ASUS Prime OC RTX 5060 Ti Graphics Card Review

https://youtu.be/fR5phLkePYA When the 4060 Ti launched, it wasn’t exactly well-received, and for multiple reasons. The first being that the 8GB model was released to start, sporting a 128-bit bus for $399, and led to a lot of criticism from reviewers and end-consumers, even before it launched. Two months later, NVIDIA tried to rectify the issue with the 16GB variant, but it featured the same memory interface and a price premium of $100 more, putting it closer to RTX 4070 territory. So a generation on, we now have the launch of the RTX 5060 Ti 8GB and 16GB models, but for slightly more attractive price points, but with the rest of the 50 series focussing heavily on AI upscaling, are we going to see an improvement over the predecessors for a lower price point, or are we just going to see more of what the rest of the Blackwell lineup has given us? Including inflated pricing that throws MSRP’s swiftly out of the window? Well, that’s what we’re going to find out. So, the main points I’ve kind of touched on, and the big sticking point really came down to memory on the Ada Lovelace based predecessors, but this is the opportunity for NVIDIA to mix things up, and get some good press on what is arguably going to be their most important cards in the lineup, as the pricing is hitting that sweetspot that a lot of gamers see as viable options. With the RTX 5060 Ti 8GB and 16GB, we’re looking at pricing of $379 and $429, which means we’re seeing a $20 cut from the 8GB 4060 Ti, and a more significant $70 drop from the 16GB 4060 Ti, and this also means that gamers are only expected to pay $50 more for double the memory, which in all honesty, is much better than what we saw before, and much more palatable. Sadly, though, if the rest of the 50 series lineup has taught us anything, then we know those prices are for the most part, a bit of a pipedream. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not denying that they will be available, but likely only a handful at select retailers, before we see pricing jump up beyond $100 more than they should be, and even at $100 more, that’s me being somewhat generous, as we’ve typically seen other Blackwell cards commanding a lot more over their recommended retail price. Pricing aside, being a Blackwell based GPU, we do get all of the latest tech, from the latest RT cores, 5th generation Tensor cores, and DLSS 4 functionality, which along with it, brings multi-frame generation and a new Transformer model to not only increase performance in conjunction with Reflex to reduce latency, but also improve quality at the same time. One of the big things for me though is the specs, because the most important one is that this card, and its 8GB sibling, come with GDDR7, which offers a large uptake in bandwidth compared to what we’ve seen previously but sadly we still see a paltry 128-bit memory interface, though I can only assume that with the inclusion of GDDR7, NVIDIA are maybe hoping that the lower bus won’t be as much of a detriment to performance, like we saw on the 4060 Ti where gamers screamed about having a 16GB model, only to be let down due to throughput. Obviously, Blackwell works a lot differently, and with improved cache processing, this shouldn’t be as bad an issue, but before any release, numbers are the thing that really gets people's attention, and 128-bit will be getting it, but likely for the wrong reasons. A Closer Look Speaking of numbers, let’s talk specs, because the 5060 Ti comes in with 4608 CUDA cores, 144 Texture Mapping Units, 48 ROPS, 36 streaming multi processors, 144 Tensor Cores, 36 RT cores, and 32MB of L2 cache meaning that we generally see a 5.88% uplift in specs over the 4060 Ti on most specs, excluding the ROP count and L2 cache which come in identical. 5.88% doesn’t sound a whole lot impressive but reserving judgement as different architectures work differently, I’m going to give NVIDIA the benefit of the doubt on this one because other key factors, like the all-important GDDR7 could make a bigger difference than just increasing core counts. There’s also other factors in play because compared to the 4060 Ti, the 5060 Ti comes in with a similar die size of 181mm² compared to 188mm² and transistor count of 21 Billion which is a slight reduction in count, though again, comparing architectures to each other is kind of redundant as you can’t draw any clear lines between them in cases like that. Now, one key thing about the 5060 Ti, is that there is no Founders Edition, and instead, NVIDIA are relying on AIB partners, which in all honesty, does make things a little trickier. We’ve spoken before about pricing and how typically, even with the cost of GPUs rising and MSRP’s not really being worth the paper they’re written on, at least with an FE, NVIDIA would sell them for that price, whereas AIB’s have it harder than ever now to make money, and we’ve seen huge markups on GPUs including pre-orders at some retailers far exceeding the pricing that consumers are expecting, though with any launch day review, we do have to speculate about pricing based on what history has taught us. For us, we have the ASUS PRIME model, which is a triple fan solution that is “meant” to be hitting the $429 MSRP price point, which for a triple fan card is pretty decent, but again, I’ll reserve some judgement until we see actual street pricing, because that, especially in these situations where we’ve not seen huge uplifts on the 50 series in terms of rasterisation and raytracing performance, can make all of the difference. We will be looking at the card itself in terms of cooling performance and overclocking in a feature shortly, while today is all about the GPU, and less about the AIB model card, so for now, let’s get onto testing and for that, we used our GPU benchmark system with an AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D with 32GB of Corsair Vengeance RGB 6000MHz CL30 memory on a Gigabyte B650E AORUS Master motherboard. All testing was done on the latest version of Windows with the latest updates and for our testing, we used the NVIDIA 575.94 GameReady driver. We’ll be mainly comparing the 4060 Ti 8GB, because we never had a 16GB model, and the 3060 Ti to see what kind of generational uplift we see, along with looking at other similar cards in terms of performance or pricing along the way. Due to the specs and pricing of this card, we’ll be putting our focus on 1080 and 1440p here today, but we do also have 4K results, which we’ll be sharing on our Patreon if you