MSI's Iconic Cyclone GPU Series Returns Starting With A Frosted Snow-Camo RTX 5060
In a move that hopes to stir a sense of nostalgia among veteran PC enthusiasts, MSI has officially revived its iconic Cyclone graphics card series, launching the GeForce RTX 5060 8G Cyclone OC. This marks a return of a design originally seen over a decade ago (but most recently in the RTX 4060 Cyclone OC), this time re-engineered to tackle the demands of modern gaming with NVIDIA's Blackwell architecture and DLSS 4.
The original Cyclone coolers, known for their distinctive single-fan, open-radiator design, were a staple of MSI's graphics card lineup in the late 2000s and early 2010s, gracing cards like the GeForce GTS 450 and Radeon HD 6850. While beloved for their unique aesthetic and effective cooling for their era, the series lost favor as GPU power and thermal requirements escalated.
The original Cyclone coolers, known for their distinctive single-fan, open-radiator design, were a staple of MSI's graphics card lineup in the late 2000s and early 2010s, gracing cards like the GeForce GTS 450 and Radeon HD 6850. While beloved for their unique aesthetic and effective cooling for their era, the series lost favor as GPU power and thermal requirements escalated.
Now, the "Cyclone is back," as MSI proudly proclaims. The new RTX 5060 8G Cyclone OC features a frosted snow camo finish, a nod to its legacy while incorporating modern tweaks. Beneath the refreshed exterior lies the familiar cooling solution designed for efficiency. MSI highlights an "advanced circular thermal design" with an aluminum-extruded sunflower radiator, dense fins, and two high-efficiency heat pipes. This setup aims to dissipate heat from the GPU and surrounding components, which is a must for the card's factory overclock.
The GPU features 8GB of GDDR7 memory and boasts core clock speeds of up to 2,535MHz in MSI Center's Extreme Performance mode (and a 2,527 MHz boost clock). It fully supports NVIDIA's latest advancements, including fifth-gen Tensor cores for maximum AI performance via FP4 and DLSS 4, and fourth-generation Ray Tracing cores optimized for RTX Mega Geometry and neural shaders. This means gamers can expect sufficient speed, visuals, and AI-powered performance (with features like DLSS Multi Frame Generation) for 1080p gaming. For 1440p and/or 4K games, we suggest looking higher up the totem pole.
The compact form factor of the RTX 5060 8G CYCLONE OC, measuring 161 x 125 x 42 millimeters, makes it a suitable option for a wide range of PC builds, particularly smaller form factor systems. It draws power from a single 8-pin PCIe connector and offers display outputs that include three DisplayPort 2.1b and one HDMI 2.1b.
Like the standard GeForce RTX 5060 8G INSPIRE ITX we covered yesterday, pricing and availability in the United States have yet to be disclosed.
