You really need to see what a GTX 1660 Ti gaming laptop can
still do before you consider buying a newer RTX 3050 Ti model. I’ve compared
both laptops in 14 different games to show you all the differences!
The newer RTX 3050 Ti nearly has 67% more CUDA cores and it can potentially hit higher boost
clock speeds, however it's got less memory. Both GPUs use GDDR6 memory, but the older 1660 Ti has
2 gigs of extra capacity, along with more memory bandwidth and a bigger memory bus,
despite coming out 2 years earlier. Both GPUs are available with different power limit ranges which
will affect performance, but both of the laptops I’ve tested have the same higher 80 watt limit.
The two laptops I’m testing with are the Core 17 from XMG for the RTX 3050 Ti and my Lenovo
Legion 5 for the GTX 1660 Ti. Both laptops were also tested with the exact
same physical kit of memory and although the Legion 5 does let you disable optimus,
unfortunately the core 17 does not, and as that would be an unfair advantage
I’ve tested both laptops with optimus enabled to keep a level playing field.
Yeah one of these is a 17” and the other 15”,
but thermals weren’t a limitation so I don’t think this matters.
Now something I do need to address is the CPU differences between these two laptops. I don’t
think it’s possible to get a GTX 1660 Ti with either a modern Intel 11th gen or Ryzen 5000
processor, so there’s pretty much always going to be a CPU difference regardless,
as 3050 Ti just launched with newer CPUs available,
that’s just a fact of life when the 1660 Ti is already a couple of years old.
The Core 17 on the other hand has Intel’s new 11th gen i7-11800H,
and that’s just the only laptop I’ve had so far that’s got RTX 3050 Ti graphics.
I used the Legion 5 for this comparison because at least its processor still has 8 cores.
Now it would have been a much fairer comparison if I also had the 3050 Ti in a Legion 5 with,
say, the newer 5800H processor, at least then both would be 8 core Ryzen.
As things stand, we’re also looking at an Intel vs AMD difference here,
so to try and compensate for that we’re only going to be focusing on higher setting
presets in this comparison, as those should be more GPU bound in general.
Alright just before anyone starts angrily typing in the comments “unfair comparison
because different CPU, unsubscribe!” I’ll give you a little spoiler and note that even with the
11th gen processor, the 3050 Ti probably still isn’t worth considering compared to the 1660 Ti.
So let’s get into those 14 different games and find out why, and after the games we’ll check
out things like content creator workloads as well as price differences and cost per frame.
Cyberpunk 2077 was tested with the exact same run through the game on both laptops. I’ve got the
3050 Ti results on top and the 1660 Ti results below. The older 1660 Ti is reaching 16% higher
average FPS in this test, even its 1% low is close to the averages that are capable on the 3050 Ti.
Red Dead Redemption 2 on the other hand was doing better on the 3050 Ti when tested with
the games benchmark. The 3050 Ti is almost 9% ahead, but at the same time this is less than
a 5 FPS difference. It’s also worth noting that the test can’t even run at the higher
ultra setting preset with 4 gigs of VRAM, so the 3050 Ti would be out of luck there.
Speaking of not enough VRAM, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla demonstrates the limitations of the
3050 Ti. This was the worst performing game on it out of all 14 titles tested.
It’s performing extremely poorly here compared to the older 1660 Ti, simply because the 1660
Ti has 2 gigs of extra memory. Now things would of course be different at lower setting levels,
but I thought this demonstrated perfectly what can happen in some cases with 4 gigs of VRAM.
Control is a GPU heavy game, and the 1660 Ti was doing better here too. The difference to
average frame rate was only 3, but check out the 1% lows, the 1660 Ti was reaching a 27%
higher 1% low, so a much more stable experience from the older hardware.
Just for a bit of fun, let’s see how well ray tracing does. The 3050 Ti is obviously ahead here
as it has hardware designed to accelerate ray tracing, while the 1660 Ti does not,
but with frame rates like this I wouldn’t consider ray tracing anyway. That said,
RTX graphics does of course also offer DLSS support which GTX does not have,
so you could instead use that to boost performance in supported games.
Microsoft Flight Simulator was tested in the Sydney landing challenge,
and the 3050 Ti was 17% ahead in this one, though I believe it’s more CPU heavy,
so it may be the case that we’re instead seeing some of those differences between
the processors here, it’s hard to say how much is due to the GPU difference.
Watch Dogs Legion was tested with the games benchmark,
and the differences weren’t too big here, but it’s yet another win for the older GTX 1660 Ti.
Death Stranding was doing better on the 3050 Ti, well at least in terms of average FPS,
its 1% low was slightly behind, though it’s only a small difference, and realistically
these frame rates at max settings are going to be perfectly playable with either.
Fortnite was tested with the same replay on each laptop, the 3050 Ti is ahead but again
it’s not like the difference is that large, and in these esports titles I think it’s
going to be more difficult to say whether or not we’re looking at CPU differences.
Likewise Rainbow Six Siege was doing quite a bit better on the 3050 Ti,
reaching 13% higher average FPS, but there’s a much larger 38% boost to the 1% low, which again
I suspect is a result of the CPU differences that exist between these two platforms.
Metro Exodus was tested with the games benchmark, and extremely close results with both here,
basically no real difference from a practical standpoint and honestly margin of error stuff,
but based on the results the 3050 Ti was 2% ahead.
