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Subscribe to the world's #1 PC gaming mag Try a single issue or save on a subscription Issues delivered straight to your door or device From£35.99View Essential Hardware PC Gaming Show Dune: Awakening Recommended reading Graphics Cards Nvidia surprise-launches the GeForce RTX 5050 graphics card, starting at $249 for what's basically a slower RTX 4060 with DLSS 4 Gaming Laptops Nvidia hasn't announced them yet but laptop vendors confirm that RTX 5050 and 5060 GPUs are almost here, and they'll both have 8 GB of VRAM Graphics Cards Graphics card vendors have started to show off their RTX 5050 models and they're looking ridiculously huge for such a tiny GPU Graphics Cards Nvidia RTX 5060 review live: looks like the 8 GB of VRAM isn't the biggest issue the new card has to face Gaming Laptops Looks like the latest Nvidia driver has given some RTX 5080 and 5090 laptops a little performance boost Graphics Cards Nvidia announces RTX 5060 release date of May 19 for both the $299 desktop GPU and $1,099 gaming laptops Graphics Cards AMD RX 9070 XT vs Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti: This is 2025's graphics card battle royale Graphics Cards Nvidia marketing goes into overdrive mode with claims that the new RTX 5050 is over 6000% faster than the GTX 1050 thanks to DLSS Jeremy Laird 26 June 2025 It's actually over 10 times faster in raster, isn't that a big enough win for gamers with old GPUs? When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. (Image credit: Nvidia) Nvidia's new entry-level gaming GPU for desktop and laptop, the RTX 5050, was surprise-launched yesterday, and true to form, the company has some eye-popping marketing claims to promote the new graphic cards. Nvidia has published a graph showing that the RTX 5050 delivers well over 60 times or 6000% the performance of a GTX 1050 when using DLSS technology. The graph is titled ">50X Performance for 10s of Millions of Gamers", but clearly shows the RTX 5050 well beyond the 60x marker versus the GTX 1050 baseline. That huge performance boost compares the RTX 5050 with DLSS fully enabled to the GTX 1050 running without any DLSS features, which the older GPU does not support. Chiefly, that means upscaling plus frame generation. Related Articles Nvidia surprise-launches the GeForce RTX 5050 graphics card, starting at $249 for what's basically a slower RTX 4060 with DLSS 4 Nvidia hasn't announced them yet but laptop vendors confirm that RTX 5050 and 5060 GPUs are almost here, and they'll both have 8 GB of VRAM Graphics card vendors have started to show off their RTX 5050 models and they're looking ridiculously huge for such a tiny GPU As an RTX 50 series GPU, the RTX 5050, of course, supports the latest MFG or Multi Frame Generation technology, which inserts three ML-generated frames in between each pair of frames rendered in the conventional 3D pipeline. Nvidia doesn't say what quality setting is being used for DLSS upscaling, but it's probably the Performance setting, given the huge uplift in frame rates. The graph also shows how the GPUs compare for conventional raster rendering using the 3D pipeline and there the RTX 5050 is around 12 times faster than the old GTX 1050 according to Nvidia. Nvidia's heavy DLSS sales pitch for the RTX 5050. (Image credit: Nvidia) And, actually, isn't that a pretty good story to tell to gamers? Nvidia's narrative here is that over 50 million gamers are still using x50 and x60 GPUs from the Pascal, Turing and Ampere GPU generations. Specifically, that's the GTX 1050 and 1060, the GTX 1650 and 1660 and the RTX 3050 and 3060. So, while the RTX 5050 is entry level by today's standards, it represents a major upgrade for lots of gamers. It's not entirely clear exactly which GPUs Nvidia has in mind when it says ">50X Performance for 10s of Millions of Gamers." Even with the latest DLSS tech, the RTX 5050 isn't anything like 50 times faster than an RTX 3060. So, that headline >50x metric is comparing the RTX 5050 with the oldest Pascal GPUs. The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. But surely over 10 times the performance in pure raster is a very good result for gamers using those old GPUs? If you then make DLSS an additional and extremely welcome benefit, rather than making direct frame-rate comparisons, then you have a very compelling narrative. Swipe to scroll horizontally Header Cell - Column 0 Boost clock Memory bus width VRAM bandwidth You also