AMD's new Radeon RX 9050 is roughly 30% slower than the RTX 5050 in games, early testing shows — the cheapest 8GB RDNA 4 GPU comfortably handles 1080p gaming but doesn't impress

ASRock Radeon RX 9060 Challenger.

AMD officially launched its cheapest RDNA 4 graphics card, the Radeon RX 9050, a few days ago, and we already have some performance numbers for it. Preliminary testing from Japanese outlet GDM puts the GPU up against its closest Nvidia rival, the RTX 5050, in a matchup that sees the AMD offering lose by a big margin. The RX 9050 is fine on its own, especially if you're limited to 1080p gaming, but in the head-to-head it leaves a lot to be desired based on its roughly 30% slower framerates averaged across various titles.

The test bench consisted of a Ryzen 7 9800X3D and specifically the ASRock Challenger variant of the 9050, alongside the Gigabyte Windforce OC variant of the RTX 5050. Starting with synthetic benchmarks, the Red Team's GPU is almost 20% slower in the 3DMark suite. The biggest difference lies in Port Royal, where the RTX 5050 scores 6,181 points but the RX 9050 only manages 4,531 points. Time Spy sees the smallest delta, where both cards are separated by about 500 points.

Early RX 9050 benchmarks

Benchmark Test	Type / Focus	AMD Radeon RX 9050	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050	RX 9050 Deficit
3DMark Time Spy	DX12 Rasterization (Overall)	9,441	10,571	-10.7%
3DMark Time Spy Extreme	DX12 4K Rasterization (Overall)	4,450	4,952	-10.1%
3DMark Steel Nomad	Modern DX12 Non-RT	1,985	2,282	-13.0%
3DMark Speed Way	DX12 Ultimate (Ray Tracing)	1,873	2,520	-25.7%
3DMark Port Royal	Ray Tracing Benchmark	4,531	6,181	-26.7%

Moving onto gaming, the testing was conducted across multiple resolutions, so we've chosen to show the most representative results possible. When talking about esports titles such as Apex Legends and Rainbow Six Siege, the RX 9050 holds its ground well, especially as you scale up the resolution. At 4K Ultra+ settings, both GPUs actually match at 64 FPS. The biggest difference was 20%, reported at 1440p medium, where the RTX 5050 pushed 150 FPS while the RX 9050 could only manage 125 FPS.

Game	Preset	Resolution	AMD Radeon RX 9050	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050	Winner / Gap
Apex Legends	Max Settings	1080p	147.1 FPS	192.4 FPS	RTX 5050 (+30.8%)
Apex Legends	Max Settings	1440p	101.4 FPS	128.2 FPS	RTX 5050 (+26.4%)
Apex Legends	Max Settings	4K	72.6 FPS	74.8 FPS	RTX 5050 (+3.0%)
Rainbow Six Siege X	Medium	1080p	204.0 FPS	239.0 FPS	RTX 5050 (+17.2%)
Rainbow Six Siege X	Medium	1440p	125.0 FPS	150.0 FPS	RTX 5050 (+20.0%)
Rainbow Six Siege X	Medium	4K	65.0 FPS	73.0 FPS	RTX 5050 (+12.3%)
Rainbow Six Siege X	Ultra+	1080p	129.0 FPS	141.0 FPS	RTX 5050 (+9.3%)
Rainbow Six Siege X	Ultra+	1440p	116.0 FPS	126.0 FPS	RTX 5050 (+8.6%)
Rainbow Six Siege X	Ultra+	4K	64.0 FPS	64.0 FPS	Tied

The rest of the games show a more underwhelming result for the RX 9050, with DOOM: The Dark Ages acting as an outlier where both GPUs take turns destroying the other. The game has multi-frame gen support at up to 6x for the Nvidia card, while the FSR frame gen is limited to just 2x. Regardless, the RX 9050 wins at higher resolutions in all settings due. As mentioned, however, this is the only test where the 9050 seemed to beat the 5050.

Game Title	Preset	Resolution	AMD Radeon RX 9050	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050	Winner / Gap
DOOM	Medium	1080p	132.74 FPS	296.63 FPS	RTX 5050 (+123.5%)
DOOM	Medium	1440p	85.11 FPS	17.17 FPS	RX 9050 (+395.7%)
DOOM	Medium	4K	39.71 FPS	9.87 FPS	RX 9050 (+302.3%)
DOOM	Ultra Nightmare	1080p	114.17 FPS	280.13 FPS	RTX 5050 (+145.4%)
DOOM	Ultra Nightmare	1440p	73.79 FPS	10.71 FPS	RX 9050 (+589.0%)
DOOM	Ultra Nightmare	4K	35.56 FPS	9.62 FPS	RX 9050 (+269.6%)

The remaining titles show rather boring numbers where the RX 9050 loses every single time, no matter the resolution or preset. It comes the closest in Final Fantasy XIV at 1080p, where the internal benchmark separates the two GPUs by 23%, whereas the biggest difference lies in Onimusha, where the RTX 5050 is almost twice as fast. Across these games, on average, the RX 9050 is 31% slower at 1080p, 34% slower at 1440p, and 42% slower at 4K.

Game Title	Preset	Resolution	AMD Radeon RX 9050	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050	Winner / Gap
Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail	Standard	1080p	12895 pts	15847 pts	RTX 5050 (+22.9%)
Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail	Standard	1440p	8136 pts	10059 pts	RTX 5050 (+23.6%)
Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail	Standard	4K	3994 pts	5102 pts	RTX 5050 (+27.7%)
Cyberpunk 2077	Medium	1080p	210.79 FPS	300.16 FPS	RTX 5050 (+42.4%)
Cyberpunk 2077	Medium	1440p	134.45 FPS	185.25 FPS	RTX 5050 (+37.8%)
Cyberpunk 2077	Medium	4K	64.27 FPS	107.47 FPS	RTX 5050 (+67.2%)
Cyberpunk 2077	Ultra	1080p	142.01 FPS	241.72 FPS	RTX 5050 (+70.2%)
Cyberpunk 2077	Ultra	1440p	87.51 FPS	147.39 FPS	RTX 5050 (+68.4%)
Cyberpunk 2077	Ultra	4K	40.42 FPS	77.19 FPS	RTX 5050 (+91.0%)
Onimusha: Way of the Sword	Medium	1080p	134.97 FPS	166.60 FPS	RTX 5050 (+23.4%)
Onimusha: Way of the Sword	Medium	1440p	103.40 FPS	143.15 FPS	RTX 5050 (+38.4%)
Onimusha: Way of the Sword	Medium	4K	62.09 FPS	103.55 FPS	RTX 5050 (+66.8%)
Onimusha: Way of the Sword	Ultra	1080p	110.07 FPS	149.66 FPS	RTX 5050 (+36.0%)
Onimusha: Way of the Sword	Ultra	1440p	86.43 FPS	128.51 FPS	RTX 5050 (+48.7%)
Onimusha: Way of the Sword	Ultra	4K	53.33 FPS	92.13 FPS	RTX 5050 (+72.8%)

The RX 9050 scores a win in power consumption, drawing about 8W less when idling and about 35W less under heavy load compared to the RTX 5050. The card seems to run cool and quiet, and can be manufactured to be rather small, making it ideal for SFF builds. Overall, it's an okay experience when it comes to gaming, performing amicably in a vacuum, but disappointing against competition. Thankfully, the 4GB variant of the RX 9050 seems to be limited to OEMs. As always, these are preliminary testing results from one outlet, so take them with the customary grain of salt.