The bar rises.
What you need to know
- The long-awaited RTX 3050 Ti is making its grand debut.
- It will greatly outperform the aging GTX 1650.
- It will be in laptops starting at $799.
NVIDIA's still eager to pump out GPUs that most gamers will have a hard time getting ahold of amidst global shortages, as is the case with its latest mobile GPU, the RTX 3050 Ti. Its debut officially puts the nail in the coffin of the GTX 1650, NVIDIA's previous mainstay budget GPU for low-end gaming laptops.
NVIDIA gives a few examples of how the RTX 3050 Ti and GTX 1650 will differ in real-world performance. In Call of Duty: Warzone, the 1650 can manage 55-ish FPS at medium settings at 1080p with an Intel Core i7 processor and 16GB of RAM. With the same config, a 3050 Ti can output FPS counts in the low 80s, escalating to just under 100 if DLSS is enabled. Basically, under the right circumstances, performance is almost doubled when going from a 1650 to 3050 Ti.
Furthermore, using the aforementioned config with a 3050 Ti and DLSS can get you around 70 FPS in Watch Dogs Legion with raytracing enabled.
Here is the spec breakdown so you can see how the 3050 and 3050 Ti compare:
| Category | RTX 3050 Ti | RTX 3050 |
|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA CUDA Cores | 2560 | 2048 |
| Tensor Cores | 80 | 64 |
| Ray Tracing Cores | 20 | 16 |
| Boost Clock (MHz) | 1485 | 1500 |
| GPU Subsystem Power | 35-80W | 35-80W |
| Memory Interface Width | 128-bit | 128-bit |
| Standard Memory Config | 4GB GDDR6 | 4GB GDDR6 |
| Tensor Cores | 3rd Gen | 3rd Gen |
| Ray Tracing Cores | 2nd Gen | 2nd Gen |
| Architecture | Ampere | Ampere |
| HDMI 2.1 | Yes | Yes |
| DisplayPort 1.4a | Yes | Yes |
| PCI Express Gen 4 | Yes | Yes |
RTX-powered machines can cost quite a bit, so the fact that laptops featuring these mobile GPUs will be available starting at $799 is good news for on-the-go budget hunters. Keep an eye out for popular laptops featuring the cards, such as the Dell XPS 15.
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