(Credit: Jeffrey Hazelwood; Nvidia)
Nvidia just stealth-dropped news of a GeForce RTX 5050 desktop graphics card coming in middle or late July. Color me surprised. I suppose that particular color should be Nvidia green. But I'm betting AMD's and Intel's graphics teams are red-faced about now.
To be sure, we saw hints of an upcoming GeForce RTX 5050, but we had reason to suspect it would be a mobile-only GPU, designed solely for laptops. Given that a desktop-card GeForce RTX 4050 never materialized in the last generation of Nvidia GPUs, we figured the "x050" class would be skipping gaming desktops this time, too. Not so. The release of desktop RTX 5050 cards is imminent, and that's poised to alter the balance of power in the market for budget graphics cards.
If AMD and Intel hope to fend off this new competitor from the 800-pound gorilla of graphics, they may have to change up their product lines—or their pricing—to maintain their respective shares of the budget market. Here's why I think Nvidia's rivals will want to respond quickly, or risk ceding ground in yet another desktop-GPU price bracket. I also have thoughts on why Nvidia's more upscale chip, the recently released GeForce RTX 5060, only makes matters worse for them.
Nvidia GeForce RTX 5050: The 'Potentially Good Enough' Card
Looking over the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5050's specs, this graphics card appears somewhat lackluster. Sure, that’s expected from a budget product, but it's arguably a bigger step down from Nvidia’s recently released GeForce RTX 5060 than you might expect. Across the board, the GeForce RTX 5050 ships with roughly 33% fewer resources than the RTX 5060.
Start by looking at shaders and memory. Along with the substantially reduced shader count, the GeForce RTX 5050 also has significantly less bandwidth than the RTX 5060. That’s because Nvidia is making use of GDDR6 memory in the RTX 5050 GPU, not GDDR7 like the rest of its latest (GeForce RTX 50 series) GPUs, probably due to cost. How much effect this will have on performance is hard to say—but I'm going to gamble that it won't be a serious issue on the budget-oriented RTX 5050.
Nvidia used GDDR6 memory on its former budget card, the outgoing Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060, and that card used slower 17Gbps GDDR6, too. The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5050, in contrast, receives a hearty bandwidth boost, thanks to 20Gbps GDDR6. The RTX 5060 has a lot more bandwidth than the RTX 5050 (40% more!), but the RTX 5050 still has 18% more than the RTX 4060, which could be beneficial at higher resolutions. We'll have to see in testing.
The GeForce RTX 5050 also has fewer shader resources than the RTX 4060, but the difference is much smaller than the delta between the RTX 5050 and the RTX 5060. Higher clock speeds and the increased bandwidth on the RTX 5050 could enable it to match, or even slightly surpass, the RTX 4060. But again, we’ll need to wait until we can test the RTX 5050 to know exactly how it stacks up.
No 12VHPWR! What Gives?
Interestingly, according to the initial specs, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5050 doesn’t use the 12VHPWR connection that Nvidia has staunchly supported since its 2022 debut. AMD and Intel have thus far refrained from using the 12VHPWR connection, which has had a rocky reputation, with isolated cases of cable connectors melting.
Now, Nvidia using the more traditional 8-pin power connector on the RTX 5050 doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things. It could simply be that the company wanted to avoid the added cost of including a 12VHPWR adapter for the RTX 5050, or that the power-delivery needs of the RTX 5050 are modest. But it is still interesting to note, as this is the first reference design by Nvidia not to use 12VHPWR since the chip maker first adopted it. It's unlikely that Nvidia will issue its own, Nvidia-branded RTX 5050 cards for sale, but the reference design suggests that its partners' cards will all use regular power connectors.
Coming in July—How Will AMD and Intel Answer?
The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5050 will land at the end of July for $249, the same price Intel set for its Intel Arc B580, arguably the most potent budget graphics card out there right now. In our review and testing late last year, the Arc B580 edged out AMD’s competing Radeon RX 7600 and Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 4060. Now, it seems Nvidia is aiming to knock the Arc B580 from its perch with the RTX 5050.
