Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 review – Gigabyte Gaming OC graphics card benchmarks

I virtually really feel a bit sorry for the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060. My assessment has been delayed as a result of Nvidia determined to not launch a press driver so I might take a look at it earlier than launch, and there is now a really apparent motive why. The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 nonetheless solely has 8GB of VRAM, and that is proving to be a significant restriction on its capabilities. It is a baffling choice which means the RTX 5060 falls over in considered one of our take a look at video games for those who run it above the Medium graphics preset, even at 1,920 x 1,080.

All of which is a disgrace as a result of, as a GPU, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 is not truly unhealthy, with an honest step up in rendering energy over its predecessor, the RTX 4060. With a wider reminiscence interface and 12GB of VRAM, it might simply justify its $299 asking value, even when Nvidia determined to make use of older GDDR6 reminiscence to maintain down the worth. As it’s, the RTX 5060 has an uphill battle to justify itself as the most effective graphics card on this value vary, significantly with the aggressively priced AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT launch date on the horizon.

Specs

If we ignore the VRAM elephant within the room for the second, the RTX 5060 has a stable uplift in specs in comparison with the RTX 4060. The brand new GPU incorporates 3,840 CUDA cores, that are the tiny processors that work in parallel to render your video games. As a normal rule, the extra the higher in the case of CUDA cores, and the RTX 5060 has a stable 25% greater than the RTX 4060, which solely has 3,072 of them, which means it ought to be considerably faster in the case of uncooked body charges.

In the meantime, the RTX 5060’s 30 RT cores will make this funds gaming GPU higher at dealing with ray tracing than the 24 within the RTX 4060, particularly as they’re additionally based mostly on the brand new and improved Blackwell structure. There are additionally 120 Tensor cores for AI workloads, corresponding to DLSS upscaling and body gen, in addition to new neural rendering methods corresponding to neural radiance cache. Once more, that is an honest step up from the 96 discovered within the RTX 4060.

Nvidia has additionally furnished its newest Tensor cores with the power to run its multi-frame gen tech, which makes use of AI to insert as much as three further frames between every pair of frames genuinely rendered by the GPU. In my assessments, I’ve discovered that this tech cannot repair a low body charge – in case your recreation is operating at 15fps, then utilizing multi-frame gen to spice up that to 50fps will nonetheless be horrible to play. Nevertheless, in case your recreation is already operating at 60fps, multi-frame gen is usually a great tool in your GPU’s arsenal to spice up that determine to round 200fps, smoothing out the movement you probably have a monitor with a excessive refresh charge.

Then we come to the RTX 5060’s large stumbling block, which is the VRAM. On the plus facet, it makes use of quick GDDR7 reminiscence operating at 1,750MHz (28Gbps efficient), which ends up in a peak reminiscence bandwidth determine of 448GB/s with the cardboard’s 128-bit bus. That mainly means the GPU can retrieve information from the VRAM remarkably shortly for a card at this value – as some extent of comparability, the RTX 4060’s whole reminiscence bandwidth is simply 272GB/s, so the RTX 5060’s reminiscence system is considerably sooner.

That is the place the excellent news ends, although, as a result of the large downside is that there is solely 8GB of this quick reminiscence on this card. That is the identical capability because the RTX 4060 earlier than it, and even lower than the 12GB RTX 3060 that got here out a number of years in the past. Consequently, lots of our take a look at video games confirmed us VRAM warnings within the graphics settings throughout testing, even when operating a few of the video games at 1080p, some video games would clearly be faster with extra reminiscence, and a few video games simply flat-out changed into a horrible stuttering mess.

You may see how Nvidia ended up on this state of affairs. In spite of everything, 12GB of the most recent GDDR7 VRAM tech goes to bump up the worth, and the yields on new 3GB GDDR7 chips are most likely nowhere close to excessive sufficient to make a mass-produced graphics card based mostly on them but. Meaning Nvidia wants to make use of 2GB chips for the time being, and the construction of the RTX 5060 provides it a 128-bit bus, which suggests it could possibly both have 8GB or 16GB of VRAM made with commonplace 2GB chips – 16GB could be too costly, so we have ended up with an 8GB card.

