We just heard more about the rumors that Nvidia could be coming up with the RTX 3050 variant, and it's rumored that this graphics card could debut in February.
Wccftech noted that the RTX 3050 with a reduced 6GB VRAM (from 8GB) has been talked about on the Board Channels forums (in China – a source of more vague rumors, so add some extra spice).
While it was previously thought that Nvidia was planning to launch this RTX 3050 6GB in January, the new rumor claims it will be February, and we've also been given an alleged price.
That price tag stands at $179 (in the US – with prices matching elsewhere), which was the lower estimate based on the previous talk on the vine.
According to the previous rumor, we are told that the number of CUDA cores could be reduced by 20%, as well as the VRAM reduction (and that the memory bus will also be reduced to a 96-bit affair). Additionally, Wccftech reports that the base clock speed will also be reduced by almost 20% compared to the 8GB model.
Analysis: A flop of a budget GPU?
If Nvidia substantially reduces the core count and clock speed of the RTX 3050 6GB as predicted, and also loses 2GB of VRAM (and shrinks the memory bus), it will be a significantly nerfed product compared to the RTX 3050 8GB. it is standing.
If this is true, or at least close to the mark, the updated RTX 3050 doesn't sound very appealing.
Frankly, the RTX 3050 8GB wasn't that enticing from the start, and we don't see how a bumped-up version, at the rumored price point, can compete with the likes of AMD's Radeon RX 6600. A red card currently represents stiff competition in the arena of best budget GPUs.
It's possible that the supposed specs or prices of this refresh are wrong – maybe even both. Time will tell, but it seems likely that the RTX 3050 6GB will be incoming, as we've also heard that Nvidia plans to ditch its venerable GTX 1650 and 1630 graphics cards. So, in theory, the updated RTX 3050 could be a good fit to replace the GTX 1650 – we'll see.