NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 GPU Preview: Blackwell At Just $299

	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 8GB: MSRP $299 The mainstream GeForce RTX 5060 brings NVIDIA's latest Blackwell GPU architecture down to a $300 price point and targets mainstream 1080p gamers, but DLSS4 with multi-frame generation is a must to achieve peak performance.
	Blackwell Architecture Power Efficient Smaller Form Factors Cool And Quiet Tons Of Overclocking Headroom DLSS4 And RTX Neural Rendering Latest Media Engines	Modest Upgrade Over 4060 Without MFG 8GB Will Limit Future Performance No Drivers At Launch

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NVIDIA is using the backdrop of the Computex trade show, currently underway in Taipei, Taiwan to launch the latest and lowest price member of the GeForce RTX 50 series yet, the GeForce RTX 5060. We’ve known the GeForce RTX 5060’s specs for a while now, since they were officially disclosed just before the launch of the GeForce RTX 5060 Ti a few weeks back, but we’ve just recently gotten our hands on a card.

Unlike most launch articles, however, where NVIDIA typically sets reviewers up with drivers in advance of availability, NVIDIA is taking a different approach this time around. Drivers for the cards should hit the web today, so it’ll be a couple of days before we can share any benchmark scores. A ton of tech journalists are on the road this week – us included – for the myriad of events currently underway, including Computex, Dell World, Google IO, or Microsoft Build. At any rate, we’ll be benchmarking the card and updating this piece with numbers post haste.

For now, let’s take a look at some particulars and check out the MSI GeForce RTX 5060 Gaming OC we’ll be evaluating…

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Specifications

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We’ve got two sets of specifications outlined above, for both the base model GeForce RTX 5060 and the up-market GeForce RTX 5060 Ti. It’s the base 5060 numbers that are relevant for this preview, but figured we’d cover the specs for the entire family. 

The entire GeForce RTX 5060 family is built around the GB206 GPU. The higher-end GeForce RTX 5060 Ti is the full implementation of the chip, whereas the RTX 5060 is scaled back somewhat. The GPU is comprised of roughly 21.9B transistors and is manufactured on TSMC’s 4N node. It is arranged into 3 GPCs, with a maximum of 4,608 CUDA cores, 144 Tensor cores, and 36 RT cores – the scaled back RTX 5060 obviously has fewer cores enabled overall, with a total of 3,840 CUDA, 120 Tensor, and 30 RT cores enabled. The GPU connected to 8GB of GDDR7 memory over a 128-bit interface on the RTX 5060, running at a 28GBps data rate. At that speed, with a 128-bit interface, GeForce RTX 5060 / 5060 Ti cards offer peak memory bandwidth of 448GB/s.


Of course, since the GB206 is based on NVIDIA’s latest Blackwell GPU architecture, the RTX 5060 family offers all of the same features as its higher-end counterparts, including updated CUDA, Tensor and RT cores, DLSS 4, RTX Neural Rendering, and the latest media encoders / decoders, with support for hardware accelerated 4:2:2 video. Just about every part of the GPU has been updated or enhanced in some way. For a deeper dive on everything Blackwell has to offer, we suggest reading this article where we cover all of the nitty gritty.

The MSI GeForce RTX 5060 Gaming OC

We got our hands on a MSI GeForce RTX 5060 Gaming OC for testing, that borrows many styling queues from its higher-powered siblings, but is ultimately somewhat smaller overall. We should also point out that NVIDIA won’t be offering Founders Edition boards with the RTX 5060 and is instead leaving this family of GPUs up to its partners to bring to market.


The MSI GeForce RTX 5060 Gaming OC dual-fan, two-slot design, that’s only about 9.5” long and 5” high . The card features a relatively large thin-fin heatsink array underneath its shroud, with multiple heat-pipes and a nickel-plated copper baseplate. The baseplate makes direct contact with the GPU and memory, and the heat-pipes are what MSI brands “core pipes”; which basically means the pipes are squared off to maximize contact with the baseplate. The heatsink fins are also formed into wavy ‘V’ shapes in a few sections to optimize air flow through the fins and minimize turbulence, which in turn lowers noise.

The fans on the card feature dual ball bearings for increased longevity, along with 7, textured fan blades to maximize air flow and help minimize noise. It's also a partial pass-through design, with a section at the back that extends well past the actual PCB -- you can see it in the shot of the back of the card above with stylized dragon. The actual PCB ends in-line with the gold-fingers on the card edge.


In addition to the baseplate that’s affixed to the GPU and memory, multiple thermal pads are used around the card as well to ensure additional heat dissipation for other critical components that make contact with the heatsink. A metal backplate on the card, that adds some rigidity, also features thermal pads underneath to aid in cooling.

We haven’t had a chance to measure actual frequencies yet, but the according to NVIDIA’s reference specs, the GeForce RTX 5060 offers a default GPU boost clock is 2,280MHz, and it packs 8GB of GDDR7 memory running at 28Gbps. Included with the MSI GeForce RTX 5060 Gaming OC is a basic lit pack, and that’s it. The card doesn’t use a 12HPWR connection and instead relies on a standard 8-pin PCIe power feed.


Outputs on the MSI GeForce RTX 5060 Gaming OC mirror other GeForce RTX 50 series cards and include three DisplayPorts (2.1b) and a single HDMI port (2.1b). Those ports are nestled into a stainless steel backplate that features venting, to allow some warm air to escape a system.

We’ll be putting the putting the MSI GeForce RTX 5060 Gaming OC through its paces as quickly as we can, so stay tuned for benchmarks numbers in the coming days...