want to check them out while also supporting the channel with everything that we do. So with that out of the way, let’s get into those glorious benchmarks. How We Test We continue to update our testing methods around once per year. As such, we re-test older hardware to reflect changes over time. These can be driver updates, Windows updates, game patches, and more; all of which have an impact on performance figures. Furthermore, we update our test benches to newer and more relevant hardware. This means that our new reviews aren’t always comparable to those of older reviews, so please compare the testing methodology on older reviews should you be trying to compare them with newer ones. Replicate Our Results When it comes to our benchmarks in our reviews, the benchmarks are pretty self-explanatory and are kept as simple as possible, although there are a few exceptions. Remember that your choice of a graphics card, CPU, the silicon lottery, and other factors can yield different numbers, and there’s always a margin for error when using any software. Links are provided below, as well as the settings we use. We encourage you to not just look at how one product compares to any other, but how it compares to your own. If you’re looking to build a new system, you should benchmark your current PC using the benchmarks available to you. You should then look at the percentage improvement from your current hardware to the hardware tested here to give you a ballpark figure of how much of an upgrade this will provide you with. Processor Test Systems Test System (GPU) Motherboard Gigabyte B650E AORUS MASTER Buy Now Processor Ryzen 7 9800X3D Review Buy Now GPU Changes Per Review RAM 32 Corsair VENGEANCE RGB 6000MHz CL30 Review Buy Now CPU Cooler NZXT Kraken Z73 RGB Buy Now Power Supply NZXT C1000 Gold Review Buy Now Storage Seagate FIRECUDA 530 1TB Review Buy Now Chassis NZXT H9 Flow Review Buy Now OS Windows 11 Pro Version 21H2 Drivers Software We use a variety of software from different developers to assist in our testing and to give us the most consistent results possible. Some applications are specifically used for testing, while others are simply used for monitoring and to aid us in making sure that our results are as accurate as possible. Software Used 3DMark FireStrike & TimeSpy (download) Gaming To gauge performance levels which are easily reproduced time after time, by both ourselves and our readers, we now stick strictly to games default profiles. Given how powerful most modern cards are getting, we've began using more demanding profiles for most games, but will otherwise state on a per game basis if we use other profiles beyond High, Ultra, Maximum or their respective equivalent at all resolutions. V-Sync is always disabled in our testing, and all FPS caps that can be removed are. We also enable XMP and Resizable bar technology across all platforms to keep things as fair as possible. Games While we test a lot of games, it's not possible to display all of the data on the website or in our videos. Instead, we include access to all of our testing data for our Patreon members (link), where members get a ton of other benefits as well. What we do, however, is display charts for averages across all game titles to give a better picture of performance across all titles tested. A Plague Tale: Requiem Alan Wake II Baldur's Gate 3 Black Myth Wukong CS2 Cyberpunk 2077 F1 24 Fortnite Hogwarts Legacy Indiana Jones And The Great Circle Starfield War Thunder Resolutions 1080 (Full HD) 1440 4K Some tests will also include features such as NVIDIA DLSS and Ray Tracing. However, these will be clearly labelled and may only appear in reviews for graphics cards that support those features. Power Consumption Not being content with simply reading total system power draw, we now run F1 24 for an hour loop and measure power draw at the end of the loop for the most accurate measurement that represents real-world gameplay experience. Temperatures We take temperature readings after the same hour-long F1 24 loop with no other background programs running, again to simulate a real-world gaming experience. 3DMark TimeSpy Extreme 3DMark Time Spy Extreme is a DirectX 12 benchmark test that pushes even the most powerful gaming PCs to their limits. It renders at a demanding 4K resolution (3840 x 2160) and includes a CPU test designed to measure the performance of high-end processors with 8 or more cores. This makes it an ideal benchmark for evaluating the latest graphics cards and top-of-the-line CPUs, especially when considering demanding tasks like gaming at 4K resolution and beyond. First things first, we decided to run the card in 3DMark Timespy Extreme to see how the card holds up in a synthetic test, and what we see is performance around 17% faster than the 4060 Ti and 20% ahead of the older 3060 Ti, which is a decent start, though unfortunately we do see the 5060 Ti outperformed by 3% by the RTX 3070 Ti, which could be a fluke given that this is a synthetic, but only time will tell as we take a look at some games. A Plague Tale: Requiem A Plague Tale: Requiem is a stealth-survival horror adventure that serves as a direct sequel to A Plague Tale: Innocence. Players continue the harrowing journey of Amicia and Hugo de Rune, two young siblings navigating a plague-ridden France in the 14th century. The game features stunning visuals, intense action sequences, and a gripping narrative that explores themes of family, resilience, and the darkness within. Starting things off with A Plague Tale: Requiem, where at 1080p we see the 5060 Ti sitting towards the bottom of our chart, right by its previous generation counterparts, but with a 30% improvement over the 3060 Ti and a 14% improvement over the newer 4060 Ti. Despite these gains, we only actually see a margin of error of a 3% increase over the 3070 Ti, which doesn’t make the card look all that impressive as a generational improvement, though if pricing is right on the day, it’s not as bad as what we’ve seen from other 50 series launches. 