Rumors of my death were greatly exagerrated - Pascal continues(?) its return with NVIDIA possibly resupplying the GTX 1050 Ti

[D13H4RD]

It's no secret that supplies for shiny new graphics cards are pretty bad at the moment, affecting both NVIDIA's shiny Ampere-based RTX 30 series GPUs and AMD's RDNA2-based RX 6000 series cards. Owing to factors such as a shortage in raw materials for production, inflated demand due to stay-at-home orders from the global pandemic alongside increased mining demand, the pandemic itself complicating the supply chain amongst other reasons, getting your hands on a new GPU is quite the challenge, and that's an understatement.

 

Not too long ago, it was reported that NVIDIA may be re-supplying the TU106 GPU destined for the RTX 2060 as a partial response. Adding to this, NVIDIA seems to have given a partially new lease-of-life to the now 4+ year old Pascal architecture with the introduction of the basic-tier GeForce GT 1010, intended as more of a display adapter than something actually meant for gaming. With some reports of shortages related to GDDR6 memory chips, affecting cards like many Turing-based GPUs down to cards like the 1660 Super, NVIDIA may be re-supplying some stock of the GP107-based GTX 1050 Ti to retailers for a simple reason; GDDR5. YouTube channel Tech YES City has spoken to retailers, some of which mentioned that some GTX 1050 Ti cards have only just made it back on shelves after disappearing off of them since 2019.

Naturally, because NVIDIA amongst others including manufacturing partners have neither confirmed nor denied this, take this with a huge grain of salt. However, if this were indeed the case, it would imply that the shortages of components may be bad enough for some older products to be re-introduced in order to relieve pressure.

Quotes

Quote

Last month it was rumored that NVIDIA has begun resupplying TU106 GPUs for RTX 2060 graphics cards, but so far we have not seen an increased presence of this SKU on the market. At the same time, NVIDIA is now allegedly focusing on even older chips, such as the GP107-based GTX 1050 Ti series.

 

The 4GB graphics cards will certainly not deliver a high-end experience, but there is a good reason why NVIDIA is focusing on this SKU. Firstly, the supply of low-end GPUs is really low. The global pandemic has substantially increased the demand for entertainment and not all customers are willing to spend hundreds of dollars for a new graphics card. Wider availability of RTX 2060 and GTX 1660 would certainly release some pressure on supply channels. Meanwhile, retailers are to witness the popularity of the RTX 3060 model, which should launch two weeks from now.

 

Interestingly just months ago NVIDIA has launched a new GTX 1650 SKU with GDDR6 memory, but the demand for G6 chips is so high that NVIDIA simply can’t meet the demand for these Turing cards, especially the GTX 1660 (SUPER) models which not only had G6 memory but also required 6 modules for each card. The manufacturer would now instead focus on low-VRAM Pascal SKUs which were never available with GDDR6 memory.

 

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti is an entry-level GPU featuring GP107 GPU with 768 CUDA cores. At launch, a cut-down variant called GTX 1050 was available with 2GB memory, but eventually, the company also released a 3GB model.

 

My thoughts

If this ends up being the case, it sheds more light on how potentially bad the shortages really are. It's also kind of worth noting that due to the heightened demand, prices of used cards have also been on the rise, making older cards like the Polaris-based Radeon GPUs not quite as good a deal as it used to be. 'Tis not a fantastic time to be a PC gamer and PC hardware enthusiast.

 

Sources

Videocardz (with cross-link to TYC)

[Moonzy]

[CarlBar]

19 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

 

I'm pretty sure thats called devolving. #FacetiouslyPedantic 

[RejZoR]

Damn, I should have waited. With pascal returning, I could sell my former GTX 1080Ti for 1200€ in following months...

[Drama Lama]

1 year and they'll bring back 900 series cards

[Vishera]

Kick those 1050 Ti's,we don't want them ($200 for a 1050 Ti?!),we don't want worse cards that are more expensive than last gen cards!

Sell the GTX 1060 for $150 and the 1070 for $200

The 1060 is close in performance to the 1650,and the 1070 is close in performance to the 1660.

[porina]

I guess it is a sign of how crazy pricing is right now. Latter part of last year, I tried to sell my no longer needed RX 580 8GB on this forum at £100 each. No takers. I sold some elsewhere for less, and other bundled into a budget gaming system. I look on ebay UK today. They're selling at over £200, some over £300. Not a few one-offs, there's many.

 

Repeat with the GTX 1070, and Vega 56. Same story. Pricing is absolutely bonkers. I do wonder, if they are being bought by gamers or miners. So on that note, anything to increase supply, even on the lower end, could help with that. 1050Ti is still fine for entry level 1080p gaming and might just be slow enough not to interest miners, although I could be wrong on that.

 

Looking at one UK seller for currently in stock GPUs. Fastest consumer nvidia card they have is a GT710. If you go outside that to professional cards, there are Quadros and Teslas, but price/performance isn't terribly attractive for those. I do spot a watercooled Gigabyte 3090 in external enclosure (thunderbolt) for £2200 in stock, which doesn't sound so bad in the context of things...