sidestep any pushback concerning the limitations of DLSS. At minimum, it remains to be seen how usable Multi Frame Generation is with the new RTX 5050. Given it's a relatively weak GPU for which input lag will inherently be more of an issue compared to RTX 50 graphics cards higher up the stack, the fact that MFG adds latency means it's likely to be more problematic for this entry-level Blackwell GPU. That's actually OK, provided DLSS performance isn't being directly compared with rasterisation. DLSS doesn't always have to work perfectly for it to be an unambiguous benefit. But just as Nvidia overreached when it claimed the RTX 5070 was as fast as the RTX 4090 thanks to DLSS, to put it gently, this whole "50x" thing with the new RTX 5050 feels a little unnecessary. Best PC build 2025Our current recommendations 👉Check out our list of guides👈 1. Best CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D 2. Best motherboard: MSI MAG X870 Tomahawk WiFi 3. Best RAM: G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB 32 GB DDR5-7200 4. Best SSD: WD_Black SN7100 5. Best graphics card: RTX 5070 Ti or RX 9070 XT (whichever is cheaper) Jeremy Laird Social Links Navigation Hardware writer Jeremy has been writing about technology and PCs since the 90nm Netburst era (Google it!) and enjoys nothing more than a serious dissertation on the finer points of monitor input lag and overshoot followed by a forensic examination of advanced lithography. Or maybe he just likes machines that go “ping!” He also has a thing for tennis and cars. You must confirm your public display name before commenting Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name. Nvidia surprise-launches the GeForce RTX 5050 graphics card, starting at $249 for what's basically a slower RTX 4060 with DLSS 4 Nvidia hasn't announced them yet but laptop vendors confirm that RTX 5050 and 5060 GPUs are almost here, and they'll both have 8 GB of VRAM Graphics card vendors have started to show off their RTX 5050 models and they're looking ridiculously huge for such a tiny GPU Nvidia RTX 5060 review live: looks like the 8 GB of VRAM isn't the biggest issue the new card has to face Looks like the latest Nvidia driver has given some RTX 5080 and 5090 laptops a little performance boost Nvidia announces RTX 5060 release date of May 19 for both the $299 desktop GPU and $1,099 gaming laptops Latest in Graphics Cards Graphics card vendors have started to show off their RTX 5050 models and they're looking ridiculously huge for such a tiny GPU Nvidia's DLSS AI transformer model is now out of beta so we might see more games get patched to make use of it Yeston's adorable single fan RTX 5060 adorned with tiny little bears is almost cute enough to make me want a mini gaming PC The Nvidia Blackwell guide to DOOM: The Dark Ages best settings Security mitigations in Intel's GPUs rob up to 20% of their compute performance but it's unlikely to be a problem in games Nvidia surprise-launches the GeForce RTX 5050 graphics card, starting at $249 for what's basically a slower RTX 4060 with DLSS 4 Latest in News We've outgrown the need for BioShock, but you can get the whole trilogy plus Mafia 1, 2, and 3 for a mere $18 right now Rematch players are flopping about like schools of flying fish because—and I tested this—it's actually faster Intel commences mass layoffs with over 100 Californian employees, including around 45 engineers in efforts to shed $500 million in operating costs this year Corsair introduces cheaper PC case fans with 'reverse rotors' which help those LEDs shine without obstruction Netherlands takes Sony to court over digital-only walled garden allegedly costing 1.7m citizens 435 million euros since 2013 Xbox and Meta officially release limited edition black and green Meta Quest 3S bundle HARDWARE BUYING GUIDES LATEST GAME REVIEWS Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads Best graphics card for laptops in 2025: the mobile GPUs I'd want in my next gaming laptop Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most Best 14-inch gaming laptop in 2025: The top compact gaming laptops I've held in these hands Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I've tested Acer Predator X32X QD-OLED review Crucial P510 NVMe SSD review Kioxia Exceria Plus G4 NVMe SSD review SK Hynix Platinum P51 NVMe SSD review Biwin Black Opal X570 Pro 2 TB review PC Gamer is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. 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