Choosing an appropriate motherboard is probably the most crucial task when building a PC.
Most beginners max out on graphics card, RAM, or CPU and get other ‘less attractive’ components such as PC case, power supply, and the motherboard from the remaining budget.
The problem with this approach is that you go cheap on the latter components. It results in an overall performance downgrade of your system.
If we specifically talk about the motherboards, you should pick one with decent build quality, a good VRM setup (if you want to overclock the CPU), and the necessary expansion slots.
In this post, we will talk about the best motherboards for RTX 3050 Graphics Card – for both Intel and AMD platforms.
1: MSI B660 Mortar: Best Budget Motherboard For RTX 3050
- Supports 12th Gen Intel Core Pentium Celeron processors for LGA 1700 socket
- Supports DDR4 Memory
- Premium Thermal Solution: Extended Heatsink Design and M.2 Shield Frozr are built for high performance system and non-stop works
The B660 Mortar is a newly-released mATX motherboard by MSI and is targeted toward budget-oriented users.
As the name suggests, it comes with the B660 chipset. The B660 chipset is one of the two latest chipsets Intel has developed for the 12th-Gen Alder-Lake processors, with the other being Z690.
The main difference between these two chipsets is the fewer PCIe 3.0 and 4.0 lanes.
The fewer PCIe lanes will mean fewer PCIe and M.2 slots, which helps the manufacturers in keeping the cost lower.
That doesn’t mean B660 Mortar is short on features, however.
Yes, it does look simple at first sight, with a black-colored PCB, grey-colored heatsinks, and no RGB lighting. But in terms of features, it has everything most PC users would need.
For power delivery, it has a 12-phase VRM setup with Renesas ISL99360 power stages and a maximum output of 780A (720A is for the Vcore). This configuration ensures proper power delivery to the CPU, even if it’s 12900K.
There are two M.2 slots. Both of them are PCIe 4.0 compatible and are covered with heatsinks. For conventional storage, there are six SATA connectors.
It comes with two PCIe x16 slots. The main slot is Gen4 but is compatible with Gen3 devices as well. It’s steel-reinforced for extra durability and is wired directly with the CPU.
While the second slot is x16 in size, it’s wired as an x4 Gen3 slot and has no metal reinforcement. It is probably the only real downside we could think of in this motherboard.
In between these two, you get an x1 slot as well.
If we talk about the I/O panel, you get 1 DisplayPort, 1 HDMI port, 3 USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports, 1 USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 Type-C port, and two WiFi antennas, and a single 2.5G Ethernet connection.
There’s no support for CPU overclocking. So we would recommend it only for those who have/are going for the 12400/12400F processors.
2: ASUS ROG Strix B550-F: Best AMD Motherboard For RTX 3050
- Cutting edge gaming motherboard: with AMD AM4 socket, it is a perfect pairing for Zen 3 Ryzen 5000 & 3rd Gen AMD Ryzen CPUs
- Faster memory: 4 memory slots support dual channel DDR4 memory up to 128 GB, with ASUS OptiMem enabling higher memory frequencies and lower latencies
- Blazing data transmission speeds: Two M.2 slots, including the latest PCIe 4.0, provide maximum storage flexibility and the fastest data speeds available via the 3rd Gen AMD Ryzen platform
Our next motherboard is the Strix B550-F Gaming. It comes with the B550 chipset and supports AMD Ryzen 3000 as well as 5000 series processors.
In terms of design, it looks similar to other Asus motherboards we’ve seen in recent times – black PCB and heatsinks with red/white accents on the chipset and the rear I/O shroud.
Although the VRM heatsinks are present, they are spacious enough to accommodate most of the bulky CPU air coolers.
For storage, you get six SATA connectors on the right edge of the board, while on the bottom area, you’ll find two M.2 slots.
While both slots have dedicated heatsinks, only the top one supports PCIe 4.0 connectivity. The lower slot is limited to PCIe 3.0
The same goes for two PCIe x16 slots. Only the main slot has PCIe 4.0 x16 support and is metal-reinforced. One good thing we found here is that these slots are compatible with multi-GPU setups.
If we talk about the power delivery, there’s a 14-phase configuration with Vishay SiC639 50A power stages. Out of those 14, twelve are for CPU and the remaining two are for SoC.
In addition, there’s an ASP1106JGQW PWM controller working in a 4+2 configuration. It means there are three power stages per CPU channel. It allows the motherboard to have less VRM temperature without reducing the power.
In the I/O panel, you get two antenna ports for WiFi 6 connectivity, 4 USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A ports, a USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A port, a USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C port, two USB 2.0 ports for legacy hardware, one HDMI 2.1 port, one DisplayPort, and a BIOS flashback button.
Apart from the relatively higher price (for a B550 motherboard), we couldn’t find any real flaw in this motherboard. On the other hand, you get above-average VRM performance that allows stable overclocking, all-round features, and a user-friendly BIOS.
3: GIGABYTE Z690 Gaming X: Best Intel Motherboard For RTX 3050
- Intel LGA 1700 Socket: Supports 12th Gen Intel Core Series Processors
- DDR4 Compatible: Dual Channel Non-ECC Unbuffered DDR4
- Sturdy Power Design: 16 plus1 plus2 Twin Hybrid Digital VRM Design with 60A DrMOS
The last motherboard of this roundup is the Z690 Gaming X.
This is the motherboard you should buy if you’re planning to install and overclock a flagship processor such as Ryzen 5950X or Intel 12900K.
Why?
Because it comes with a ginormous 16+3 power stage configuration. With each ISL99390 Smart Power Stage capable of delivering 90A, it’s 1440A in total – way more power than any overclocked CPU can consume these days.
The right side of the motherboard has four DIMM slots capable of handling four DDR5 RAMs (DDR4 modules are compatible too) with up to 6200MHz speed and 128GB size.
The rear I/O panel includes a grand total of 13 USB ports: one USB 3.2 Gen2x2 (20 Gbps) port, one Type-C port, four USB 3.2 Gen2 (10 Gbps) ports, and four USB 3.2 Gen1 ports, and four USB 2.0 ports.
In addition to this, you get a standard DisplayPort, 2.5 GbE port, and two WiFI antennas.
There’s no HDMI but it’s not an issue if you’re buying it for a dedicated GPU (such as RTX 3050) and not an iGPU such as Ryzen 7 5700G.
Like USB ports, headers can be found in abundance here. We’re talking about 8 4-pin fan headers and two thunderbolt headers.
You get three PCIe x16 slots here. While the main slot runs at the latest PCIe 5.0 x16 mode, the bottom two slots operate at PCIe 3.0 x4 mode.
The main PCIe slot is not crammed into other slots/connectors, and can easily fit in high-end triple-slot GPUs.
There are six SATA connectors, and you can use any of the four M.2 PCIe 4.0 x4 slots for faster storage options.
Another handy feature we found in this motherboard is the debug LED. This will be useful if there’s an error in the key hardware components during the POST process.
Our only issue with this board is the lack of integrated RGB lighting.
On the flip side, you get, a top-notch VRM setup, PCIe 5.0 x16 slot, a huge amount of USB connectivity options, and four M.2 4.0 slots.
But as good as this motherboard is, it’s not cheap by any means. Hence, we would only suggest you if you’re doing this for future-proofing and will not switch your CPU platform anytime soon.
