Nvidia turns to the RTX 2060 and GTX 1050 Ti as GPU shortages bite

[midian182]

Recap: Remember a few weeks ago when we heard reports that Nvidia would be “relaunching” the RTX 2060 to help alleviate the crippling graphics card shortages? The company has just confirmed it will indeed be releasing stock of the Turing GPU, along with the Pascal-based GTX 1050 Ti GPU, to board partners.

PCWorld’s Brad Chacos spoke to an Nvidia spokesperson via email about the rumors that it would be reviving GPUs from older generations and releasing them to AIBs.

“The products referenced below were never EOLed [end-of-lifed—ed]. So ‘reviving’ seems like the wrong terminology to use here,” Nvidia said. “More of an ebb and flow really. We’re just meeting market demand, which remains extremely high as you noted.”

Despite launching back in 2016 for $140, the GTX 1050 Ti is the second-most-popular card on Steam’s hardware survey, used by almost 7 percent of participants. The RTX 2060, released in 2019 for $349, is in fifth spot with a 3.5 percent share.

Using the older process nodes means the manufacturing costs for these cards aren’t going to be too high. And in the case of the GTX 1050 Ti, which uses GDDR5 memory, it could be produced without the rumored GDDR6 shortages complicating matters.

What could also make the GTX 1050 Ti more freely available is its unsuitability for Ethereum mining, which requires a GPU with more than 4GB of memory. Miners of the crypto have been so desperate recently that they’re bulk-buying Ampere-powered laptops direct from manufacturers.

The previous rumors suggested both the RTX 2060 and RTX 2060 Super would be revived, but there’s no mention of the latter card. It could be due to the Super variant's extra 2GB of GDDR6, which might pose a problem further down the line if the memory is in short supply.

Right now, both these products are experiencing the same inflated prices as every other card on the market. Most GTX 1050 Ti cards sell for over $250, while the few RTX 2060 models available start at $700. Some retailers have them in stock, suggesting the resupplying has begun. Whether their prices drop might also depend on President Biden removing the 25 percent tariff graphics cards are subject to.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/88612-nvidia-turns-rtx-2060-gtx-1050-ti-gpu.html

 

[aMerkuri]

Great, more cards for mining equipment

 

[Kosmoz]

GTX 1050 Ti with it's 4GB Vram makes sense in these troubled times, in case your current GPU dies or you already have all the new PC parts and no GPU (so you buy that until prices and availability get better for the one you actually want), but the RTX 2060/2060 Super (with 6/8GB Vram) make absolutely ZERO sense because they will be bought by miners and scalpers ASAP.

 

[R00sT3R]

What a total ClusterF**K the GPU market has become.

I'm just glad I have a (still) semi decent card (RTX 2080, Which still plays everything I want, they way I want too) to see me out this year, In the hope that 2022 sees a return to some sort of sanity in the market.

Whilst a 3080 FE would be a nice upgrade, I'm simply not prepared to put any more time or effort into procuring one and hell will freeze over before I pay more than the MSRP for an AIB card.

 

[amghwk]

I wish people stop buying from scalpers, and enjoy their games with their current graphics cards.

New games are just bloats with obscene amount of disk space requirements. All hi-res but feel like empty inside.

Even when you get the most expensive card you can get and try to play a latest game at 4K at Ultra settings, you get disappointed anyway. All you can do is play some two or three generations older games to enjoy the current card at it's fullest.

Like how I am enjoying Assassin's Creed IV at 1440p at all settings maxed out with my 5700XT.

Don't support the latest trend. Don't support scalpers. Only buy at the MSRP or at most, 20% markup if you can't wait.

Let the scalpers die with their gold.

 

[QuantumPhysics]

Make the miners buy from scalpers.

We need to get GPU to the gamers where they truly belong.

 

[pildorman321]

LOL biden

 

[NicktheWVAHick]

Can’t wait to sell my ATI VGA Wonder 256K on EBay for $2,750.00 in a few more months.

Seriously, though, as long as you can mine a fake currency with no centralized backing the shortages of high-end cards will continue. If crypto values keep rising, neither NVIDIA nor AMD will EVER be able to produce a supply chain that meets demand. The world of scalpers as the only way to purchase your next high-end video card is here to stay for a long, LONG time.....if you are waiting for this to change or scalping to somehow be made illegal you are either very stupid or very poor.

