Nvidia RTX 4060 and RTX 4050 GPUs Could Launch Sooner Than Expected

GeForce RTX Graphics Card
(Image credit: Nvidia)

Shangke Group has filed an ECC listing with the names of several GeForce GPU models, ranging from the RTX 4090 all the way down to the GTX 700 series. Shangke Group has added the RTX 4060 and RTX 4050 model names to the listing, suggesting Nvidia could release the desktop versions of these cards soon.

If the ECC listing can be trusted, Nvidia could release its entire RTX 40 series stack in under a year. This would be very quick by Nvidia's standards, especially in the case of the RTX 30-series, where Nvidia took two years to release its entire product stack, ranging from the RTX 3090 all the way to the RTX 3050 8GB.

GPU manufacturers use ECC listings to register GPU model names to the government for use at a later date. Generally, these listings are a good indication that a GPU is currently in the development stage. However, this is not guaranteed the GPU manufacturer will use the names included in the listing, so take it with a grain of salt.

We have not heard of any rumors regarding an RTX 4050 or RTX 4060 desktop GPU, so performance estimations and GPU specs remain a complete mystery at this time. Only the laptop versions of these GPUs have launched - which you can read about here.

However, based on current rumors of the RTX 4060 Ti and RTX 4070, we shouldn't expect these desktop GPUs to be that fast. The estimated specs of the RTX 4070 show us that the CUDA core count will match the previous generation RTX 3070, while also including a memory reduction from a 256-bit wide bus to 192-bit. The 4060 Ti is even worse, with fewer CUDA cores than its 3060 Ti predecessor and a bus width limited to just 128-bits wide. But at the very least, the 4060 Ti is rumored to have a 160W TDP, so it will be very power efficient.

If this says anything, it seems Nvidia is focusing more on saving power than anything else for its mid-range cards, leaving the Ada Lovelace architecture and its higher clock speeds as the only method to increase GPU performance. This leads us to believe we will see the same trend follow the RTX 4060 and RTX 4050. But these are just estimations at this time, and we don't actually know how Ada Lovelace will scale at lower core counts and power limitations. 

Who knows - If Nvidia can pull off 3090 Ti gaming at 250W as it did with the RTX 4080, the RTX 4050 could turn into a "GTX 750 Ti" successor, with really good performance under a 75W envelope.

Aaron Klotz
Contributing Writer

Aaron Klotz is a contributing writer for Tom’s Hardware, covering news related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.

  • InvalidError
    Here is my performance and pricing prediction: nowhere near enough performance for the money.

    Unless Nvidia suddenly gets the hint from dwindling GPU sales and revises its price structure accordingly, I believe it is safe to predict that $400+ "entry-level" GPUs (likely $500+ for the 4060 based on the 4070Ti's price) will be DOA before they are even announced.
    Reply
  • thisisaname
    InvalidError said:
    Here is my performance and pricing prediction: nowhere near enough performance for the money.

    Unless Nvidia suddenly gets the hint from dwindling GPU sales and revises its price structure accordingly, I believe it is safe to predict that $400+ "entry-level" GPUs (likely $500+ for the 4060 based on the 4070Ti's price) will be DOA before they are even announced.

    I agree looking like they are going to be to little performance for too much money.

    The 4090 can be as high priced as they want (it is their best card) but the rest of them are priced far to high for my taste.
    Reply
  • korekan
    InvalidError said:
    Here is my performance and pricing prediction: nowhere near enough performance for the money.

    Unless Nvidia suddenly gets the hint from dwindling GPU sales and revises its price structure accordingly, I believe it is safe to predict that $400+ "entry-level" GPUs (likely $500+ for the 4060 based on the 4070Ti's price) will be DOA before they are even announced.

    probably in few weeks the price will dropped to the $300+ level.
    Reply
  • schwatzz
    InvalidError said:
    Here is my performance and pricing prediction: nowhere near enough performance for the money.

    Unless Nvidia suddenly gets the hint from dwindling GPU sales and revises its price structure accordingly, I believe it is safe to predict that $400+ "entry-level" GPUs (likely $500+ for the 4060 based on the 4070Ti's price) will be DOA before they are even announced.

    They've intentionally priced the 4000 series higher to incentivize people to buy the glut of 3000 series cards
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    schwatzz said:
    They've intentionally priced the 4000 series higher to incentivize people to buy the glut of 3000 series cards
    Most of which were already overpriced for what they were and haven't received price cuts either.
    Reply
  • PC Hardware Nerd
    Hopefully sales are slow enough they are forced to reduce prices on the entire stack to sell any inventory. I'm actually hoping the rumored Alchemist + refresh rumors are true. The performance has seen massive improvements since launch with driver updates and they have admitted they have optimization to do, but for the price they are asking I'd be really tempted to buy one. The refresh, if it happens, would hopefully be a fairly significant improvement with architectural improvements and further driver optimization very likely to yield significant gains over the course of its life. Keep the prices the same and they'll be a damn good budget option, forcing Nvidia and AMD to reduce prices if they want to sell their cards. Intel needs a win and the GPU market needs a solid budget option. They could own the low the middle end and leave the overpriced end to the competition.
    Reply
  • bigdragon
    I wonder if Nvidia is starting to encounter the Disney paradox. When you raise prices to a certain point you attract customers that demand even more than what is offered. If those customers aren't satisfied, then instead of visiting a theme park that has a Paris section or playing a Paris map in a video game, they'll just go to real life Paris.

    It's nice to see new GPU products on the way sooner rather than later. The rate of performance improvements seemed to have been slowed by the pandemic. Those prices have got to come back down though. A game console refresh would do serious damage to Nvidia's revenue in the form of accessible competition.
    Reply
  • btmedic04
    If the 4050 comes in at 75w, it would have to be priced at $185 to match the value of the GTX 750 Ti ($149 launch price in 2014.) I dont see nvidia pricing a prospective 4050 at $185
    Reply
  • Ar558
    At best the 4060 and 4050 will be 1% increase in performance for 1% more money probably less than that too be honest, I'm expecting ~20% increase in price for a ~10% increase in performance. Nvidia will get away with it as once it removes 30 series from circulation, it's fanboys will always buy the product regardless of value.
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    btmedic04 said:
    If the 4050 comes in at 75w, it would have to be priced at $185 to match the value of the GTX 750 Ti ($149 launch price in 2014.) I dont see nvidia pricing a prospective 4050 at $185
    Based on how grossly overpriced the RTX3050 still is for what it is and everything else launched so far being priced at least one tier up, I would be surprised if the RTX4050 launched under $350. With Nvidia also cutting memory bus down one notch for a given marketing tier, I also guesstimate that the RTX4050 will struggle to compete against the RX6600 which easily beats the RTX3050 in just about all things besides RT and CUDA.

    It is going to be another dumpster fire launch.
    Reply