RTX 3050 with a smaller die and lesser power draw spotted, can it replace the GTX 1650 as the new budget entry-level GPU?

Nvidia is planning to launch a more power-efficient and slightly weaker RTX 3050. The company is yet to confirm a price or launch date for these cards. However, looking at previous trends, this new 3050 variant might be a silent launch.

MSI, a leading add-in board (AIB) partner of Nvidia, has listed this new variant of the 3050 on its website. The RTX 3050 Ventus 2X 8G OCV1 listing is currently online on the company's website. It reveals the specs of the upcoming entry-level GPU, giving insight into what to expect.

The new 3050 is almost equivalent to the original model. However, the two biggest changes are in the GPU die and the total board power (TBP). The card is not in stock at any major retailer. Thus, this is all the information on the card as of now.

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Specs of the new and more power-efficient RTX 3050

Some renders of the Ventus 2x variant of the new 3050 (Image via Sportskeeda)

The new 3050 is based on a new GPU die. While the original card was based on the GA106 silicon, also found in the RTX 3060. However, the new GPU is based on a smaller GA107 die.

Despite being based on a smaller die, the new 3050 has a similar number of CUDA, Tensor, and RT cores. It packs 2,560 CUDA cores, 80 Tensor cores, and 20 RT cores, like the original variant.

Even the clock speeds of the new card are the same as its original variant. The card has a base clock of 1,552 MHz and can boost up to 1,772 MHz.

The memory remains the same as well. The new card comes with 8 GB of 14 Gbps GDDR6 memory based on a 128-bit bus. The memory bandwidth of the card is 224 GBps. This is similar to the original graphics card.

	GeForce RTX 3050 GA107	GeForce RTX 3050 GA106
GPU	GA107	GA106
CUDA Cores	2,560	2,560
Tensor Cores	80	80
RT Cores	20	20
Base Clock (MHz)	1,552	1,552
Boost Clock (MHz)	1,777	1,777
Memory	8GB GDDR6	8GB GDDR6
Memory Clock (Gbps)	14	14
Memory Bus	128 bit	128 bit
Memory Bandwidth (GBps)	224	224
TDP (W)	115	130

Since the specs of the new card are so close to the original RTX 3050, users should expect a similar, if not equal, level of performance from this new video card. However, it is worth noting that the RTX 3050 is slower than the RTX 2060. Thus, this upcoming GPU will be an even worse option for gaming.

In all possibilities, this card could act as a spiritual successor to the GTX 1650, which recently took the first spot in terms of popularity after debunking the GTX 1060 in the Steam Hardware Survey results.

Nvidia has no offerings in the sub-$300 range as of now. Thus, gamers are buying the Intel Arc A380, the AMD RX 6500 XT, and the RX 6600. This new and slower RTX 3050 could fill up this void.