Power and Temp
On this page, we are going to look at the power utilization and video card temperatures. We will utilize GPU-Z and HWiNFO64 and real-world gaming in Cyberpunk 2077 with a manual run-through at demanding settings; these results are based on real-world in-game testing. The temperature readings are relevant only to the make and model of the video card we are using for testing, which is the: ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 5050 SOLO, GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 4060 OC Low Profile 8G, PNY GeForce RTX 3050 8G VERTO Dual Fan, and AMD Radeon RX 7600 reference.
Power
The default TDP of the GeForce RTX 5050 is 130W. In our board power testing, we are hitting 133W, so it is right on par with where it is expected. At this power level, it puts it on a similar power profile to the previous two generations GeForce RTX 3050. Since we know the GeForce RTX 5050 is much faster, at least 50% faster or more, we can see that it is producing a lot more performance per Watt, much better performance at the same power profile, which is great news.
The GeForce RTX 5050 uses about 9% more power than the GeForce RTX 4060, though, and the GeForce RTX 4060 was a lot of times just a bit faster. The GeForce RTX 5050, though, uses 24% less power than the Radeon RX 7600, and the RTX 5050 was much faster than it, proving it is much more efficient than the RX 7600. Looking solely at GPU chip power, the GeForce RTX 5050 actually does use a bit more power than the GeForce RTX 4060, but 22% less power than the GeForce RTX 3050.
Temperature
Remember, these are all custom manufacturer video cards, except for the AMD Radeon RX 7600. The ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 5050 SOLO was running the coolest, at just 66.6c GPU temp, it had the lowest GPU temperature, with the GeForce RTX 3050 slightly warmer, and the GeForce RTX 4060 warmer still. The Radeon RX 7600 ran the warmest. None of these temperatures are concerning; however, even on the small, compact, low-profile RTX 4060 and the small ZOTAC SOLO video card, temperatures were great.
Discussion (4 replies)
Join Discussion →Buy a used 4060.
Seems like a particularly hard sell when the 50-series' biggest party trick is at its least useful when the base framerate is a little tenuous.
The 130w/8GB combo is also kind of harsh. That's high enough draw that going for the modern card on an efficiency basis (while it will help a bit) won't be as dramatic an effect as you might like; and if you hit a VRAM wall anywhere it will be in the same place you would on a 3050; and one of the 12GB 3060s will still be chugging along for 40 watts more.
OEMs love these low end SKUs.
- Yeah, this is basically a repurposed laptop chip that would otherwise be used to bump a $499 office laptop into the $799 "entry gaming laptop" market.
These cards absolutely have their place however, good way to stand up a hella basic gaming PC that will be thesus' shipped into something respectable over time.
If you know what you're doing though, used 3080's and 6800XT's are starting to hit the $299 and lower price point (while 3070 and 6700XT are at $250 and below) and you'd get a helluva lot more bang from your buck there.