I found a new-in-box PNY RTX 5050 being sold locally for $200 and I'm wondering whether it's worth buying or if I should spend more on an RTX 5060. I'm currently using a GTX 1070 Ti, which still performs well, but newer games have become unstable because of outdated driver support. I'd also prefer not to replace my current power supply just to move to an AMD card, since the PSU isn't modular. My system has an i7-8700K, so I'm also curious whether that would create a serious bottleneck. I'm not chasing maximum performance in the newest, poorly optimized games—I mainly want a reliable card with driver support for several years.
3 Answers
Your i7-8700K shouldn’t be an overwhelming bottleneck at 1440p or with higher graphics settings, although it can limit minimum frame rates in CPU-heavy games. The bigger concern here is pairing a PCIe 3.0 platform with a modern x8 graphics card, so I’d research benchmarks for that exact combination before buying the 5050.
If long-term driver support is the priority, the RTX 50 series does make sense, but I wouldn’t automatically assume the 5060 is worth the extra money. Since you mostly play older or better-optimized games, a good used RTX 3060, 3070, or 2080 could provide plenty of performance for less. Just check the PSU connectors and condition of any used card carefully.
I’d be cautious with both the RTX 5050 and 5060 in this system. They use an x8 PCIe connection, while your i7-8700K platform is limited to PCIe 3.0. That can hurt performance, especially in frame-time lows or when the card runs short on VRAM. A Radeon RX 9060 XT may be a stronger option in this price range, though you’d need to confirm that your power supply has the appropriate connectors and enough capacity.
The PCIe 3.0 limitation is the main concern. Newer lower-end cards using x8 or x4 links can lose more performance on an older platform than cards with a full x16 connection, particularly when VRAM is being used heavily.