Against the background of tight global video memory supply and generally high hardware prices, there is news that AMD will still follow Nvidia in launching a new entry-level desktop graphics card - the Radeon RX 9050 equipped with 8GB of video memory, rather than releasing high-end RDNA 5 products in advance. According to the source of the news, VideoCardz, this graphics card will be based on the down-frequency version of the Navi 44 core and will be positioned under the RX 9060 series in AMD’s product line to fill the gap between entry-level and mainstream.
Judging from the exposed specifications, the RX 9050 is very close to the RX 9060 XT 8GB in terms of configuration. It also has 2048 stream processors, 8GB GDDR6 memory (18 Gbps), and 128-bit memory width. This means that in terms of core count, it is even slightly higher than the standard RX 9060, but the performance gap with the entire RX 9060 series is widened by lowering the frequency: its gaming frequency is 1920 MHz and the acceleration frequency is 2600 MHz, which are about 24% and 17% slower than the RX 9060 XT respectively.
In terms of memory bandwidth, the RX 9050 is rated at 288 GB/s, which is in line with the RX 9060, which uses 18 Gbps of memory, and slightly lower than the RX 9060 XT (320 GB/s), which uses 20 Gbps GDDR6. In terms of interface configuration, this new card is expected to provide PCIe 5.0 x16 interfaces, two DisplayPort 2.1a and one HDMI 2.1b interface. There is no specific figure for the power consumption (TBP) of the whole card. The official recommended power supply is 450W, which is 50W lower than the RX 9060 XT, so it is widely speculated that its TBP will be lower than the 150W of the RX 9060 XT 8GB.
The price is still unknown. According to rumors, the main competitor of the RX 9050 is Nvidia's RTX 5050. The official suggested retail price of this rival product is US$249, but the cheapest model currently on Newegg has risen to US$289. AMD has not yet officially announced the RX 9050. Some analysts believe that the company may choose to launch it at the Taipei International Computer Show (Computex), which opens on June 2.
In the current environment where video memory is prioritized by AI servers and the supply of consumer-grade graphics cards is limited, the emergence of the RX 9050 is seen as AMD's move to fill the entry-level market demand, especially for OEM manufacturers and installed players with limited budgets. Through a "shrunk version" of the Navi 44 graphics card, AMD can squeeze out a price segment below the RX 9060 series and provide a direct response to the Nvidia RTX 5050. Although launching a new product with 8GB of video memory in 2026, it may not be able to arouse much enthusiasm among enthusiasts.