Igor Wallossek reports that NVIDIA might be making a new version of the RTX 3050 entry-level graphics card with lower TDP and a new GPU.
This was much anticipated and expected. As soon as the NVIDIA RTX 3050 was released, the question arose: why did NVIDIA cut the GA106 GPU to nearly identical specs to the full GA107? And why did the company not use GA107 GPU for the RTX 3050 instead of GA106? The reason seems quite clear now that the company made this strategy to meet the demand by switching between both GPUs.
The specifications of the RTX 3050 desktop include 2560 CUDA cores, 80 Texture Units, 32 ROPs, and 20 RT Cores. Moreover, PCIe Gen4 lanes have been cut to eight by the company, despite the GA106-150 GPU favoring a full length of 16 lanes. These modifications were made to fit into GA107 specifications, which would ultimately be utilized for this SKU too.
The reporter has pinpointed that the GA106 and GA107 GPUs are pin-compatible. This shows that the design needs not to be changed by board partners, a new processor, and compatible BIOS is simply required for it.
Rumor has it that the latest RTX 3050 GA107 model is expected to offer better power efficiency, the TDP is expected to vary from 130W (GA106 model) to 115W (GA107 GPU).
There is no confirmation as to when the company will start offering this new variant of RTX 3050, but interestingly this card is expected to be the best-supplied model from the whole RTX 30 series. The cost of this card has been slowly decreasing since launch with a possibility to reach MSRP in the coming time, particularly when the new variant comes in the market.
Via Igor’s Lab, VideoCardz