Entry-level RTX 5050 desktop GPU specs leak online with bigger bus and higher TDP vs RTX 4050
The RTX 3050 was the last x50 class GeForce GPU to launch on desktops as Nvidia confined the RTX 4050 to laptops. This was a pretty weird move considering there was no sub-$300 desktop RTX 40 GPU, as the RTX 4060 had a launch MSRP of $299. So, true budget buyers were left with no options but to shop for older RTX 30/RX 6000 boards.
This time around, however, Nvidia plans to give gamers a sub-$300 RTX 50 option in the RTX 5050. The existence of the GPU was previously confirmed thanks to an ECC filing. Later, we also got some specs and pricing information. Thanks to serial leaker kopite7kimi on X, we now have some key RTX 5050 specifications to go over.
RTX 5050 specs
Right off the bat, one thing is pretty clear: The RTX 5050 is a true budget GPU and, hence, there are no positive surprises here. The card allegedly packs a GB207-300 GPU with 2,560 CUDA cores. These cores are paired with a 128-bit wide bus and 8 GB of GDDR6 VRAM. Sadly, the leaker hasn’t shared any clock speed figures.
Finally, the RTX 5050 reportedly has a 130 W TDP, the same as the RTX 3050 desktop and 15 W more than the RTX 4060 (Available on Amazon). This RTX 5050 TDP figure is 5 W lower than the one shared by Wccftech recently.
RTX 5050 performance
Since we have no desktop RTX 4050 to compare the RTX 5050 to, we’ll have to rely on the mobile RTX 4050 to make a few guesses about the performance.
For starters, both GPUs have the same number of CUDA cores but the RTX 5050 has a wider bus (128-bit vs 96-bit).
Secondly, the RTX 5050 seemingly has a 15 W higher max TDP. So, while the CUDA core count might be the same, Nvidia can use this higher power budget to push the clocks of the RTX 5050 by a significant margin compared to the RTX 4050’s boost clock of up to 2,370 MHz.
With this in mind, we can expect the RTX 5050 to bring a noticeable-but-not-great performance upgrade over the RTX 4050 laptop GPU. In the best case, the GPU might even approach the RTX 4060 which sits almost 25% ahead of the RTX 4050 laptop per our testing. However, in the absence of any CUDA core increase, this seems unlikely.
Source(s)
kopite7kimi on X, Teaser image: MSI, Milad Fakurian on Unsplash, edited
