NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 5060: 8GB VRAM Still a Hot Topic
The tech world is buzzing with initial reactions to NVIDIA's latest entry-level graphics card, the GeForce RTX 5060. While grounded in new architecture (the GB206-250 chip) and paired with speedy GDDR7 memory, an old contentious point is causing a lot of heat: it still only has 8GB of video RAM. Is that enough for today's games.
Performance at a Glance: Hits and Misses
So how does it actually perform. Early testing, such as that available on the YouTube channel Hardware Unboxed, reveals an interesting pattern. At 1080p resolution, the RTX 5060 seems to trade blows roughly even with previous-generation cards like the RTX 4060 Ti 8GB and even the RTX 3070. That doesn't sound so bad, right.
The story is different, however, if you look at fresh, more graphically intensive titles. The card does not appear to have headroom to accommodate future gaming demands. When you push it to 1440p, the 8GB VRAM constraint then becomes glaringly obvious. In some games at maximum settings, the performance is severely impacted. As an example, reports suggest S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 was able to only just achieve double-digit frame rates (a meager 6 FPS reported) with every setting maxed out. Even NVIDIA's own frame generation tech isn't able to perform miracles if the native frame rate is too low to begin with.
Ray Tracing: A Gentle Bump
But what about ray tracing, another flagship technology for NVIDIA cards. The RTX 5060 does see a small boost over its predecessor, the RTX 4060. In a game such as Alan Wake 2, it's reported to be around 20% faster. It also seems to still trail behind the 8GB RTX 4060 Ti and still has that limited video memory, which results in probable issues with smooth texture loading and overall smoothness. The same trends continue in other ray tracing-supported titles like Spider-Man and Dying Light 2 – a bit faster than the 4060, but still far from the performance level of cards one generation ahead.
The 8GB Elephant in the Room
The overall take from early reviewers seems to be that the GeForce RTX 5060, with all its brand new hardware, manages to be a bit "morally obsolete" right out of the box. Why. Because 8GB of VRAM is beginning to feel like minimum requirements, and perhaps even insufficient for silky smoothness in most modern and upcoming games, especially if you want to crank the settings up.
To put things into perspective, AMD's competing Radeon RX 9060 XT is said to boast more generous 16GB of VRAM and only some $50 more than the RTX 5060's hyped launch price of $349. This comparison actually highlights the RTX 5060's probable flaw.
It should be noted, however, that even the pricier GeForce RTX 5060 Ti has not received across-the-board praise from tech reviewers, suggesting an overall problem with NVIDIA's current mid-range strategy.
Therefore, while the RTX 5060 brings some new silicon to the table, its VRAM size might be its weak spot in a constantly evolving gaming landscape.
