Gameplay Performance – 1080p Ray Tracing
On this page, we will look at the extended ray tracing options available in some games. We will be focusing on the 1080p performance on this page, but 1440p will be tested later in this review. Because the GeForce RTX 5060 is a budget-tier video card, we may lower game settings as necessary to try and find the best ‘playable’ experience, but we will also push the GPUs hard to see what happens when pushed to the max. Note that for the video card comparisons, the SAPPHIRE PULSE Radeon RX 7600 XT and ASUS Dual GeForce RTX 4060 OC Edition are factory overclocked video cards, while the Intel B580 and AMD Radeon RX 7600 are reference spec video cards. Our main goal today is to see how much of an upgrade in performance the GeForce RTX 5060 is over the previous generation GeForce RTX 4060, and the competition cards equivalent to this same series and price range.
Alan Wake 2
We know the GeForce RTX 5060 is not going to obtain the highest quality ray tracing performance, so we’ll be using lowered RT game settings. Here we are running the lowest “Low” preset RT option in Alan Wake 2 at 1080p, and well, no card is playable. Only with Upscaling is the MSI GeForce RTX 5060 8G GAMING OC playable at smooth framerates. The MSI GeForce RTX 5060 8G GAMING OC is 29% faster than the GeForce RTX 4060, and interestingly, performs on par with the Intel Arc B580, which has strong ray tracing performance.
Cyberpunk 2077
We are going to try two ray tracing settings in Cyberpunk 2077, the first one above is at “Ultra” ray tracing preset, just to see what happens. Well, this game isn’t playable at native resolution, but it is with Upscaling enabled, which is neat. The MSI GeForce RTX 5060 8G GAMING OC is 22% faster than the GeForce RTX 4060. Intel Arc B580 once again does very amazingly with RT performance, but the MSI GeForce RTX 5060 8G GAMING OC is 19% faster.
There we go, that’s more like it, by dropping to the “Medium” RT preset, the MSI GeForce RTX 5060 8G GAMING OC is playable at native resolution 60FPS at 1080p. It is 34% faster than the GeForce RTX 4060, and 21% faster than Intel Arc B580, which surprisingly does well again with RT.
Star Wars Outlaws
In Star Wars Outlaws, we are running the lowest NVIDIA RTX Direct Lighting RT option on “Low.” Even on Low, the game is not playable at native resolution, but the MSI GeForce RTX 5060 8G GAMING OC is playable with Upscaling enabled. The MSI GeForce RTX 5060 8G GAMING OC is 20% faster than the GeForce RTX 4060 and Intel Arc B580.
Discussion (10 replies)
Join Discussion →Remember when a new gen would trounce the previous generation next model up? Now we're just happy if it's faster.
It is at least way better compared to the 4060 than the 5070 was to the 4070.
With transformer model, it seems that 1080 max can be tested & viable at 1080p quality & 1440p balanced
However vram limit applies in following scenarios even then
[*]Open world games that use nanite like tech
[*]Older games that are 'unoptimized' & will never be optimized in future
[*]Games with adjustable texture cache pool size
[*]Games with insufficient texture
As we discussed elsewhere; at $229 (adjusted for inflation) or less I have no beef with 8GB cards. $300 is too much IMO. Better off eating instant ramen and making your own coffee i.e. cutting the budget elsewhere, until you have enough to buy a 9060XT 16GB.
Anecdotally: DLSS 4 TM immediately impressed me when using it on a 3050 6GB in Spidey Miles Morales. I was not expecting to get the level of playability and visuals it managed in combo with a 5600X3D.
The complication is that with tariffs, TSMC monopoly & shrinking node gains entry level is now $350
AMD has 9060 xt 16gb at $350 msrp
As per RGT Nvidia will have 5060 super 12gb also at $350 msrp
Although recent super rumours have not mentioned the 5060 super, so it's launch could be around Q2 2026
But the wheels of time are slowly shifting. The 9060xt 8gb is available with "rebate coupons" for $250
AMD has also launched the 9060 non-xt at $280 but whenever it is made available for wider public, I expect msrp to be $250 (with 9060xt 8gb completely disappearing from the market)
Unfortunately the times of $200 or less GPUs has permanently passed. You can probably get the 55w 7400xt but strictly only if your PSU will not support a discrete GPU
On slight tangent, I expect the 9060xt 16gb to be a long lived card as AMD is moving to 3nm with RDNA 5 as per leaks. & if you look at the proposed bus width to CU ratio then a RDNA 5 128 bit bus card would have 48 CUs. No way AMD is selling that for less than $400. So the 9060xt 16gb will have to be the 'entry level' for a long time, I think
I am not ready to buy into that definition of entry level. Feels like gaslighting straight from the IHV's propaganda machines. IMO, entry level is the following cards - RTX 5050, but it needs a $25-$30 price drop from MSRP, then it's good. Same will go for the RX 9600, if it's over $230 it's too expensive. Even if it is almost as fast as the 5060. The B570 10GB completes the entry level round up.
5060 Super will dominate sales if there are models at that price.
As mentioned, I think $229 is the acceptable price for entry level given inflation. And the 7400XT should be popular for rehabbing the glut of used 8th/9th gen office PCs into gamers.
I don't follow data on BoM or any of that jazz anymore, I'll take your word for it.
DAPUNISHER the n00b :D
Honestly, that needs to be fixed!
More like "The bull :poop: artist".
Nope still a newb. ;)
Looks like I am wrong on Lisa Su not releasing a 'budget' gpu next gen — a 3060 12gb replacement could be incoming (using cheaper & slower lpddr6 ram)
We now have the full RDNA 5 lineup
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