Much to the delight of the numerous leaksters, NVIDIA has officially lifted the veil from its GeForce RTX 5060 Ti today, and thereby confirming the coveted launch window they thought would be. The card is finally in our lab but unlike the last time with review a GPU from this category, ours came in the form of the MSI Ventus 2X OC.
Not only that but my unit is the top-tier flavour of the two, with 16GB of GDDR7 graphics memory to spare, and that actually makes me feel conflicted for a couple of reasons.
Specifications
Design
At this point, it’s safe to say that NVIDIA isn’t planning releasing a Founders Edition of the RTX 5060 Ti, meaning that the only variants will be seeing at those from its AIB partners, such as MSI. In this case, the model in my lab is the Ventus 2X , which is technically the brand’s cheapest of the three 16GB SKUs that it plans on bringing to Malaysia.
The Ventus 2X, then, doesn’t scream or shout out its pedigree, donning a simple, unassuming cooler shroud of silver and black. Its comes, as you see, with a dual fan cooling solution, nestled on top of a heatsink that extends well beyond the length of the RTX 5060 Ti’s PCB, a trend that NVIDIA has propagated with its GPUs since the dawn of the RTX 30 Series.
The fans of the Ventus 2X are still Zero Frozr, and you get a barebones but rigid backplate that adds supports to the GPU, as well as to prevent any sagging. Beyond that, the RTX 5060 Ti offers the usual three DisplayPort 2.1 ports and one HDMI 2.1 port.
Testbench
Having said that, I would be remiss in my duties if I didn’t point out that the RTX 4060 Ti that I have is only equipped with 8GB GDDR6 memory. On top of that, I will also be the first to wholeheartedly admit that this isn’t going to be a fair fight, be it with raw power and with the trimmings that come with access to DLSS4.
Benchmarks, Temperatures, And Power Consumption
As I said, I didn’t expect the fight between the Ventus 2X OC RTX 5060 Ti and my RTX 4060 Ti FE to be a fair fight. Not even in the synthetic benchmarks department.
Typically, generational successors would have their predecessors beat by a thin, if not moderate margin. For this RTX 5060 Ti and its 16GB of GDDR7 memory, it is technically screaming ahead, although I use the word more for dramatic effect.
In Unigine Superposition, you can see how 16GB really helps the RTX 5060 Ti pull way ahead of the RTX 4060 Ti but at the same time, it is a little disheartening to see the RTX 5070 pulling miles ahead of the card with its 12GB GDDR7. Naturally, that’s also due to the difference in GPU tier.
The one thing that my RTX 5060 Ti isn’t, however, is a silent performer. This may just boil down to the way MSI tweaked the fan curve and cooling for its Ventus line but on full load, the dual fans got pretty vocal. It doesn’t matter if I’m running benchmarks or playing games; it made damn sure to inform me that it wanted to be heard. Funnily, and despite all that brouhaha from the fans, the card proved to run hotter than both the 4060 Ti and 5070, with peak temperatures of nearly 80°C.
Speaking of gaming, you’ll be glad to know that, once again, the RTX 5060 Ti pulled way ahead of its predecessor and, to my surprise, can actually do 4K gaming. Let me be clear: I am talking 4K gaming with the graphics presets at the highest settings, and the lowest 1% lows I experience with this card was 45 fps with some major titles. On Monster Hunter Wilds, which isn’t a DLSS4 title yet, the average frames were around 60 fps at that resolution. That trend continued with Cyberpunk 2077, albeit with the Transformer model at balanced, and Multiframe Generation (MFG) set at 4X.
Conclusion
The RTX 5060 Ti, its MSI Ventus 2X OC pedigree notwithstanding, is as I’ve mentions in spatterings across this review, a card that leaves me feeling conflicted. Does it help that it has 16GB GDDR7 memory? Yes. Does the fact that it is a Blackwell card and as such, have full access to the full suite of NVIDIA’s DLSS4 upscaling tech help? Again, the answer is a resolute yes. Does it blow the RTX 4060 Ti out of the water? Yes but again, only by virtue of having double the graphics memory of the last-gen GPU.
And that brings me to an important point: I’ve yet to test the 8GB variant of the RTX 5060 Ti and until a time I get to do so, the end results here feel a little one-sided. For another matter, this is the first card I’ve tested that produces metrics that really make it feel like an in-between card between last generation’s entry-level Ada Lovelace and this year’s “RTX 4090-level” mid-range Blackwell.
At a starting SRP of US$429 (~RM1,849) for the 16GB SKU – the 8GB models start at US$379 (~RM1,673) – it’s currently the most affordable Blackwell GPU to enter the PC gaming market, along with the promise of gaming above the 60 fps average frames mark at resolutions of 1440p or lower. Or some 4K gaming at just below 60 fps, if you’re feeling cheeky.
Photography by John Law.
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