QTHREE Radeon RX 550 4GB GDDR5
MSI GeForce RTX 5050 Gaming 8GB GDDR6
What Buyers Say
QTHREE Radeon RX 550 4GB GDDR5
This budget-friendly graphics card is a great fit for upgrading older small form factor PCs, with several verified 5-star reviews praising its multi-monitor support and plug-and-play ease on Linux. However, a few serious issues stand out: one verified buyer got repeated blue-screen lockups, the fan speed sensor is non-functional on another unit, and the lack of a driver disc forces users to hunt down updates online. Overall, it is a capable low-end card for light gaming and office work, but reliability and support documentation are hit-or-miss.
Pros
- Excellent multi-monitor support up to 3 displays
- Plays Minecraft and Roblox smoothly on i5-8500
- Easy plug-and-play installation on Linux
- Great for reviving older small form factor PCs
- Works well for light gaming and office tasks
Cons
- Causes BitLocker blue screen lockups on some systems
- Fan speed sensor does not work or show readings
- No driver disc included in package
- Requires bracket modification for VGA in small cases
- Does not support Meta VR headsets
MSI GeForce RTX 5050 Gaming 8GB GDDR6
The MSI RTX 5050 is praised as a great budget card for 1080p gaming, with users noting significant performance upgrades from older GPUs like the GTX 950 and RX 580. It's appreciated for its small size, quiet operation, and efficiency, though some mention it's not for 4K gaming. Overall, it's seen as a solid value for entry-level builds.
Pros
- Great for 1080p gaming
- Small size for compact builds
- Quiet operation
- Good value for money
- Significant upgrade from older GPUs
Cons
- Not suitable for 4K gaming
- Price increased after launch
Scores
Specifications
| QTHREE Radeon RX 550 | MSI GeForce RTX 5050 Gaming | |
|---|---|---|
| Chipset | ||
| GPU Chipset | Radeon RX 550 | GeForce RTX 5050 |
| Brand | AMD | NVIDIA |
| Architecture | Polaris | Blackwell |
| Class | consumer | consumer |
| Process | 14 | 5★ |
| Memory | ||
| VRAM | 4 GB | 8 GB★ |
| Memory Type | GDDR5 | GDDR6★ |
| Memory Bus | ||
| Bandwidth | No data | |
| Compute | ||
| CUDA Cores | No data | |
| Stream Processors | No data | |
| Tensor Cores | — | 80★ |
| RT Cores | — | 20★ |
| Base Clock | ||
| Boost Clock | ||
| FP16 TFLOPS | — | 13.170000076293945★ |
| FP32 TFLOPS | — | 13.170000076293945★ |
| Performance | ||
| PassMark G3D | ||
| GPU Compute | ||
| Power & Cooling | ||
| TDP | 50★ | 130 |
| Recommended PSU | 450★ | 550 |
| Power Connectors | None | 8-Pin |
| Cooler | Single Fan | Dual Fan★ |
| Fans | 1 | 2★ |
| Connectivity | ||
| Interface | PCI Express 3.0 X8 | PCI Express 5.0 |
| DisplayPort | 1 | 3★ |
| HDMI | 1 | 1 |
| USB-C | 0★ | — |
| Max Displays | 3 | 4★ |
| Max Resolution | 4096x2160 | 7680 x 4320 |
| Physical | ||
| Length | 170★ | 202 |
| Slot Width | 2★ | 2.5 |
| Form Factor | Low Profile | Full Height |
| Weight | 0.33 kg★ | 0.50 kg |
| Features | ||
| Ray Tracing | ✗ | ✓★ |
| Upscaling | — | DLSS 4 |
| AV1 Encode | — | ✓★ |
| VR Ready | — | ✓★ |
| DirectX | 12 | 12 Ultimate |
| RGB | — | ✓★ |
Pros & Cons
QTHREE Radeon RX 550 4GB GDDR5
- Strong affordability (89th percentile)89th %ile
- Below average compute (4th percentile)4th %ile
- Below average feature (12th percentile)12th %ile
- Below average rt (12th percentile)12th %ile
- Below average ai (13th percentile)13th %ile
MSI GeForce RTX 5050 Gaming 8GB GDDR6
- Strong feature (96th percentile)96th %ile
- Strong connectivity (94th percentile)94th %ile
- Strong efficiency (89th percentile)89th %ile
- Strong user sentiment (87th percentile)87th %ile
- Below average ai (31st percentile)
- Below average compute (33rd percentile)
Pricing
QTHREE Radeon RX 550 4GB GDDR5 offers 1.5x better value for money
Verdict
Scores 64 overall, wins 8 of 8 usage categories and 21 of 40 specs.
