The card sticks to 8 GB of VRAM and will be the first Blackwell GPU to ship with the GB207 chip, a trimmed-down core with 2,560 CUDA units and drawing between 135 and 145 watts through a single 8-pin connector.
Instead of pushing forward with GDDR7, the RTX 5050 uses tried-and-tested 20 Gbps GDDR6, dribbling data across a 128-bit bus for a total of 320 GB/s bandwidth. That’s not impressive but does match the memory design of other value GPUs like the RX 9060 XT 8 GB.
A curious tweak in the design is a 3+2 phase VRM setup, with three phases for the core and two for the VRAM. That’s a notable change from the RTX 4060, which had just a single VRAM phase, though what this does for performance remains to be seen.
The bigger issue will be pricing. With the RTX 5060 already stuck at $299 and largely dismissed, the RTX 5050 will need to land closer to $199 to avoid becoming warehouse shelf clutter. At $249, it’ll be rubbing shoulders with cheaper cards offering more memory, like the Arc B580 12 GB and Arc B570 10 GB.
Nvidia’s banking on brand weight and software stability to make the RTX 5050 appealing to entry-level gamers. Whether that’s enough when cheaper, fatter cards exist remains uncertain.
The card launches in July.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50 GPU Specs:
Graphics Card Name | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
GPU Name | Blackwell GB202-300 | Blackwell GB203-400 | Blackwell GB203-300-A1 | Blackwell GB205-300-A1 | Blackwell GB206-300 | Blackwell GB206-250 | Blackwell GB207-300 |
GPU SMs | 170 (192 Full) | 84 (84 Full) | 70 (84 Full) | 50 (50 Full) | 36 (36 Full) | 30 | 20 (20 Full) |
GPU Cores | 21760 | 10752 | 8960 | 6144 | 4608 | 3840 | 2560 |
Clock Speeds | 2.41 GHz | 2.62 GHz | 2.45 GHz | 2.51 GHz | 2.57 GHz | TBD | TBD |
Memory Capacity | 32 GB GDDR7 | 16 GB GDDR7 | 16 GB GDDR7 | 12 GB GDDR7 | 16 GB / 8 GB GDDR7 | 8 GB GDDR7 | 8 GB GDDR6 |
Memory Bus | 512-bit | 256-bit | 256-bit | 192-bit | 128-bit | 128-bit | 128-bit |
Memory Speed | 28 Gbps | 30 Gbps | 28 Gbps | 28 Gbps | 28 Gbps | 28 Gbps | 20 Gbps |
Bandwidth | 1792 GB/s | 960 GB/s | 896 GB/s | 672 GB/s | 448 GB/s | 448 GB/s | 320 GB/s |
Power Interface | 1 12V-2x6 (16-Pin) | 1 12V-2x6 (16-Pin) | 1 12V-2x6 (16-Pin) | 1 12VHPWR (16-Pin) | 1 12VHPWR (16-Pin) | 8-Pin | 8-Pin |
Launch | 30th January, 2025 | 30th January, 2025 | 20th February, 2025 | 5th March, 2025 | 16th April, 2025 | 19th May, 2025 | June 2025? |
TBP | 575W | 360W | 300W | 250W | 180W | 145W | 135W |
Price | $1999 US | $999 US | $749 US | $549 US | $429/$379 | $299 | $249-$199? |