Tested for the first time: The weakest Nvidia RTX GPU still packs a punch
The Lenovo ThinkPad P14s Gen 6 Intel that features the Nvidia RTX Pro 500 Blackwell Generation (image source: Benjamin Herzig)
Weak, weaker, Nvidia RTX Pro 500 Blackwell Generation? This GPU may be the runt of the litter, but it still provides a valuable boost over the integrated GPU solutions from AMD and Intel. We tested it for the first time in the Lenovo ThinkPad P14s Gen 6.
Nvidia GeForce RTX 5050 Laptop - the end of the line in Nvidia's mobile GPU lineup? Not quite! There is an even lower-end solution, something that would have been sold as an Nvidia MX GPU in the past - a product line that Nvidia canceled a few years ago. Nowadays, it is no longer sold as a consumer offering, being confined to the professional part of the market instead.
We are talking about the Nvidia RTX Pro 500 Blackwell Generation, which has the distinction of being the lowest end Nvidia GPU among the current Blackwell generation. Compared with the aforementioned GeForce RTX 5050, the RTX Pro 500 has an even smaller number of pipelines (1792 instead of 2560) and a lower amount of memory (6 GB instead of 8 GB), plus a more limited memory bandwidth of just 96 Bit instead of 128 Bit.
We tested the RTX Pro 500 in the Lenovo ThinkPad P14s Gen 6 Intel (available on Amazon), a compact 14.5-inch workstation laptop. In our comprehensive review of this workhorse device, the Nvidia GPU was able to beat the integrated solutions from Intel and Nvidia easily, beating the Intel ARC Graphics 140V by 57 percent and the AMD Radeon 890M by 77 percent. Of course, it still pales in comparison to the GeForce RTX 5050 or even the Radeon 8050S of the Strix Halo series. Still, if GPU performance is needed, choosing a device with the RTX Pro 500 Blackwell Generation GPU gives you a more than valuable boost, especially also when considering aspects like CUDA.
Benjamin Herzig - Managing Editor - 1389 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2016
I was an ardent reader of Notebookcheck’s laptop reviews even back in school. After writing reviews as a hobby, I then joined Notebookcheck in 2016 and have worked on device reviews and news articles ever since then. My personal interest lies more with laptops than smartphones, with business laptops being the most interesting category for me. Technology should make our lives and work easier and good laptops are an essential tool for that to happen. This is why laptop reviews are not just my work but are also my passion.
