Nvidia Lifts the Curtain on New GeForce RTX 5050 GPU

Following months of speculation and rumors, Nvidia has officially revealed both the desktop and laptop versions of the RTX 5050. The entry-level Blackwell graphics card will be launched in the latter half of July, with a starting price of $249.

The RTX 5050 is equipped with 2,560 Blackwell CUDA cores and comes with 8GB of GDDR6 memory operating on a 128-bit wide interface, along with a TGP of 130W (which will require an additional 6-pin or 8-pin connector). The boost clock speeds are rated up to 2,570MHz, although we anticipate that some models from AIB partners may feature factory overclocks that achieve even higher speeds. The GPU includes 5th-generation tensor cores rated for up to 421 TOPS of AI performance and offers 40 TFLOPs from its ray tracing cores.

Nvidia's RTX 5050 is the first xx50-class desktop GPU launched since the RTX 3050. Nvidia has never released a RTX 4050 for desktops. Despite the two generations that separate them, the RTX 5050 has identical core specifications to the RTX 3050 8GB, including the same CUDA core count, 8GB memory capacity, and TGP.

In comparison to the RTX 3050 GPU, Nvidia promises significant performance improvements with the RTX 5050. However, it's important to highlight that the benchmarks shown include results where DLSS Multi-Frame Generation is active. Keep in mind that Nvidia’s RTX 3050 does not support DLSS Frame Generation, let alone Multi Frame Generation. This renders Nvidia’s performance data potentially deceptive, as it does not always compare like-for-like scenarios. Nonetheless, the newly released RTX 5050 GPU showcases substantial performance improvements over its RTX 30 series predecessor.

The forthcoming RTX 5050 looks to be an excellent entry-level choice for gamers eager to join the RTX ecosystem. However, for those who wish to experience the latest games at high settings with impressive ray tracing, DLSS 4, and future-proof performance, the RTX 5080 is in a class of its own. As always, for the latest news on hardware launches and industry developments, be sure to follow our dedicated hardware coverage.