NVIDIA Rumored to be Working on RTX 3050, 3050 Ti, and 3080 With 12GB of VRAM

If the rumor mill is to be believed, NVIDIA is still working on desktop-class variants of the RTX 3050, 3050 Ti, and an even beefier RTX 3080 with a whopping 12GB of VRAM. This, in short, is hugely exciting news as the first two GPUs in that list are what most folks have been waiting for. They won’t come cheap, of course, but they should, by all means, be a lot more affordable than what’s currently on the market.

We all want a bit of that “next-gen” tech, but only a select few are willing to splurge hundreds upon hundreds of dollars for such a luxury. These graphics cards, potent and beautiful though they are, simply aren’t worth the asking price. Heck, a GTX 1080 is still more than sufficient for 1440p gaming, so we’ve reached the point of diminishing returns quite a while ago.

Still, a newer architecture brings with it a host of features and upgrades. These Ampere-based GPUs are more efficient, they’re faster, have much better RTX and DLSS capabilities than their forerunners, and so on. These little tweaks, these bells and whistles are what makes them so darn alluring, but there comes a point when one simply has to question whether they’re really necessary for our gaming needs.

The ongoing semiconductor shortages have definitely left their mark and while things have gotten ever so slightly better, we’re still a ways off from seeing the GPU market return back to normal. Be that as it may, we’ll remain patient and await better days.

Let’s Talk (Presumed) Specs

Interestingly enough, the 16GB version of NVIDIA’s RTX 3080 will replace the 10GB model that’s currently on the market, and it’ll also employ a 384-bit bus, matching that of the 3080 Ti. It’s not expected to feature any more CUDA cores and will do an even better job at competing against AMD’s top-of-the-line offerings.

The NVIDIA RTX 3050 and 3050 Ti, on the other hand, are expected to come in 4GB/8GB and 6GB/12GB variations, respectively, with the less powerful of the two sporting a 90W TGP. That’s unfortunately all that we have at this point in time, but we’re bound to get additional information in just a couple of months, so stay tuned!