When you can’t supply enough of the latest and greatest graphics cards to the market, it’s time to heat up some of the old-time bestsellers. Nvidia has confirmed to PCWorld that the company is effectively resupplying older Turing and Pascal GPUs to its board partners to rekindle the GeForce RTX 2060 and GTX 1050 Ti. With this measure, Nvidia hopes to cushion the ongoing graphics card shortage.
There are two specific GeForce graphics cards that are in the conversation: the more recent GeForce RTX 2060 and the four-year old GTX 1050 Ti. It’s easy to understand why Nvidia strategically chose the aforementioned models if we take a quick look at the latest Steam Hardware & Software Survey.
Despite launching in 2014, the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti has continued to be a fan favorite on Steam. The Pascal-based graphics card currently ranked second on the Steam charts with a 7.07% utilization rate. The GeForce RTX 2060, on the other hand, is in the fifth position with an usage base of 3.72%.
Besides being popular choices among gamers, the GeForce RTX 2060 and GTX 1050 Ti are on older process nodes, meaning that are cheaper to produce. With the recent rumor of a GDDR6 shortage, the GeForce RTX 1050 Ti would help alleviate the pressure on Nvidia’s GDDR6 inventory. Furthermore, the two GeForce graphics cards aren’t attractive for cryptocurrency miners so it is more likely they will get into the hands of the average person.
The GeForce RTX 2060 and GTX 1050 Ti debuted at $349 and $139, respectively. However, it’s unclear what prices we will see them at now. Custom GeForce RTX 2060 graphics cards are presently selling for between $700 and $1,200, while the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti is going for $200 to $700. The graphics cards are in stock at a few retailers now, implying that Nvidia’s restock has already started. However, we don’t know just how much supply Nvidia is providing to its partners to see whether it’d would impact the current pricing. Additionally, the focus falls on the retailers on whether they are willing to sell the GeForce RTX 2060 and GTX 1050 Ti at reasonable prices.