New Low-End GeForce RTX 5050 Review Shows Poor Results
A fresh review of NVIDIA's basic GeForce RTX 5050 from QuasarZone, a South Korean group, finds the results weak. NVIDIA did not send test cards to the press before they began to sell them, making the team buy the card on their own and wait for a public driver.
1080p Game Tests
QuasarZone ran the RTX 5050 on a setup with Ryzen 7 9800X3D and DDR5-6000 RAM. They tested 15 new games at 1080p. Here's how the card did:
- 6.4% slower than the GeForce RTX 4060.
- 2.6% slower than Intel's Arc B580.
- About the same as the Radeon RX 7600.
- 12% faster than the older GeForce RTX 3060.
Energy Use and Boosting Power
The RTX 5050 uses 130 watts, a bit more than the RTX 4060's 115 watts, but they use about the same in real tests. The card can't be boosted much—only up to a 10% gain before it hits its energy cap. QuasarZone thinks NVIDIA set this limit on purpose to stop it from beating their top models.
Big Issue 8GB of VRAM
The major issue with the RTX 5050 is its 8GB of VRAM. The review notes that this amount isn't enough for new games in 2025. This makes other less costly cards, like the Intel Arc B580 with 12GB of memory, look better.
