The latest Steam hardware survey has shown that previous Nvidia graphics cards are still very much in vogue when it comes to PC gaming. However, one of the lower-end 3000 series may be getting pushed aside to make room for a GPU that could be, inexplicably, worse.
According to a report from Videocardz – which references the Chinese website Board Channels – Nvidia may be replacing its RTX 3050 card in favor of a similar one, but with less memory. It’s been suggested that Team Green could opt to manufacture and sell a 3050 with 6GB of RAM instead of the 8GB it currently has.
Quite why this would be the case is not clear, but the report suggests it may be down to this older GPU “impacting sales of the RTX 4060 too much.” If the 3050 does get replaced with a lower spec version, it could be on the market by January, according to a Board Channels quote translated by Videocardz.
The usual tempering of expectations is recommended
As always with these things, it’s best to take the information at face value for now. Until Nvidia confirms or denies these speculations, we have to assume that’s what they are: just speculations.
It’s believed that the RTX 3050 6GB card will still use the GA106 chip, but have a TDP of 75W. The current model has a TDP of 130W, so it’s possible the rest of the hardware configurations will have a bit of a downgrade as well.
As I say, these details have yet to be confirmed so take them with a pinch of salt. Whatever reason Nvidia has for discontinuing an Ampere GPU and replacing it with a weaker model, it’s best to hold off judgement until someone from the company addresses it. At the time of writing, Team Green has yet to comment.
