Here comes the RTX 2050, only three years late

RTX Laptop
(Image credit: Nvidia)

Nvidia may announce new GPUs at CES, some of which we already know about, but according to a press release from Nvidia itself, the company plans to take the wraps off of several affordable mobile options, including the MX550, MX570 and one that caught us by surprise, the RTX 2050. These GPUs are slated to appear in laptops to be released sometime in the Spring of 2022 (Autumn 2022 for the southern hemisphere folks).

An RTX 2050 Turing generation GPU we hear you ask? No, it isn’t. The RTX 2050 isn’t a Turing part as we'd expect, but an Ampere generation product, based on the GA107 GPU. This is the same GPU that’s slated to appear in upcoming RTX 3050 cards. The chip crunch is leading to some rather odd products that otherwise wouldn’t see the light of day.

Normally, we’d criticize Nvidia for renaming a three year old product and re-releasing it, but that’s not what Nvidia is doing here. It’s actually doing the reverse, taking a newer generation Ampere GPU and slapping on RTX 20 series branding. It’s a rather odd move. Why Nvidia isn’t calling it the RTX 3040 is puzzling.

Your next machine

(Image credit: Future)

Best gaming PC: the top pre-built machines from the pros
Best gaming laptop: perfect notebooks for mobile gaming

According to specifications received by Anandtech, the RTX 2050 will feature 2048 cores and a boost clock of up to 1477 MHz. The weak part is its memory configuration. 4GB of 14 Gbps GDDR6 over a 64-bit bus is definitely on the weak side. This spec points towards the 2050 being a significantly cut down version of the GA107 GPU. Given that the 2050 carries the RTX branding, users will expect some kind of ray tracing performance, but even with DLSS, its ray tracing capabilities are likely to be poor. At least the TDP number looks good at 30-45W. This suggests it won’t require a powerful cooling solution.

By the time Spring rolls around, we’ll have next generation integrated graphics to compare to the RTX 2050. Putting aside manufacturing agreements and the marketing value of featuring RTX branding, Intel’s 12th Gen mobile CPUs with Iris Xe graphics and AMD’s Rembrandt APUs could leave entry level discrete GPUs looking pretty average. We’ll wait and see how these products perform in the real world before passing judgment. 

Chris Szewczyk
Hardware Writer

Chris' gaming experiences go back to the mid-nineties when he conned his parents into buying an 'educational PC' that was conveniently overpowered to play Doom and Tie Fighter. He developed a love of extreme overclocking that destroyed his savings despite the cheaper hardware on offer via his job at a PC store. To afford more LN2 he began moonlighting as a reviewer for VR-Zone before jumping the fence to work for MSI Australia. Since then, he's gone back to journalism, enthusiastically reviewing the latest and greatest components for PC & Tech Authority, PC Powerplay and currently Australian Personal Computer magazine and PC Gamer. Chris still puts far too many hours into Borderlands 3, always striving to become a more efficient killer.

Read more
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang standing in front of a screen showing an RTX 5070 laptop at CES 2025.
Nvidia has announced a whole host of gaming laptop GPUs at CES 2025, from the RTX 5070 all the way to the big RTX 5090
Gigabyte G6X gaming laptop
More affordable sub-$1,000 RTX 50-series laptops likely coming in May as RTX 5060 and RTX 5050 models spotted online
Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Gen9 gaming laptop
Nvidia confirms RTX 50-series laptops can be pre-ordered from February 25 and will be 'available starting March', stock willing
Nvidia RTX 4060 Ti graphics card
Specs for Nvidia's new RTX 5050, 5060, and 5060 Ti GPUs leak out and that 5060 might actually be half decent. If it's priced right
Nvidia Blackwell GPU with specs annotated.
Nvidia's new RTX 5070 will deliver 'RTX 4090 performance at $549' when it launches in February
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang holding an RTX 50-series card.
Nvidia announces the RTX 50-series, led by the $1,999 RTX 5090 with 'twice the performance of the 4090'
Latest in Graphics Cards
XFX Radeon RX 9070 XT Quicksilver graphics card on a blue background with angel wings on either side
XFX is letting you add customisable 3D printed wings to its Quicksilver RX 9070-series graphics cards
Gigabyte G6X gaming laptop
More affordable sub-$1,000 RTX 50-series laptops likely coming in May as RTX 5060 and RTX 5050 models spotted online
Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 9070 XT on a red and orange background
Some Sapphire RX 9070/9070 XT graphics cards have hard-to-spot foam inside that must be removed or it 'may result in a decrease in cooling capacity or product failure'
The PCIe slot on an Asus ROG Strix B850-F Gaming WiFi motherboard, showing the Q-release latch for GPUs.
Gigabyte seemingly mocks Asus' recent Q-release debacle with a video swapping out an RTX 5070 Ti 100 times
Cyberpunk upscaling
New modder tool makes it easier than ever to swap AMD's FSR 4 scaling for Nvidia's DLSS or Intel's XeSS and vice versa
Nvidia RTX 4060 Ti graphics card
Specs for Nvidia's new RTX 5050, 5060, and 5060 Ti GPUs leak out and that 5060 might actually be half decent. If it's priced right
Latest in News
spectre divide
Spectre Divide and its studio are shutting down after just six months: 'The industry is in a tough spot right now'
Naoe looking at the wrist blade in Assassin's Creed Shadows
Ubisoft backflips, says Assassin's Creed Shadows will support Steam Deck at launch, but I doubt I'll actually want to play it there
Henry from KCD2 wearing nice outfits
'Diversify your fashion endgame' with this Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 mod that gives Henry fly new gambesons, pourpoints, and caftans
Masked Counter-Terrorist in helmet in forefront with sunglasses and beret-wearing CT in background touching headset
There's hope yet for Classic Offensive after its Steam rejection: The team behind the Counter-Strike 1.6 revival mod is in touch with Valve about its 'concerns'
Recently appointed Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan.
Here comes Intel's new CEO: a semiconductor veteran that won the same prestigious award as Jensen Huang and Lisa Su
BURBANK, CALIFORNIA - AUGUST 15: Protestors attend the SAG-AFTRA Video Game Strike Picket on August 15, 2024 in Burbank, California. (Photo by Lila Seeley/Getty Images)
8 months into their strike, videogame voice actors say the industry's latest proposal is 'filled with alarming loopholes that will leave our members vulnerable to AI abuse'