Battlefield V seems to be another game that benefits from more VRAM. The 1660 Ti was 40%
faster here, and its 1% low was well above
even the average FPS that the 3050 Ti was able to produce.
The Witcher 3 on the other hand was a little ahead with the newer 3050 Ti,
but 80 plus FPS on the 1660 Ti at max settings doesn’t really
make the 3050 Ti look amazing given it was behind in many of the other games.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider was tested with the games benchmark, and at the highest
setting preset the 1660 Ti was a couple of FPS ahead, again only a small difference,
but if the older GPU is cheaper then it could be a good deal.
F1 2020 was tested as the obligatory racing game, I haven’t bought the newer 2021 yet.
The 3050 Ti was far ahead here, to the point where I’m wondering if it’s the differences in
the CPUs that we’re seeing, as even its 1% low is ahead of the 1660 Ti’s average FPS.
On average over all 14 games tested at 1080p, the newer RTX 3050 Ti was about one and a half
percent slower than the older GTX 1660 Ti. Of course there are CPU differences at play,
but I think that’s always going to be the case as I don’t think both
GPUs are even available in laptops with the same CPU generation. In any case,
focusing on higher setting presets should generally be more GPU heavy, and although
there are some outliers in favor of each GPU, once averaged out there’s no real difference.
So then it all comes down to price differences,
unless the 3050 Ti is looking like a good deal compared to the 1660 Ti,
or you really want modern features like DLSS, then the 1660 Ti could be worth considering.
Older 1660 Ti laptops may also have better availability as they have been out for a
couple of years already, whereas 3050 Ti laptops have only been getting made during the times of
parts shortages. Plus with the 1660 Ti being older there would also be a larger second hand market.
Now price differences will of course change over time,
so refer to those links down in the description for updates.
The Legion 5 that I’ve tested with here is currently over $1200 USD,
so it’s gone up from the $1000 price that it was about a year ago, supply and demand I guess.
Of course there are cheaper 1660 Ti models, like this Intel 6 core version of the legion 5,
and honestly that’s still going to do very well for gaming, the difference
between 6 and 8 cores in games in a laptop is generally quite small, at least today.
A Legion 5 with 3050 Ti and newer CPU on the other hand is about $1300 USD,
at least on Lenovo’s site. Right now they seem to have a sale through Amazon for $1050,
so shows it’s worth shopping around.
As far as cost per frame goes, well the $1000 1660 Ti is the best,
but the 3050 Ti with that sale wasn’t far behind, but at regular full prices,
the 1660 Ti is offering better value here, costing less for similar FPS.
It’s also worth noting that Lenovo’s Legion 5 has gone on sale for $1400
with the RTX 3060, and as I’ve shown in this video here,
it performs significantly better compared to the 3050 Ti. So if you’re looking at a
3050 Ti laptop and the 3060 is not much more expensive, definitely consider it.
Let’s get back to 1660 Ti vs 3050 Ti though.
Honestly if it’s just for gaming, at least out of these Lenovo Legion 5 examples,
I’d probably just pay less and get the 6 core Intel processor with the 1660 Ti.
As we’ve just seen, the 1660 Ti holds up well compared to the lower VRAM 3050 Ti,
and for less money it’s even more attractive.
Now when on sale the 3050 Ti can look pretty reasonable,
and as we’ve just seen, for the most part it does alright in most games.
My concern though is that if we’re already starting to see
limitations of the 4 gigabytes of VRAM in the 3050 Ti today in 2021,
then what are things going to be like one, two, three, five years from now?
It’s hard to recommend something when I can already see limits. The fact is,
most people keep their laptop for a few years easily. These things
aren’t exactly cheap and most people don’t upgrade them every generation,
so the extra VRAM from the 1660 Ti might end up lasting longer than the 3050 Ti.
Sure, the 1660 Ti is already a couple of years old and paired with last gen CPUs, but I’d probably be
leaning towards that, unless I’m targeting lower settings or plan on making heavy use of DLSS.
That said, the GTX 1660 Ti laptop will be able to take advantage in games that support AMD’s FSR,
which is currently rolling out in various titles.
I’ve also tested out a couple of content creator workloads
just to see how things differ compared to gaming.
V-Ray is a CUDA test, so the higher CUDA core count present in the newer 3050 Ti was always
going to give it an edge. It’s scoring around 25% higher than the 1660 Ti in this test,
much higher compared to most of the games we looked at earlier.
Blender was also tested using CUDA, and the 3050 Ti was completing the longer classroom benchmark
42% faster than the 1660 Ti, so another bigger gain compared to the game tests.
Unfortunately I haven’t been able to test things like thermals or battery life because the cooling
designs and batteries of both laptops is just completely different. Wherever possible I do
try to do my comparisons with the same chassis, but unfortunately that just wasn’t possible here.
So which GPU would you pick? The older GTX 1660 Ti, or the newer RTX 3050 Ti?
Let me know down in the comments below, and make sure you get subscribed to the channel for
future laptop comparisons like this one. I’m also working on comparing the 1660 Ti against the 3060
so we can see what the differences are when both generations have 6 gigs of VRAM. Otherwise come
and join me in Discord and get behind the scenes videos by supporting the channel on Patreon,
and check out some of my other laptop comparisons over here next, I’ll see you over in one of those.