Nvidia RTX 5060 review: a solid performer with questionable longevity

By Kunal Khullar Published September 23, 2025

I finally got my hands on the Nvidia RTX 5060, which naturally carries the weight of expectation that always comes with a new 60-class graphics card.

This tier has long been the backbone of PC gaming, balancing price, performance, and accessibility in a way that higher-end models rarely can. 

In fact, the top two GPUs on Steam’s latest hardware survey includes two 60-class cards.

But in 2025, that balance looks different. With just 8GB of VRAM, Nvidia’s latest mainstream GPU is once again under scrutiny, yet promises faster memory, improved ray tracing, and smoother 1440p gaming.

Of course the real question here is, does the $300 GPU live up to the legacy?

On paper, the RTX 5060 doesn’t look like a radical departure from the RTX 4060, but a closer look at the specs shows some meaningful refinements.

The biggest architectural shift is the move from Ada Lovelace to Nvidia’s new Blackwell design, which brings better efficiency and improved support for next-gen features. 

Shader units have climbed from 3,072 to 3,840, giving the GPU more raw horsepower for traditional rasterized workloads. Clock speeds also see a notable bump, with the base frequency rising from 1,830MHz to 2,280MHz, while boost speeds climb slightly to 2,497MHz, ensuring higher sustained performance under load.

Memory is arguably the most impactful upgrade. Nvidia has stuck with 8GB of VRAM, a decision that has sparked plenty of debate, since many feel it’s on the low side for modern gaming. However, the shift from GDDR6 to GDDR7 tells a different story. Bandwidth jumps from 272GB/s to 448GB/s on the same 128-bit bus, which should help offset the limited capacity and gives the RTX 5060 more breathing room at 1440p compared to its predecessor. It won’t solve every VRAM bottleneck in future titles, but it does provide a noticeable uplift in scenarios where memory speed and efficiency matter more than sheer size.

Power draw rises modestly from 115W to 145W, but that increase is hardly dramatic. Most users won’t need a new PSU, and the card remains a very power-efficient option compared to higher-end models. In practice, these spec changes combine to deliver a GPU that feels like a well-rounded evolution of the 60-class formula – not pushing boundaries, but refining them in ways that translate into smoother gaming and stronger longevity.

Quick take: a strong 1080p and 1440p performer, but struggles at 4K.

Synthetic benchmarks aren’t the full story of a GPU, but they provide a clear picture of raw performance and how a card stacks up against previous generations.

In 3DMark Fire Strike, the RTX 5060 scored 34,779 at 1080p, 17,893 at 1440p, and 8,764 at 4K. These numbers show a GPU that excels at 1080p while offering very playable performance at 1440p, only beginning to struggle at 4K, which is consistent with its mainstream positioning.

Compared to the RTX 4060, this is a modest but meaningful uplift, largely thanks to faster memory with higher bandwidth.

Time Spy tells a similar story. With a score of 14,464 in the standard 1440p test and 6,772 in the 4K Extreme run, the RTX 5060 edges close to what the RTX 3070 delivered a few years ago, putting it in a sweet spot for modern DX12 titles.

Port Royal, 3DMark’s ray tracing benchmark, came in at 8,732, underscoring Nvidia’s efforts to make ray tracing more accessible at this tier. While the card won’t handle ultra-demanding RT workloads without help from DLSS, the performance boost is noticeable over the RTX 4060.

The Steel Nomad result, 3,247, highlights the card’s forward-looking capabilities with next-gen DX12 Ultimate features, though it also serves as a reminder that the 8GB VRAM buffer could eventually limit its long-term flexibility.

Taken together, these benchmarks position the RTX 5060 as a strong 1080p and 1440p performer that continues the 60-class legacy. It is not groundbreaking, but refined enough to make a difference for mainstream gamers.

Quick take: clearly a step ahead of its predecessor, with impressive DLSS.

When put through its paces in real-world gaming, the RTX 5060 delivers a performance profile that’s clearly a step ahead of its predecessor.

In raw rasterization at native settings, it shows itself to be a comfortable 1080p powerhouse and a capable 1440p option. Cyberpunk 2077 runs at 125 FPS in 1080p and 81 FPS at 1440p, while Horizon Zero Dawn reaches 147 FPS and 113 FPS, respectively. 

Red Dead Redemption 2 also scales well, with 141 FPS at 1080p and 105 FPS at 1440p, ensuring a smooth experience in one of the most demanding open-world games. Even titles like God of War and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor remain solidly playable. GTA V, unsurprisingly, flies well beyond the triple-digit mark with 184 FPS at 1080p and 175 FPS at 1440p.

Where the card really flexes its muscles is with DLSS. Using the Balanced preset, Cyberpunk 2077 leaps to 164 FPS at 1080p and 137 FPS at 1440p, while Horizon Zero Dawn climbs to 180 FPS and 138 FPS. God of War also benefits significantly, hitting 154 FPS at 1080p and 128 FPS at 1440p.

These gains underscore just how much Nvidia’s AI-driven upscaling has become a core part of its GPUs, pushing frame rates comfortably into high-refresh territory without a dramatic sacrifice in image quality.

DLSS 4 multi frame generation pushes things even further. In Cyberpunk 2077, enabling the RTX 50-series exclusive feature yields 172 FPS at 1440p with the 2x setting, while the 4x mode jumps all the way to 264 FPS. It’s a good example of how Nvidia’s software stack can stretch the RTX 5060 far beyond its raw horsepower.

Having said that, multi frame generation is still in its early stage meaning that you may face visual artifacts like motion blur, ghosting, and sparkling due to the AI algorithm’s interpolation in fast-moving scenes. Additionally it increases overall input latency thereby making it unsuitable for competitive gaming. 

Ray tracing highlights the GPU’s limitations. At 1440p with ray tracing enabled, Cyberpunk 2077 drops sharply to just 29 FPS, and even the lighter Star Wars Jedi: Survivor manages only 45 FPS.

It’s clear that while the RTX 5060 is well-tuned for rasterized gaming and DLSS-enhanced performance, ray tracing at higher resolutions remains out of reach unless DLSS and frame generation are brought into the mix.

The RTX 5060 is a solid continuation of Nvidia’s 60-class legacy, but it’s also a card caught between expectations and compromises.

On one hand, it offers excellent 1080p performance, handles 1440p respectably with the help of DLSS, and benefits from the efficiency of the new Blackwell architecture.

On the other, the decision to stick with just 8GB of VRAM raises concerns about its long-term viability, especially as new games continue to push memory requirements higher.

For most gamers today, the RTX 5060 strikes a good balance, it’s affordable, power-efficient, and capable of delivering smooth gameplay in the titles people are playing right now. If you already have an RTX 4060, the gains are not enough to spend another $300 for a 20-30% performance uplift. It does, however, make sense if you are using a mainstream RTX 30 series card like the 3060. 

If your focus is on 1080p resolution with high-refresh rate or you’re happy to mix in DLSS at 1440p, it makes a lot of sense. But if you’re eyeing more future-proof performance, particularly in ray-traced games or heavy open-world titles, you may find yourself running into the VRAM ceiling sooner than you’d like.

Ultimately, the RTX 5060 feels like a card built for the present rather than the future. If you want a no-nonsense GPU that keeps cost and power draw down while still giving you modern features, it’s an easy recommendation. But if you have the budget, stepping up to a 5070 may be the smarter long-term play.