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The Nvidia RTX 5060 Ti is the latest creation from Team Green. Like the previous variants in the series, it targets premium 1080p and 1440p gaming performance. This time, you also get better pricing, as the 8 GB variant starts at $379, while the 16 GB option has been slashed to $429. While the GPUs share much in common with their last-generation counterparts, the pricing, coupled with DLSS 4 multi-frame generation, makes it a lucrative choice for many.
After spending a week with the new RTX 5060 Ti, here's my review of the GPU.
What are the specs of the Nvidia RTX 5060 Ti?
In terms of its overall DNA, the brand-new RTX 5060 Ti isn't much different from the last generation. It is based on the severely cut-down GB206 graphics chip and has 4,608 CUDA cores, an 8% increase from the last generation.
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What keeps the card grounded is the VRAM buffer. You get similar offerings: 8 and 16 GB. At $379, the former does sound a bit steep, especially given how limiting an 8 GB card can be at more demanding games and 1440p. Nvidia, however, aims to make up for it with frame generation.
The 16 GB GPU is pretty future-proof, especially if you're a casual or 1080p gamer (or both!). We look at this variant in the review.
The card is also quite power-efficient. At 180W, it's the least power-hungry of any 60 Ti-class card launched in the last few generations. This is propelled by the Blackwell architecture's enhancements. It directly translates to much smaller cards, making ITX builds with serious power a breeze.
The GPU's specs are as follows:
Read more: Nvidia RTX 4060 Ti review: Affordable ray tracing or expensive e-waste?
The RTX 5060 Ti is getting cheaper this generation
The new RTX 5060 Ti's biggest highlight is the falling prices. The card's getting cheaper this generation, which isn't the kind of news gamers have been accustomed to lately.
The RTX 5060 Ti has been discounted to $379, making it $20 cheaper than the last generation. The 16 GB variant is down to $429, a $70 discount. The gap between the GPUs has closed to $50, which reflects the extra VRAM on the costlier option.
Moreover, the revised pricing allows Nvidia to target a more budget-oriented market instead of appealing just to mid-premium-level buyers.
Blackwell might be a blessing for budget gamers
While gen-on-gen improvements haven't been the strongest suit of the latest Blackwell cards, the new technologies like DLSS 4 and multi-frame generation are for budget gamers. Besides adding extra shelf life to mid-range GPUs, it allows pushing for higher resolutions, future-proofing the RTX 5060 Ti in multiple ways.
Moreover, the GPU is brand new, and with time, the DLSS 4 library will continue to grow. Nvidia also typically offers seven to eight years of support for its cards, placing the 5060 Ti in an interesting position.
Test bench
We tested the MSI Ventus 2x variant of the RTX 5060 Ti. The system used for the following benchmarks is as follows:
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 9900X
- Motherboard: Asus ROG X870-A Gaming WiFi
- RAM: 2 x G.Skill Trident Z DDR5-6000 16 GB
- Storage: 1 x Gigabyte Gen 4 NVMe 1 TB, 1 x Patriot P300 M.2 PCIe Gen 3 x 4 128GB
- Cooler: Cooler Master Atmos 240mm liquid cooler
- Storage: Cooler Master MWE 1050W 80+ Gold
- GPU: MSI Ventus 2x RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB
Synthetic benchmarks
Synthetic benchmarks are a nice way to calibrate graphics cards' performance, as the workload remains identical across cards and systems. We start off with UL 3DMark's suite of graphics rendering tests. These benchmarks are gaming-focused and lend a realistic view into the scaling players can expect in the latest titles.
For a baseline DirectX 11 benchmark, we use 3DMark Fire Strike. Across the board, we see serious gains over the RTX 4060 Ti (+22.7%). The 5060 Ti is also faster than the RTX 4070 (+3%), which is impressive given the plateauing of gen-on-gen improvements observed on other Blackwell cards. The 5060 Ti matches the performance of the RTX 3080 Ti, a much costlier card from 2021.
However, DirectX 12 tests paint a different picture. Much of the gains over the last generation fade away in this test as the RTX 4070 outperforms the new 5060 Ti, with even the AMD RX 7700 XT catching up with the new GPU. Since most of the latest titles rely on the DirectX 12 and 12 Ultimate graphics API, this is the trend we would notice in most of the latest titles. The score chart is as follows:
Ray tracing is one of Nvidia's strong suits. The gains particularly show in mid-range GPUs, where Team Green's offering matches the level of several high-end AMD GPUs. Similarly, we notice the RTX 5060 Ti to be quite close to the AMD RX 7900 XTX, but it continues to remain significantly behind the RTX 4070. This is particularly because of trimmed-down native ray tracing hardware, as the extra VRAM can't help make up for it.
