NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 Comparison

The GeForce RTX 5050 and RTX 4060 make for one of the closest intra-brand matchups in the database, and the recorded data splits cleanly by workload type rather than declaring a runaway winner. The RTX 5050, built on the newer Blackwell 2.0 architecture, takes four of the ten head-to-head benchmarks, while the RTX 4060 takes six. But the margin story is more interesting than the win count: the RTX 5050's victories include a massive gap in one modern graphics test, while the RTX 4060's wins are spread across legacy DirectX suites and compute. Both cards sit in the same performance neighborhood overall, with the RTX 5050 posting an average benchmark score of 21035 against 17639 for the RTX 4060.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The single most striking result in the dataset is Geekbench Vulkan. The RTX 5050 scores 89381 against 48643 for the RTX 4060, an 83.7 percent lead for the newer card. That is not a typical generational bump; it is a rout, and it suggests the Blackwell 2.0 architecture handles Vulkan workloads far more efficiently than Ada Lovelace does at this tier. The RTX 5050 also wins the modern DirectX 12-heavy graphics test, 3DMark Steel Nomad, with a score of 2502 versus 2302, an 8.7 percent advantage. Passmark G2D goes to the RTX 5050 as well, 1113 to 1037, a 7.3 percent margin, and Passmark DirectX 10 is a dead heat at 103 apiece.

The RTX 4060 answers in the legacy and compute columns. Passmark DirectX 9 favors it 236 to 186, a 21.2 percent gap, and Passmark DirectX 11 goes its way 175 to 150, a 14.3 percent margin. Passmark DirectX 12 also lands in its column at 76 versus 66, a 13.2 percent advantage, an interesting result given that the RTX 5050 won the 3DMark DirectX 12-based Steel Nomad test. The two suites clearly stress different aspects of the driver stack and pipeline. The biggest aggregate graphics score, Passmark G3D, belongs to the RTX 4060 at 19545 versus 17326, an 11.4 percent lead, and Geekbench OpenCL also goes to the older card, 95057 to 90334, a 5 percent gap. Passmark GPU Compute is essentially a tie at 9213 versus 9184, a 0.3 percent difference in the RTX 4060's favor.

Aggregated, the RTX 5050's average benchmark score of 21035 places it at the 66th percentile against all GPUs in the database, while the RTX 4060's 17639 average puts it at the 61st percentile. The rivals clustering around each card reinforce the gap: the RTX 5050's nearest competitors include the NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile (avgScore 21379, 1.6 percent ahead) and the AMD Radeon HD 8970M (21237, 1 percent ahead), while the RTX 4060's nearest neighbors are the AMD Radeon HD 7790 (17666, 0.2 percent ahead) and the AMD Radeon 780M (17588, 0.3 percent behind).

The Verdict

For gaming on modern APIs, the recorded data favors the RTX 5050. Its 83.7 percent Vulkan lead and its 8.7 percent Steel Nomad advantage, combined with equal DirectX 10 performance, indicate that newer engine workloads are where Blackwell 2.0 pays off. For older titles and general graphics throughput, the RTX 4060 is the stronger pick: it wins DirectX 9 by 21.2 percent, DirectX 11 by 14.3 percent, DirectX 12 in Passmark by 13.2 percent, and the overall Passmark G3D score by 11.4 percent. The win count, six to four, technically favors the RTX 4060, but the magnitude of the RTX 5050's Vulkan result makes the raw tally misleading. Buyers prioritizing current and future game engines should lean RTX 5050; those running a library of older DirectX titles or relying on the broad Passmark G3D metric should lean RTX 4060.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 5050 is the choice for Vulkan-based gaming and rendering, where its 89381 Geekbench Vulkan score towers over the RTX 4060's 48643, and for modern DirectX 12 benchmark scenarios like Steel Nomad where it leads 2502 to 2302. Its higher percentile placement, 66 versus 61, and higher average benchmark score, 21035 versus 17639, also reflect the database's overall view of it as the slightly stronger aggregate performer. The RTX 4060 is the choice for legacy DirectX gaming, sweeping Passmark DirectX 9, 11, and 12, and for OpenCL compute work, where its 95057 Geekbench OpenCL result beats the RTX 5050's 90334 by 5 percent. Passmark GPU Compute is a wash at 9213 versus 9184, so neither card has a meaningful general-compute edge.

