Nvidia Unveils RTX 50 Series GPUs: A Leap Forward in AI-Powered Gaming Graphics

Nvidia's New Graphics Cards Double Down on AI | The Motley Fool

While Nvidia (NVDA -0.77%) brings in most of its revenue these days from its data center graphics processing units (GPUs) used to train and run AI workloads, it's still the overwhelming market leader in the gaming GPU market. The company's market share typically hovers above 80%, with AMD in a very distant second place. One reason why Nvidia has maintained such a dominant lead for so long is that it continually pushes the envelope with new features. Popular games and game engines implement those features, which may only work on Nvidia's hardware, creating an incentive for gamers to stick with Nvidia to unlock the best graphics performance and quality. At CES 2025, Nvidia finally unveiled its RTX 50 series graphics card which is built on the Blackwell architecture. The company is promising up to twice the performance of last-generation products thanks to its various AI-powered features that can upscale images, generate frames on the fly, and perform other performance-boosting tricks. Along with the announcement, Nvidia discussed some new AI capabilities that should help the company stay on top in the graphics card market. Nvidia rolled out the fourth generation of DLSS, its suite of AI-powered technologies that are capable of considerably boosting frame rates, along with the RTX 50 series. While Nvidia has touted that its new graphics cards can deliver twice the performance of their predecessors, much of that performance gain will be delivered by improvements to these technologies rather than increases in raw computing power. One feature of DLSS is the ability to generate frames on the fly. Instead of rendering a game at 100 frames per second, with each frame going through the full graphics processing pipeline, the game can be rendered at a lower frame rate, and in-between frames can be interpolated. This enables gamers to enjoy improved visual fidelity without tanking the frame rate. DLSS 4 bumps up the maximum number of frames that can be generated at one time. The previous iteration of DLSS was limited to generating just one additional frame since generating more would lead to performance problems. Nvidia also improved the quality of the generated frames, claiming that DLSS 4 reduces the visual artifacts that are inherent with this type of frame generation. Beyond improvements to existing features, Nvidia is bringing AI deeper into the graphics pipeline with RTX Neural Rendering. The idea is to bring small neural networks into the programmable shaders that do the work of translating triangles, textures, and other data into 3D scenes. Developers can do multiple iterations of training on their game data and shader code, with the end goal of accelerating certain tasks at runtime. This feature could be a big deal. One application is to use AI to compress textures, allowing developers to store more high-resolution images in the same amount of video memory. Another is to use AI to compress highly complex shader code, boosting performance by as much as a factor of five. How well all this works remains to be seen, but there's a lot of potential. Yet another new feature from Nvidia is RTX Neural Faces. This feature allows developers to use generative AI combined with input data to generate realistic faces for characters. These faces are trained on thousands of generated images that cover different angles, emotions, and lighting conditions, resulting in a natural and convincing result. There will be 75 games that work with DLSS 4 when the RTX 50 series graphics cards launch, with more coming later. The broad support for Nvidia-specific features is one reason why the company has been able to fend off AMD and Intel in the graphics card market. For those wanting the absolute best gaming performance and visual quality, in many games Nvidia is the top choice. The RTX 50 series will soon face new graphics cards from AMD, although AMD hasn't yet disclosed much information. Once Nvidia fills out its lineup with mid-range graphics cards, likely to happen later this year, Intel's impressive B580 graphics card will also be in the crosshairs. While Nvidia will have some stiff competition, the company's AI innovations that boost frame rates, cut down on video memory usage, and increase realism will make it tough to beat.

NVIDIA leads AI evolution with advanced GPUs, PCs, foundation models launch

Nvidia's GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs, powered by the new Blackwell architecture, promise significant advancements in AI-driven rendering. The flagship RTX 5090 GPU boasts 92 billion transistors and delivers over 3,352 trillion AI operations per second, offering up to twice the performance of its predecessor, the RTX 4090. However, advances such as these have led to new neural shaders and the DLSS 4 technology. DLSS 4 is enabled by a new feature called Multi Frame Generation, which utilizes artificial intelligence to produce up to three additional frames for every rendered frame. This feature enhances performance, potentially increasing it by more than eight times compared to traditional methods. Moreover, transformer-based DLSS Ray Reconstruction and super-resolution models improve visual stability and detail, resulting in a more immersive gaming experience. The RTX 50 Series also extends to laptops, delivering desktop-level performance in portable devices. The latest iteration of Nvidia's Max-Q technology enhances battery life by up to 40%, enabling thin and light laptops to deliver exceptional power without compromising efficiency.

