It’s looking like Nvidia is preparing to launch a new ultra-budget variant of its 18-month-old RTX 3050 that should give gamers an even more affordable way to access reasonably up-to-date RTX-based tech. The new cheap Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 variant will apparently feature a lower clock speed and less VRAM.
Based on the GA107-325-Kx Ampere GPU, the new card will also use a PG173 SKU 16 PCB board, according to Wccftech. Meanwhile, its clock speed will sit at 1470MHz, which is 17 percent slower than the original GeForce RTX 3050.
A drop from 8GB to 6B VRAM is also on the cards, which is concerning given all the recent talk of how many modern games can be hampered by having less than 8GB of VRAM. Correspondingly, the memory interface has dropped from 128-bit to 96-bit.
These changes are especially troublesome as while the Nvidia RTX 4060 and other RTX 40 series graphics card could get away somewhat with having less VRAM thanks to a larger on-die cache, the older RTX 3050 doesn’t include this – it’ll feel every bit of the VRAM reduction.
The big upside here is that the new RTX 3050 will have a TGP of just 70W. That means it won’t need an external power connector, opening the card up for use in very compact and basic systems. This compares to a 115W TGP and requirement of an 8-pin power connector for the existing RTX 3050.
The new Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 6GB graphics card is expected to be produced from January 2024 onwards with a launch to follow.
As for any expected RTX 4050 release date or price, there have been precious few rumblings. It seems as though we could still be waiting a while for that card, if it ever appears.
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