NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 Review

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Black Myth: Wukong

Black Myth: Wukong was released in August of 2024 and is based on the Unreal Engine 5. Black Myth: Wukong features realistic lighting, shadows, a detailed environment detailed by motion capture, and utilizes the Lumen Global Illumination lighting system. The game also features Ray Tracing, global illumination, and shadows. We are utilizing the game’s built-in graphics preset options for main graphics and Ray Tracing. We are also using the DLSS and Upscaling option at 66% quality mode for all GPUs. We utilize the built-in benchmark for testing. We are reporting the Low 5th result from the benchmark result.

Native Resolution

The first graph below is at the “Cinematic” quality preset, the second graph is at the “High” quality preset, and the third graph is at the “Medium” quality preset at 1080p.

Black Myth: Wukong 1080p Cinematic Quality Preset Native Resolution Performance Graph
Black Myth: Wukong 1080p High Quality Preset Native Resolution Performance Graph
Black Myth: Wukong 1080p Medium Quality Preset Native Resolution Performance Graph

Running Black Myth: Wukong at the Cinematic quality is purely for academic reasons, and we can see that no video card here is playable even at 1080p on Cinematic quality. The GeForce RTX 5050 averages 25 FPS with a Low 5th of 23FPS. The GeForce RTX 4060 is a frame faster, and the Radeon RX 7600 is a frame lower. For what it is worth, the GeForce RTX 5050 is 79% faster than the GeForce RTX 3050.

Moving down to the “High” preset at 1080p, we start to see performance ease up, though it is still not playable at all. The GeForce RTX 5050 is on par with the GeForce RTX 4060 and the Radeon RX 7600. The GeForce RTX 5050 is 72% faster than the GeForce RTX 3050.

Finally, on the “Medium” setting, the game is playable on the GeForce RTX 5050, averaging 67FPS with a Low 5th close to 60FPS. However, performance is pretty much matched between the GeForce RTX 4060, GeForce RTX 5050, and Radeon RX 7600. The GeForce RTX 5050 is 63% faster than the GeForce RTX 3050.

DLSS Upscaling

Black Myth: Wukong 1080p High Quality Preset DLSS Upscaling Quality Performance Graph

Leaving Black Myth: Wukong at the “High” quality setting and enabling DLSS Upscaling at 66%, we found this to be playable on the GeForce RTX 5050. The GeForce RTX 5050 is a bit slower than the GeForce RTX 4060, however, by 3%, but the Low 5th performance is above 60FPS here. The GeForce RTX 5050 is 5% faster than the Radeon RX 7600 and 75% faster than the GeForce RTX 3050.

Ray Tracing w/ DLSS Upscaling

Black Myth: Wukong 1080p Medium Quality Preset Low Ray Tracing Preset DLSS Upscaling Quality Performance Graph

Even with this game on “Medium” quality and enabling “Low” Ray Tracing, it is generally unplayable on the GeForce RTX 5050. It does show, though, how much the RT performance has improved on the GeForce RTX 5050 over the GeForce RTX 3050, with it being 87% faster, greater than the Raster performance. The GeForce RTX 5050 is 6% slower than the GeForce RTX 4060.

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REVIEW OVERVIEW

The FPS Review Score
8

SUMMARY

The GeForce RTX 5050 provides a big upgrade to the four year old GeForce RTX 3050, allowing a better gameplay experience in modern games at 1080p, with lowered settings, or DLSS Upscaling. The GeForce RTX 5050 provides modern features, and current generation NVIDIA RTX features, and video encoding/decoding. The GeForce RTX 4060 is almost a GeForce RTX 4060 in performance, but at a lower price point, and more power efficient, which makes it a great choice for entry-level, and small form factor gaming builds. This is a great way to step into gaming, though to really be a "game changer" 12GB of VRAM would have been preferred at this price point of $249.
Brent Justicehttps://www.thefpsreview.com
Former managing editor of GPUs at HardOCP for 18 years, Brent Justice has been reviewing computer components since the late 90s, educated in the art and method of the computer hardware review, he brings experience, knowledge, and hands-on testing with a gamer-oriented and hardware enthusiast perspective. You can follow him on Twitter - @Brent_Justice You can sub to his YouTube channel - Justice Gaming https://www.youtube.com/c/JusticeGamingChannel You can check out his computer builds on KIT - @BrentJustice https://kit.co/BrentJustice

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