Nvidia had given off signs that it wasn't concerned with this market segment for years now. As noted, the GPU giant never released a desktop version of the RTX 4050 in its last generation, and its focus has increasingly been on large, high-performance GPUs like the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 and GeForce RTX 5080. The new card, though, seems to be ditching that strategy and looks to set the pricing floor for the market: $249. (Technically, Intel has a $229-MSRP Arc B570, but the Arc B580 is definitely the card to focus on and favor given the slight MSRP differences.) And by matching Intel's MSRP, Nvidia seems to be daring Intel's Arc to compete on performance alone at this price point.
This could prove challenging for Intel, however, as the Intel Arc B580's street price is often higher than its $249 MSRP. Currently, the most affordable model I can find retails for $299, which places it against fierce competition from the AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 8GB and the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060, which, at this writing, were indeed available in some basic models for $299 on Newegg. (That also suggests that you may actually be able to get RTX 5050 cards at MSRP, if the 5060 is any indication.) Intel's less competent Arc B570 is, likewise, selling above MSRP at $279, which even further reduces its appeal. The Arc B570 is the least powerful of all the graphics cards mentioned in this article so far, and it will likely be slower than the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5050 upon the RTX 5050's release.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)As always, we must test the RTX 5050 to see how this will end, but it occurs to me that Nvidia may be able to win this fight on points, thanks to its brand power. If the RTX 5050 can match or slightly outperform the RTX 4060, it will still be a little behind the Intel Arc B580, in all likelihood, if only by a small margin. With both competing at the same price, however, many people will likely be lured to the new GeForce card over the Arc B580 due to Nvidia's longer-earned, better reputation and driver support. That doesn’t mean the Intel Arc B580 is done for; again, tests will tell in time. However, if the performance is close between these two, Intel could be pressed to lower its price if it wants to keep competing among cheap GPUs.
(Credit: Michael Justin Allen Sexton)As for AMD, its only real hope here is to issue a new graphics card entirely. The AMD Radeon RX 7600 generally tested a bit behind the GeForce RTX 4060 and further behind the Intel Arc B580. This GPU is already on shaky ground, so AMD’s best response would unquestionably be a new card based on its RDNA 4 graphics architecture.
An AMD Radeon RX 9060 or an AMD Radeon RX 9050 would likely compete well here, as all of the RDNA 4 graphics cards so far have been highly competitive, with potent performance and aggressive pricing. (See, for example, our review of the pricier Radeon RX 9060 XT.) But seeing as no such cards have been announced, we will have to wait and see. If AMD doesn't have one or both of these cards in the works already, it will be a dogfight between Nvidia and Intel at the low end for a while, barring some aggressive price cuts on existing Radeons.
The Takeaway? For AMD and Intel, the RTX 5060, Not the 5050, Looms Larger
Then there's Nvidia's step-up GeForce RTX 5060 card. We're in the midst of testing the RTX 5060 (we haven't gotten a lead on an RTX 5050 sample yet), and one thing's looking true: If you are considering buying a GeForce RTX 5050, you'll likely be better off with a GeForce RTX 5060, anyway.
Early returns suggest the RTX 5060 is a fair bit faster than the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 for just $299. That’s just $50 more than the RTX 5050’s $249, but for that price, you get a 50% increase in all shading resources and a substantial increase in memory bandwidth, which is bound to translate to a significant performance boost over the coming RTX 5050.
You also have the 8GB version of the AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT as an option. It's $299, too, like the RTX 5060, with similar resource advantages to further press the RTX 5050. Regardless, Nvidia's GeForce RTX 5060 looks to be mathematically the better value if you can afford the extra cost.
While the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 and the AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT look certain to be better buys in a big-picture sense, there will still be buyers who just can't stretch their budget beyond $250. (I still remember paying $139.99 for a discounted AMD Radeon HD 7850 more than a decade back and feeling that was a lot.) For shoppers who can only afford to pick among these more affordable options, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5050 may well be the best thing at that price on its release. Look out, Arc and Radeon.