GeForce RTX 5050 For Budget Gaming May Launch Sooner Than Expected (Update: It's Launched)
NVIDIA has yet to announce when it will add a more affordable GeForce RTX 5050 to its Blackwell lineup, but numerous leaks and rumors suggest it's coming this summer. Exactly when is still a mystery, though multiple prominent leakers on X are in agreement that we'll see the budget gaming card launch earlier than initially expected.
To start with, MEGAsizeGPU (@Zed__Wang) claims NVIDIA is telling its hardware partners to that it is rescheduling the launch of its desktop GeForce RTX 5050 for July 1, 2025. Previously, it was anticipated that the card would launch sometime later in July.
NVIDIA suddenly informed all AIC that the desktop RTX 5050's launch date has been rescheduled to July 1st. The former launch date was the end of July. IDK why Nvidia made this award decision since no card can be shipped on July 1st.
— MEGAsizeGPU (@Zed__Wang) June 24, 2025
"NVIDIA suddenly informed all AIC that the desktop RTX 5050's launch date has been rescheduled to July 1st. The former launch date was the end of July. IDK why NVIDIA made this award decision since no card can be shipped on July 1st," MEGAsizGPU stated on X.
06.24 update
— hongxing2020 (@hongxing2020) June 24, 2025
RTX5050 ->07.01
Another leaker, hongxing2020 (@hongxing2020) is under the same impression, as revealed in a separate post on X that identifies July 1st as the new launch date.
Assuming the launch date is correct, it's not much of a shift. And if we further assume that MEGAsizeGPU's assessment that "no card can be shipped" that soon from NVIDIA's hardware partners, then the timing hardly matters. That said, it's not the least bit unusual to formally introduce a SKU ahead of its retail availability.
The bigger question is what kind of VRAM will the GeForce RTX 5050 employ. There have been conflicting reports in recent weeks. One of those reports claimed that NVIDIA might tap GDDR6 memory chips for the GeForce RTX 5050, though the folks at Benchlife were quick to respond, saying they heard from "reliable sources" that the upcoming budget gaming card will feature faster GDDR7 memory chips like the rest of the lineup.
Meanwhile, Videocardz claims the upcoming part will feature a GP207-300 GPU with 2,560 CUDA cores, matching the laptop variant, along with 8GB of GDDR6 (not GDDR7) attached to a 128-bit bus for around 320GB/s of memory bandwidth.
We should find out soon enough if the card does indeed a get a formal introduction on July 1.
EDIT: Shortly after we posted this article, NVIDIA announced that the GeForce RTX 5050 will "bring Blackwell RTX to gamers everywhere, starting at $249." NVIDIA also mentions that cards will land on store shelves starting in the second half of July. And finally, NVIDIA confirms that the desktop variant will use GDDR6 memory.
