MSI GeForce RTX 5050 Shadow 2X Review: Budget Blackwell Gaming Tested
We also spent some time overclocking the MSI GeForce RTX 5050 Shadow 2X to see what kind of additional performance we could wring from the card. We had great success overclocking most of the other RTX 50 series cards, so we were very interested to see what the smallest Blackwell GPU could do...
Overclocking The MSI GeForce RTX 5050 Shadow 2X
As we've already mentioned in numerous articles at this point, Blackwell-based GeForce RTX 50 series cards feature GPU Boost, which scales frequencies and voltages up and down, based on the GPU's workload at the time -- power and temperatures permitting. Should a temperature or power limit be reached, GPU Boost will drop down to the previous boost frequency and voltage stepping, in an attempt to bring power and temperatures down gradually and not cause any significant swings in performance.
To overclock an RTX 50 series card, the maximum boost clock, the memory clock, and power limit can be tweaked to increase performance. Altering the fan speed curve and GPU voltage (when applicable) can allow for further tuning when supported.
Like previous-gen cards, the MSI GeForce RTX 5050 Shadow 2X is usually voltage or power limited -- even in its stock configuration -- to prevent damage and ensure longevity, and it's those limits that will usually determine your success when overclocking. You can see the card hitting those limits out-of-box defaults above. Unfortunately, with the MSI GeForce RTX 5050 Shadow 2X, the power target cannot be increased and the GPU voltage could not be altered, at least with the latest official version of MSI's Afterburner we used. That said, we were able to increase the GPU and memory clocks over their default values, to try and tweak things a bit.
We upped the GPU and memory frequency offsets in Afterburner to manually alter the MSI GeForce RTX 5050 Shadow 2X's frequencies until the test system was no longer stable, showed on-screen artifacts, or performance peaked due to hitting a power, voltage or other limit.
In its stock configuration, the MSI GeForce RTX 5050 Shadow 2X hit a speedy 2,962MHz boost clock and peaked at 71°C range, while maintaining its 20Gbps memory data rate (effective 10,000MHz). While overclocked, however, we were able to take its GPU clock all the way up to 3,172MHz with a 20.5Gbps memory speed.
We should also mention, that while overclocked the MSI GeForce RTX 5050 Shadow 2X remained very cool. Even while overclocked, we saw temperatures peak at 71°C, which was right in-line with stock and the fan speed maxed out at only 49%.
Total System Power Consumption
Throughout all of our benchmarking and testing, we also monitored noise output and tracked how much power the GPUs were consuming in our test system. Our goal here is to give you an idea as to how much power each GPU used while idle and also while under a heavy workload.
The GeForce RTX 5050 consumed more power than we expected relative to the GeForce RTX 5060, but overall it consumed the least amount of power of all of the GPUs we tested, save for the older (and much lower performing) GeForce RTX 3050. Versus the Radeon RX 7600 XT, the GeForce RTX 5050 consumed significantly lower power, despite trading blows in our tests, which speaks well for Blackwell's efficiency.
MSI GeForce RTX 5050 Review Summary & Conclusion
The GeForce RTX 5050 obviously isn’t a benchmark burner, but it ultimately is a fairly well-rounded card for its asking price. Looking at gaming performance alone, most users won’t be particularly excited, but more and more users today are also creators and are dabbling with local AI, and in that regard the RTX 5050 distances itself somewhat from previous generation mainstream and entry-level GPUs. And if you factor DLSS and frame generation into the equation, the GeForce RTX 5050 has no trouble hitting playable framerates in many modern games, especially if you crank down the image quality a touch. Of course, everything is relative – the GeForce RTX 5050 is the entry point into desktop Blackwell graphics, and as such, there are much higher performing offerings up the stack.
So, who is the GeForce RTX 5050 for? It’s for budget constrained gamers that are currently stuck on integrated graphics or older, entry-level GPUs, that want all of the features of NVIDIA’s latest graphics architecture. That said, there is much more performance and ‘future proofing’ to be had by stepping up to GPUs in the GeForce RTX 5060 or Radeon RX 9600 range, especially one with more than 8GB of memory. Speaking in terms of percentages, jumping up from a $250 RTX 5050 to a 5060, 5060 Ti, or even a 16GB Radeon RX 9060 can be upwards of a 50%+ price increase, but in absolute dollars, it’s about a $120 - $140 upgrade, and that would be money well spent in our opinion. We acknowledge that not everyone can slap down hundreds of extra dollars on every build, but if gaming is your main focus it would absolutely be worth saving up a bit longer for a more capable GPU.