Arguably, Nvidia would have been higher off having a special format for this chip, with a 192-bit bus permitting for a 12GB setup, and even only a 160-bit bus permitting for 10GB – I might argue that simply utilizing extra GDDR6 reminiscence would have been higher than utilizing much less GDDR7 RAM. As it’s, although, the RTX 5060 has actually quick reminiscence, however not sufficient of it, which places it in a troublesome aggressive place towards the $349 AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB, if it is truly obtainable at that value.

One other space the place the Radeon RX 9060 XT has a bonus is the PCIe interface, because it makes use of the total 16 PCIe 5.0 lanes, whereas the RTX 5060 solely makes use of eight of them. That is loads of bandwidth for those who’re utilizing a PCIe 5.0 motherboard, however it means you may nonetheless solely get eight lanes for those who put this GPU in a PCIe 3.0 or 4.0 motherboard, maybe for those who’re upgrading an Intel Tenth-gen Comet Lake system, for instance, which solely helps PCIe 3.0, and utilizing simply eight PCIe 3.0 lanes is more likely to begin limiting efficiency of this GPU.

Lastly, I am happy to see that the RTX 5060 nonetheless solely requires a single 8-pin energy connector, which means it should work wonderful with most individuals’s present PSUs, with the overall graphics energy rated at simply 145W. Meaning you may be wonderful operating this GPU with a regular 500-550W PSU.

Gigabyte GeForce RTX 5060 Gaming OC

Nvidia is not making its personal RTX 5060 Founders Version card, which suggests all 5060 playing cards are made by third-party board companions. Gigabyte despatched me its GeForce RTX 5060 Gaming OC card for this assessment, which retains remarkably quiet with its three followers spinning at low speeds, and in addition tightly squeezes into simply two slots.

Gigabyte has additionally given its card a small overclock of 95MHz, which takes the increase clock from 2.5GHz to 2.9GHz. As such, keep in mind that our benchmark outcomes can be very barely faster than these of a inventory velocity card, although the distinction can be very small (solely 1-2fps right here and there).

There’s additionally a big metallic backplate on the rear of the cardboard, which does not make a direct reference to any of the silicon, however does assist stop the cardboard from sagging, and the RTX 5060 would not run significantly scorching anyway. In the meantime, a big cutout on the suitable of the backplate permits scorching air to be pushed straight by way of the highest of the cardboard in a regular case configuration, the place your case’s followers can then push it out the again.

It is a large beast for a funds gaming GPU, however it was additionally exceptionally quiet throughout testing, and also you additionally get a little bit of RGB lighting on the right-hand facet of the highest edge, beneath the Gigabyte brand. One different fascinating a part of the design is the positioning of the 8-pin energy connector on the far left of the cardboard. This could make for tidy cable routing in case your case has a routing gap to your motherboard’s entrance panel audio header, however it could possibly look a bit messy for those who’re dragging cables over from the suitable.

How we take a look at

To evaluate the gaming efficiency of the GeForce RTX 5060, I am operating numerous benchmarks utilizing actual video games, moderately than artificial benchmarks. Every take a look at is run thrice, recorded with Nvidia FrameView, and I report the imply common of the outcomes, discarding any apparent anomalies. I report two figures for body charges – firstly, the typical, which supplies you an thought of the overall body charge you’ll obtain. Secondly, I report the 1% low, which is a median of the bottom one % of outcomes recorded throughout the benchmark.

The latter is a extra dependable indicator of efficiency than the outright minimal, because it removes outliers, corresponding to moments the place a Home windows system occasion causes the sport to stutter, which is unrelated to the efficiency of the GPU. The 1% low is what you possibly can count on the precise typical minimal body charge to be in these video games.

