Budget Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 rumored, but RTX 4050 nowhere in sight

The newest rumor round Nvidia’s GPU launch schedule comes firmly from the leftfield: group inexperienced are apparently planning to launch a brand new variant of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050. Regardless of the unique graphics card launching over 18 months in the past — a part of a GPU technology we thought completed and dusted — Nvidia is allegedly revisiting it with a brand new, cut-down iteration.

If this card does arrive, don’t anticipate it to go toe-to-toe with any present gen graphics playing cards, even the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060. Its rumored specs are even weaker than the unique Nvidia RTX 3050, which was hardly a powerhouse when it got here out.

First off, the brand new variant will allegedly have 6GB VRAM in comparison with its sibling’s 8GB. Whereas this must be nearly sufficient for many video games, some VRAM-intensive video games may push it to the restrict, and it’s hardly future proof.

It’ll additionally function a 1470MHz clock pace, 17% slower than its predecessor, in keeping with WCCFTech. The rumored 96-bit reminiscence bus once more compares unfavorably to the unique RTX 3050, which had an 128-bit bus.

This all begs the query: why anybody would purchase this card? Particularly in 2024. Effectively, there’s a silver lining in its minute 70W TDP. If power effectivity is the intention of the sport, and also you’re not bothered about working video games at excessive settings in 1440p or above, this might be a stable possibility.

Then there’s the query of worth. Though the rumor doesn’t embrace particulars on the worth, it’s a good assumption that Nvidia is selecting to launch this card to compete with the upcoming Intel Arc A580. Intel’s new GPU will most likely arrive at $200 or under, which means the brand new RTX 3050 might additionally land at round that bracket.

This nonetheless looks like unusual information, although. Possibly Nvidia has outdated silicon to shift; perhaps it truly is spooked by Intel’s foray into the graphics card area. However it’s received me questioning: what on earth’s occurred to the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050?

Contemplating Nvidia’s eye-watering pricing for the RTX 4000-series, a cut-down card at an excellent worth might work wonders for these of us trying to assemble a rig on a price range. Maybe it couldn’t compete with the Intel Arc A580’s possible aggressive pricing, so Nvidia needed to attain additional into its again catalog to design a competitor product.

If these leaks are true, and Nvidia offers the RTX 3050 an appealingly low worth, we might be taking a look at a brand new price range entry to our best graphics card listing. After all, we’ll have to attend ’til Nvidia proclaims this new card by its official channels earlier than we all know for positive.