1440p sees similar results, with the 5060 Ti managing to see gains of 28% higher performance than the 3060 Ti and 17% higher than the 4060 Ti, which are decent gains going up a generation but not enough to make it seem worthwhile given that once again the 3070 Ti comes in to rain on the parade by seeing an identical average to the 5060 Ti whilst being an older card that launched nearly 4 years ago. Alan Wake II Alan Wake II is a survival horror game and the long-awaited sequel to Remedy Entertainment's cult classic, Alan Wake. This time, the story takes a darker turn, delving deeper into the psychological and supernatural elements that made the original so compelling. Players can expect a chilling atmosphere, intense combat encounters, and a mind-bending narrative that will keep them on the edge of their seats. Next up is Alan Wake 2, and here things get a little more interesting as whilst we do still see increases over the 3060 Ti and 4060 Ti at 29% and 19% respectively, we also see a decent jump over the 3070 Ti, with 17% more frames on average. In fact, the performance here is good enough that it starts to rival the RTX 3080 10GB by sitting only 3 FPS behind and that really could be down to this being a newer game and newer architecture being able to handle games like this slightly better. At 1440p we see the same kind of results, with the 5060 Ti sitting ahead of the 3060 Ti by 29% and coming in faster than the 4060 Ti by 18%, and whilst we do see performance higher than the 3070 Ti, the margin has decreased somewhat down to only a 12% difference, but this is still comfortably over the margin of error point, so I think it still counts as a win for the 5060 Ti here, even if overall performance is still somewhat lacklustre. Baldur's Gate 3 Baldur's Gate 3 is a highly acclaimed role-playing game set in the Forgotten Realms universe. Developed by Larian Studios, it offers a deep and immersive experience with turn-based combat, intricate storylines, and a vast world to explore. Players can create their own custom characters or choose from a roster of origin characters, each with their own unique backstories and motivations. Moving on to Baldur's Gate 3, we see the 5060 Ti ahead of the 3060 Ti by a bigger margin than we’ve seen before, with 41% more performance on average. Compared to the 4060 Ti, it isn’t as big of a margin, sitting with 19% more performance on average, but we do see the 5060 Ti still managing to pull ahead of the 3070 Ti, even if it is only by 4% which puts it right on the cusp of margin of error. At 1440p the gap narrows even more, with the 5060 Ti now only sitting ahead of the 3070 Ti by 2 FPS, or 2%, which isn’t all too impressive. On the plus side, though, we do still see some generational improvements over the 3060 Ti and 4060 TI with 38% and 19% more performance, respectively, so at least performance is pretty consistent in most titles. Black Myth Mukong Black Myth Wukong is an action role-playing game inspired by the classic Chinese novel "Journey to the West." Developed by Game Science, it features stunning graphics, challenging combat encounters, and a captivating story based on the legendary Monkey King. Players can expect a unique blend of Chinese mythology and action-packed gameplay. Our next game is Black Myth: Wukong, and here we see even better performance than before, with 40% more performance than the 3060 Ti, 24% more than the 4060 Ti and 15% more than the 3070 Ti. The performance here even goes as far as to beat out the 3080 10GB by a single FPS and fall just short of the 4070 by 2 FPS so again, these numbers are looking pretty good overall. As we move to 1440p, we see pretty much the same story, with 36% more performance than the 3060 Ti and 30% more than the 4060 Ti. Performance is still a decent chunk ahead of the 3070 Ti with 10% more frames on average and the gap between the 5060 Ti and the 3080 does widen a little here, and even though the actual difference was only 4 FPS, this shows more how the 3080 is aging and not so much about how good the 5060 Ti is in comparison. CS2 CS2 (Counter-Strike 2) is the highly anticipated sequel to the iconic tactical first-person shooter, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Developed by Valve, it promises to revolutionise the competitive FPS scene with updated graphics, refined gameplay mechanics, and new features. Players can expect the same intense tactical gameplay that has made the franchise so popular, but with a fresh coat of paint and exciting new additions. Our next game is Counter-Strike 2, and here we are used to seeing some very high frame rates, so it’s worth remembering that our percentages can be skewed by this. Despite the higher frame rates, we do still see some decent performance jumps over the older cards, with 17% more frames than the 3060 Ti and 7% more than the 4060 Ti, which itself is higher performing than the 3070 Ti but numbers in this game at 1080p are generally all over the place anyway. 1440p sees our performance differences dropping, with only 14% faster frames than the 3060 Ti and 7% more than the 4060 Ti. We do at least still see a performance boost over the 3070 Ti with 5% more performance, which is starting to border on the margin of error, but with an FPS difference of 30 frames per second, it seems unlikely that we would see much difference if we were to run retests anyway. Cyberpunk 2077 Cyberpunk 2077 is an open-world action role-playing game set in the dystopian metropolis of Night City. Developed by CD Projekt Red, it offers a vast and immersive world filled with diverse characters, complex storylines, and a wide range of customisation options. Players can create their own unique cyberpunk character and explore the city's underbelly, completing missions, engaging in cybernetic enhancements, and making choices that shape their destiny. Moving on to Cyberpunk 2077, we see the 3070 Ti catching up to the 5060 Ti, with only a 1 frame per second difference between the two cards so call it identical. The performance improvements over the 3060 Ti and 4060 Ti didn’t change much, however, as we still see a 26% improvement over the 3000 series card and a 20% improvement over the 4000 series card so still some ok uplifts, but I think consumers are still expecting a little more. When we look at 1440p, we see things get a little better for the 5060 Ti, with gaps of 34% over the 3060 Ti and 29% over the 4060 Ti. On top of those larger gaps, we also see the performance difference compared to the 3070 Ti improve as well, with a 5% performance increase, as well as a 5% improvement over the RTX 4070 from last generation and of course, if the 5060 Ti comes in at the price it’s meant to, then this looks good. F1 24 F1 24 is the official video game of the 2024 Formula 1 World Championship. Developed by Codemasters, it offers a realistic and immersive racing experience with all the official teams, drivers, and circuits. Players can compete in the full F1 season, participate in online multiplayer races, or create their own custom championships. Next up