Hey everyone! I'm looking for some advice on whether to upgrade my brother's current RTX 3060 12GB EVGA to an RTX 5050 8GB. I'm considering this because it would be a cost-free upgrade and would allow access to the latest DLSS and Frame Generation technologies. However, I'm concerned about whether his setup, which includes a Core i5 10400 and what seems to be 2666MHz RAM due to motherboard restrictions, will bottleneck the 5050 significantly, making it underperform like a 3060. My brother plays popular competitive multiplayer games like Valorant and Rainbow Six, along with Red Dead Redemption, all at 1080p. I doubt the decreased VRAM will be an issue for his usage. Again, the upgrade wouldn't cost anything, so I wanted to hear your thoughts! Thanks!
5 Answers
Upgrading to the 5050 seems like a downgrade rather than an upgrade. I'd recommend looking into the 9060XT 16GB or the 5060 Ti 16GB for a better performance increase.
Why go for non-native frames in competitive games? You might not get the performance you'd like when every millisecond counts. Just a thought!
If the PC supports PCIe 5.0, I'd say the 5050 is a solid choice. Otherwise, you might want to stick with the 3060, especially if it's PCIe 3.0.
Can you explain the reasoning behind that? The CPU is a 10400, so it's either gen 3 or 4, right?
Honestly, this feels more like a sidegrade rather than an upgrade. I'd suggest looking at options like the RX 9060XT 16GB or 9070 for a real performance boost. The 9060XT is comparable to a 3070/3070 Ti, which would be a significant upgrade over the 3060.
But won't the i5 10400 bottleneck those cards significantly?
Even if it's free, swapping for less VRAM doesn't sound great. Frame Generation technology requires VRAM, so you might not get the boost you're hoping for with that upgrade. I'd say it's not worth it.
That's a good point! I hadn't considered how Frame Gen might impact performance on a card with less VRAM.

Good question! I'm really curious about why that matters, so I figured I'd ask!