 

[BSim500]

If the 4GB VRAM limit is the issue that discourages miners that may make these actually available primarily to gamers to give people at least something to game on at 1080p, then I'm surprised they don't ramp up production of the GTX 1650 Super (1280 shaders is quite a bit faster than the 1050Ti's 768 but is still 4GB VRAM).

 

[Vulcanproject]

Moore's law said smaller transistors, Nvidia's law says bigger

 

[arrowflash]

On the upside, if this situation lasts long enough, it might end up pressing video game devs to relearn how to properly optimize their games and engines, instead of churning out unoptimized trash that demand a high end Ampere card to perform adequately while looking worse than games released 5 or 10 years ago. Might also encourage more devs to release games that have actual engaging design and gameplay instead of more Hollywood-esque cinematic garbage that rely on eyecandy.

 

[Shadowboxer]

Looking at how profitable mining is currently I completely understand why I regularly see 3090s selling for obscene prices. According to nicehash, at today’s values a 3090 makes $400 a month after factoring energy costs. That’s insane! Imagine if a bank returned $400 a month for every $2000 deposited. And that’s not factoring in any future value increases.

Not sure what the answer is, I personally don’t feel governments getting involved will help and we need to make sure the miners don’t lose their investments (there’s nothing immoral about crypto mining).

I’m hoping the values start going down. If they collapse hard enough we might see a glut of cards come to the market cheap. I remember I bought an ex mining r9 280X for about half the MSRP less than one year after that card released. So there might be a positive side to this in the end.

 

[Lew Zealand]

If the 4GB VRAM limit is the issue that discourages miners that may make these actually available primarily to gamers to give people at least something to game on at 1080p, then I'm surprised they don't ramp up production of the GTX 1650 Super (1280 shaders is quite a bit faster than the 1050Ti's 768 but is still 4GB VRAM).

Yes, exactly this! The 1650 Super is an actually good card whereas the 1050 Ti is just old tech nowadays. What may be keeping Nvidia from releasing more 1650 Supers is that they use GDDR6 while the 1050 Ti uses GDDR5 and maybe they want to keep the GDDR6 for the 2060s?

 

[UdyrL]

Yes, exactly this! The 1650 Super is an actually good card whereas the 1050 Ti is just old tech nowadays. What may be keeping Nvidia from releasing more 1650 Supers is that they use GDDR6 while the 1050 Ti uses GDDR5 and maybe they want to keep the GDDR6 for the 2060s?

Yes, that's the main reason for not doing 1650 Super instead of 1050 TI. The 1650 (non super) that first released was quite garbage price/performance compared to a 1050 TI, and even thou the former is GDDR5, it's probably more expensive to produce than the latter.

 

[HardReset]

Using the older process nodes means the manufacturing costs for these cards aren’t going to be too high.

Not too high but RTX 2060 manufacturing costs are around same as for example Radeon 5700XT because RTX 2060 uses very big die (445mm2) vs 251mm2 on 5700XT. Of course 7nm wafers (5700XT) cost more than 12nm ones (RTX 2060) but roughly double side makes RTX 2060 expensive to manufacture. Only advantage it has is shortage on 7nm supply.

 

[Kosmoz]

...if you are waiting for this to change or scalping to somehow be made illegal you are either very stupid or very poor.

That's a very narrow minded POV and ironically a stupid thing to say too... By your logic I'm either stupid or poor for only wanting to pay $400 for a 3060Ti or 500$ for a 3070, right?

Because that was the MSRP they lied to us it's gonna be, but I'm stupid now because I don't want to pay $800-900 for those cards, right?

Also having $400-500 for a GPU upgrade alone, now somehow makes one "poor"... interesting. How about those that can pay only $500 for an entire PC? Or how about those that can't afford to buy food, how are they?

Some people need to reach hard and pull their head out of their *** because they can't see the real world from there... No amount of money can buy you common sense.

confirms why over half the stuff you post on here is ridiculous. you would complain if you had to "DEAL" with a 2080.... sad sad. you dont live in the real world do you.

Are you serious? What the hell kind of a prick thing is that to say?

The simplest solution for that kind of troll, which you guys replied to, is to block him.

 

[CrisisDog]

And here I am looking for community based SLI profiles to keep my twin GTX 980 Ti cards going.

It may be dead, but....

SLI FTW!

 

[evolucion8]

Can’t wait to sell my ATI VGA Wonder 256K on EBay for $2,750.00 in a few more months.

