We're well over a year into the current generation of graphics cards, with the RTX 40 series replacing most of the former RTX 30 series graphics cards on the market. While there is an RTX 4050 GPU for laptops, there is no version of this card for desktop systems. At this rate, we may not see a desktop RTX 4050 at all, as Nvidia is keeping the RTX 3050 alive for 2024. 

Nvidia has now launched a new 6GB version of the RTX 3050, coming in at a cheaper price point than the current 8GB model. However, there are some other key differences aside from VRAM capacity. For starters, the memory runs on a narrower 96-bit bus, a step back from the 128-bit bus on the RTX 3050 8GB. This lowers bandwidth to 168 GB/s versus 224 GB/s.

The RTX 3050 6GB also has fewer CUDA cores than the standard RTX 3050 8GB, dropping from 2560 CUDA cores to 2304 cores, clock speeds are also dialled back from a 1777MHz boost speed to 1470MHz. The power limit has also dropped from 130W to 70W, as pointed out by VideoCardz, as the 6GB model does not ship with an additional PCIe power connector.

European retailer, Mindfactory, already has a few RTX 3050 6GB listings live, with prices starting at €185, so we're likely going to see $180/£180 prices in the US and UK.

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KitGuru Says: With the RTX 3050 seemingly continuing to live on, do you think we'll ever see an entry-level RTX 4050 GPU? 

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