is F1 24, another game that tends to see some very high frame rates, and here we see the 5060 Ti sitting just behind the 3070 Ti by a margin of error of 2%. We do still see higher performance than the previous generation's equivalents though, with 13% more frames than the 3060 Ti and 10% more than the 4060 Ti. Whilst both of these results are still positive, they are noticeably smaller gaps than we’ve seen in other titles and are below expectations that consumers will want to see. Then at 1440p we find our performance back to what we saw in our other games, with a 25% improvement over the 3060 Ti and a 15% improvement over the 4060 Ti, which goes to show the extra VRAM can make a sizable difference compared to 1080p, though there may be some level of bottleneck as well. These performance jumps don’t do anything against the 3070 Ti however as we find that it's ahead by 3%, which is a margin of error at least, but it’s still not what we hope to see from a brand new card that’s 2 generations ahead. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Indiana Jones And The Great Circle is an upcoming action-adventure game based on the iconic film franchise. Developed by Bethesda Game Studios, it promises to deliver an epic and cinematic experience with a globe-trotting adventure, thrilling action sequences, and a captivating story. Players will step into the shoes of Indiana Jones and embark on a quest to uncover the secrets of a mysterious artefact. Indiana Jones is our next game and here we see an interesting set of results, with the 5060 Ti managing to find itself performing 145% higher than the RTX 4060 Ti and a whopping 326% better than the RTX 3060 Ti. At first i did think this was rather odd and ran some retests, until i realised that all of the 8GB cards all had a significant decrease in performance, implying that this game is very VRAM hungry and the extra memory on the 5060 Ti comes to the rescue and gives us much better performance overall. Despite this memory dependence, the 3070 Ti still manages to just about hang on and means we see a 15% increase in performance with the 5060 Ti. These results do make me quite interested to see how the 8GB model will perform, as well as the non-Ti variant that also only features 8GB of VRAM, which will both be coming out in the near future. At 1440p, we actually see this VRM dependence get a lot clearer, as the 3070 Ti, which was previously just about keeping things together, now gets outperformed by 108% by the 5060 Ti. Compared to the 4060 Ti and 3060 Ti, we do still see a huge performance bump, with 167% more performance than the Ada-based card and 178% more than the Ampere series card. Again, this does make me curious as to how the 8GB 5060 and 5060 Ti cards will perform here when we get our hands on them. Starfield Starfield is a highly anticipated space exploration role-playing game developed by Bethesda Game Studios. It offers a vast and immersive galaxy to explore, with countless planets, star systems, and alien civilisations to discover. Players can create their own custom character and embark on a journey to uncover the secrets of the universe, completing missions, engaging in space combat, and making choices that shape their destiny. In Starfield we see things getting back to normal, with the 5060Ti sitting ahead of the 3060 Ti and 4060 Ti by 21% and 6% respectively, with averages also matching the 3070 Ti, although we do see a much better 1% low result here with a 22% higher low frame rate, giving a smoother overall gameplay experience in this title. Then at 1440p our performance differences are still about the same, with 23% more frames than the 3060 Ti on average and 9% more than the 4060 Ti, with only a 2 FPS difference between the 5060 Ti and 3070 Ti in favour of the newer 5000 series card. Again though, even with performance so close to the 3070 Ti, we are ahead in the lows, this time with a 14% improvement, again, allowing for a smoother gameplay experience, but with the 5060 Ti still falling just short of the 60 FPS mark here, don’t expect the smoothest of gameplay anyway. War Thunder War Thunder is a free-to-play vehicular combat multiplayer game that focuses on historical battles across World War II and the Cold War. Developed by Gaijin Entertainment, it features a wide range of aircraft, tanks, and naval vessels from various nations. Players can participate in large-scale battles with other players, completing objectives and striving for victory. Our last game before we look at ray tracing performance is War Thunder, and this is the point where we actually see the 5060 Ti performing its best, beating not only the 3060 Ti and 4060 Ti with 43% and 29% more frames respectively, but we also see performance matching what we see from the 3080 10GB and the RTX 4070, and beating cards like the RX 9070 and RX 7900 GRE along the way. 1440p brings us back down to earth a little bit, with lower performance jumps over the last generations offerings with 34% more performance than the 3060 Ti and 23% more than the 4060 Ti, which is still a decent generational uplift. We do also see performance improvements over the 3070 Ti here but only by around 2%, and is less than I'd hoped for from a card two generations newer. Overall Average FPS Results are added together, then averaged out for each graphics card at each resolution to give you an overall picture of their relative performance. Before we move on to raytracing, we need to have a quick look at our overall averages, and at 1080p, we see pretty much what we’ve been seeing throughout all of our tests so far. The 5060 Ti manages to boost performance over the 3060 Ti by 31% and 19% over the 4060 Ti. As we’ve come to expect, the main performance comparative card in the stack is the 3070 Ti, with the 5060 Ti seeing an average of only 4% more performance than the older card, which is just about within the margin of error threshold, though considering this card is coming in, or meant to be coming in at $429, and the 3070 Ti launched for $599, there’s definitely a big talking point there. 