AMD's Radeon RX 9050 8GB promises current-generation graphics for budget gamers, but poor performance and even worse value make this GPU nearly impossible to justify.
AMD Radeon RX 9050 8GB Review: Budget GPU, Zero Budget Value
AMD Radeon RX 9050 8GB Review: Budget GPU, Zero Budget Value
- Thread starter Steve
- Start date
Megalomaniac
Posts: 1,210 +1,285
If you're trying to build right now you've basically been given a choice:
Finance your video card or accept the bare minimum.
Makes no sense.
I'm just glad the Nvidia vs. AMD argument is long over.
Finance your video card or accept the bare minimum.
Makes no sense.
I'm just glad the Nvidia vs. AMD argument is long over.
Neatfeatguy
Posts: 2,311 +4,672
The fact that this card and the RTX 5050 are basically on par with a 3060 12GB just goes to show how shitty both AMD and Nvidia have done the bottom tier GPUs over the past two generations.
yRaz
Posts: 9,565 +16,862
And comparing it directly to the 9060xt is silly because that's going for almost $600 and of you want to go the APU route, of which the 9050 is faster, you basically have to buy 32GB of ram since it's shared.
Does anyone remember the mx 5200? Crap cars for gaming but it filled a niche
Be interesting if you got a ryzen ai 388 and compared the 9050 to the 8060s
Does anyone remember the mx 5200? Crap cars for gaming but it filled a niche
Be interesting if you got a ryzen ai 388 and compared the 9050 to the 8060s
Inthenstus
Posts: 342 +464
I usually enjoy your reviews, but testing the lowest of low video cards at Ultra settings is not really the cards intended use.. 1080p medium in current gen games is what this is for.. the dial from medium to ultra is usually minimal in most games anyways..
LordVile95
Posts: 680 +383
What’s the point of this? You seek to not understand what this card is for. Or maybe you do whixh is why you didn’t test the 6500XT. It’s the bottom end SKU for esports and someone who just wants a new dedicated GPU out.
demonicmaniac
Posts: 41 +67
The biggest problem is that the 7600 8gb over here starts at 250 euros new - so expecting the msrp for this one to be at least 300 euros, considerably more expensive than the 7600 which is considerably faster than this. Yes, the 7600 draws more power but it still gets fsr4 now so it's always the better option. The only thing the 9050 has over it is RT performance which is pointless given it's too weak for any RT in any game just like the 5050. At price parity with the 7600 it might have been weird but ok but as it is if it just replaces the 7600 once they're sold out at 280 to 300 it's just a worse product for the same price which is just sad.
I could see a 4gb given the memory situation 9050 for 200 bucks for esports managing enough frames on low/medium for esports titles but that's still a super hard sell vs the 5050 then. Heck if they could make a half 9060 with the 4gb for 150 that could be something for esports still faster than igp on desktop by a bit but at least priced accordingly.
I could see a 4gb given the memory situation 9050 for 200 bucks for esports managing enough frames on low/medium for esports titles but that's still a super hard sell vs the 5050 then. Heck if they could make a half 9060 with the 4gb for 150 that could be something for esports still faster than igp on desktop by a bit but at least priced accordingly.
I too would have liked to see all the games set to high quality/high quality equivalent across the board for consistency's sake and reflect the most likely use case for this card... the 8GB 9050 is still a "current gen" card so I would assume (and hope) it could handle medium quality without issue in any game, but knowing it is at the bottom* of the product segment I would not expect it to perform at ultra or higher settings.
*I said bottom, but AMD apparently found a shovel and dug a little deeper with the announcement of that 4GB model lmao
LordVile95
Posts: 680 +383
This is a replacement for the 6500XT which never got a 7000 series card. Also in the US the cheapest 7600 is about 330 which is $50 more than the 9050 and isn’t something you can just drop into an office PC. I’d consider a 9050 4GB for my media PC if the 1060 3GB that’s currently in it ever conks out.
Lew Zealand
Posts: 2,965 +4,047
9060 XT is $400, Gigabyte Gaming at Best Buy. Other models at $420, but better buy soon as there aren't many.
Based on that price this 9050 should be $220-230. As prices for other models inevitably go up in the next few months, I'll bet this 9050 settles to a competitive price and we may even be effed enough where that's: $280.
Dammit
yRaz
Posts: 9,565 +16,862
I'm seeing 9060xt's all over the place going from 450 to 600 and it seems like the 8gb version are the cheaper ones.
Lew Zealand
Posts: 2,965 +4,047
Since this 9050 is an 8GB only card, it seems reasonable to compare to the 8GB 9060 XT. However anyone with sense will save more for the 16GB version but: will prices rise faster than you can save?
yRaz
Posts: 9,565 +16,862
Well the price differences at this level are too far to just save more in this economy. Pre 40 series, the difference between different cards in the stack was usually $20-50. When we're talking about differences of $150-200, that's not "just save more" money for the target market of these cards. And there was only one benchmark that showed the 8gb limitation which was at 1440p at ultra settings so I feel the 8GB barrier is much overblown. I've been building PCs since the 90s and this elitist additude, while always there, seems to be taken extremely out of proportion the last few years.
As one final point, I find it completely unacceptable that modern titles on low look worse than AAA titles on high that existed 15 years ago. You can play Crysis on a laptop with integrated graphics now and It looks better than modern games on low, it's stupid. If people are willing to skip the AAA titles and me wart of UE5 games, old hardware actually still provides a great gaming experience. I have a 3070ti and a 6700xt, they aren't going anywhere. The industry has been pushing Ray Tracing, 4k and feame rates above 120/144. None of these things really provide that much better if an experience for what they cost. We're 4 generations into raytracing and even midrange cards can't do it without upscalling.
So many of these things are being pushing to increase hardware sales or even keep them level, but there aren't compelling products at the price points people are willing or able to spend. We have a bell curve of the price points people are willing to spend money at and that isn't going to change just because they increase the price of hardware across the board, just ask the auto industry how insisting consumers pay more is working out of them. The tech industry has AI to prop them up for now, but even that is going to start coming to an end soon.
LordVile95
Posts: 680 +383
Lew Zealand
Posts: 2,965 +4,047
You can buy the 8GB 9060 XT. You can't buy the 4GB 9050 without getting it in a predatory prebuilt. Different animals. Also there's no data on the 4GB model yet I think.
You can buy the 8GB 9050 in some markets and the 8GB 9060 XT everywhere. These are more comparable.
LordVile95
Posts: 680 +383
Not really you’re still consoling the more expensive model vs the cheaper one
Not really you should be consorting it to the 9060 non XT
Similar threads
Latest posts
-
Meta goes to trial over Facebook and Instagram's impact on young users- hahahanoobs replied