I am additionally now reporting the latency in GPU evaluations, which is expressed in milliseconds (ms), and refers back to the delay between an motion being executed in a recreation and that motion being displayed by your graphics card – the decrease the latency, the extra responsive your recreation will really feel in motion. These figures aren’t all the time featured within the graphs, as I haven’t got the information for all the opposite GPUs, however they’re mentioned within the assessment.

GPU take a look at system specs:

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
• CPU cooler: Corsair H100X RGB Elite
• Reminiscence: 32GB 6,000MHz G.Ability TridentZ RGB, CL28
• Motherboard: MSI MAG X870E Carbon WiFi
• SSD: 2TB WD Black SN850X
• PSU: Corsair RM1000X Shift

Benchmarks

Doom The Darkish Ages

I will kick off the RTX 5060 benchmarks with a have a look at a fantastic showcase title for this new funds gaming GPU, Doom The Darkish Ages. The newest hellscape shooter from id options a great deal of cool ray tracing tech, in addition to implementing full assist for Nvidia DLSS 4, together with multi-frame gen. I ran the brand new recreation on the RTX 5060 at varied settings, and it coped remarkably nicely with them.

Even with none assist from DLSS, the RTX 5060 can address this recreation at 1080p utilizing the Extremely Nightmare preset, the place it averages 70fps, with the 1% low dropping to 54fps. Allow DLSS 4 on the High quality setting, and these figures go as much as 93fps and 75fps respectively, plus the sport nonetheless appears actually good at these settings, because of the brand new DLSS 4 Transformer mannequin, which makes for secure movement and far much less blurriness than DLSS 3.

That 93fps common can be a stable sufficient basis to allow body gen, which means the RTX 5060 can unfold its AI wings and soar to a median of 238fps. Impressively, whereas enabling multi body gen does enhance enter lag, this recreation’s assist for Nvidia Reflex means the influence is minimal – I measured the enter latency at 24ms with out multi body gen, and 35ms with it, and the sport was completely wonderful with body gen enabled throughout gameplay, with the motion wanting tremendous {smooth}.

Nevertheless, for those who then up the settings to 2,560 x 1,440, you already begin to bump up towards the VRAM limitation, with the reminiscence utilization turning pink within the graphics menu. You may run the sport moderately nicely at 1440p with DLSS on the High quality setting, the place it averages 66fps with 31ms latency.

Nevertheless, enabling body gen at these settings saturates the VRAM, with the latency going as much as 74ms. Whereas the typical body charge of 92fps appears greater with body gen enabled, the sport was truly unplayable in motion, with occasional stuttering and sudden acceleration because the body charge caught up. In the event you’re solely gaming at 1080p, although, the RTX 5060 handles this recreation very well.

Cyberpunk 2077

One other good showcase for the RTX 5060 is Cyberpunk 2077, which once more helps all the most recent Nvidia DLSS 4 tech, and appears unbelievable on the brand new GPU. In the event you run the sport with the Extremely ray tracing preset at 1080p, you possibly can see that the RTX 5060’s 45fps common is considerably faster than the 37fps from the RTX 4060, and solely 3fps behind the RTX 4060 Ti.

It is nonetheless not playable at these settings, however setting DLSS upscaling to Balanced (which nonetheless appears stable with the brand new Transformer mannequin), pushes this as much as 85fps, with a 68fps 1% low, which is a stable sufficient. You may then allow 4x multi-frame gen, and the sport averages 231fps with a 126fps 1% low – the sport appears unbelievable at these settings, and it is {smooth} as nicely. There is a rise in latency right here, going from 26ms to 40ms, however I discovered the sport was nonetheless responsive sufficient to play in motion.