FAQ

Q: Which card wins more head-to-head benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4060 wins six of ten tests, the RTX 5050 wins four, but the RTX 5050's wins include an 83.7 percent Vulkan lead, the largest gap in the dataset.

Q: Which card is faster in Vulkan?

A: The RTX 5050, with a Geekbench Vulkan score of 89381 versus 48643 for the RTX 4060.

Q: Which card is faster in older DirectX games?

A: The RTX 4060. It leads Passmark DirectX 9 by 21.2 percent, DirectX 11 by 14.3 percent, and DirectX 12 by 13.2 percent.

Q: Do the cards have the same memory capacity?

A: Yes. Both ship with 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, though the RTX 5050 delivers 320.0 GB/s of bandwidth versus 272.0 GB/s for the RTX 4060.

Q: Which card has higher theoretical shading performance?

A: The RTX 4060, at 15.11 TFLOPS FP32 versus 13.17 TFLOPS for the RTX 5050, helped by its 3072 shading units against 2560.

Q: Are both cards still in production?

A: No. The RTX 5050 is listed as Active, while the RTX 4060 is listed as End-of-life.

Architecture Differences

Both GPUs are fabricated by TSMC on a 5 nm process, so the node itself is not a differentiator. The RTX 5050 uses the newer Blackwell 2.0 architecture on the GB207 chip, while the RTX 4060 uses Ada Lovelace on the AD107 chip. Despite the newer architecture, the RTX 5050 actually has fewer resources: 2560 shading units, 80 TMUs, 32 ROPs, 20 RT cores, and 80 tensor cores, against 3072 shading units, 96 TMUs, 48 ROPs, 24 RT cores, and 96 tensor cores for the RTX 4060. The RTX 5050 compensates with much higher clocks, 2317 MHz base and 2572 MHz boost versus 1830 MHz base and 2460 MHz boost. Its die is smaller, 149 mm² versus 159 mm², and it packs fewer transistors, 16,900 million versus 18,900 million, yielding slightly lower density at 113.4M per mm² versus 118.9M per mm². The RTX 5050 also moves to a PCIe 5.0 x8 interface from PCIe 4.0 x8, and its display outputs are newer, with HDMI 2.1b and three DisplayPort 2.1b against HDMI 2.1 and three DisplayPort 1.4a. Both support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4.

Specification Differences

The memory subsystem differs in speed only: both have 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, but the RTX 5050 runs its memory at 2500 MHz (20 Gbps effective) for 320.0 GB/s of bandwidth, while the RTX 4060 runs at 2125 MHz (17 Gbps effective) for 272.0 GB/s. Theoretical output rates favor the RTX 4060 across the board: 118.1 GPixel/s versus 82.30 GPixel/s pixel rate, and 236.2 GTexel/s versus 205.8 GTexel/s texture rate. FP32 and FP16 both sit at 15.11 TFLOPS for the RTX 4060 versus 13.17 TFLOPS for the RTX 5050. Power characteristics diverge modestly: the RTX 5050 has a 130 W TDP with a single 8-pin connector, while the RTX 4060 runs at 115 W with a 12-pin connector; both call for a 300 W suggested PSU and both are dual-slot cards. Physical dimensions are recorded for the RTX 4060, at 240 mm long, 111 mm tall, and 40 mm wide, while the RTX 5050's dimensions are not recorded in the database. Release timing differs by generation: the RTX 4060 launched on 2023-05-17 with a launch MSRP of 299 USD, and the RTX 5050 launched on 2025-06-30 with a launch MSRP of 249 USD.