NVIDIA is gearing up to unveil its RTX 5050, the most affordable member of the new GeForce RTX 50 series lineup. The card built on Nvidia latest Blackwell architecture is expected to arrive around July 2025, according to multiple reports. Official details are sparse, but leaks suggest the RTX 5050 will pack 2,560 CUDA cores and 8 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 128-bit, offering real-time ray tracing and AI features to budget gamers. Industry analysts say the 5050 will slot in as the true successor to the old RTX 3050 (there was no desktop 4050 last gen), closing out Nvidia current GPU roadmap in the sub-$300 segment.
According to Tom’s Hardware and other sources, this fully enabled GB207 die gives the 5050 20 SMs (20 CUDA cores each) the same core count as last-gen RTX 3050 but on a newer, more efficient chip. The leaked specs also indicate a 130 W TDP, up from 100 W on the older 4050 (Ada) notebook GPU. In practical terms, Blackwell higher power budget and improved architecture should yield a healthy performance boost over the Ampere RTX 3050.
RTX 5050 Release Date and Pricing
Reports indicate the RTX 5050 launch is set for July 2025, roughly two months after the RTX 5060 debuted. VideoCardz and other leak sites claim Nvidia plans to wrap up its 50-series lineup with this card next month. While Nvidia hasn’t announced prices, nearly all sources expect the 5050 to be a sub-$300 card. Early chatter suggests an MSRP around $250 essentially reviving the old $249 tier that Nvidia hasn’t used since the RTX 3050 in 2022.
At that price, the 5050 will directly compete with AMD $249–$279 Radeon RX 7600 (8 GB) and Intel upcoming Arc GPU. Analysts note that Nvidia will likely lean on its mature DLSS image-upscaling, ray-tracing and driver support to stand out in this crowded sub-$300 segment.
Architecture and RTX 50-Series Context
The RTX 5050 is part of Nvidia new RTX 50-series, which launched at CES 2025 on the Blackwell architecture. Nvidia says Blackwell is a huge leap in AI-driven graphics: it features fifth-generation Tensor cores (for AI tasks) and fourth-generation RT cores (for ray tracing). CEO Jensen Huang has called Blackwell “the engine of AI,” promising that the RTX 50-series “fuse AI-driven neural rendering and ray tracing” in what he described as “the most significant computer graphics innovation” in decades.
In marketing materials, Nvidia boasts that the new architecture will deliver “stunning visual realism and 2x performance” over the last generation, thanks to features like DLSS 4 and new neural shaders. (DLSS 4 multi-frame AI frame generation can potentially improve frame rates by as much as 8× over native rendering.) These same advances will trickle down to the 5050: even though it has a lower core count, each Blackwell core is more powerful than its Ampere predecessor.
In practice, Blackwell adds new tricks for both players and creators. Aside from DLSS 4, the RTX 50 series introduces RTX Reflex 2 (Frame Warp) to reduce game latency, and advanced AI-driven effects like Neural Shaders and Neural Faces that use small neural networks to boost lighting and character realism in real time.
Performance Expectations
With 2,560 CUDA cores and a 130 W power budget, the RTX 5050 should outperform the old RTX 3050 while staying efficient. One analysis estimates Blackwell’s architectural improvements could yield roughly a 10–20% fps uplift over a same-core-count Ampere GPU. In rasterized (traditional) games at 1080p, that might translate to noticeably smoother frame rates at high settings.
Ray-traced games will run better too the new RT cores and third-generation Tensor cores (supporting DLSS 4) mean even a budget card can handle basic ray tracing if DLSS is enabled. Gamers playing modern titles at 1080p should expect frame rates comparable to a mainstream midrange card from a few years ago, but with upgraded AI and ray-trace effects.
For non-gaming workloads, the 5050 will also be useful. It carries full support for Nvidia developer ecosystem from CUDA acceleration in creative apps to NVENC video encoding and AI API. Features like NVIDIA Broadcast (for AI-enhanced streaming) and RTX Video Super Resolution (AI upscaling videos) are available on any RTX GPU.
In practice, this means students or content creators on a budget could edit videos or 3D projects faster than on older GTX cards, thanks to GPU-accelerated effects. In benchmarks and gaming demos, sources note that the 5050 efficiency could keep heat and power draw modest, making it a good fit for smaller cases or pre-built PC.
The arrival of the RTX 5050 could shake up the mid-range GPU market. This summer release will revive the sub-$300 desktop GPU tier that’s been mostly empty since the RTX 3050. If Nvidia prices it aggressively (around $249–$279), AMD and Intel will feel the pressure to match or improve their offerings.
Already, AMD 8 GB Radeon RX 7600 and Intel Arc desktop GPUs sit in this price bracket. The 5050 combination of modern RTX features and Nvidia polish (DLSS, drivers, etc.) may give it an edge for value-conscious 1080p gamers. In turn, AMD might respond with refreshes or discounts, and Intel could accelerate its Arc roadmap to stay competitive.
