Confirmed: Nvidia faucets the GTX 1050 Ti to strive in opposition to graphics card shortages

The rumors are honest: Nvidia is supplementing the sky-high place a matter to for GeForce RTX 30-series graphics cards by releasing inventory of older GPUs to board companions, who can then utilize these to craft new hardware. It’s a trim answer for the frustrating graphics card market we’re at the moment mired in.

“There had been different rumors no longer too lengthy within the past about Nvidia releasing extra GPUs to AIBs from older generations—the [GeForce] RTX 2060 and GTX 1050 Ti had been particularly talked about,” I asked an Nvidia spokesperson via e-mail. “Are you able to touch upon whether or no longer there’s any truth to that?”

“The products referenced beneath had been never EOLed [end-of-lifed—ed]. So ‘reviving’ looks savor the unpleasant terminology to make utilize of here,” Nvidia told me, referencing the utilize of the notice “reviving” in my subject line. “Extra of an ebb and drift in point of fact. We’re factual meeting market place a matter to which stays extraordinarily high as you noted.”

So there you savor it. Yes, Nvidia is additionally supplying older GPUs to feed the insatiable place a matter to for graphics cards. Again: It’s a trim transfer, as the GeForce RTX 2060 and GTX 1050 Ti sidestep one of the most most prerequisites constructing this kind of unstable market.

Why reviving older GeForce GPUs makes sense

Brad Chacos/IDG

The RTX 2060 debuted in January 2019 for $350. It supports Nvidia’s ray-tracing and DLSS ambitions but is built the utilize of an older 12nm TSMC manufacturing direction of, averting the hotly in-place a matter to latest nodes. (Nvidia’s RTX 30-series GPUs are built on Samsung 8nm, whereas shortages for AMD products and subsequent-gen consoles stem from a logjam on TSMC’s 7nm node.) Ramping up manufacturing of this GPU puts extra reasonably latest graphics cards with as much as the moment aspects on the streets, and constructing hardware with firmly established manufacturing nodes tends to be extra impress effective than building GPUs on a reducing-edge direction of.

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The GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, on the various hand, launched the total design encourage in 2016 for $140. Sooner than you name it primitive, take into legend that the typical GPU stays the 2nd-most-in model graphics card on Steam (with the RTX 2060 at fifth), and deploying all of it every other time supplies some key strategic advantages. Presumably most significant? It comes with 4GB of GDDR5 memory.

For months, rumors savor talked about that there’s a shortage of the GDDR6 memory worn with as much as the moment GPUs, and if that’s certainly the case, rolling out the GDDR5-outfitted 1050 Ti all every other time lets Nvidia carry out life like hardware without tapping into its precious GDDR6 reserves. The potential matters factual as grand. Section of the trigger of the latest GPU crunch is attributable to the Ethereum cryptocoin mining bubble, which is insanely worthwhile correct now. Ethereum will get mined on graphics cards, no longer like Bitcoin, but requires a GPU with extra than 4GB of onboard memory. Final analysis: the reborn GTX 1050 Ti can’t be worn to mine Ethereum so it might possibly no longer charm to these investors.

Larger yet, as a 75W card that will bolt into any computer’s PCIe slot without the need for additional energy connectors, the GTX 1050 Ti is a simple and life like increase for newfound PC gamers who took to the fervour whereas caught at dwelling for months. Staunch slap it in and delivery up playing!

No longer all that life like

The additional inventory for these older cards alleviates all various kinds of stress for Nvidia and its companions, however the RTX 2060 and GTX 1050 Ti are restful subject to this day’s market pressures themselves. We are in a position to search out a single GTX 1050 Ti for $190 on Newegg at the moment, but most are selling for $400 or extra. Again, these cards debuted for $140 in 2016. Most effective a handful of RTX 2060 fashions are readily available on Newegg, starting at $800. Those costs all dwell execrable for what you’re getting as a PC gamer.

And despite Nvidia’s assertion that these two GPUs had been never formally despatched out to pasture, get no mistake: The GTX 1050 Ti turn out to be once in all but name, a minimal of. It has since been changed by the GTX 1650, and stores told Tech Yes Metropolis (who broke the revival data) that “it feels savor two years within the past” since they closing saw inventory of the GTX 1050 Ti.

The rebirth of older graphics cards makes you wonder if we’ll look funds-minded subsequent-gen cards anytime soon even supposing. Nvidia is selling every high-margin RTX 30-series GPU it goes to get correct now, and if traditional graphics cards are holding down the entry-stage market to some degree as a minimal, it makes trade sense to focal level on products that get you the most money. We’ll look how it goes. Protect tuned to the latest have to-know data over at our roundup of the best graphics cards for PC gaming.

Senior editor Brad Chacos covers gaming and graphics for PCWorld, and runs the morning data desk for PCWorld, Macworld, Greenbot, and TechHive. He tweets too.