Nvidia unveils the RTX 3050, its new "entry-level" GPU

Nvidia has released a flurry of announcements as part of CES 2022, and the newly-revealed RTX 3050 might be the biggest one. The RTX 3050 will be the company's newest GPU when it arrives later this month, and it's aimed solidly at the entry-level crowd.

As with all other cards in the RTX 30 line, it supports DLSS and ray tracing, and it has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory. In the card's announcement, the company favorably compared the RTX 3050's performance to that of the GTX 1050 and the GTX 1650, which are aging budget cards — or whatever passes for "budget" these days in the GPU realm.

Playing the field — Nvidia's fierce competitor AMD also announced a new entry-level GPU at CES 2022, the RX 6500 XT. According to the announcement, the RX 6500 XT will play new games well at 1080p at the highest settings, and that's presumably the same performance that the RTX 3050 is aiming for as well. The RX 6500 XT will retail for $199, while the RTX 3050 will start at $269.

As usual, Nvidia also announced a brand-new high-end card to get all of the crypto-bros slavering all over their thousand-dollar ape pictures, and that card is called the RTX 3090 Ti. We know very little about the card other that it will presumably make your RTX 3090 look like the child's toy that it is, but considering that particular toy released with an MSRP of $1499, it's going to cost you a pretty penny to stay relevant at the top-end.

Keep an eye out — We'll learn more about the monstrous RTX 3090 Ti later this month, apparently. For all you babies without trust funds out there, the RTX 3050 will debut on January 27. Good luck getting one, because you'll need it.