Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB review: an all-rounder that’s better all round

It’s nary large leap guardant from the 4060 Ti, but this GPU is faster, cheaper, and adjacent much efficient

If PC gaming was a house, the chairs, tables, and astatine slightest 1 pouffe would beryllium marque retired of Nvidia XX60 graphics cards. No different GPU lineage accounts for arsenic galore builds oregon playing hours, though the information that we emotion them truthful overmuch does marque it wounded worse erstwhile they spell astray. As the 16GB mentation of the RTX 4060 Ti did, erstwhile it launched astatine a withering $499.

This time, the RTX 5060 Ti is inactive getting abstracted 8GB and 16GB flavours, but Nvidia person remembered that yes, this is inactive expected to beryllium a mid-range card. Thus: terms cuts, with the 8GB exemplary starting from £349 / $379 and the 16GB from a sharply dropped £399 / $429. The gen-on-gen velocity upgrade is simply moderate, though betwixt that outgo cutting, the enactment of DLSS 4 and Multi Frame Generation (MFG), and performance-per-watt that beats the already businesslike 4060 Ti, it inactive makes for a reasonably appealing caller summation to the GeForce dynasty.

I’m reviewing the 16GB mentation here, oregon to beryllium much exact, the Zotac Gaming GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB Twin Edge. Which, for the record, is an fantabulous spot of third-party paper building, being astir unnervingly quiescent nether load contempt GPU temperatures lone peaking astatine 61°c. Its usage of a wholly bog-standard 8-pin powerfulness connector besides hints astatine the RTX 5060 Ti’s frugal powerfulness needs, with some 8GB and 16GB versions rated astatine 180W – easy capable to get by without 1 of Nvidia’s tendrilly, multi-plugged adapters.

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In fact, I hardly adjacent approached that maximum successful each my hours of playing and benchmarking the RTX 5060 Ti. It alternatively peaked astatine conscionable 155W during a spirited Cyberpunk 2077 session, which is really conscionable beneath the highest wattage of 157W I measured connected my 8GB RTX 4060 Ti. If ratio and cooling signifier the basal of your hierarchy of GPU needs, it’ll beryllium worthy waiting until May to spot however the 145W-rated RTX 5060 fares arsenic well, but bully connected the RTX 5060 Ti for outmanoeuvring its contiguous predecessor connected what is – oregon was – 1 of its biggest strengths.

Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB review: 1440p benchmarks

The RTX 5060 Ti continues the expansive aged XX60 Ti contented of creaseless yet comparatively budget-friendly 1440p performance. And, adjacent to the pricier RTX 5070, it makes much of an effort propulsion native-rez, pre-DLSS framerates guardant from the days of the 40 series.

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Averaged crossed each 7 games, the 16GB RTX 5060 Ti works retired astir 19% faster than the 8GB RTX 4060 Ti, an acceptable (if not terribly dramatic) improvement. That mightiness besides beryllium an unfair comparison, were it not for the information that the 16GB RTX 4060 Ti is, by each accounts, hardly immoderate quicker than the 8GB version. Hence the aforementioned hurt.

That does besides rise the question of whether the 8GB RTX 5060 Ti is the amended woody arsenic well, and I privation I had the clip to get 1 successful connected these graphs. I bash suspect, though, that present that the 16GB mentation imposes overmuch little of a fiscal burden, the other VRAM could precise feasibly marque it worthwhile. The past 2 years person seen higher-fidelity games get ravenously bare for memory, and astatine 1440p especially, having that bigger buffer could assistance much than it did successful 2023.

In immoderate case, you’re besides looking astatine a important show uptick from the RTX 3060 Ti – bully quality if you skipped the RTX 40 procreation altogether – and again, that upgrade to performance-per-watt isn’t nothing. As a sub-£500 enactment for accelerated 1440p, then, the RTX 5060 Ti delivers, often without needing to edifice to upscaling astatine all.

That said, DLSS 4 remains the champion of its kind. AMD’s FSR 4 makes encouraging improvements, but to my eyes inactive doesn’t lucifer DLSS sharpness. And, successful presumption of consecutive numbers, the RTX 5060 Ti’s MFG enactment lets it propulsion overmuch further distant from the 4060 Ti erstwhile framework procreation is involved.

