NVIDIA has been steadily fleshing out its Blackwell-based GeForce RTX 50 series of GPUs for a few months now. Before today, the line-up spanned all the way from the $299 GeForce RTX 5060, all the way on up to the powerful, flagship $1,999 GeForce RTX 5090. Today though, the company unveiled the GeForce RTX 5050, a new, low-power GPU that’s coming to both laptops and desktops.
GeForce RTX 5050 Series Laptops Are Coming First
The GeForce RTX 5050 arrives in laptops first, in systems that’ll start at $999. In fact, there are already some GeForce RTX 5050-powered laptops for sale, including this MSI Katana 15 HX, which just hit Walmart’s website as I was writing up this coverage. The GeForce RTX 5050 Laptop GPU features 2,560 CUDA Cores, with NVIDIA’s 5th Generation AI Tensor Cores, 4th Generation Ray Tracing Cores, a 9th Generation NVIDIA Encoder (NVENC), and a 6th Generation NVIDIA Decoder (NVDEC). As you’ll see, those core counts are similar to the upcoming desktop variance, but the laptop RTX 5050 does have one significant difference – other than its form factor, of course. The GeForce RTX 5050 laptop GPU will be paired to 8GB of GDDR7 video memory, running at 24 Gbps. The desktop version of the GeForce RTX 5050 will use GDDR6 memory. The reason for using GDDR7 memory in laptops is power efficiency, which directly translates to better battery life and more manageable thermals – two things that are paramount for laptops. GDDR7 is up to twice as efficient as GDDR6; that’s a huge benefit for laptop OEMs and ODMs.
The first wave of GeForce RTX 5050-powered laptops will be as thin as 15 millimeters, and as light as 1.3 kilograms, or 2.9 lbs. For students that want the benefits of a discrete GPU for STEM applications, or mobile gamers that are happy with gaming at 1080p resolutions, the GeForce RTX 5050 laptop GPU should be a good option. It’ll most definitely outperform integrated graphics solutions and offer all of the benefits of NVIDIA’s Blackwell architecture, like support for DLSS 4 and Blackwell’s more advanced media engine.
GeForce RTX 5050 Graphics Cards Arrive Later In July
GeForce RTX 5050 graphics cards for desktop systems will arrive in pre-built systems and on store shelves in mid-July, with a base MSRP of $249. According to NVIDIA, cards will be coming from numerous add-in card partners, including ASUS, Colorful, Gainward, Galaxy, GIGABYTE, INNO3D, MSI, Palit, PNY, and ZOTAC, in a variety of configurations, including factory-overclocked models.
Like the laptop variant, the GeForce RTX 5050 desktop GPU will feature 2,560 CUDA Cores, with 5th Generation AI Tensor Cores, 4th Generation Ray Tracing Cores, a 9th Generation NVIDIA Encoder (NVENC), and a 6th Generation NVIDIA Decoder (NVDEC). As I’ve already mentioned, however, the cards will pack 8GB of GDDR6 video memory on a 128-bit memory bus. Base GPU clocks should hover around 2.31GHz, but if the GeForce RTX 5050 is as overclocking-friendly as some of its higher-end counterparts, expect them to hit much higher clocks with a little tweaking.
GeForce RTX 5050 series cards for desktops will have TDPs in the 130-watt range and be powered by a single PCIe 8-pin cable. This is an important consideration for anyone considering upgrading a desktop system that may be currently using integrated graphics or a previous-gen GPU. The GeForce RTX 5050 cards have relatively modest power requirements and should be suitable for systems with basic power supplies of around 550 watts.
Driver Support Is Coming Next Week
The GeForce RTX 5050 will be NVIDIA’s lowest-power RTX 50 series GPU, and as such, it won’t be for everyone. The GPU targets 1080p gamers looking for a modern GPU, with the latest feature support. As you can see in the charts posted earlier in this article, the GeForce RTX 5050 should be a massive upgrade over older GeForce RTX 3050 series cards or laptop GPUs, even without factoring in the latest technologies offered by NVIDIA’s DLSS 4, like multi-frame gen. There were no GeForce RTX 4050 series cards for desktops (at least not officially). And with DLSS 4 and multi-frame generation, it’s really no contest – the GeForce RTX 5050 easily surpasses the previous gen GPUs.
Consumers looking to upgrade from an older RTX xx50 GPU or legacy, mid-range GTX-class GPU, to a low-power modern graphics card may want to check out the GeForce RTX 5050. I haven’t gotten to test one just yet, but based on NVIDIA’s data it looks to be a big upgrade over legacy GPUs in its class, while also being relatively power friendly and affordable. Driver support is coming in early July for anyone that scores a GeForce RTX 5050 laptop or desktop GPU early, but systems that hit store shelves will obviously ship with a pre-installed driver as well.