Nvidia 50-Series Mobile GPUs Bring AI-Based Rocket Fuel to Gaming Laptops This Spring

After starting my career at PCMag as an intern more than a decade ago, I'm back as one of its editors, focused on managing laptops, desktops, and components coverage. With 15 years of experience, I have been on staff and published in technology review publications, including PCMag (of course!), Laptop Magazine, Tom's Guide, TechRadar, and IGN. Along the way, I've tested and reviewed hundreds of laptops and helped develop testing protocols. I have expertise in testing all forms of laptops and desktops using the latest tools. I'm also well-versed in video game hardware and software coverage. Nvidia used CES 2025 to share its vision for the future of gaming laptop graphics: the GeForce RTX 50 series Blackwell graphics processors (GPUs). This new generation of mobile GPU rings in DLSS 4 super-scaling, which can reportedly predict and generate additional frames using machine learning. Several of Nvidia's partners, including Acer, Asus, Dell, Lenovo, MSI, and others, joined the firm in revealing their own mobile gaming PCs with Nvidia's 50-series silicon inside. Naturally, artificial intelligence (AI) plays a significant role in Nvidia's plans for attacking the rapidly increasing demands of 3D gaming applications. Nvidia's new Blackwell architecture, which is capable of driving thousands of AI TOPS (or trillions of operations per second), enables all of its new supporting technologies. "Neural rendering is the future of computer graphics," Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said on stage during his CES 2025 keynote address. These new GeForce RTX 50-series Blackwell laptops will be available in March for $1,299, but Nvidia has several more potent (and more expensive) options lined up. Nvidia's Current Stack of RTX Blackwell Laptops For this March 2025 launch, Nvidia has four different tiers of RTX 50-series graphics silicon available: the GeForce RTX 5070, the RTX 5070 Ti, the RTX 5080, and the RTX 5090. Nvidia promises that the RTX 5070 drives RTX 4090 levels of mobile graphics performance at half the power draw, which is quite a claim. According to Nvidia, RTX 5070 laptops will start at $1,299, with the base pricing increasing to $1,599 for RTX 5070 Ti, $2,199 for RTX 5080, and $2,899 for RTX 5090. So, clearly, the pricing can get out of hand rather quickly. What RTX Blackwell Does For Your PC Gaming and Creation Nvidia's RTX Blackwell architecture packs fifth-generation machine-learning Tensor Cores and fourth-generation ray-tracing (RT) Cores as a foundation. These Tensor cores drive DLSS 4 frame generation technology to improve performance at higher resolutions by using AI algorithms crunched on by the Tensor cores to write additional frames, increasing frame rates. Now, DLSS 4 can generate up to three frames per rendered frame, Nvidia said in a press release. DLSS 4 is a suite of AI-based graphics optimization technologies, including "the graphics industry's first real-time application of the transformer model architecture," according to Nvidia. This transformer technology enables DLSS Ray Reconstruction and Super Resolution models to use two times more parameters and four times more compute "to provide greater stability, reduced ghosting, higher details, and enhanced anti-aliasing in game scenes." Blackwell brings even more AI-based enhancements to graphics processing, like RTX Neural Shaders. This feature introduces AI algorithms into programmable shaders, enabling film-grade assets and enhanced ray-traced lighting in real-time in 3D games using fewer resources. Finally, the most relevant to gaming and creation is RTX Neural Faces. This feature uses generative AI to produce stable, high-fidelity 3D faces in real-time with just rasterized faces and 3D pose data as input. This reduces rendering errors and increases the consistency of 3D character models in motion within games and 3D applications. We're excited to test out this next generation of Nvidia mobile graphics, especially with supposed RTX 4090 performance for just $1,299 to start. Return to PCMag in March for the first fully tested Nvidia GeForce RTX 50-series gaming laptop reviews.