Budget Boost: The New NVIDIA RTX 5060 and 5060 Ti GPUs

The gaming world is buzzing with the news of NVIDIA's latest budget-friendly GPUs, the RTX 5060 and 5060 Ti. These new graphics cards are set to hit the market, but don't expect them to be a steal. The RTX 5060 will start at $299, the same price as its predecessor, the RTX 4060. This might seem a bit steep, considering the ups and downs of the GPU market and the unpredictable tariffs that could affect pricing. NVIDIA is rolling out two versions of the RTX 5060 Ti, one with 8GB of VRAM and another with 16GB, priced at $379 and $429 respectively. These powerhouses are set to launch on April 16, but the RTX 5060 will follow in May, with no exact date yet. NVIDIA is boasting about the usual performance upgrades, but the real draw of these GPUs is their full support for DLSS 4 upscaling and 4X multi-frame generation. This technology has already shown impressive results in higher-end cards, but it remains to be seen how well it will perform on these more affordable models. NVIDIA has been a bit tight-lipped about the full specs of these new GPUs. Officially, the RTX 5060 is equipped with 8GB of GDDR7 VRAM, 19 TFLOPS Blackwell shader cores, 5th-gen tensor cores with 614 AI TOPS performance, and 4th-gen RT cores that can reach 58 TFLOPS. Unofficially, rumors suggest it also has 3, 840 CUDA cores. In comparison, the RTX 4060 had 3072 CUDA cores and 8GB of GDDR6 VRAM. The RTX 5060 Ti takes things up a notch with 4, 608 CUDA cores and the option of 8GB or 16GB of GDDR7 RAM. NVIDIA claims its Blackwell shader cores offer 6 TFLOPS more performance than the 5060, which should make a noticeable difference in gameplay. The RTX 5060 is designed for 1080p gaming, while the RTX 5060 Ti is better suited for 1, 440p gaming, as long as you don't need insanely high frame rates. According to NVIDIA's tests, the RTX 5060 can hit 234 fps in Hogwarts Legacy at 1080p with maxed-out graphics and 4X frame generation. The RTX 4060, in contrast, manages around 110 fps with 1X frame generation. NVIDIA also claims the 5060 can reach impressive frame rates in other popular games like Cyberpunk 2077, Avowed, and Marvel Rivals. It could be the perfect card for those with a 240Hz 1080p monitor. The RTX 5060 Ti is no slouch either, with NVIDIA claiming it can reach 108 fps in Cyberpunk at 1, 440p with Full RT graphics and 4X frame generation. That's double the 4060 Ti's performance. Even without DLSS 4, the 5060 Ti can handle games like Hogwarts Legacy with solid frame rates and low latency. But with DLSS 4 enabled, the frame rate jumps to 171 fps and latency drops to 47ms. A scaled-down version of the RTX 5060 is also headed to laptops, starting at $1, 099. NVIDIA claims it can reach 146 fps in Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p with ultra graphics and 2X frame generation. But the real test will be how these GPUs perform in the real world, given the unpredictable nature of the market and the ever-changing economic conditions.