Seriously, though, as long as you can mine a fake currency with no centralized backing the shortages of high-end cards will continue. If crypto values keep rising, neither NVIDIA nor AMD will EVER be able to produce a supply chain that meets demand. The world of scalpers as the only way to purchase your next high-end video card is here to stay for a long, LONG time.....if you are waiting for this to change or scalping to somehow be made illegal you are either very stupid or very poor.

You are right except for one thing, What does a computer part pricing have anything to do with being rich or poor? $400, $500 or even $1500 is not really money to really brag about. If someone wants to brag about money, talks about real estate, houses, other type of properties that does have high value and require clever knowledge about finances and money handling, but computer parts for bragging rights its very very childish.

 

[evolucion8]

Not too high but RTX 2060 manufacturing costs are around same as for example Radeon 5700XT because RTX 2060 uses very big die (445mm2) vs 251mm2 on 5700XT. Of course 7nm wafers (5700XT) cost more than 12nm ones (RTX 2060) but roughly double side makes RTX 2060 expensive to manufacture. Only advantage it has is shortage on 7nm supply.

Even if the RX 5700XT costs over 50% more to make than an RTX 2060, I am sure that two RX 5700XT will end up being cheaper as you are getting more dies out of the waffer compared to the big RTX 2060, not counting the VRAM and the VRM parts which tends to be expensive on their own.

 

[bandit8623]

And here I am looking for community based SLI profiles to keep my twin GTX 980 Ti cards going.

It may be dead, but....

SLI FTW!

I think there will be 1 more driver with sli profiles and that's it. Kinda dead

 

[scavengerspc]

The simplest solution for that kind of troll, which you guys replied to, is to block him.

I know you are right but I never block. It just seems like it defeats the purpose of a Forum.

 

[Nobina]

GTX 1050 Ti ain't **** these days. I had one and at the time RX 570 costed a lot more. Since then RX 570 decreased in price and matched the 1050 Ti, the difference is, RX 570 is much faster and also offers an 8GB version. Since RX 580 is inflated in price I would get RX 570 over 1050 Ti since it should be around the same price.

 

[Farkinell]

GTX 1050 Ti ain't **** these days. I had one and at the time RX 570 costed a lot more. Since then RX 570 decreased in price and matched the 1050 Ti, the difference is, RX 570 is much faster and also offers an 8GB version. Since RX 580 is inflated in price I would get RX 570 over 1050 Ti since it should be around the same price.

Couple years ago I ended up selling my new 1050 Ti and brought a used 970 for an eGPU project, got about 10-15% performance uplift. The 1050 was useless.

 

[Lounds]

OCUK had 2 lots of 1050ti's in stock yesterday, they were listed at £209/£229
The 1050ti back in 2016/2017 was around £150.

 

[neeyik]

I suspect other older models will appear again soon too. For example, Scan UK is listing the following cards on pre-order:

RTX 2060 - £360 (launch MSRP was $349)

GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER Graphics Cards - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER Ray Tracing VR Ready Turing 8GB GDDR6 Graphics Card | SCAN UK

Welcome to our GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER Graphics Cards - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER Ray Tracing VR Ready Turing 8GB GDDR6 Graphics Card page. Here you will find leading brands such as PNY.

www.scan.co.uk

GTX 1660 Ti - £280 to £288 (launch MSRP was $279)

GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Graphics Cards - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti VR Ready Turing 6GB GDDR6 Gaming Graphics Card GPU | SCAN UK

Welcome to our GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Graphics Cards - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti VR Ready Turing 6GB GDDR6 Gaming Graphics Card GPU page. Here you will find leading brands such as ASUS, EVGA, Gigabyte, MSI, Palit, PNY.

www.scan.co.uk

GTX 1650 - £140 to £180 (launch MSRP was $149)

GeForce GTX 1650 Graphics Cards - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Game Ready Turing 4GB GDDR5 Gaming Graphics Video Card | SCAN UK

Welcome to our GeForce GTX 1650 Graphics Cards - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Game Ready Turing 4GB GDDR5 Gaming Graphics Video Card page. Here you will find leading brands such as ASUS, EVGA, Gigabyte, MSI, Palit.

www.scan.co.uk

GT 1030 - £70 to £87 (launch MSRP was $79)

GeForce GT 1030 Graphics Cards - NVIDIA GeForce GT 1030 Entry Level Pascal Graphics Card | SCAN UK

Welcome to our GeForce GT 1030 Graphics Cards - NVIDIA GeForce GT 1030 Entry Level Pascal Graphics Card page. Here you will find leading brands such as ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI, Palit.

www.scan.co.uk