Gameplay Performance – 1440p Ray Tracing
Now we are just asking for it, by forcing on ray tracing options at 1440p, where we already had to lower standard in-game quality settings, but hey, we’re nuts, so let’s get nuts. On this page, we will look at the extended ray tracing options available in some games. 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. 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
Of course, nothing is playable, but what we think is interesting to take note of is how the Intel Arc B580 pulls ahead in performance in the “Low” Ray Tracing preset. The MSI GeForce RTX 5060 8G GAMING OC is pretty much bottlenecked here, and thus we see no separation between the GPUs in performance, except for the Intel Arc B580. Basically, you won’t be running ray tracing in this game at 1440p.
Cyberpunk 2077
Now this is exciting, maybe, we were actually able to run the “Low” RT preset in Cyberpunk 2077 at 1440p and get playable 60FPS performance at native 1440p resolution. With Upscaling enabled, performance is in the 70s. Two things here, though: “Low” RT does only enable ray-traced shadows, so there isn’t a lot of ray tracing going on here, no reflection RT at all. However, the MSI GeForce RTX 5060 8G GAMING OC can do ray-traced shadows at 1440p native resolution or upscaled, playable. The other thing is just how well Intel Arc B580 does in performance here; also, it is very noteworthy. The MSI GeForce RTX 5060 8G GAMING OC is a whopping 52% faster than the GeForce RTX 4060, which is a surprising performance uplift.
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
[embedded media]