Nvidia at CES 2022: RTX 3050 desktop, RTX laptop chips, 3090 Ti B-F-GPU

This story is part of CES, where CNET covers the latest news on the most incredible tech coming soon.

The coronavirus pandemic has changed a lot about the world in the past couple of years. Perhaps the most dramatic shift has been how our society has become even more reliant on technology. Desktop-class chips once considered relatively boring have become must-haves as people rush to upgrade their home computers for work and to play some of the latest games, like Microsoft’s hit Halo Infinite. The industry has found a new level of obsession with chips made by Intel, AMD or Nvidia, whose RTX computer cards designed for gaming, artificial intelligence work and graphical design have become some of the most sought-after products in tech land.

Nvidia says it continues to manufacture chips to meet demand, but it’s also introduced new products for entry level and ultra-high performance computing. Among the biggest products the company unveiled during its virtual presentation at the CES 2022 technology show was its GeForce RTX 3050 GPU, which promises to help PCs run the latest games, and which goes for $249, the lowest sticker price among Nvidia’s latest offerings. The product launches Jan. 27.

Read more: AMD hits all the right gaming targets at CES 2022

Nvidia also announced its most powerful consumer desktop chip to date, the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti GPU. The company didn’t offer many details about the chip other than to say it bests the company’s earlier $1,499 RTX 3090. “A monster GPU,” Nvidia SVP Jeff Fisher said while announcing the device, which he called Nvidia’s “next B-F-GPU.” Nvidia plans to discuss more details later this month.

The products mark Nvidia’s latest effort to offer graphics chips for a wide range of uses, including for low-priced gaming computers or ultra-capable machines for design and coding. So far, the company has been able to garner positive reviews for its 30-series of chips, which were first released nearly two years ago. One thing that’s particularly impressed reviewers is that Nvidia’s entry-level RTX desktop chips were nearly as capable as its most expensive chips from before. 

As part of its presentation, Nvidia discussed laptop graphics chips as well. The company announced RTX 3070 Ti and RTX 3080 Ti laptop variants, promising better performance than the Titan RTX, its top card for desktop computers before the 30-series release. Laptops powered with 3070 Ti chips will start at $1,499 while those powered with the 3080 Ti will start at $2,499, Nvidia said. They’ll go on sale Feb. 1.

The company also announced that a new toolkit for 3D artists, called Omniverse, is being made available for free. The technology, designed to make it easier to bring together work from apps like Blender, Maya, Autodesk, Adobe and Epic’s MetaHuman, had been in public testing till now.

Read more: Nvidia wants Omniverse to be metaverse builders’ glue

Nvidia also offered new apps for gamers, focused primarily on performance. The company said some new 27-inch monitors built using its G-Sync technology, which promises smoother and less-choppy visuals, will be able to reach up to 360Hz refresh rates. Nvidia said these new monitors will also be able to switch between 25-inch and 27-inch modes, running at either 1,080 pixels or 1,440 pixels. The benefit, Nvidia said, is that 1,080-pixel mode often offers faster visuals, which in e-sports and competitive games can mean the difference between winning and losing. 

The new monitors, which are being built by Nvidia partners, have mini-LED backlights. That technology is meant to allow “digital vibrance” to help players more quickly identify other players in a game. Nvidia didn’t say how much the new monitors will cost or when they’ll arrive on store shelves.