I then had a go at enabling path tracing utilizing the Cyberpunk 2077 Overdrive mode, simply to see if this new funds GPU might address the intensive calls for of this ray tracing approach. You must interact DLSS to get an honest body charge, after all, however for those who allow upscaling on the Efficiency setting (which, once more, would not look horrible anymore, because of the brand new Transformer mannequin), the sport averages 66fps with a 50fps 1% low and 31ms latency.

In the event you then allow multi-frame gen, the typical body charge goes as much as 202fps, however the 1% low is simply 70fps, and the latency will increase to 46ms. In motion, I discovered the sport sometimes stuttered with body gen enabled right here, with sudden quick actions occurring when the body charge caught up once more. Mainly, path tracing is technically doable on this GPU, however I would not suggest it, even for those who throw all of the DLSS magic Nvidia can muster at it.

Indiana Jones and the Nice Circle

Now for the large fly within the RTX 5060 ointment, a super-demanding recreation that makes the RTX 5060 wrestle, just because it would not have sufficient VRAM to deal with it. This recreation has two tiers of settings – the usual one ranges from Low to Supreme and has ray tracing as commonplace, and you may then additionally interact an extra tier of Full RT settings at varied ranges to allow path tracing options.

As commonplace, I run this recreation on the Extremely preset with no path tracing on all GPUs, because it nonetheless appears actually good at these settings, and most GPUs can address it. The RTX 5060 Ti 16GB, for instance, averages a {smooth} 91fps on this recreation at these settings, with a 1% low of 72fps.

Nevertheless, 8GB of VRAM merely is not sufficient to deal with this preset, with the RTX 5060’s efficiency falling off a cliff edge – the typical was simply 23fps, and the 1% low dropped proper right down to 9fps – it is fully unplayable. Even dropping to the following setting down (Excessive) pushed this GPU’s reminiscence to the restrict, with a 41fps common and stuttery 1% low of 13fps. You additionally nonetheless get a warning about not having sufficient VRAM for those who drop right down to the Medium setting, however I discovered the cardboard might nonetheless run the sport utilizing this preset, averaging 92fps with a 71fps 1% low.

Ultimately, it’s important to drop right down to the Low preset to cease getting VRAM warnings within the graphics menu, the place the RTX 5060 averages 110fps. That is an honest body charge, however whereas the sport nonetheless appears OK at these settings, it is clear {that a} bit extra reminiscence would allow you to run this recreation with far more element and eye sweet on the RTX 5060.

Name of Obligation Black Ops 6

Subsequent up is Name of Obligation Black Ops 6, a AAA shooter that does not function any ray tracing tech, and in addition would not assist multi-frame gen. This take a look at provides us indication of a GPU’s uncooked rendering capabilities, though it does typically want AMD’s GPU architectures to these of Nvidia. As a working example, that is the one recreation in our take a look at suite the place the growing old Radeon RX 7600 is quicker than the RTX 5060.

Even so, the distinction is marginal, and the RTX 5060 can clearly address this recreation wonderful at 1080p, even when it is maxed out with no DLSS. Its common of 94fps and 68fps 1% low is ok, with the previous being 12fps faster than the RTX 4060. In the event you then allow DLSS on the High quality setting, the typical body charge goes as much as 100fps, and the latency stays the identical, averaging across the 22ms mark.

You can too then allow body gen, permitting the typical body charge to tug away to 147fps, though the latency then goes up just a little to 32ms. Nevertheless, the 1% low was surprisingly low right here at 69fps, significantly at the beginning of the benchmark. In the event you’re enjoying this recreation on the RTX 5060, I might keep away from enabling body gen and simply stick to DLSS on the High quality setting with the Excessive preset or, even higher, drop right down to decrease graphics settings.

