Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 vs. RTX 4060

With Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060, we’ve finally reached Blackwell’s entry point, laying the foundations for budget buyers to get in on the latest generation’s ground floor. Compared to GeForce RTX 4060, however, and it’s fair to say there’s at least a little bit of GPU déjà vu going on.

Both cards are cut from a similar cloth. They’re compact, power efficient, and built for smooth FHD (1080p) gaming without needing a PSU upgrade or financing. What separates them is the fine print. RTX 5060 dials up memory bandwidth as well as benefitting from Blackwell architectural improvements and features. RTX 4060, meanwhile, is tried and tested with plenty of horsepower to keep it relevant in 2025.

So, which one deserves your cash? We’ve stacked specs, performance, features, and value side-by-side to help you decide whether to go with the new kid on the block, or scoop up a well-timed last-gen bargain.

Specs

While RTX 4060 relies on the now-familiar Ada Lovelace architecture and an AD107 die, RTX 5060 breaks new ground with a GB206 GPU built on Nvidia’s latest Blackwell design. Despite each die originating from TSMC’s N4 node, there are key under-the-hood refinements in scheduler logic and efficiency that help Blackwell squeeze out more from the similar core counts.

With a larger 181mm² surface area, RTX 5060 crams far more of just about everything. There’s a healthy bump in compute resources, with 3,840 CUDA cores spread across 30 SMs (Streaming Multiprocessors), up from 3,072 across 24 SMs. Boost clocks get a modest uptick to 2,497MHz, pushing theoretical FP32 compute up to 19.2 TFLOPS versus 15.1 TFLOPS on the outgoing model.

While 30 RT cores and 120 Tensor cores would be headline worthy on their own as 25% increases over their predecessor, it’s the generational enhancements that are worth the spotlight. Moving into 4th Gen ray tracing and 5th Gen Tensors are key to accelerating new AI-powered features within DLSS 4, including the very same Multi Frame Generation that dominates Nvidia’s in-house performance graphs.

Memory is another area where Nvidia’s newest card makes strides. RTX 5060 adopts GDDR7 modules, delivering 8GB of 28Gb/s VRAM over a 128-bit interface. That translates to 448GB/s of bandwidth, which is a lofty 65% uplift over the 272GB/s RTX 4060’s GDDR6 offers. The bus width remains unchanged, but the generational jump in speed makes all the difference in bandwidth-sensitive scenarios. The main question is simply whether 8GB is enough for modern games. AMD argues it is for 1080p, but as plenty of games have started relying on mandatory upscalers as a crutch, real-world scenarios might beg to differ.

Elsewhere, RTX 5060 also brings PCIe 5.0 x8 support to the table, compared to PCIe 4.0 x8 on RTX 4060. While this won’t affect performance in most current games, it’s a nice slice of future-proofing. This comes part and parcel with a higher board power of 145W, up from 115W, though efficiency improvements elsewhere help keep power consumption in check.

Both cards launched at the same MSRP of $299, setting the stage for a fair fight with price parity. I’d love to tell you that RTX 4060 has seen discounts in the wake of its successor but you’ll struggle to grab one for anything less than $400 as the graphics card market walks its own confusing path. RTX 5060 is a clear victor from a specs and price standpoint if you can rustle one up for its launch price, but do be aware that few GPU releases over the past few months have stayed at recommended retail pricing for long.

Performance

Both RTX 5060 and RTX 4060 have had the pleasure of taking a ride in Club386’s 2025 test bench, revelling in the company of AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D. Armed with 64GB of Kingston Fury Beast DDR5 memory and a 1,300W be quiet! Dark Power Pro 13, there’s no bottleneck in sight.

Our 7950X3D Test PCs

Club386 carefully chooses each component in a test bench to best suit the review at hand. When you view our benchmarks, you’re not just getting an opinion, but the results of rigorous testing carried out using hardware we trust.

Shop Club386 test platform components:

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D
Motherboard: MSI MEG X670E ACE
Cooler: Arctic Liquid Freezer III 420 A-RGB
Memory: 64GB Kingston Fury Beast DDR5
Storage: 2TB WD_Black SN850X NVMe SSD
PSU: be quiet! Dark Power Pro 13 1,300W
Chassis: Fractal Design Torrent Grey

Build Log

How We Test

Whereas we’re usually reliant on pre-release drivers, the precarious nature of this release means we’re using publicly available drivers that anyone can get hold of. That sets the bar higher with no room for error.

