t $270 dollars anymore,
I’m sure it’s not the last time we’ll see it that low. And if you happened to have $280
burning in your pocket, and you found some great deals, this head-to-head should help.
There are three specific graphics cards we’ll be looking at today. Starting off with Intel,
we have the ASROCK Arc A770 Phantom Gaming D 8GB OC, which was available for $270 when we
bought it, but is normally $320 and comes with a 2 game bundle. On the AMD side we
have the MSI Radeon RX 6650 XT MECH 2X 8G OC that has been off and on sale for $280 but is
normally $295. But guess what? It also comes with a free game! And finally, we have one
of the cheapest Nvidia GPUs we could find, the ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 3050 Twin Edge OC 8GB,
which was picked up at the $270 mark. No free games with this one, you get just the card.
For this video, Adam and I are tag-teaming it! Adam ran all the benchmarks on the GPUs and we
collaborated on the games, testing methods, and results. So everything in this piece is a
combination of our efforts together to bring you the results and opinions on the matter.
He ran all the tests on his small form factor gaming rig, featuring an Intel Core i9-13900,
32GBs of DDR5 at 5600 MT/s, and an SK Hynix Platinum P41 Gen 4 NVMe SSD.
For resolution we actually focused on 1440p to put these cards under a more strenuous load, and
to show things like VRAM limitations. Some games even featured ray tracing, but most did not. We
were kind of surprised by how well some of these cards held up though, so let’s get to the results.
Let’s kick this off with Cyberpunk 2077, which was tested using the Ultra preset,
with no ray tracing and no upscaling. Here we see a nice victory for the RX 6650 XT
when it comes to average FPS. But, the A770 has a tighter spread between average FPS and 1% lows,
which should make it feel a bit smoother overall. The RTX 3050 has the weakest averages,
but the 1% lows are right there with the others. Either way that is a large average
FPS performance delta, showing that Nvidia just has a hard time keeping up at 1440p.
Horizon Zero Dawn was tested at Ultimate Quality with no upscaling and revealed an inverse story
on the A770 and RX 6650XT. The A770 has a bit of a lead on average FPS, however,
make note of the tighter range between the average FPS and 1% lows on the RX 6650XT. The RTX 3050
once again has a hard time keeping up, and is well below the other two in performance all around.
Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands was tested at Badass settings and once again flips the script on
the A770 and the RX 6650XT. This is becoming amusing, but makes for a very interesting debate
on the two cards as they’re basically hitting the same 1% lows. The RTX 3050 barely shows up
to play here in comparison but does maintain those tight average FPS to 1% low numbers.
So take that for what you will.
Forspoken at High with RT off and reveals a high point for the A770, where it is miles ahead of the
RX 6650XT and the RTX 3050. The RX 6650XT and the RTX 3050, for the first time are quite comparable
in this title and it’s honestly something I wasn’t expecting to see. Not sure why those 1% lows
are so horrible across the board though, Gordon chalks it up to it just being a crappy benchmark.
Returnal showcases a similar story when tested at Epic settings with ray tracing enabled. The
A770 casually strolls way past the competing cards here, likely due to the larger memory
bus width. While the RX 6650XT and the RTX 3050 are showcasing very similar performance,
it is impressive to see how well they’re holding up with RT enabled, I didn’t expect that.
Modern Warfare 2 was tested at Ultra, and showcases another big win for the 6650
XT. The A770 is definitely playable, but the RTX 3050 just really isn’t a
contender at this resolution and settings. Thankfully, no matter which GPU you go with,
you’ll have access to each vendors upscaling tech to help out. Modern Warfare 2 is one of
the rare titles I’ve seen that supports DLSS, FSR, and XeSS, a real treat.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla was tested at Ultra High settings and showcases another win for the
RX 6650 XT. The A770 isn’t too far behind though, and both leave the RTX 3050 in the dust on this
title. This game has historically been strong for AMD, and that trend continues to bear fruit.
Rainbow Six Siege was tested using the Ultra preset, but it defaults to a 50% resolution scale,
so we took it back up to 100% for this test. The winner was clearly the RX 6650XT thanks
to those strong 1% lows, which is very important in a competitive game like this.
The A770 shows high averages but drops its 1% lows down to the same levels as the RTX 3050.
Hitman 3 is a surprisingly strong showcase for the A770, with it carrying itself very highly
on the chart here. This is with maxed settings and only RT Shadows enabled,
something the Arc cards are able to handle quite well - and it shows. While the RTX
3050 isn’t delivering a bad experience here, it is once again well behind the other two.
Rounding this out with Watchdogs Legion, it was tested using the Ultra preset and
RT off. This game really ate up all of the VRAM on each card and it was brutal on the
RTX 3050. We’re seeing the A770 at over double the 1% lows of the RTX 3050 and
delivering a better experience than the RX 6650XT. Yes they all have the same 8GB of
VRAM to play with, but some have wider busses than others, and that matters.
While that was the end of the three way testing, some of you may be wondering how this 8GB variant
of the A770 compares to Intel’s Limited Edition version with 16GB’s. Here are all of the same
games, but just looking at both Arc cards. There are some obvious places where the 16GBs of VRAM
seems to help, like in Cyberpunk 2077, Forspoken, and Returnal. But surprisingly enough, this custom
variant actually did better in others. We believe it has to do with the higher clocks and the larger
cooler on the Asrock card, offering a bit better performance in places where VRAM doesn’t matter.
For $80 cheaper, it’s hard to pass up the 8GB version as long as you know its limitations.
So, if you were to look at spending $270 to $280 of your own money,
which would be your best bet? Each card has obvious strengths and weaknesses and has lots
of performance to offer at 1080p and even 1440p. The Arc A770 is the newest player on the field,
and that was a great showing for the price, pulling in some nice wins, especially around
VRAM limited titles. But it is still early days for Intel’s GPU efforts and there are a
few bugs left to iron out. While the RTX 3050 was the weakest when it came to average FPS,
it does have surprisingly rock solid 1% lows and of course other platform advantages like DLSS and
Nvidia Broadcast. The RX 6650 XT has been the go to recommendation for this price point though,
and is a great all-arounder, but it can stumble in the VRAM department.
At full MSRP the conversation obviously shifts a bit, but when found for good deals like this
things become tricky. As it stands with the price we picked up the cards at,
we think the MSI Radeon RX 6650 XT MECH 2X 8G OC stands above the rest. That GPU has the most wins,
offers a solid feature set, and typically stable drivers. We think there’s little you
leave off the table with this card, but you’ll have to gauge those features for
yourself to see whether or not they matter enough to sway your purchasing decision.
We’d love to hear your take on the results and what graphics card you
would personally pick up for under $300. Sound off in the comment section and while
you’re down there make sure you’re subscribed and hit that notification
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