1440p doesn’t really change anything either, with around 38% and 26% more performance than the 3060 Ti and the 4060 Ti, respectively. The 3070 Ti does take a bit of a performance drop though, now putting the 5060 Ti ahead by 9%, but this is likely inflated somewhat by the huge difference we saw in Indiana jones, so all in all, it's not too bad but I wish it was better, and I think the general consumer base will agree with me too. 3DMark Port Royal 3DMark Port Royal is a benchmarking tool specifically designed to measure the ray tracing performance of graphics cards. As the world's first dedicated real-time ray tracing benchmark for gamers, it provides a realistic and practical example of what to expect from ray tracing in games. Moving over to raytracing and running Port Royal and we saw performance line up about where we saw it before in rasterisation, with the 5060 Ti ahead of the 3060 Ti by 40% and ahead of the 4060 Ti by 26%, so some slight improvements compared to rasterisation, but overall pretty similar. We do see a 14% performance boost over the 3070 Ti though, which is an improvement, and hopefully this continues into our game testing as well, thanks to the newer generation of RT cores. Ray Tracing Alan Wake 2 Alan Wake II pushes the boundaries of visual fidelity with its ambitious implementation of "full ray tracing," also known as path tracing. This means ray tracing handles all lighting, reflections, and shadows, creating a more realistic and immersive environment. The game features ray-traced direct lighting for accurate and dynamic shadows, ray-traced indirect lighting for realistic bounced light, ray-traced reflections on surfaces like water and glass, and ray-traced transparency for convincing interaction with transparent objects. Shifting over to games, and again, looking at Alan wake 2, where the performance difference is higher than we saw in our non ray tracing games, with 52% more frames than the 3060 Ti and 23% more than the 4060 Ti, which means that there is a noticeable generational ray tracing jump going from the 30 series to the 50 series, which is a bigger jump than we saw from raster performance. This performance does come with a caveat, though, as this game is so demanding with ray tracing that we run it with upscaling set to balanced, and with the 5060 Ti being very focused on its upscaling performance, this could be the reason for this jump. Having a look at 1440,p we see an even larger performance gap of 58% over the 3060 Ti, while the performance jump from the 4060 Ti remains around the same with 25% higher frames on average. Again though, it could be the upscaling that’s causing the much larger jump from the 3060 Ti, so we’ll only draw our conclusion after we’ve looked at the rest of our games. Ray Tracing Black Myth Wukong Black Myth Wukong is set to be a visual tour de force, thanks to its implementation of full ray tracing, also known as path tracing. This means ray tracing is used to render all lighting, reflections, and shadows within its fantastical world. Ray-traced reflections enhance the serene beauty of water features and the shine of polished surfaces, while ray-traced shadows add depth and realism to every scene. Ray-traced indirect lighting allows light to bounce naturally, creating a more believable environment. Even the game's particle effects, often a challenge for ray tracing, are rendered with impressive accuracy. The next game we’re looking at is Black Myth Wukong, where the 5060 Ti finds itself with an even larger gap of 61% higher frames than the 3060 Ti, which means that we might actually see a pretty impressive ray tracing jump between these generations. The 4060 Ti is actually a lot closer in this title, with us only seeing an 18% improvement, which is still a decent jump, don’t get me wrong, but seems slightly underwhelming compared to the 61% we saw from the 30 series card. 1440p sees the 5060 Ti ahead of the 3060 Ti by around the same amount as 1080p, with 59% more performance on average, but even with such a large improvement, it’s still not enough to bring the average frame rate of the 5060 Ti over the 30 FPS point, so you’ll want to use upscaling here if you’re dead set on playing with raytracing anyway. The 4060 Ti is still sitting at around the same point as well, with the 5060 Ti coming in with 17% more performance on average, making the generational improvement here look far less impressive than what we saw going from the 30 series to the 40 series of GPUs, as the difference between the 3060 Ti and the 4060 Ti is 35%. Ray Tracing Cyberpunk 2077 Cyberpunk 2077 was already a visually impressive game, but the implementation of "Ray Tracing: Overdrive Mode" takes things to a whole new level. This mode utilises path tracing, a form of full ray tracing, to render all lighting, reflections, and shadows with exceptional accuracy. This means every neon sign, streetlamp, headlight, and screen in Night City contributes to the illumination of the environment, creating a truly breathtaking and immersive experience. Ray-traced reflections bring the city's rain-slicked streets and glass skyscrapers to life, while ray-traced shadows add depth and realism to every scene. Cyberpunk is next and here we find the gap between the 3060 Ti and the new 5060 Ti being much higher than what we saw before, with 82% more performance on average, but it is worth remembering that at such low frame rates these percentages often seem inflated anyway. The 4060 Ti actually came in with an identical frame rate to the 3060 Ti, meaning that the 5060 Ti sits at the same 82% higher margin, but what we can see is the 3070 Ti, which comes in a lot closer with a percentage difference of 29%, which is more of what i was hoping to see throughout the rest of our tests. At 1440p our frame rates naturally drop even further, meaning our percentages will look even larger, and this is exactly the case with the 3060 Ti which is beaten by the 5060 Ti by 127%, and whilst this does seem like a lot, and is over double, this is only a 14 FPS difference, and still doesn’t make the 5060 Ti particularly playable. The jump from the 4060 Ti is different this time around, however, as it sees an actual improvement over the card that came before it, and now we see a 66% increase from the 40 series card to the 50 series card. Ray Tracing F1 24 F1 24 brings the thrill of Formula 1 racing to life with its implementation of ray tracing, adding a new layer of realism to the on-track action. Ray-traced reflections accurately capture the gleaming surfaces of the cars and the vibrant colours of the race tracks, while ray-traced shadows add depth and detail to every scene. The introduction of ray-traced ambient occlusion further enhances the visual fidelity, providing more realistic and nuanced shading. Even the crowds in the grandstands benefit from ray tracing, with more detailed and dynamic lighting. Our final game is F1 24, which even with ray tracing it’s a pretty easy game to run, and this is reflected by the percentages