Skip to main content

Lenovo just revealed the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti and RTX 3050

Although Nvidia hasn’t formally unveiled the RTX 3050 and RTX 3050 Ti, it’s inevitable that the two budget GPUs will show up in laptops eventually. Lenovo jumped the gun a bit, however, revealing the 3050 and 3050 Ti as options in its upcoming Legion 5 Pro laptop. Along with confirming the cards exist, Lenovo also posted the clock speed, memory capacity, and power of the two mobile graphics cards.

Videocardz grabbed a screenshot of the specs page before Lenovo updated the listing (the section now reads “up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070” instead). The listing shows the RTX 3050 Ti with 4GB of GDDR6 memory, a listed boost clock of 1,485MHz, and a maximum power draw of 95 watts. The RTX 3050 is identical, though oddly comes with a higher listed and achieved boost clock speed.

Videocardz

This isn’t the first time the laptop RTX 3050 has shown up. Asus referenced the card last month for its TUF Dash F15 laptop, but removed any mention shortly after the news broke. The two leaks show that the 3050 range isn’t a matter of if, but when. And with leaks from two of the leading gaming laptop makers, the cards are likely coming soon.

Recommended Videos

The mobile cards are based on Nvidia’s GA107 GPU with 4GB of VRAM on a 128-bit bus. The cards have far fewer CUDA cores compared to the pricier Ampere GPUs — 2,560 for the 3050 Ti and 2,048 for the 3050, according to reports. That puts both cards firmly in the budget tier of laptop GPUs. We expect they’ll become a staple in gaming machines under $1,000, offering decent performance at Full HD with Medium settings.

Get your weekly teardown of the tech behind PC gaming
Check your inbox!

The latest Legion 5 Pro features an AMD Ryzen 7 5800H eight-core processor, up to 32GB of RAM, and up to a 2TB M.2 SSD. The upcoming laptop also took some notes from the Dell XPS 13 with its 16:10 display, which features an expanded 1440p resolution, 165Hz refresh rate, 500-nit peak brightness, HDR, and Nvidia G-Sync. Lenovo is already selling the laptop in some regions, but there isn’t a launch date for the U.S. yet.

Jacob Roach
Lead Reporter, PC Hardware
Jacob Roach is the lead reporter for PC hardware at Digital Trends. In addition to covering the latest PC components, from…
It’s finally time to stop buying Nvidia’s RTX 30-series GPUs
RTX 3080 Ti in front of a window.

If you're looking for a budget GPU, the general advice is usually to buy from the previous generation of graphics cards. After all, as the new cards take over the market, the older ones are still waiting to be sold -- and while they're no longer among the best graphics cards, they're still perfectly acceptable alternatives.

We've now reached the point in the current generation of Nvidia GPUs where that advice no longer applies. If you want to get the best bang for your buck, it's time to stop buying Nvidia's RTX 30-series and look for other options.
The RTX 30-series arrived at the worst possible time

Read more
Why you may want to avoid the latest Nvidia driver release
A screenshot of the Nvidia app.

Nvidia’s latest GeForce 566.03 WHQL driver update was released two days ago, and the company has now acknowledged a peculiar issue. According to a report by Overclock3D, users of Corsair’s iCUE software and Bluestacks, may face “higher than normal CPU usage” and are advised not to update to the latest graphics driver update.

Corsair's iCUE software integrates the company’s compatible hardware into a single interface, enabling users to control RGB lighting, adjust fan speeds, create macros, and monitor system performance. Bluestacks, on the other hand, is an Android emulator for Windows, primarily used for gaming and app development.

Read more
I’m jealous — someone scored an RTX 4070 Super for $49 on Amazon
The Nvidia logo on the RTX 4070 Super.

The RTX 4070 Super is one of the best graphics cards you can buy, and it has a price to match, with most models going for $600 on Amazon. However, one lucky Redditor scored a model for just $49. No, it wasn't some steep sale, and most people would see a price like that and assume it's a scam. But sure enough, two days after finding a Gigabyte RTX 4070 Super Gaming OC for $48.94 on Amazon, the card showed up in the mail.

You should absolutely assume that a price that's too good to be true is a scam on Amazon. We've seen just this year how scammers can infiltrate the third-party listings on Amazon to sell fake graphics cards, but this listing for the RTX 4070 Super was different. It was sold and shipped by Amazon Canada and there was only one card in stock, suggesting it was either mismarked or someone seriously needed some extra warehouse space.

Read more