Amazon’s GPU best sellers reveals the RTX 3050 is surprisingly high up the list
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The top-selling GPUs on Amazon at the moment show a surprising entry. What could be driving customers into buying the long-outdated Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 over more modern graphics cards?
The list of the best-selling graphics cards on Amazon US has the expected modern mid-range GPUs in the top two slots, but further down the list, at position five, is a surprise. The Asus Dual GeForce RTX 3050 8GB OC edition. This certainly stands out amongst the other recent releases, but who did it make it into this list at all?
- GPU: GA106
- VRAM: 8 GB
- Base Clock Speed: 1552 MHz
- Boost Clock Speed: 1777 MHz
- Bus Width: 128 bit
- CUDA Cores: 2560
Firstly, we need to look at supply. A lot of Nvidia's recent RTX 50 series cards have been in short supply. Many retailers have had ‘Out of Stock' notices next to popular models for weeks at a time, waiting for replenishment. If you need a graphics card in a hurry, you grab what is available, not necessarily what is top-of-the-line.
Related to the supply issue is the problem of price. Those constrained supplies have led to soaring prices. Most have been pushed far over the MSRP. Even mid-range cards like the RTX 5070 cost over $700. Not everyone has that kind of money. The RTX 3050 can be bought for as little as $171, and still run a lot of recent games just fine, though without many modern bells and whistles.
Thirdly, there's the PhysX problem. Nvidia chose to remove PhysX 32-bit compatibility from its new RTX 50 series cards, leaving some games like Batman: Arkham Asylum and Borderlands 2 unable to run properly on these new cards. Some users have chosen to overcome this issue by using two graphics cards – a modern RTX 50 series for new games, and an RTX 30 series for older ones.
As usual, several factors are at play. No doubt the dynamic will change again when the RTX 5060 goes on the shelves. Following its announcement, we’re already starting to see the Ti model appearing online – check out our dedicated ‘where to buy‘ page to stay updated.
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