NVIDIA RTX 50 Series GPUs: Release Date, Features, and Performance
NVIDIA has a history of delivering cutting-edge technologies. That’s why many tech enthusiasts, gamers, and PC builders are eagerly waiting for the announcement and release of the NVIDIA 50 series GPUs. The new GPUs have the potential to redefine high-end gaming and offer features that fans have never experienced before. In this article, we’ll speculate about the NVIDIA 50 Series release date and also cover the latest news and rumors on the features, performance, and price of the 50 Series graphics cards.
NVIDIA 50 Series Release Date
NVIDIA hasn’t announced the 50 Series graphics cards. The company releases new lines of products every couple of years. So, with the GeForce and RTX 40 series released first in the early months of 2023, fans expect a release date for the 50 series in early 2025.
Historically, NVIDIA has announced its products during tech events such as the GTC (GPU Technology Conference) and CES (Consumer Electronics Show). With GTC 2024 out of the picture, the next big tech event is CES 2025, which will be held from January 7, 2025, until January 11, 2025.
The CES press conference usually is on the first day of the event. Therefore, many enthusiasts predict that we will get the NVIDIA 50 Series release date on January 7. Again, if we look back to previous releases, NVIDIA usually releases its products soon after the announcement. So, we can expect the pre-orders to open soon after the reveal and the release date to be in the first quarter of 2025.
NVIDIA 50 Series Specs and Performance
Like the previous series, we can expect a significant jump in performance with the GeForce and RTX 50 series. There is no official information about the specs and performance of the NVIDIA 50 Series cards, but rumors suggest that the newest line of GPUs will benefit from a new architecture codenamed “Blackwell.” Based on the rumors, Blackwell will offer a substantial gain over the architecture of the 40 series named “Ada Lovelace” in terms of efficiency and performance.
Furthermore, there is a good chance we’ll see a significant increase in CUDA core counts up to 21,760, which can substantially improve graphics processing power and provide a smoother PC gaming experience. VRAM is rumored to improve to 32GB GDDR7 for the potential RTX 5090 model. GDDR7 is a great upgrade that provides more memory bandwidth. As a result, we expect very fast rendering times and, overall, a much smoother experience.
However, it looks like entry-level models, such as RTX 5060, will potentially be limited to 8 GB VRAMs, which is disappointing considering demanding games and apps require more than 8 GB of dedicated video RAM to provide an acceptable experience.
Here are the overall specs we expect from various potential models of the 50 Series:
| Model | Expected VRAM | Expected CUDA Cores | Architecture |
| RTX 5090 | 32 GB GDDR7 | More than 20,000 | Blackwell |
| RTX 5080 | 16 GB GDDR7 | More than 10,000 | Blackwell |
| RTX 5070 | 12 GB GDDR7 | More than 8,000 | Blackwell |
| RTX 5060 | 8 GB GDDR7 | More than 6,000 | Blackwell |
Expected Features
Innovation has been an important part of NVIDIA’s products, and we expect to see exciting features in the newest generation of GPUs. This company introduces the best GPUs for gaming and rendering and can improve its products in many ways, including ray tracing, DLSS, AI, power consumption, and cooling solutions. Let’s dive deep into the features we expect from the 50 Series:
DLSS and AI
DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) has been one of the key features of NVIDIA GPUs, and now people are ready for DLSS 4.0 with more advanced AI models. With a new version of DLSS, users hope to have access to higher frame rates without compromising resolution. Better AI models can more intelligently upscale and render games, so gamers won’t have to decide between a high frame rate and a high image quality.
Next-Gen Ray Tracing
Ray tracing is still a fairly new technology and can improve significantly with more power. If the rumors are true, the NVIDIA 50 series will be a huge leap in terms of ray tracking, and finally, gamers will have access to extra immersive lighting, reflections, and shadows they want.
Energy Efficiency
The new Blackwell architecture can seemingly deliver substantial efficiency in energy consumption. The process node is expected to be 4nm or less, therefore the 50 Series has the potential to reduce electricity costs and environmental impact immensely.
Expanded NVIDIA Studio Capabilities
NVIDIA Studio is a content creation platform that utilizes NVIDIA GPUs to enhance users’ creative processes and accelerate workflows in many applications. Fans of NVIDIA Studio want more functionality, speed, and advanced AI models to get the most out of NVIDIA Studio, and the 50 Series GPUs have the potential to provide that.
NVIDIA 50 Series Pricing
The 50 Series has not yet been announced, so nobody knows how much the 50 Series models will cost. However, we can guess based on the current conditions of the market and NVIDIA’s history.
Obviously, NVIDIA will consider inflation and the high costs of manufacturing when it comes to choosing profitable prices, but the company also needs to stay competitive with AMD and Intel to keep its market share. Overall, we expect these range of prices for the potential different models:
- RTX 5090 model as the flagship: $1,499 to $1,799
- RTX 5080 model as the high-end option: $999 to $1,299
- RTX 5070 model as the mid-range option: $699 to $899
- RTX 5060 model as the entry-level option: $399 to $599
The Competitors of the NVIDIA 50 Series
AMD is on track to launch RDNA 4 GPUs in 2025, and Intel is developing Arc Battlemage GPUs, which will be released soon. So, enthusiasts and gamers will have a hard time choosing between all of these options. Let’s take a look at what we know of the new products from these NVIDIA competitors:
AMD
Based on rumors, AMD will focus more on mid-range and budget-friendly products. So NVIDIA can dominate the high-end market and offer advanced ray tracking and AI performance. However, it’s unclear how the flagship model of RDNA 4 will perform compared to the potential RTX 5090 model.
Intel
Intel’s new GPU model, ASRock Intel ARC B580 Steel Legend 12GB OC, recently leaked on Amazon. Here are the specifications:
- 12 GB GDDR6
- Memory clock speed of 19 Gbps
- Intel Xe2-HPG architecture
- Triple Fan Design
- Dual 8-pin power connectors
There is also another model named Intel Arc B580 Challenger OC with dual-fan cooling. So we can already have a clear view of Intel’s new generation of GPUs, and we’ll be ready to compare it with NVIDIA GPUs when we have the NVIDIA 50 Series release date and official technical information.
Conclusion
The 50 Series NVIDIA graphic cards are much closer to release than you might think. There is a good chance we’ll hear more about the newest GPUs from NVIDIA at CES 2025 in January. The rumors about the new Blackwell architecture, the significant jump in CUDA core counts, DLSS 4.0, smarter AI algorithms, and more are all good indications that the 50 Series will have the potential to surpass expectations.