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You know, I sometimes think graphics cards are kinda like cars. Bear with me. They’re all about performance, sure, but who doesn’t care about how they look or if they guzzle power? It’s like having a ride that looks snazzy but doesn’t burn a hole in your wallet. If you’re up for all the bells and whistles, you’d be looking at something like a Porsche or a Ferrari — expensive, right? But let’s be real: Most of us don’t need or can’t swing for that. We just want something decent that’ll get us from point A to point B.
Now, for gamers — they just wanna play the latest stuff smoothly, right? Which is kinda why consoles are a thing. But more and more folks are hopping onto the PC scene. And that’s where something like the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 fits in.
Heads up: This isn’t a review of the 5060. Think of it as a sneak peek. The final drivers weren’t even out when I was playing around with it, so Nvidia just gave me a taste, under certain conditions. So no deep-dive benchmarks here, just some early thoughts on this $300 card.
Let’s talk money. At $300, it’s an upgrade you might just toss in an older PC. And despite being part of Nvidia’s ‘50 series’, this baby packs all the latest RTX goodness. The new ‘multi frame generation’ thing? Yeah, it jacks up frame rates with some nifty AI magic. Works surprisingly well.
And about that price: It’s kinda predictable. The RTX 2060 was $350 when it dropped in 2019, and the 4060 launched at $300. Go back to 2016, things were cheaper but… that was light years ago in tech time. Expectations have shifted too, which brings us to this preview, tested just like Nvidia wanted (of course they’d want it to look great). From that angle, it looks sweet on paper.
They tossed me a list of games ideal for trial runs on the 5060. Among them: Cyberpunk, an old favorite of mine, and Doom The Dark Ages. So that’s where I dug in.
Here’s the catch: The 5060’s got 8GB of VRAM, a bottleneck against high-end cards. But let’s be real, this card’s mainly for 1080p or 1440p gaming. As an RTX, you’ll wanna toggle on DLSS, which is cool because Nvidia wanted us to use DLSS and Multi-Frame Generation.
If you’re cool with upscaling or ‘fake frames’, you’ll be smiling. Personally, I think it’s great — as long as the image quality’s there. Some folks want pure rendering — not my thing, but if that’s you, maybe save up for a pricier card. But if all you care about is that it looks and feels awesome, this is a pretty good choice.
So, let’s talk Doom. Even with just 8GB VRAM, DLSS4 does the heavy lifting. Let’s cut to the chase — crank Doom to ‘Ultra Nightmare’ and toggle DLSS4 and 3x MFG. That setup has you playing this new shooter at 1080p over 200fps. Delicious, if I say so.
Over to Cyberpunk, usually more taxing. In RT Overdrive, you’re leaning on the 50 series extras to meet expectations. Here’s the headline: about 120 FPS average — magic for fancy screens — but it stumbles when stuff gets wild. Maybe drivers will polish that, but I think this is the deal — high highs but with quirks. Expected for entry-level cards, really.
It’s all about how you see it — and this preview. Is 1080p your jam in 2025? Okay turning on stuff that means not all frames are ‘real’? Expect the occasional fuzzy frame. But that’s the deal. How you feel about that varies, but many will jump at 200fps Doom for $300.
Sure, new-gen rendering is on the table too — but Nvidia’s basically saying the card’s all about its extras. Their frame generation and upscaling tech is top-notch — and this is now the cheapest way to get the latest of it. Future tests might show how the 5060 compares with the 4060 and older with pure rendering. The nitty-gritty will reveal if it’s a full upgrade or not. But with the add-ons on, it’s a nice notch above its predecessor at the same price.
It’s the whole ‘Champagne Taste on a Beer Budget’ thing. You won’t get Bollinger for the price of a Stella. There will always be trade-offs. Before, budget cards promised 30fps stability; now they talk about 120fps, albeit with gen frames. Or, in my clunky analogy, what used to be just buying beer now kinda feels like something else — and often that ‘something else’ holds up well. The next question is how this card handles outside those narrow tests. Stay tuned.
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