Nvidia is expanding its GeForce RTX 30 series to a new category of gaming laptops for price-conscious buyers with the new GeForce RTX 3050 and GeForce RTX 3050 Ti discrete GPUs. They will be featured in laptops priced starting at $700 (approximately Rs. 60,000 before taxes and duties) and will bring high-quality ray tracing effects and DLSS (Deep Learning Supersampling) to upscale resolution using AI to a wider audience than before. These discrete gaming GPUs are aimed at slim and light gaming laptops as well as entry-level models. Nvidia is touting the arrival of DLSS in this market segment as a “game changer”, and this should allow for a consistent 60fps gaming experience in titles such as Control, Watchdogs: Legion, Outriders, Minecraft, and CoD: Black Ops Cold War.
Based on the same Ampere architecture as the rest of the desktop and mobile GeForce RTX 30 series, the new RTX 3050 and RTX 3050 Ti will soon be seen in entry-level gaming laptops where the GeForce GTX 16-series is currently popular. Multiple brands including Alienware, Razer, MSI, Lenovo, Asus, Dell, Acer, HP, and Gigabyte as well as smaller boutique OEMs are expected to announce new and refreshed models shortly. The launch also coincides with Intel’s 11th Gen ‘Tiger Lake’ CPU announcement.
The GeForce RTX 3050 Ti has 2,560 execution units called CUDA cores and 80 tensor cores arranged in 20 “streaming multiprocessor” (SM) clusters, whereas the RTX 3050 has 2,048 CUDA cores and 64 tensor cores in 16 SMs. Both feature 4GB of GDDR6 RAM on a 128-bit bus. TDP range can be configured between 35W and 80W by laptop OEMs and will differ from model to model, which will also affect the operating frequency range. The two GPUs are listed with boost clock speed ranges of 1035 – 1695MHz and 1,057 – 1,740MHz respectively.
In addition to gaming, entry level and portable creator laptops will also feature these two new GPUs. Nvidia says DLSS acceleration can help artists visualise designs in real-time rather than waiting for long renders, and video editors can work with 8K RAW footage. For esports competitors, the GeForce RTX 3050 Ti is claimed to deliver over 144fps and sub-25ms latency in games such as Overwatch and Valorant. Other Nvidia features such as AI-powered noise and background removal can benefit streaming and video conferencing software.
