AMD has released its cheapest and slowest RDNA 4 graphics card, the Radeon RX 9050, in 4GB and 8GB variants. Early testing from a Japanese outlet — identified as "Hermita" by Wccftech and as "GDM" by Tom's Hardware — compared the 8GB RX 9050 against Nvidia's 8GB RTX 5050 to keep VRAM equal. Tom's Hardware reports the test system used a Ryzen 7 9800X3D paired with an ASRock Challenger RX 9050 and a Gigabyte Windforce OC RTX 5050. The 4GB RX 9050 variant reportedly appears limited to OEM systems.
Across most games, the RX 9050 landed roughly 20-30% behind the RTX 5050. In Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail, the gap ran about 23-28% depending on resolution. Apex Legends showed the RTX 5050 ahead by around 26-31% at 1080p and 1440p, though the two cards nearly matched at 4K (a 3% gap). Rainbow Six Siege X showed AMD trailing by about 9-20% depending on settings and resolution, with the cards tying at 64 FPS in one 4K Ultra+ test. Tom's Hardware calculated an overall average deficit for the RX 9050 of 31% at 1080p, 34% at 1440p, and 42% at 4K across the titles it measured.
Synthetic benchmarks told a similar story. In 3DMark's Speed Way, Port Royal, Steel Nomad, and Fire Strike tests, the RTX 5050 held a clear lead — for example, Port Royal scored 6,181 points on the RTX 5050 versus 4,531 on the RX 9050, a gap of nearly 27%. Time Spy showed the smallest difference between the two cards, with Tom's Hardware citing roughly a 500-point gap (9,441 vs 10,571).
Cyberpunk 2077 and Doom: The Dark Ages produced more complicated results because they pit AMD's FSR 4.1 frame generation against Nvidia's DLSS 4.x multi-frame generation. Wccftech excluded these titles from its overall comparison since the mismatched frame-gen technology skews results heavily in Nvidia's favor. Tom's Hardware included the Doom results but flagged the game as an outlier: Nvidia's card, which supports up to 6x frame generation versus AMD's 2x, wins decisively at 1080p, but the RX 9050 comes out far ahead at 1440p and 4K.
The RX 9050 did outperform the RTX 5050 in power consumption, according to Tom's Hardware, drawing about 8W less at idle and about 35W less under load, while running cool, quiet, and small enough for compact builds. On pricing, Wccftech notes the RX 9050 lists at $279 while the RTX 5050 sells for around $300, but argues that Nvidia's card remains the better value given its performance advantage. Both outlets caution that these are preliminary results from a single outside outlet and should be treated as early impressions rather than final verdicts.