Nvidia has silently confirmed the discharge of a brand new RTX 3050 variant at this time, nevertheless it’s a slower mannequin aimed on the OEM market solely. This variant comes with a slight discount in core clocks and CUDA cores. However all its different core specs, together with the reminiscence configuration and TDP, stay the identical.
Sadly, Nvidia has not acknowledged why this new mannequin was created, which is barely any completely different from the usual mannequin. The neutered model comes with an 11% discount in CUDA core counts from 2560 to 2304 (20 SMs to 19 SMs) and round a 2% discount in core clocks.Â
In real-world use, the efficiency degradation between the 2 playing cards should not be noticeable in any respect with such a minor deviation in core depend and particularly clock speeds – if something. Moreover, Nvidia’s GPU Enhance 4.0 algorithm ought to be capable of enhance clocks even larger than the usual variant on account of energy consumption remaining the identical between the 2 fashions.
Presumably, Nvidia has disabled some cores to extend yields from barely faulty GA106 dies manufactured on the manufacturing unit. That is the one logical rationalization we have now proper now, nevertheless it makes a number of sense.
This is not the primary time Nvidia has pulled this maneuver on the GPU market. Over the previous few generations, we have seen a number of GPU fashions that includes two to 4 completely different variations to optimize manufacturing effectivity. Essentially the most notable examples of this are the RTX 3080 12GB and GTX 1060 3GB, which featured extra or fewer CUDA cores than their vanilla counterparts.
Nvidia additionally launched OEM-exclusive fashions of graphics playing cards previously, nevertheless it hasn’t accomplished so in a really very long time. However not like OEM fashions of the previous, this new 3050 mannequin lacks any OEM branding and shares the identical naming scheme because the vanilla RTX 3050 8GB.
This could possibly be problematic for purchasers selecting gaming PCs from OEMs and clients taking a look at graphics playing cards on the used market. With no correct distinction between the 2 3050 fashions, clients will not be capable of know which GPU they’re shopping for till they buy the machine and hearth up GPU-Z on the system. Hopefully, this potential concern does not turn into a actuality.
Pricing and availability are unknown, and since this neutered 3050 is OEM unique, it is uncertain it has an MSRP of any kind. However since Nvidia has launched the specs of the brand new GPU on its important web site, it ought to already be within the arms of Nvidia’s many OEM companions. So count on new machines to be up to date with the brand new 3050 at any time.
