EVGA RTX 3050 XC Black 8GB Review

A Closer Look

EVGA may be pushing an entry-level card here, but they’ve clearly still put some thought into the design. There’s no getting around the fact the shroud is all plastic, but that’s pretty standard this far down the range. But it looks presentable enough, and honestly, there’s not even that much shroud anyway, as it’s almost entirely fan!

The fans are just huge, running the full width of the card and virtually the whole length too. That means big airflow, even at low RPM and it should make easy work of cooling this card. Actually, this cooler looks like it has the airflow to cool a significantly more powerful GPU. I love those little EVGA logos on the blades too, I think they look cool, even if others in the office disagree.

Around the back, is there a backplate on this or not? No, there isn’t but I must admit that funky PCB cut-out design still gives the illusion of one. Also that ventilation doesn’t just look cool, but it actually will help cool the GPU quite a lot. The rear fan will now be able to blow right through the radiator.

There’s some additional ventilation at the rear, but more interestingly, the backplate is black, matching up with the black shroud, PCB, and fans of the dark; very stealthy!

The RTX 3050 benefits from a dual-slot design, and it’s not overly long either, so it’s going to be very compatible with a lot of PC cases. There’s a good size radiator design in there too. The fins are not as tightly packed as we usually see on high-end models, but that’s still a sizeable chunk of metal in there for this graphics card.

On this side, you’ll find the EVGA and GeForce logos, which look great! Plus, there’s a slight recess in the heatsink allowing for the power connector.

In line with what we’ve seen on all the other RTX 3050 cards, it accepts an 8-pin header for the PSU. This isn’t a hugely powerful GPU, so 550W PSUs and above should likely be more than enough.