Nvidia’s RTX 4060 and 4050 desktop graphics cards – the Lovelace GPUs which are of keenest interest to most people given their (hopefully) affordable nature – could arrive sooner than expected.
Tom’s Hardware spotted that RTX 4060 and 4050 models from Shangke Group – a Chinese firm that makes graphics cards, and other components too – have been filed with the EEC (Eurasian Economic Commission).
Typically, products are filed with the EEC when their release is nearing, so this is a hint that the RTX 4060 and 4050 are perhaps closer to launch than the rumor mill has otherwise indicated.
Then again, we have to be very cautious around presuming too much from EEC filings, as they can be carried out early in some cases, or they can even be performed speculatively for placeholder products.
In short, don’t set too much store in these listings, but they are nonetheless a tantalizing hint that we could see the RTX 4060 and 4050 desktop graphics cards pop up in the near future (or indeed we’d settle for one of these GPUs being pushed out soon-ish).
Analysis: Reasons to be doubtful
The case against the appearance of the RTX 4060 and 4050 being anytime soon is mostly based on the lack of chatter about these models on the GPU grapevine thus far (when product development is further down the line, there are generally leaks and rumors).
That said, we have actually been hearing a bit more about the RTX 4060 Ti recently – a decent bit, actually, though it’s not the news many want to hear in terms of how powerful this GPU might be. But as for the vanilla RTX 4060, most of the speculation has been around how long we might have to wait for this graphics card – like the middle of 2023, possibly.
Plus we also need to consider that Nvidia still has RTX 3000 series stock to sell through (or its partners do), and therefore any mid-range release is going to have to wait until the inventory of GPUs like the RTX 3060 is considerably diminished.
Furthermore, we’ve heard pretty much nothing about the RTX 4050, save for news on the laptop GPU. Of course, both the RTX 4050 and 4060 laptop versions have been revealed and are about to go on sale in portables, but those mobile graphics cards are very different kettles of fish from the desktop variants.
To sum up, we’re not buying the idea that the RTX 4060 and 4050 are in any way imminent, but we are certainly happy enough to take this as a tentative signal that maybe at least one of these cards – the RTX 4060, most likely – is going to pitch up perhaps in a few months’ time (and maybe the 4060 Ti, too). If we’re lucky. And indeed a lot may depend on how the GPU market fares in general in terms of getting rid of that RTX 3000 stock, regardless of what Nvidia may have planned right now, and might have told its manufacturing partners to expect.