Whereas the RTX 5060 can address Black Ops 6 at 1080p, the graphics menu flags up a pink VRAM warning whenever you up the decision to 2,560 x 1,440 with the Excessive preset. It is nonetheless playable, regardless of this, averaging 68fps, with the scope for the next body charge for those who allow DLSS or drop the settings, however this does once more present that this card is correct up towards it in the case of reminiscence. Enabling body gen at this decision pushes the typical as much as 104fps, however the 1% low nonetheless stumbles at 50fps, and the latency goes proper as much as 45ms – your greatest guess is to run this recreation at 1080p for those who’re utilizing the RTX 5060.

F1 24

Whereas we anticipate F1 25 to return out, we’re presently nonetheless testing with F1 24, which continues to be a fantastic benchmark with its quick tempo and beautiful ray tracing results on the Extremely preset. This benchmark additionally actually exhibits the rise in rendering energy you get from stepping up from the RTX 4060 to the 5060. The previous averages 53fps with a 38fps 1% low at 1080p, however the RTX 5060 takes the typical all the way in which as much as 72fps. That places the typical on a par with the RTX 4060 Ti, and the 1% low on the RTX 5060 was truly sooner than the 4060 Ti at 56fps.

That is already playable with none assist from DLSS, however you will get some extra efficiency from the RTX 5060 for those who allow DLSS upscaling on the High quality setting and allow body gen too. This pushes the typical proper as much as 120fps with a 74fps 1% low – a fantastic consequence, and with solely a modest enhance in latency from 35ms to 38ms. Comparatively, I could not even get the Radeon RX 7600 to run this recreation with FSR upscaling and body gen enabled, because it saved falling over.

Shifting as much as 1440p is a bit a lot for the RTX 5060 at these settings, although, the place it averages simply 48fps with a clunky 1% low of 34fps, and excessive enter latency of 52ms. As with many of the above assessments, 1080p is unquestionably the candy spot for the RTX 5060 for those who’re operating video games at excessive settings.

Doom Everlasting

Lastly, our growing old Doom Everlasting benchmark continues to be take a look at of the most recent GPUs, significantly for those who allow ray tracing. Even at 1080p, maxing out this recreation with the Extremely Nightmare settings with ray tracing pushes the VRAM actually laborious, however can provide you nice outcomes if the GPU is as much as the job. I’ve seen a number of 8GB playing cards fall over on this take a look at, together with the RTX 4060, so I used to be intrigued to see how the RTX 5060 coped.

Remarkably, the RTX 5060 managed to clock up a 185fps common at these settings, with a 96fps 1% low, providing related efficiency to the RTX 4060 Ti 8GB. Nevertheless, you possibly can see from the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB consequence that the additional VRAM actually allows this GPU to tug away by an enormous margin, regardless of solely having a modest quantity of additional GPU energy.

Disable ray tracing, nevertheless, and the RTX 5060 can actually churn out the body charges on this previous recreation, with its 336fps common at 1080p being 31fps in entrance of the RTX 4060, and its 247fps common at 1440p being an honest consequence too.

Energy draw

One space the place the RTX 5060 actually excels is energy draw, with our Ryzen 7 7800X3D take a look at rig solely drawing a peak of 274W from the mains with the RTX 5060 operating at full load. Once more, that is the same consequence to the RTX 4060 Ti, and solely marginally greater than the Radeon RX 7600 – a distinction that will very most likely disappear for those who had been utilizing a inventory velocity model of the cardboard, moderately than our overclocked one.

I will be to see the ability draw of the Radeon RX 9060 XT as compared, however given the comparatively excessive energy consumption of the Radeon RX 9070 playing cards, it is a battle which will find yourself being received by the RTX 5060. It could solely have 8GB of VRAM, however most PC avid gamers will simply be capable of improve to this card without having to purchase a brand new PSU.

Value

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 value is $299, which matches the worth of its predecessor, the RTX 4060, whereas overclocked variations, such because the Gigabyte Gaming OC card we examined, price just a little further. At face worth, the worth would not look too unhealthy, provided that the brand new GPU affords a stable enchancment in rendering efficiency over its predecessor.