that we see, where the gaps do get a lot narrower, back to what we saw in our rasterisation games, with the 5060 Ti sitting ahead of the 3060 Ti by 26% and ahead of the 4060 Ti by 20%. Something of note here is that we also end up performing 5% worse than the 3070 Ti, which isn’t a great look for the newer card if you’re potentially upgrading from a 3070 Ti and wanting to save some money this time around. At 1440p we can see things are a little weirder, since the 3060 Ti is actually outperforming the 4060 Ti by a single FPS,and upon retesting this is a pretty consistent result for us, so we’ll just roll with it, and this actually means that the 5060 Ti is ahead of the 4060 Ti by 30% whilst also sitting ahead of the 3060 Ti by 28%, so not really much difference anyway. We do see the 5060 Ti catching up with the 3070 Ti here at least, but only barely, with them now only separated by a single FPS, which accounts for only 1% in terms of a performance difference, so really nothing at all. Ray Tracing Overall Average FPS So what about the averages here? Since the performance was kind of all over the place in our raytracing tests it should be interesting to see how it averages out, and what we find is a pretty decent result for the 5060 Ti, with an average of 43% more performance than the 3060 Ti, and 25% more than the 4060 Ti, so that’s not all too bad. We do also see a 15% boost in performance over the 3070 Ti in the end, which is, again, not too bad, but I was hoping for a little more considering we’re two generations on.. Then finally at 1440p we see a bigger jump from the older cards with a 52% improvement in performance over the 3060 Ti and a 31% boost over the 4060 TI, but we do need to remember that at these smaller frame rates we do see inflated percentages, and the real word performance difference is actually only 11 frames per second, so nothing groundbreaking really. Upscaling Of course, what would a review of a new GPU be without talking about the ever present buzz word, AI, more specifically, AI upscaling, in the form of DLSS and frame generation, or more importantly in the case of the 5060 Ti, multi-frame generation and starting things off with Alan Wake 2, where we can see at 1440p there is a pretty impressive jump over the native performance using DLSS on balanced mode of 88%, which is approaching double the frame rate, but of course this does come with the downside of lower visual fidelity overall. When we enable frame generation, performance predictably increases further, now giving us 171% more performance than we saw at native, with a 17% lower latency to boot. Enabling Multi frame generation and setting it to 3X increases the performance even more, but what is most impressive to me here is at 4X where we can see the latency reaching an identical level as we saw at native, meaning that we’re getting significantly higher frame rates at the same latency so win win, as long as the visuals still look good. Enabling ray tracing sees pretty much the same kind of thing, with DLSS coming in with over double the performance that we saw at native and each subsequent frame generation setting largely improving the frame rate whilst the latency sees an incremental increase as well, making for a slightly worse experience, but nothing to worry about really considering that the latency is actually much lower than what we saw at native which is something we tend to see with raytracing turned on, that latency does increase ten-fold, though with a game like Alan Wake II, latency isn’t the most important thing, as it’s not a competitive shooter or similar, and instead, visuals while still getting a playable frame rate are arguably more important. As we move onto Cyberpunk, things are a bit different, as we now have the option for different models to choose from, with CNN being the original model, and transformer now being the newer model, and there’s an argument for using one over the other. The transformer generally will look better than CNN, but CNN will typically give slightly higher performance, which is exactly what we can see across the board with the CNN model, no matter what setting, giving us around another 5 to 6% more performance over the equivalent Transformer version. What we do see from native though, is again, a reduction in latency compared to native, sometimes by around half, when looking at frame generation on x2 for instance on both transformer and CNN models while also increasing the performance by upwards of 125%, though the best increase we saw was using frame generation x4 CNN which came in at 233 frames per second, giving us a 264% increase in performance while reducing latency by 29ms. When we enable raytracing, latency increases come into play naturally, but we’re still able to see some good reductions, such as DLSS on both models increasing performance by over double, while almost halving the latency, especially in the case of the transformer model which manages to shave off a pretty staggering 49ms of latency. Again, if performance is your bag, then the X4 CNN model is the one to go for, which again, outperforms the transformer model but in this case, does introduce a lot more latency compared to native, and instead, I’d be more inclined to utilise the transformer model which not only increases performance, but reduces latency by around 20ms. Upscaling Visual Comparison Now, all of this sounds great, but as always, there are multiple pieces to this puzzle, and while performance and latency are arguably the most important, depending on the game you play, visual fidelity is a very important factor. There’s no point having huge amounts of performance and reduced latency if it looks like a game from the ZX Spectrum, and yes, I’m old enough to remember them. What we find in Alan Wake 2 is actually pretty impressive, as the differences are minimal, and when comparing side by side, we can see almost no difference. Obviously, we do have a slight increase in visual noise and we lose some quality, making the image a little bit blurrier, but overall,l I have a hard time believing it’s enough that you’d notice when actually gaming. If i was nit picking then i could point out the quality of lighting not being quite as nice when upscaled, particularly when you look at the pile of garbage just underneath the flickering light, which has a slightly worse overall look here, but again, it’s not enough to really worry about and is generally what i would consider more than acceptable, though if you did drop down to 1080p, then things will likely