Is a $200 PNY RTX 5050 worth it, or should I save for an RTX 5060?
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MellowCedar42
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 I'm currently using a GTX 1070 Ti, which still performs well, but newer games have become unstable because of outdated driver support.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.
Answers
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.
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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.
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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.
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In isolation, $200 for a new RTX 5050 sounds like a pretty good deal. The problem is that the value depends on your older PCIe 3.0 system. If you want to stay with Nvidia, I’d compare its real-world performance on your platform against used cards such as an RTX 2080, RTX 3070, or possibly a 12GB RTX 3060, assuming your power supply can handle them.
SandyOrbit28: Exactly—$200 is attractive by itself, but the PCIe 3.0 limitation could make the 5050 a poor buy for this particular PC.
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CopperLynx19: 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.