NVIDIA to discontinue GeForce RTX 3050 8GB, its replacement is a weaker GeForce RTX 3050 6GB

The mainstream and affordable GeForce RTX 3050 8GB was the final Ampere GPU to hit the scene, with the card making its debut in January 2022 - so it's still relatively fresh in the world of discrete graphics cards. According to information from the Board Channels forum in China, NVIDIA is set to scrap the GeForce RTX 3050 8GB altogether and replace it with a cutdown 6GB model.

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Rumors indicate that the new GeForce RTX 3050 will use the GA107 GPU from the mobile version and arrive with 20% fewer CUDA Cores (2048 versus 2560) and a boost clock of 1700MHz.

It's a pretty drastic cut, and the reason might come down to the new 75W power rating (compared to 130W for the existing model) - which would mean that the new desktop GeForce RTX 3050 6GB will get all of its power from the PCI Express slot. It's a strange move to replace the least powerful GPU in the current GeForce RTX lineup with a worse card.

Going from 130W to 75W makes sense when stacked against the power-efficient Ada Lovelace lineup, but strangely, NVIDIA is going this route versus releasing a GeForce RTX 4050 to replace the 3050.

On the plus side, NVIDIA and its partners could sell this new GeForce RTX 3050 at a lower price, though it would have to be closer to $100-150 USD to make sense. With the GeForce RTX 3050's existing MSRP sitting at $249, there are suggestions that NVIDIA is targeting either $179 or $189 for this "new" GeForce RTX 3050 6GB.