Nvidia revealed the GeForce RTX 3050 at CES 2022 in early January, offering the perfect entry-level GPU that outshines the similarly priced AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT. It sports an impressive 8GB of GDDR6X memory (compared to 4GB of GDDR6 of AMD’s option) alongside 2560 CUDA cores, 9 Shader cores, 18 RT cores and 73 Tensor cores.
While that’s a lot of numbers, what it essentially provides is a solid 1080p gaming experience capable of powering the latest AAA games at 60fps with raytracing enabled.
With the Nvidia RTX 3050 due to be released next week, we list everything you need to know about buying one in the UK or US right here.
When will the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 be released?
The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 is set to be released on 27 January 2022, just over a week after AMD’s budget-friendly Radeon RX 6500 XT goes on sale.
What’s uncertain right now is the specific time that the graphics card will appear at retailers – likely in a bid to stop scalpers and bots snapping up stock as soon as it goes live.
What we can do is take a look back at previous Nvidia graphics card releases to get an idea of when the company tends to release its cards.
Judging by previous RTX 30 Series launches, including the headline RTX 3080, it seems Nvidia prefers an early afternoon (UK time) launch – usually around 1-2pm GMT. That translates to a rather early 9-10am ET and an even earlier 6-7am PT.
With that being said, we expect a similar schedule with the RTX 3050 – but if we hear differently, we’ll be sure to update this section.
How much will the Nvidia RTX 3050 cost?
The Nvidia RTX 3050 comes with an RRP of $249, $50 more than the competing Radeon RX 6500 XT, but as we know from the release of the latter (and just about every other GPU), prices rarely stick to the RRP.
In the defence of retailers, there are usually a handful available at the RRP initially, but as stock comes and goes, prices tend to rise.
There’s also the problem that Nvidia itself isn’t manufacturing its own version of the RTX 3050, so its RRP is exactly that – a recommendation. If third-party manufacturers add features and bump up specs, they can (and usually do) bump up the price accordingly.
So, make sure you do your research and don’t just buy the first one you find in stock!
UK pricing is yet to be confirmed, but we’re expecting something around the £200 mark. We’ll update this section once we get confirmation from Nvidia itself.
Where can I buy the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 in the UK & US?
Retailers are yet to confirm availability of the Nvidia RTX 3050 at launch next week, but what we can do is list where we expect it to land based on previous RTX 30 Series graphics card launches.
We’ll mark each retailer as confirmed as listings go live, so check back frequently for the latest details.
