Sunday, February 13th 2022
NVIDIA GA107-based GeForce RTX 3050 is Real, Comes with 11% Lower TDP, Same Specs
When NVIDIA launched the GeForce RTX 3050 "Ampere" based on the "GA106" silicon with specifications that could be fulfilled with the smaller "GA107," we knew that the company could eventually start making RTX 3050 boards with the smaller chip, and they did. Igor's Lab reports that RTX 3050 cards based on GA107 come with a typical board power of 115 W, which is about 11 percent lower than that of the GA106-based cards (130 W).
There's no difference in specifications between the two cards. Both feature 2,560 CUDA cores across 20 streaming multiprocessors, 80 Tensor cores, 20 RT cores, and a 128-bit wide GDDR6 memory interface, holding 8 GB of memory that ticks at 14 Gbps data-rate (224 GB/s bandwidth). The GA106 and GA107 ASICs share a common fiberglass substrate, and hence are pin-compatible for the convenience of board partners, with the latter having a smaller die, so any cooling solution designed for the launch-day RTX 3050 should work perfectly fine with those based on GA107.
Sources:
Igor's Lab, VideoCardz
There's no difference in specifications between the two cards. Both feature 2,560 CUDA cores across 20 streaming multiprocessors, 80 Tensor cores, 20 RT cores, and a 128-bit wide GDDR6 memory interface, holding 8 GB of memory that ticks at 14 Gbps data-rate (224 GB/s bandwidth). The GA106 and GA107 ASICs share a common fiberglass substrate, and hence are pin-compatible for the convenience of board partners, with the latter having a smaller die, so any cooling solution designed for the launch-day RTX 3050 should work perfectly fine with those based on GA107.
13 Comments on NVIDIA GA107-based GeForce RTX 3050 is Real, Comes with 11% Lower TDP, Same Specs
I expect a lower-TDP 3050 to command more on the street than the higher-TDP model.
The swaps will be invisible to end-users (and just-in-case NVIDIA has trouble sourcing enough GA107, they will likely keep the higherr TDP coolers for the next 6 months)
The cores are still active, just at greatly reduced voltages and clocks. If GA107 cards have an 11% lower TDP, that is at full core+mem workloads like intensive gaming at higher resolution. It'll still probably translate to a ~5% reduced power consumption when ETH mining. Nothing significant but also any power reductions are welcome.
Other algorithms like ERGO, Autolykos, and Ravencoin all use more GPU core than ETH does, so arguably anyone mining those will benefit more.I think at this point it comes down to scalpers.
AMD is trying to sell a part with the same power consumption in the 6500 XT while offering half the 4k performance (I think the power consumption is fine!)
Power consumption is not fine 1. considering the performance level, 2. for people looking for low profile cards for compact systems. I understand that it's a niche market, but still, there's no need to squeeze the hell out of an otherwise crap GPU for 5% extra performance.
What I want to know is, where's the 3050ti? Or did I miss it?