The GPU war continues unabated, as does, unfortunately, the ongoing tech deficit which has been a blight on the industry for well over a year now. While Intel believes the chip shortages could go on until 2023, Nvidia is slightly more optimistic, saying that things could ease up from the middle of this year. However, it's still an issue, and one thing that has caused untold woes for many-a-PC gamer is the prices, brought on by low supplies causing a hike in MSRP, as well as cryptominers bulk-buying products. However, it looks like team green's newest budget card will not be worth it for miners.
According to a recent report from PC Gamer, the upcoming RX 3050 from Nvidia is showing to not be suitable for anyone looking to use the card to mine for cryptocurrency. Some figures from performance tests conducted by a Chinese source were revealed, showing the GPU has limited hash rates, with the results showing it drop from around 20MH/s to just 12.5MH/s at 73W.
Compare that to something like the Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti, which has a hash rate of around 50MH/s at 200W or the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT which has 54MH/s at 225W, according to Windows Central, and it shows that this latest budget card is probably best avoided by miners. With any luck, therefore, the 3050 will be one that more gamers can get hold of instead, rather than being sold in bulk for crypto use. Cryptomining has been one of the reasons why consumers have been struggling to get hold of any new gaming hardware recently.
Nvidia announced the RTX 3050 not long ago, with the hardware due for release this Thursday. It represents some of the final graphics cards from this generation, book ending it with budget products and the rather meaty RTX 3090 Ti soon just before the next era of GPU technology commences. With 8 GB of VRAM, the 3050 will still be a decent card for anyone looking to spend a little less, and sources stipulate that it should be available for around $250 MSRP.
With AMD also releasing its budget card, the RX 6500 XT priced at $200 MSRP, it seems clear that both AMD and Nvidia are going after the lower end of the market. It sort of makes sense, given how expensive top of the line graphics cards can be. But the thing that everyone will be concerned about it is, how easy will it be to get team green's newest hardware this week, especially given the problems the 6500 XT had upon release.
Source: PC Gamer, Windows Central