According to rumors, Nvidia has discontinued its cheap GTX 1650 and 1630 graphics cards, the final surviving GTX 16 Series products.
If this sounds similar, it’s because in December 2023, we learned that Nvidia was planning to discontinue production of these GTX GPUs in Q1 2024.
Again, according to the same source – the oft-cited Board Channels (in China), this move went ahead as scheduled.
VideoCardz discovered a new forum post claiming that Nvidia’s product roadmap indicates that these GPUs will be discontinued in Q1, and that no further chips for GTX 16 models would be made available or provided to graphics card manufacturers in the future.
This means that the GTX brand is dying, as no more will be produced; once the remaining GPUs on stores run out, the 16 Series and the GTX name will be discontinued. Starting now, all of Nvidia’s graphics cards will be RTX versions.
How long will it take for GTX 16 stock to run out? According to the source, the remaining supplies will be consumed in as little as a month, but possibly as many as three. So, in principle, if you don’t get your GTX 16 Series GPU by June 2024, you’re out of luck. (Or, if we’re lucky, some may be joking – we’ll talk about it further in the next part).
Analysis: Nvidia’s cheap GPUs get even more’meh’
Don’t be too concerned; even if this is true (and it could be), these GTX graphics cards are getting a little old (the GTX 1650, in instance, is five years old). Which is why the report is credible enough, and it is supported by the scenario, as evidenced by a quick look at stock levels in the United States. Newegg, for example, only has two GTX 1650 units in stock, while the GTX 1630 has all but vanished.
Also, don’t panic if you already own one of these GPUs: the discontinuation of GTX 16 Series graphics card sales does not imply that Nvidia will discontinue support for the cards. Nvidia will continue to support these GPUs in future driver versions for some time.
With the discontinuation of these GTX models, Nvidia’s budget option is now the RTX 3050, which includes a new variant with 6GB of VRAM (rather than 8GB) and a lower price tag – probably introduced with the discontinuation of the GTX 16 models in mind.
The RTX 3050 6GB is now only slightly more expensive than the GTX 1650 in the United States, however it isn’t great value for money and lacks gaming performance. The 8GB version of the RTX 3050 is significantly faster for gaming, as is the RTX 2060. (Incidentally, the latter is our rig’s ailing GPU – specifically, the RTX 2060 Super, which we really need to upgrade soon, but we’re feeling like waiting for RDNA 4, which should bring some serious mid-range awesomeness to the table).
If you’re in the market for a budget GPU, which means something incredibly affordable, there are superior options from AMD (such as the value-packed RX 6600), or even Intel’s Arc range, frankly.
