Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Desktop GPU, RTX 3080 Ti for Laptops Announced

Nvidia has announced the launch of its budget-focused GeForce RTX 3050 desktop GPU, which is now the most affordable in the GeForce RTX 30-series. The company also announced new high-performance GeForce RTX 3080 Ti and GeForce RTX 3070 Ti GPUs for gaming laptops, and teased the upcoming flagship GeForce RTX 3090 Ti. The GeForce Now cloud gaming platform has been expanded with more new games and will be available on more platforms including 5G-enabled mobile devices. New monitors and mice that support Nvidia’s Reflex ecosystem will be announced by their manufacturers, along with a new category of 1440p monitors with refresh rates of up to 360Hz targeted at esports enthusiasts. These announcements are timed with the opening of the CES 2022 trade show.

Graphics cards based on the GeForce RTX 3050 are officially priced starting at Rs. 22,200 ($249 in the USA) and they are set to be available worldwide from January 27. Nvidia will not be offering a Founders Edition card of its own, and there will only be custom designs from companies including Asus, Zotac, Gigabyte, MSI, Palit, Inno3D, and others. Actual street prices are not yet known but are likely to be considerably inflated considering the current state of the retail GPU market.

The GeForce RTX 3050 GPU is based on the same Ampere architecture as its bigger siblings and supports RTX ray tracing effects as well as DLSS image upscaling. It is intended to replace the GeForce RTX 1650 and features 2560 CUDA cores running at up to 1.78GHz. All cards will feature 8GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus. 

At the other end of the spectrum, the “monster” GeForce RTX 3090 Ti desktop GPU will be capable of 40 teraflops of bandwidth, 78 teraflops for ray tracing, and up to 320 teraflops in AI operations. This GPU is likely to be popular with cryptocurrency miners and details of its pricing and availability are not yet known. GeForce RTX 3090 Ti graphics cards will have 24GB of GDDR6X RAM capable of 21Gbps transfers. More details will be announced later this month.

As for laptops, the new GeForce RTX 3080 Ti and GeForce RTX 3070 Ti will be available in laptops priced starting at $2,499 (approximately Rs. 1,90,775) and $1,499 (approximately Rs. 1,14,435) respectively, starting from February 1. 

For creators, Nvidia has updated its Canvas application that allows users to generate landscapes using AI, with additional elements such as flowers and bushes, plus a 4X higher maximum resolution than before. Nvidia Omniverse, a 3D virtual world simulation platform, will now be available for free, and Omniverse Machinima has been expanded with new characters and environments. 

Ten new games will support RTX ray tracing and/or DLSS upscaling, including The Day Before, Escape from Tarkov, and Rainbox Six: Extraction. 

Nvidia has also announced a collaboration with AT&T in the US to enable GeForce Now game streaming over 5G on compatible devices including smartphones at no extra charge for subscribers in the US with an unlimited data plan.