become more noticeable. Then in Cyberpunk, we again see surprisingly little difference to the overall image quality at first glance, but that’s not to say there aren't any differences. At native, we can see a weird shake/shimmer to these blueish green light panels that, with upscaling, isn’t present, making it look more like it actually belongs in the environment, but it could be an intentional effect to emulate the way fluorescent bulbs flicker. This also comes with a slight decrease in quality, as when we actually take a moment to have a closer look we realise that the textures seem just a little bit blurrier, but again, it’s honestly not enough to notice while running around and playing the game. Additionally we see a noticeable decrease in the quality of the raytraced reflection in the puddle on the ground, where at native it is a pretty decent representation of how the signs look on the building, but with some loss of detail, and we find the way it looks when upscaled far less realistic, and whilst the placement remains accurate, the actual representation of the sign is noticeably worse, ending up looking far more blurry. Power & Temperatures When it comes to power, temperatures and fan speed, this is an interesting one because it’s a bit unfair. We were sent the ASUS Prime OC triple fan card, which technically isn’t an MSRP card and will command a higher price point of around $30. The saving grace here is that it doesn’t mean all of our testing is pointless, as ASUS will have a dual fan version, which is meant to hit that $429 price point, so cooling to one side, performance in terms of games should be nigh on identical. What we do see from this card though are some good temperatures, hovering around 61 degrees for the GPU, and 60 degrees for the memory junction temperature, all while remaining on the quiet side in terms of fans that sat just below 1500 RPM, which is quiet enough not to be heard over the rest of your systems case fans and CPU cooler. Clock speed remained pretty consistent around 2750MHz, and the power remained under the 180W TDP of the 5060 Ti at 172W on average. Cost Per Frame MSRP So the big one really comes down to cost per frame and it’s here at 1080p when looking at MSRP where we can actually see the 5060 Ti faring pretty well, with it being the best value card here at $2.21 per frame, but it doesn’t take long for that to have a caveat. If we look at the next closest card then we can see the RTX 4060, which yes, does come in at a much lower average frame rate, and yes, does lack in memory and multi frame generation, but what it does better is an MSRP price of only $300, which is a pretty significant saving, especially if you’re on a budget and this only places it a single cent behind in its cost per frame standings, making it more or less identical in value but for a cheaper price overall, if that’s what you’re all about. If we compare to the RTX 4060 Ti 8GB, because we don’t have a 16GB model, then we can see a better value argument from the newer card. This value change is pretty easy to explain though, as when we look at the launch price of the two cards side by side, we only actually see a difference of $30, which is almost nothing when we’re talking about GPUs. Additionally, the extra performance from the new card helps to widen this gap, and as a result,t sets the cards 21 cents per frame apart, which doesn’t really sound like a lot, and just goes to justify my point that the 50 series makes no sense for an existing 40 series user. We do see a better value proposition over the 3060 Ti though, as at $2.70 per frame it starts to lag behind a bit, and does begin to make the 5060 Ti look more appealing, especially when you consider that the 3060 Ti doesn’t feature frame generation of any kind, and the 5060 Ti features not just frame gen, but multi frame gen which really is its big selling point. Something important we need to consider is that the MSRP of these cards is shaky at best, and the market really doesn’t work that way, so to help build a more realistic picture of the state of things we like to look at the current selling prices of cards to get a better idea of what is actually best for the consumer, and for the sake of fairness we have estimated the price of the 5060 Ti at around $100 more expensive than MSRP to get an idea of what that does for our standings and even then, that’s being generous as it’s more than likely going to be $150 or more on top of the $429 price point, which then puts it above what the RTX 5070 should be MSRP, but that’s closer to the 5070 Ti MSRP in terms of selling price, and so on and so on, so realistically, buy an RTX 5090 and be done with it.. All jokes to one side, the increase in price doesn’t actually do much, as the cost per frame does predictably increase from $2.21 to $2.72, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s still one of the better value cards here. What is interesting though is that if we look at this newer price compared to the 4060 Ti we actually see the 4060 Ti 8GB coming in 15 cents lower per frame, making it a better value for money, again proving that going from the 40 series to the 50 series is a pretty hard sell. What makes the 5060 Ti an even harder sell, is the RTX 5070, which has been included here with its MSRP pricing because it falls very close to our estimated cost of the 5060 Ti, and assuming that this is how prices go, then the 5070 is a much better sell, since it’s average frame rate is so much higher and for a lower cost per frame, whilst only actually coming in at $20 more than the estimated selling price, though again, that has an inflated price too when not thinking about MSRP, so really we’re at a point where it’s harder than ever to comment and judge these new card releases. When we go back to MSRP but look at 1440p data, we can see the 5060 Ti has taken a bit of a hit in value, with the 5070 now providing a slightly better proposition, even though it costs $120 more. This is due to the much higher average frame rate from the 5070, which we found difficult to recommend, so things aren’t looking amazing here, but if you are dead set on a new card and plan to play at 1440p then the RTX 5070 is objectively a better deal here, until we look at the current pricing at least. Something else of note here is that the RTX 4060 non Ti is only just barely a worse value card than the 5060 Ti, but it comes in with a much lower MSRP, and with this being a lower tier card from last generation, we could still see a decent deal on it in the used market. What