NVIDIA RTX 3050 For Desktops Will Allegedly Launch In 8GB, 4GB Variants

RJ Pierce, Tech Times 16 December 2021, 09:12 am

The NVIDIA RTX 3050 for desktops is coming soon but will come in two distinct flavors.

VideoCardz reports that the upcoming entry-level/mid-range Turing graphics cards will be coming in two variants: a 4GB and an 8GB model, as per renowned industry leaker @kopite7kimi.

Here is the tweet, which apparently reveals the actual die numbers that will be used for each model:

RTX 3050
GA106-150, 2560FP32, 8G
GA106-140, 2304FP32, 4G
— kopite7kimi (@kopite7kimi) December 16, 2021

As you can see, the 8GB version will feature a GA106-150 die, while the 4GB version will have the GA106-140 die. If you're well-aware of NVIDIA's products, you'll recognize that the GA106 die is the same one you can find in the RTX 3060 non-Ti and the mobile RTX 3050 Ti in laptops.

With this information, one can assume that the NVIDIA RTX 3050 desktop cards will be far below the performance of the RTX 3070 (which features a GA107 die).

Both cards will also come with a relatively slow 128-bit memory bus (a tell-tale sign of an entry-level product) and are reportedly scheduled to be launched by January 2022.

However, this information is far different from what kopite7kimi shared in the past. Back in November 2020, the leaker alleged that the desktop 3050 would have a GA107-300 die.

Nevertheless, the rumored entry-level Turing card will likely go head-to-head in the market with Intel's upcoming ARC graphics cards.

According to Tom's Guide, a desktop version of the 3050 would likely come out during the same time period as Intel's Alchemist GPUs-all of which will reportedly start with lower-end SKUs before moving on to higher-end ones.

This is already far different from NVIDIA and AMD's usual strategy over the past few years, which saw the companies release high-end parts before low-end ones.

Will Gamers Even Get Their Hands On It?

As you should know by now, there's a global GPU shortage going on. That's old news already. So, would an 8GB and 4GB RTX 3050 even make it to the hands of actual gamers, instead of scalpers and miners?

According to NVIDIA, the answer is yes. Company chief financial officer Colette Kress made this rather bold statement at the UBS Global TMT Virtual Conference, which was held last December 6th. There, Kress claimed that Team Green is "doing everything it can to procure supply," something they plan to do until Q4 2022.

Kress further stated that while demand remains high (and still outweighs global supply), channel inventories are reported as "very lean."

But a lot of people are still not confident enough with this proclamation. That's because even after over a year of being on the market, the RTX 3000 series is still largely out of stock and out of reach for most in terms of street pricing.

A quick look at current eBay prices says it all. Almost every single RTX 3000 card is overpriced to oblivion. Markups range from two to even three times the graphics cards' original MSRPs, and that's because of one thing: there's not enough to go around despite high demand.

Only time will tell if these planned desktop RTX 3050s will hold out in terms of supply.

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by RJ Pierce