Nvidia's RTX 50-series just received a new addition in the form of the RTX 5050. The card, available in laptops and desktops, is the most affordable offering for this generation, starting at an MSRP of $249. While rumors had already hinted at a laptop version of the RTX 5050, the desktop version came as more of a surprise. But perhaps the most surprising thing of all is that the desktop and laptop GPUs have different types of video memory (VRAM).

Nvidia made the surprising decision to only use GDDR6 memory in the desktop version of the RTX 5050. Meanwhile, the laptop version gets to enjoy the full benefit of GDDR7 memory. The fact that the RTX 5050 uses GDDR6 probably wouldn't raise as many questions if not for the discrepancy in the two versions of the card. The laptop RTX 5050 gets extra bandwidth from switching to GDDR7, while desktop users are out of luck.

This prompted users to reach out with questions on X, and Nvidia responded. The company's director of global PR, Ben Berraondo, replied to a few of the questions, and his response was simply that GDDR6 VRAM is the "best choice for desktops." This doesn't explain much, but there's more to the matter. Below, I'll walk you through Nvidia's answer and what this means for the RTX 5050.