Nvidia could be updating a previous-generation laptop GPU with a current-generation chip, according to some newly released clues.
The theory is that there is a new ‘RTX 3050 A’ mobile graphics card, with the ‘A’ suffix denoting that this is a new version of the GPU that uses an AD106 chip – which is a Lovelace GPU (used in the RTX 4060 and 4060 Ti desktop, and 4070 mobile). This replaces the Ampere GA107 chip seen in the current RTX 3050 mobile.
If Tom’s Hardware notes that this RTX 3050 A variant is included in the PCI ID database and that it’s also listed as a GPU in Nvidia’s latest graphics driver (a pretty strong indication that it exists, of course).
This renewed graphics card for laptops not only uses a chip from a newer generation, but is also a step up in class (from 107 to 106). In addition, the AD106 is a much more energetic GPU than the GA107.
So does this mean we’re getting a more powerful, faster, budget graphics card for affordable gaming laptops? The short answer is no, at least in terms of performance – but as we’ll discuss below, there could be a hidden advantage here in terms of battery life.
Analysis: Energy Efficiency FTW
Okay, so first things first, we should point out that Nvidia hasn’t officially announced the RTX 3050 A yet, and we won’t know for sure it exists until Team Green does. Well, we say that, but there’s a good chance that a spin on a previous-gen GPU like this won’t be formally announced but will simply suddenly appear in laptops – but still, the point remains that until we actually have proof that it’s there, this so-called RTX 3050 A might not amount to anything.
It’s likely that Nvidia has the revamped graphics card waiting in the wings, given its presence in the new graphics driver, and the fact that the company pulls this kind of trick quite often. And it’s not happening because Team Green suddenly changes its mind about an old graphics card and decides it needs to be more powerful. Rather, it’s a matter of using the available resources wisely.
What we mean by that is that there are always chips that don’t quite meet the requirements and that test out to have bad cores on board. What Nvidia does then is disable some of the GPU cores – including the shaky ones, of course, so that they are removed from the equation – and then put that chip in a lesser card (with a specification of fewer cores).
So these are AD106 chips that haven’t been made to the quality that Nvidia uses, rather than throwing them away, which is just good practice. It also means that the AD106 chip used will still retain the same core count as a GA107-toting RTX 3050 mobile, and it’s very likely that Nvidia will make the spec essentially identical.
In short, there may be no difference between the vanilla RTX 3050 and this ‘A’ variant, but sometimes there are slight spec boosts with these new versions of a chip. So we can still hope for a slight spec boost in some respects.
That’s probably not going to happen, but as Tom points out, there is a significant upgrade here, just by switching from Ampere to Lovelace. This is because the AD106 uses a more advanced process (TSMC 4nm, versus Ampere on Samsung 8nm), so there will absolutely be inherent benefits in terms of better efficiency. Much better power efficiency in fact, and remember we’re talking about gaming laptops here – so this could be a big plus in terms of battery life.
If anything ever comes of this RTX 3050 A, that’s it – and even if it does hit shelves in laptops, who’s to say it won’t be limited to certain regions (say, Asia). Everything is still guesswork about this laptop GPU at this point, but nonetheless, we’ve gotten a tantalizing glimpse of what could be a nice boost for budget gaming laptops in terms of battery life (and maybe a bit of a performance boost too – if we’re really lucky).