Don't buy an Nvidia RTX 5060 laptop, wait for the RTX 5050
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So far, Nvidia's RTX 50-series of gaming laptops have not been very wallet-friendly.
Like with most GPU generations, we got the flagship cards first, with the more mid-range and entry-level GPUs coming in later.
While Nvidia's announcement of the GeForce RTX 5060 laptop GPU at Computex last week brought a glimmer of hope that budget gaming laptops will be here soon, you may want to hold out for a better deal.
After all, there is still the rumored entry-level Nvidia gaming GPU.
Thanks to a few recent leaks like two Lenovo listings from Laptops Direct, and a laptop lineup spec list from Acer, we have some insight into the yet-unannounced Nvidia RTX 5050 Laptop GPU.
Should you get an RTX 5060 laptop or hold out a bit longer for the RTX 5050 versions instead?
Let's take a look to see if we can determine which GPU will power the best budget gaming laptops.
RTX 5070 Laptop GPU
RTX 5060 Laptop GPU
RTX 5050 Laptop GPU
Price:
$1,299
$1,099 starting
TBD
CUDA (compute unified digital architecture) cores:
4,608
3,328
TBD
VRAM:
8GB GDDR7
8GB GDDR7
8GB GDDR7
Memory bus:
128-bit
128-bit
128-bit
Max clock speed:
2.347 GHz
2.497 GHz
TBD
TGP:
up to 100W
up to 100W
up to 100W
We don't have the full specs on the RTX 5050 yet, including the max GPU clock speed, CUDA Core count, or price.
But from what we do have, the RTX 5050 Laptop GPU seems to have the same 8GB of GDDR7 VRAM and 128-bit memory bus as the RTX 5060 Laptop GPU. The RTX 5060 and RTX 5050 laptop GPUs also have the same top-end TGP of 100W.
Granted, the RTX 5070 Laptop GPU has the same memory specs and TGP, but it has 38% more CUDA Cores.
We haven't tested any RTX 5060 systems yet, and the RTX 5050 gaming laptops haven't even been officially announced. We can only speculate based on what we've seen from the Nvidia Blackwell generation so far.
While our initial RTX 5090 laptop test results aren't quite as impressive as we expected, there are a few reasons for that.
Because of the high price tag attached to RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 laptops, the RTX 5070 and RTX 5070 TI are a more economical choice. We've even seen decent performance from the RTX 5070, at least based on an early preview benchmark session.
If Nvidia's starting price expectations hold for the RTX 5050, we would expect to see at least one or two RTX 5050 gaming laptops with a price tag of about $999, which was the starting price for laptops with the RTX 4050. At least on paper.
This means the RTX 5050 is poised to offer the best combination of GPU power for the price.
As always, my initial instinct on the performance of Nvidia's lower-tier GPUs could be entirely off-base. We'll have to wait and get some systems in for testing to make a final determination.
However.
Suppose the RTX 5050 is close to the RTX 5060 in pure silicon performance, with Nvidia's DLSS 4 and frame generation technology enabled. In that case, it's probably worth waiting for a cheaper Nvidia gaming laptop if you need to stick to a tight budget.
Alternatively, a few upcoming laptops will ship with the RTX 4050 laptop GPU if you'd like to hold out for the very best deal possible. We haven't seen much pure silicon improvement from generation to generation between the RTX 40-series and RTX 50-series graphics cards.
While the RTX 4050 won't get all the benefits of DLSS 4 and frame generation, it does have access to Nvidia's DLSS 3.7. It's not as smooth as DLSS 4, but it can come pretty close.
The RTX 4050 could also be a compelling option for a generation of incredibly expensive gaming laptops.
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