Nvidia Preps GeForce RTX 3050 & RTX 3050 Ti for Laptops

Having launched high-end and performance-mainstream GeForce RTX 30-series graphics solutions for laptops, Nvidia now needs to complete the lineup with mainstream GPUs featuring the Ampere architecture. To serve this segment of the laptop market, Nvidia is preparing to launch its GeForce RTX 3050-series products, according to unofficial information reports Notebookcheck. As this is unofficial information, take the news with a pinch of salt.

Nvidia's GeForce RTX 3050 family will include two base models: the RTX 3050 with 2048 CUDA cores as well as the RTX 3050 Ti with 2560 CUDA cores,  Both products are expected to be based on the yet-to-be-unveiled GA107 graphics processor, the smallest GPU in the Ampere family to date, if the information is correct.

The new graphics chip will come equipped with 4GB of GDDR6 memory that will use a 128-bit interface, though its data transfer of 5500 MT/s rate seems too low by today's standards, so one should take it with a healthy dose of scepticism. 

Nvidia is expected to use its GA107 graphics processor under the GeForce RTX 3050 and GeForce RTX 3050 Ti monikers for a wide variety of laptops. Both versions of the GPUs will be available in variants rated for a 35W, 50W, 60W, and 80W total graphics power (TGP) and will therefore feature vastly different clocks. For example, base frequencies of the RTX 3050 will range from 713 MHz to 1530 MHz, whereas base frequencies of the RTX 3050 Ti will be between 735 MHz and 1463 MHz, depending on its TGP rating. 

Considering the wide variety of clocks, the performance offered by the new GeForce RTX 3050 GPUs will be dramatically different. For example, compute performance of the RTX 3050 Ti rated for 80W will peak at around 8.7 FP32 TFLOPS in boost mode, if the numbers are correct.  By contrast, the RTX 3050 Ti specced for 35W will only provide up to 5.3 FP32 TFLOPS and will be left behind by the RTX 3050 rated for 50W that will offer up to 5.95 FP32 TFLOPS.

Nvidia's mobile GPUs do not always have direct equivalents for desktop market, so we do not know how desktop GeForce RTX 3050 and GeForce RTX 3050 Ti will fare against their laptop counterparts. If the GA107 indeed has 2560 (or more) CUDA cores running at decent clocks, it could be good enough to replace Nvidia's GeForce GTX 16-series and could even offer a decent alternative to the GeForce RTX 2060, provided that the new boards will be equipped with more than 4GB of fast memory. 

Nvidia clearly needs new GeForce RTX 30-series models to complete its Ampere lineup of graphics offerings. The new products will likely carry the GeForce RTX 3050 and GeForce RTX 3050 Ti model numbers, but their exact specifications are not something that we can confirm as Nvidia does not talk about unannounced products.