It was no walkover for Argentina but they were never under any real threat of losing Saturday's match, leading 28-14 at halftime and going on to register their first victory of the new competition after Scotland beat them 47-38 in Cordoba seven days ago.
Two tries from Joaquin Oviedo and one each for Justo Piccardo, Marcos Kremer and Santiago Carreras were all converted by Tomas Albornoz
Wales had opened the scoring first through Dewi Lake, and then Rhys Carre and substitute Ben Warren also went over. Sam Costelow put over three conversions
Wales traded tries with their hosts in the first 25 minutes but after that the home side ran away with proceedings.
The driving maul, which had been effective for Wales last Saturday when they beat Fiji, handed them early hope as Lake went over but Argentina's pace and power soon cut through the visitors' defences as Oviedo and Piccardo scored.
Front rower Carre used his power to crash over under the poles to even the scores at 14-14 but tries from Kremer, on his return to the team, and Carreras opened up a handy lead at the break.
Argentina extended their advantage soon after the break with Oviedo darting over again as a runaway win was threatened.
But Wales did well to hold off any further threat and they got a try with 13 minutes remaining after pounding away at the home defences with Warren eventually scoring for a first international try on his second cap.
Argentina host England next Saturday while Wales travel to South Africa to play the Springboks in Durban.
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