Nevertheless, at this value, this GPU actually wants greater than 8GB of VRAM now, particularly when the AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB is lined as much as price $349. We’ll should see how real-world costs look as soon as all of the GPUs have been launched and the costs have settled down, however $299 is just too costly for a GPU with this degree of efficiency and reminiscence in 2025, even whether it is higher than its predecessor.

Options

AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT

AMD’s competing GPU is probably not out but, however the Radeon RX 9060 XT launch date is coming very quickly, and I counsel holding off on buying the RTX 5060 earlier than you know the way this new AMD GPU performs. Two variations can be obtainable, with AMD saying the 8GB card may have the identical value because the RTX 5060, with the 16GB card costing a really affordable $349 at MSRP. It is probably that the Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB can be a a lot better purchase than the RTX 5060, however provided that AMD’s pricing holds up in the actual world, which hasn’t been the case with the 9070 playing cards to date.

Intel Arc B580

This Intel Battlemage GPU has one main profit over the RTX 5060, which is an additional 4GB of VRAM, giving it a complete of 12GB. This offers it far more headroom to run the most recent video games at excessive settings with out fully falling over, though Intel’s supporting suite of AI tech is a good means behind Nvidia DLSS in the case of recreation assist. Because of scarce provide, nevertheless, Intel Arc B580 costs are everywhere, significantly within the US. At its $259 MSRP, the Arc B580 is an effective purchase, however it makes much less sense when it prices over $300.

Verdict

Oh, Nvidia, why do you do that to us? You give us an honest increase in rendering efficiency for a similar value as your previous card, however then you definately solely give it 8GB of VRAM on a $299 card in 2025 – it is like constructing a pleasant home, then making all of the doorways not fairly large enough to keep away from scraping your butt and bashing your head. Nvidia might have positively made a greater providing right here, maybe utilizing a wider bus and 12GB of VRAM, even when it wasn’t GDDR7 reminiscence. I might even be shocked if we did not see a 12GB RTX 5060 Tremendous popping out subsequent 12 months, utilizing 3GB GDDR7 chips.

It is unlucky within the meantime, although, as a result of there are different areas the place the RTX 5060 is an honest GPU. Its rendering and ray tracing efficiency is a good bit faster than the RTX 4060, and never far off the RTX 4060 Ti 8GB, which is not unhealthy for the $299 asking value. Even at this degree, multi body gen can nonetheless be a useful gizmo as nicely – you simply want to verify your beginning body charge is excessive sufficient, and you may then get pleasure from super-smooth body charges in video games that assist it – specifically, Doom The Darkish Ages and Cyberpunk 2077 run nicely on this new GPU with DLSS 4.

However then we’ve different video games, corresponding to Indiana Jones and the Nice Circle, that fall over for those who go above the Medium graphics preset, even at 1080p, and a number of other of our take a look at video games gave us warnings about VRAM capability within the graphics menu as we elevated the settings. To be honest, this card did nonetheless run most of our take a look at video games at 1,920 x 1,080 with its 8GB of VRAM, however a whole lot of them had been proper on the restrict, which raises questions on future proofing and the lifespan of this GPU.

I additionally advise ready for our AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT assessment earlier than buying the RTX 5060, because the 16GB model of this graphics card might nicely develop into a greater purchase, however provided that real-world pricing would not spiral uncontrolled. Within the meantime, the RTX 5060 is not a horrible $299 gaming GPU, however it might have been made so a lot better if Nvidia addressed its one main flaw.

In the event you’re planning an improve, take a look at our information to the most effective graphics card to see which GPU most accurately fits your wants, in addition to our tutorial on how one can set up a GPU, which takes you thru the entire course of.

You can too comply with us on Google Information for day by day PC video games information, evaluations, and guides. As well as, we’ve a vibrant neighborhood Discord server, the place you possibly can chat about this story with members of the crew and fellow readers.