Now that Nvidia has lifted the lid on its latest sub-$500 gaming GPU, I’ve had the chance to run some Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 Ti benchmarks in the latest games, and some of the results are startling. The new GPU doesn’t just beat its predecessor, the RTX 4060 Ti, but in some games it even significantly outperforms the 5070. What’s its secret? That’ll be its extra 4GB of GDDR7 VRAM.
I’ll be writing a full RTX 5060 Ti review in the very near future, but in the meantime, I thought it was worth sharing some of the key findings from benchmarking this new Nvidia GPU. With a price of $429 for the 16GB card, it’s a good $120 cheaper than the 5070 at MSRP (assuming you can find stock at that price, of course), yet in some games the 5060 Ti is the best graphics card of the two.
The most startling test is Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, a brutally demanding game if you push up the settings, but this new $429 GPU handles it remarkably well. Take a look at the graph below, where the game is maxed out at the Supreme preset, and with path tracing at the maximum settings too. None of the 8GB cards can run this test, and the 12GB RTX 5070 and 4060 Ti also fall over, as the game needs more VRAM to run at these settings, even at 1,920 x 1,080.
Conversely, the new RTX 5060 Ti 16GB takes off here, averaging 105fps. Bear in mind that this test was run with DLSS 4 Super Resolution on the Quality setting and with multi frame gen enabled, though. The starting frame rate before frame generation means the game is still a little choppy in this game at these settings, even if it’s significantly smoother than playing it on the pricier AMD Radeon RX 9070 with FSR.
However, if you drop down to the Ultra ray tracing preset with Medium path tracing and DLSS 4 Super Resolution on the Performance preset, again with 4x multi frame gen enabled, you get a 138fps average with an 85fps 1% low (up from a decent starting average of 54fps without frame gen), and this is actually playable. The RTX 5070 can’t even run the game at these settings, but the 5060 Ti can just about do it – path tracing on a $429 GPU in this game is a remarkable achievement, so hats off to Nvidia here.
This game also shows up the RTX 4060 Ti 8GB at the Ultra settings without any DLSS, and no path tracing. The RTX 5060 Ti averages 91fps with a 72fps 1% low, compared to a choppy and stuttery 40fps and 15fps 1% low on the RTX 4060 Ti. Again, that extra memory really comes in handy here. There was a 16GB version of the 4060 Ti, of course, but at $499 it was extremely overpriced, and Nvidia didn’t seed any samples to reviewers. This new $429 16GB card is a massive improvement over the $399 8GB 4060 Ti.
The new 16GB GPU can even handle the gorgeous-looking lighting from path tracing in Cyberpunk 2077. At 1,920 x 1,080 with the Ray Tracing Overdrive preset enabled, DLSS 4 Super Resolution on the Quality setting, and 4x multi frame gen enabled, the RTX 5060 Ti averages 179fps (up from a respectable starting point of 56fps without frame gen enabled). It looks and feels surprisingly smooth when you’re playing it, and it’s a big improvement over the 87fps from the RTX 4060 Ti with single frame gen.
One other interesting test is the age-old Doom Eternal, running at the Ultra Nightmare settings at 4K with ray tracing enabled. Again, none of the 8GB cards will even run this test, but the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB churns out a respectable average of 105fps, with a 68fps 1% low. If you enable DLSS on the Quality setting, where the game still looks great, then this increases to a 130fps average and a 98fps 1% low – that’s entirely playable, and it looks fantastic on this $429 card.
I’ll cover the rest of the benchmarks in my full RTX 5060 Ti review in the near future, but at the moment I’m really impressed by this new GPU. It offers decent performance for the money, and it can run several games at settings that are unattainable with 8GB of VRAM.
I was worried when leaks were putting the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB price at $499, but at $429 it’s $70 cheaper than its predecessor, and only $30 more than the 8GB 4060 Ti. Nvidia hasn’t always hit the right balance between GPU performance, VRAM capacity, and pricing in recent times, but the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB is genuinely looking really good.
If you’re thinking about upgrading, check out my full guide on how to install a GPU, where I take you through the whole graphics card upgrade process. You can also read my RTX 5070 review to see how Nvidia’s latest mid-range GPU copes with our benchmarks.
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