I find the most important here, though, is the 9070 XT, which at an MSRP cost of $600, it significantly outdoes the 5060 Ti in terms of value, with a 53% higher average frame rate at a 36-cent lower cost per frame. Cost Per Frame Selling Price Finally here is how the selling price of the cards compare at 1440p, and here we can see that even with the inflated price of $800, the 9070 Xt still comes out as a better value card than the 5060 Ti, even if it is by only by 5 cents, and quite frankly it’s embarrassing. This price difference should make it a no-brainer but if you’re after a good value PC instead of a cheap one then I can’t recommend the 5060 Ti at all here, since the 9070 XT performs so much better. Things don’t improve when we look at the last generation either, as the 4060 Ti also manages to find itself as a better value offering, with a 21-cent cheaper cost per frame than NVIDIA's latest card. One thing is certain here, and that is that there are better deals to be had than the 5060 Ti, such as the 7900 GRE, which is a better deal, with a better cost per frame and a higher FPS overall. How Much Does it Cost? So, a lot of data, and a lot to discuss. Now, I don’t normally backtrack on what I say because reviewing isn’t as easy as most people think. Especially when you factor in releasing a piece of content that is relevant at the time of launch because even just one day later, things can be made irrelevant and that’s the situation that I feel I’m in right now, because the 5060 Ti is actually….good. Well kind of. The problem that reviewers have, and even consumers too, is that pricing is still all over the place, and there’s no sign of that changing just yet which leaves me trying to sum this up in the most convoluted and cryptic way possible. I could end this right here by saying one of the following. If you can get it for $429, it’s not a bad buy or, if you can get it for $429, but can get the RTX 5070 for $549, then don’t buy it and get the RTX 5070 instead, or just don’t buy anything and just wait. Each argument has pros and cons to it, and I like to think that it all comes down to timing. Right now, pricing has moved a little and cards are available and in some countries, we’ve seen RTX 5070’s, 5070 Ti’s and even 5080’s in stock for MSRP or lower. We always put our pricing in USD because it’s the easier currency to understand around the world, but for context, I can get an RTX 5070 right now in the UK for £499.99, which puts it around £40 cheaper than MSRP, but that opens up even more questions. Are consumers sick to death of the market right now and just aren’t buying anything? Regardless, you’d like to think that the 5060 Ti is going to be the more plentiful option out of the stack, as it’s a volume product with a higher yield, and as is the case with all of these new launches, it’s all about supply and demand and if gamers aren’t buying and stock is building up, then prices will come down as retailers won’t want stock sitting around too long, because storage costs money. On top of all of this, the US probably has the raw deal at the moment due to tariffs, so it wouldn’t surprise me if we see the UK and the rest of Europe seeing better offerings at better prices as AIBs circumnavigate stock to those regions to avoid the tariffs in the US. If I was an AIB, I’d rather sell in Europe and make a small profit than not sell at all in the US because the price is too high. Overview So, a bit of a tangent, but back on track. The 3060 Ti was a good card when it came out, but is definitely showing its age, and with the 5060 Ti sitting 29% ahead overall, there’s definitely a viable option to buy it, especially as 3060 Ti’s are still holding their price for some weird reason. The 4060 Ti however, sees the 5060 Ti around 19% faster and while, and I’m sure NVIDIA will be happy for me to say this, it has multi-frame generation upscaling which works some kind of voodoo magic, but people still aren’t sold on it, but the tide is turning somewhat. Generation to Generation If NVIDIA came in with a GPU that offered a 30% generation uplift or higher in rasterisation, and higher in raytracing gen on gen, plus MFG, then yes, I think it would be much better received, but that’s not the case, and instead, if you’re already on a 40 series card, I can’t say there’s an argument to upgrade to any 50 series, with maybe the exception being the RTX 5090, but that’s in a whole different league. Beyond that, people are looking for a reason to upgrade and I don’t know about you, but I’m getting a bit bored of saying things like “It’s good but…” or “You should buy it if you can get it for $X”. The argument is wearing a bit thin. I will say that the 5060 Ti on paper, if you take pricing out of the equation, does come across as a good performer. It even sits ahead of the 3070 Ti, and that’s what we want to see. The other issue is AMD. At that price point, AMD are the better buy, but again, and I swear this will be the second to last time I say it, but AMD cards are inflated too, so I’ll leave you with one piece of advice, and it’s a big one. Buy While the Price is Right For You We have overall average charts, which show you how each card performs across all games that we tested. Simply look around, find a card, look at the price, and take that price and divide it by the overall average framerate. Then look at another card, and do the same, and build up a picture as to what is right for you at that EXACT time, but I’ll warn you, that if you take too long, you may miss out, because if the price is right, then someone will snap it up. So while I’d like to give some general advice, not only on the 5060 Ti, but all 50 series cards, and even AMD cards, the market is so volatile that what I say today, could completely change, not only by tomorrow, but even at the time of publishing this content. Should I Buy One? Regardless, the 5060 Ti is good, but it feels like it’s much the same as we’ve seen with the rest of the stack. If the price is right, and you’re not already on a 40 series card, then there’s an argument, but if the price isn’t right and/or you’re already on a 40 series card, then maybe give this one a miss, unless MFG really tickles your fancy. For now, that’s going to wrap up another 50 series GPU review. With a not-so-easy-to-understand conclusion, I’d like to think we’ve at least shown you the facts, and that you can make an educated decision as to what to do from there based on that all-important word. Price.

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