Reports suggest that NVIDIA is not increasing VRAM size on its budget Blackwell gaming GPUs and will retain the 8 GB memory capacity on both RTX 5050 and RTX 5060. However, both will feature the latest PCI-E 5.0 interface.
GeForce RTX 5060 and 5050 to feature 8 GB GDDR6/GDDR7 memory on a 128-bit bus
Among the recent leaks, emerged a new rumor that suggests NVIDIA’s budget offerings in the Blackwell lineup will feature no more than 8 GB of VRAM. Here we aren’t just talking about the GeForce RTX 5050 but also the RTX 5060. Apparently, both have a similar memory configuration except for the memory type.
A leaker on sub-Reddit r/pcmasterrace posted a specs table, revealing the memory configuration, GPU die, and launch year for most Blackwell RTX 50 series gaming GPUs. At the top of the list, it’s mentioned that the RTX 5050 and 5060 will both have 8 GB memory on a 128-bit memory bus. If the rumor is true, it would mean NVIDIA isn’t interested in improving the memory config on its budget GPUs except for the DDR type.
From the past two generations, the 60-class cards haven’t seen any VRAM increment. Moreover, we actually saw a downgrade in the memory bus width coming from RTX 3060 GPUs. The RTX 5060 will be, therefore, equivalent to the 4060 in VRAM capacity except that it will yield higher memory bandwidth due to faster GDDR7 memory. However, several titles have already shown 8 GB cards their weaknesses, which leads to frequent and major FPS drops and sloppy performance.
The RTX 5050, on the other hand, looks like a reworked RTX 4060 GPU. While the RTX 5060 is now getting a GB206 die, the RTX 5050 will be receiving the GB207 GPU chip. Thankfully, this time NVIDIA isn’t equipping the 60-class card with XX7 die like the RTX 4060. Except for these details, we don’t have any solid leaks on the specifications of these two cards. Cuda Cores, TDP, and other details are yet to be known.
The RTX 5060 and 5050 are reportedly launching in 2025 but they will probably end up at the end of Q1 2025 or later. The RTX 5070 and higher-end cards are expected to launch in the first quarter of 2025 with RTX 5090 and 5080 to be the first GPUs to launch in the month of January, followed by the RTX 5070 and 5070 Ti.
The RTX 5070 and 5080 are bringing almost similar VRAM configurations as their predecessors but the RTX 5070 Ti is looking on par with RTX 4070 Ti Super but with faster GDDR7 memory. The only GPU that is getting a decent jump in VRAM capacity is the RTX 5090, which is the only 32 GB gaming card we ever saw. Meanwhile, the lower-end GPUs aren’t getting any VRAM increase, which can be devastating as 8 GB cards are getting outdated, at least for modern titles.
Specs/GPU | RTX 5050 | RTX 5060 | RTX 4060 |
GPU | GB207 | GB206 | AD107 |
Cuda Cores | TBD | TBD | 3072 |
VRAM | 8 GB | 8 GB | 8 GB |
Memory Bus | 128-bit | 128-bit | 128-bit |
Memory Type | GDDR6 | GDDR7 | GDDR6 |
Interface | PCI-E 5.0 | PCI-E 5.0 | PCI-E 4.0 |
TDP | TBD | TBD | 115W |
Release Date | 2025 | Q1 2025 | May, 2023 |