3DMark Port Royal is a real-time ray tracing benchmark that helps us calibrate the card's potential in heavily ray-traced games. We log a 26% improvement over the RTX 4060 Ti, thanks to the new Blackwell architecture powering it. But the GPU remains behind the RTX 4070 and 3080 Ti by considerable margins.
3DMark Speed Way is a DirectX 12 Ultimate benchmark, reflecting performance in the latest games on the market. We observe similar trends in this test as the new 60-class card beats the 4060 Ti by 25% while staying about 7.5% behind the RTX 4070 and 15% behind the RTX 3080 Ti.
The most highlighted feature of the new RTX 5060 Ti is DLSS multi-frame generation. The GPU can now generate up to four artificial frames for every real one, boosting performance by huge margins. In the 3DMark DLSS feature test, the card logged a 324% performance gain over the native framerate, placing it slightly behind the RTX 4080 LT and the RTX 4070.
Overall, the RTX 5060 Ti is a considerable step-up from the last generation in terms of raw rendering potential. However, it remains behind the RTX 4070 and the older RTX 3080 Ti. This isn't particularly worrisome, given that it now supports DLSS 4 multi-frame generation. However, there's no denying that gen-on-gen improvements have considerably plateaued this year.
Read more: Nvidia RTX 5080 gaming benchmarks
Gaming benchmarks
Gaming performance is the main deal when it comes to a 60-class GPU. The Nvidia RTX 5060 Ti brings considerable improvements in terms of raw rasterization capabilities. However, the highlighted feature of the GPU is multi-frame generation. Below is a look at the kind of frame rates you can expect in some of the latest and most demanding titles.
Overall, the 5060 Ti is a strong card for playing the latest titles natively at 1080p. Its ray-tracing performance is quite strong too, with a geomean of 76.8 FPS. Frame generation helps almost any game deliver 100 FPS at 1080p, with multi-frame generation boosting brutally demanding titles like Cyberpunk RT Overdrive (with Path Tracing) to over 160 FPS.
Here's a summary of what to expect from the RTX 5060 Ti in terms of gaming capabilities:
A detailed analysis of the gaming performance of the 5060 Ti can be found in our dedicated benchmarks article. Consider giving it a read.
Temperature and power draw characteristics
Another improvement with the latest Nvidia RTX 5060 Ti is better power efficiency. This directly comes from improved hardware packaging, which results in fewer cooling heatsink requirements, reducing the GPU's physical footprint. When the MSI Ventux 2x arrived, I double-checked it to ensure it wasn't an RTX 5060 8 GB. The card is exceptionally compact for the performance it can deliver.
Despite being small, the thermal performance is on point. We logged a maximum GPU temperature of 76.9°C, which is very respectable for a compact 2-fan card. Below are the temperature characteristics observed in the Furmark 2 torture test.
The 5060 Ti 16 GB is a 180W card, which is slightly higher than the last generation by 15W but down from the 3060 Ti's 200W. Under sustained synthetic stress, the card steadily maintained its power requirement with no spikes or weird characteristics. A 450W power supply will suffice for this GPU.
In video games, the characteristics tend to be quite erratic. This is primarily due to context switches and consistent rendering pipelines that most modern titles use for an interactive real-time experience. The 5060 Ti recorded a maximum of 72°C while handling Cyberpunk 2077 in the most GPU-bound scenario. The temperature is decent for a 2-fan compact card.
Power draw while gaming consistently remained at 171W, much lower than its advertised TDP. This adds confidence to budget players' choice of power supplies. Based on the observed characteristics, we conclude that the Ventus 2x RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB is very well-behaved when it comes to its operating requirements.
Value and conclusion
Overall, the Nvidia RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB is a powerhouse for 1080p gaming. It can comfortably run most titles at 1440p as well. The card is close to the last-gen AMD RX 7700 XT in terms of rendering capabilities, which launched at $449. These days, the card sells for ~$500, making the Nvidia GPU cheaper while bringing support for multi-frame generation and better ray tracing.
However, the actual market price of the RTX 5060 Ti remains to be seen. While Nvidia has performed slightly better at maintaining MSRPs than AMD, both companies are seeing their GPUs sell for much more than the launched prices at retail stores.
The RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB makes a solid case for itself. While the $429 price tag might still feel steep, the GPU could be a go-to for budget and mid-premium gamers looking for some future-proofing.