[Drama Lama]

48 minutes ago, porina said:

I guess it is a sign of how crazy pricing is right now. Latter part of last year, I tried to sell my no longer needed RX 580 8GB on this forum at £100 each. No takers. I sold some elsewhere for less, and other bundled into a budget gaming system. I look on ebay UK today. They're selling at over £200, some over £300. Not a few one-offs, there's many.

 

Repeat with the GTX 1070, and Vega 56. Same story. Pricing is absolutely bonkers. I do wonder, if they are being bought by gamers or miners. So on that note, anything to increase supply, even on the lower end, could help with that. 1050Ti is still fine for entry level 1080p gaming and might just be slow enough not to interest miners, although I could be wrong on that.

 

Looking at one UK seller for currently in stock GPUs. Fastest consumer nvidia card they have is a GT710. If you go outside that to professional cards, there are Quadros and Teslas, but price/performance isn't terribly attractive for those. I do spot a watercooled Gigabyte 3090 in external enclosure (thunderbolt) for £2200 in stock, which doesn't sound so bad in the context of things...

why trade with stonks if you can buy and sell graphics cards

[Vishera]

46 minutes ago, Drama Lama said:

why trade with stonks if you can buy and sell graphics cards

Because you can't buy graphics cards.

[Tristerin]

It just grinds my gears getting an email from Newegg while Im on the shitter in the mornings telling me to ACT NOW, 2021 DEALS, GET GTX 1050 TI WHILE SUPPLIES LAST.  

[CTR640]

4 hours ago, Drama Lama said:

1 year and they'll bring back 900 series cards

And after another 2 years, they'll bring back the Fermi cards!

[SFFDesigns]

If this GPU is priced below $100, then this could be good. If they price it for how well it performs, I agree with this decision. Imo it should replace the GT 1030 at that price point

[agatong55]

Well that explains why Microcenter lately has a bunch of 1050 ti for sale, I was confused at first just thinking they found a lot of them and just trying to get rid of them 

[brentdahamster]

2 minutes ago, DriftMan said:

This GPU is not worth more than $100 nowadays brand new so, I hope it destroys the second hand GPU market here where I live, where most used GTX 1050 Ti goes for at least 120€

 

6 hours ago, D13H4RD said:

YouTube channel Tech YES City has spoken to retailers, some of which mentioned that some GTX 1050 Ti cards have only just made it back on shelves after disappearing off of them since 2019.

 

Atleast I will be able to buy a GTX 1050 Ti low profile

[StDragon]

I'm assuming the GPUs are still 14nm? Apparently there's no chip shortage for that node type.

[Master Delta Chief]

19 minutes ago, Hymenopus_Coronatus said:

If this GPU is priced below $100, then this could be good. If they price it for how well it performs, I agree with this decision. Imo it should replace the GT 1030 at that price point

It's not. The prices so far that I've seen at a webshop I usually buy from are around 200 bucks, way too overpriced for this GPU that's like almost 5 years old. If you want to get a 1050 Ti, just get one from eBay or like other second hands retailers. 

[StDragon]

10 minutes ago, Master Delta Chief said:

It's not. The prices so far that I've seen at a webshop I usually buy from are around 200 bucks, way too overpriced for this GPU that's like almost 5 years old. If you want to get a 1050 Ti, just get one from eBay or like other second hands retailers. 

Speaking of eBay, just checked. In less than two hours before auction ends, there's one USED 1050 Ti currently listing for $168. I will probably close above $200 to $250 before it's over. From what I can tell, there's a total of 5 bidders going back and forth.

 

Yeah, no. Count me out.

[Blademaster91]

The market is so messed up these are worth $200, the only new 1050Ti I can find is a low profile card. These should be $100 or less new, and the RTX 2060 apparently being manufactured again should be $200 in my opinion.

[Bombastinator]

I see this as kind of scary.  Apparently they can’t fill gaming needs with new GPUs because they’re all getting absorbed by cryptomining so they’re looking for stuff so weak that it can’t do cryptomining.  Has ugly implications for PC gaming. 

[Stahlmann]

Wow i feel more and more lucky that i got my 3080 in september and a 5600X on release day before all the additional mining craze and everything set in to further cripple supply. I'm really glad i'm out of the market for the near future 

[trag1c]

2 hours ago, CTR640 said:

And after another 2 years, they'll bring back the Fermi cards!

I hope they set the release date for BBQ season. I need a new project for the backyard. 

[WhitetailAni]

Why not the 1060?
And I'm waiting for Kepler and them to bring back the 600-series.

[Vishera]

45 minutes ago, ragnarok0273 said:

Why not the 1060?
And I'm waiting for Kepler and them to bring back the 600-series.

If i am not mistaken you have a GTX 660,they could bring it back for $300.

Maybe they should bring the 9800 GTX for $400.

[WhitetailAni]

Just now, Vishera said:

If i am not mistaken you have a GTX 660,they could bring it back for $300.

I have 2 EVGA GTX 650 Ti Boost 2GB Superclocked Editions.

If it returns, it'll probably be $150 or something.

In which case these cards will leave my possession.

[Vishera]

Just now, ragnarok0273 said:

I have 2 EVGA GTX 650 Ti Boost 2GB Superclocked Editions.

If it returns, it'll probably be $150 or something.

In which case these cards will leave my possession.

Won't a HD 7970 be more tempting?