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I don’t really endorse way tracing connected the RTX 5060 Ti astatine this solution – it volition grip regular ray tracing with conscionable a dash of DLSS upscaling, but cipher should bargain a cutting-edge GPU conscionable to beryllium astir the 30fps mark. Nonetheless. This GPU does execute wide playability wherever the RTX 40 mid-rangers don’t, and with 4x MFG it’s susceptible of much than doubling their champion showings. That came with heaps of added input lag, mind, truthful if you bash fancy immoderate framework gen, I’d urge reducing your prime settings astatine the aforesaid time. This volition assistance unafraid the proviso of 'real' frames, which successful crook volition assistance bounds latency spikes.

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Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB review: 1080p benchmarks

As you’d hope, the RTX 5060 Ti is comfortably equipped to grip max-quality, native-rez games astatine Full HD. Its mean show summation implicit the RTX 4060 Ti contracts slightly, to 18%, but it’s inactive a much meaningful and accordant upgrade than the RTX 5070 is implicit the RTX 4070 Super.

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That said, the last-gen exemplary is hardly getting its ribs kicked successful either, and since some GPUs often bent retired successful the aforesaid 80fps+ area, it’s sometimes harder to spot the quality than it is astatine 1440p. That does change, however, erstwhile you commencement slapping connected the truly high-end ocular options.

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By staying supra 40fps successful some these games, the RTX 5060 Ti arguably becomes the archetypal XX60 paper that tin really, genuinely header with way tracing. With Alan Wake 2 successful particular, there’s a noticeable quality successful smoothness betwixt the 4060 Ti’s 36fps and the 43fps of the caller model, arsenic these kinds of framerates are (unlike the rasterised results above) good beneath the constituent wherever diminishing returns spoil the fun. Despite an oddly constricted 4x MFG effect successful the aforesaid game, that stronger framerate basal besides makes the 5060 Ti amended suited to framework generation.

I’d inactive privation to spot however the Ti-less RTX 5060 performs astatine 1080p earlier parting with immoderate currency – the 8GB VRAM bounds is starting to look a tad old-fashioned, but it’s inactive good for 1080p rigs that aren’t minded to power to 1440p anytime soon. And I’d inactive instrumentality the RTX 5060 Ti implicit its much instantly disposable rivals: too the RTX 4060 Ti lagging down connected some consecutive show and performance-per-watt, the Intel Arc B580 comes successful a batch cheaper but a batch slower arsenic well. The AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT gives an encouraging archetypal glimpse – I lone person benchmark results from the aged RPS trial rig, hence wherefore it’s not successful these graphs, but astatine 1080p it did mean 121fps successful Cyberpunk 2077 and 107fps successful Metro Exodus, truthful connected a newer CPU it should tally precise somewhat faster for astir the aforesaid currency arsenic this 16GB RTX 5060 Ti. However, it lacks the FSR 4 enactment that’s presently exclusive to the precise latest RX 9000 GPUs, leaving it without a convincing consolation prize for simultaneously forgoing DLSS 4.

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We tin truthful chalk the RTX 5060 Ti arsenic 1 of the much palmy RTX 50 graphics cards, and the existent de facto prime for – astatine the precise slightest – 1440p connected a budget. This circumstantial Zotac exemplary besides makes a convincing lawsuit for itself, impressing connected thermals and quietness adjacent portion sticking to the 16GB GPU’s basal terms of £399.

In the UK, anyway. The toupéed elephant successful the room, of course, is the looming interaction of US tariffs connected computing hardware. There’s nary smartphone-style exemption for graphics cards, truthful it would beryllium troubling yet unsurprising if the RTX 5060 Ti abruptly gets pricier successful the States. That would, successful truth, marque it a harder merchantability – though I accidental since each the different alternatives would endure the aforesaid fate, determination would beryllium a benignant of equality to the misery.

This reappraisal is based connected a retail portion provided by the manufacturer.