Apps & AI

We kick things off with a familiar synthetic in the form of 3DMark, and right out the gate, RTX 5060 asserts itself as dominant. Speed Way showcases a healthy 31% uplift in ray tracing workloads, but there’s a more meaningful 40% leap when running pure rasterised. With similar 8GB buffers, this underscores the refined graphics pipeline.

The story continues in Blender, where RTX 5060 churns out 3,691 samples per minute to RTX 4060’s 3,163. A 17% advantage in real-time render throughput is nothing to scoff at, especially when it comes without any bump in VRAM capacity. OptiX continues to be a win for Nvidia creatives, and that extra shader grunt shows up where it counts.

AI workloads, however, are where the gloves come off. Geekbench AI shows a clean 26% gain for the newer card, and in Procyon’s Llama 3.1-based text generation benchmark, the gap widens to 38%. These are the kinds of numbers that don’t just look good on paper, as they translate into faster token generation, smoother ML-assisted workflows, and a longer shelf life in an increasingly AI-driven desktop environment. If you’re dabbling in diffusion models or local LLMs, this is where RTX 5060 begins to pull its weight beyond gaming.

Gaming

Keeping things to a manageable resolution, Assassin’s Creed Mirage flexes smooth frame rates all around. That said, a 23% boost under RTX 5060’s belt shines a great light on the card at FHD. Mirage isn’t the most demanding title in Ubisoft’s library now that Shadows is out, but the uplift here helps reinforce the newcomer’s status as the new baseline for ultra-smooth 1080p action.

That advantage narrows slightly at QHD, as RTX 4060’s 70fps is within a stone’s throw of its successor’s more engaging 87fps. Of course, that’s still a 24% gap, marking a distinct victory for Blackwell.

Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail presents a very different challenge with lots of player characters in their own costumes, a butt-load of shaders, and an increased opportunity for stutters. Both graphics cards take it in stride, offering up triple-digit frame rates at FHD, but RTX 5060 takes a comfortable 19% lead. This gap shortens at 1440p, but the new budget Blackwell still walks away with a 16% performance leap over its predecessor while skirting around 100fps.

In Forza Motorsport, results flip somewhat unexpectedly and it’s painful to see. While RTX 5060 posts better minimums overall, RTX 4060 comes out ahead in average frame rate with 37fps at FHD.

When you’re sitting below that 60fps marker, every frame counts, and a 22% drop is certainly noticeable. As for reasoning, the way ForzaTech engine handles scheduling and memory latency seems a likely culprit. Ada may still have the edge in certain edge-case scenarios.

Fortunately, our new 60-class contender regains its composure at QHD with 30% more muscle to put it into pole position. Granted, neither frame rate is particularly playable to our eye at sub-21fps, but more is more.

Things return to form in Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord, where RTX 5060 absolutely storms ahead. At 1080p, it hits a massive 194fps, which is 25% more than RTX 4060’s best efforts. It also maintains stronger 1% lows at 121fps vs. 103fps. This kind of performance isn’t just good for large-scale skirmishes, it’s great for high refresh-rate monitors where every frame counts.

At 1440p, the lead stretches to 138fps versus 105fps; a full 31% jump that makes RTX 5060 the clearly better option for any would-be warlord.

Rounding things off, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Extraction puts RTX 5060 firmly in the lead with no room for ambiguity. At 1080p, the newer card pumps out an average of 204fps for a tidy 16% uplift. It’s all much of muchness at these frame rates, but only one card saturates the entirety of a 180Hz gaming monitor.

RTX 5060 goes from strength to strength as you crank up the resolution, with an even wider 19% average at QHD. Minimums also tow the same line being up to 33% tighter, keeping stutters and frame drops at bay.

DLSS

Running Cyberpunk 2077 with its RT Overdrive preset is a mean feat for any graphics card, and you can tell by our tests that neither RTX 4060 or 5060 is up to the task without a helping hand. Credit where it’s due, minimums remain close to average frame rates to avoid stutters, but that’s not going to matter too much when the entire thing is a 25fps slideshow. Even on our most forgiving days, we tend to settle for no less than 30fps.

Move to QHD and the RPG becomes unplayable with no more than 2fps apiece. The only way 1440p becomes viable is cranking the settings right down or relying on an upscaler.

Flicking on DLSS Super Resolution Quality mode improves things dramatically. RTX 4060 more than doubles its FHD frame rates and QHD surpasses the card’s native 1080p capabilities. It’s not quite enough to outshine RTX 5060, however, which boasts a 22% and 14% uplift at each resolution. Not at all bad for a sub-$300 model and with no-strings-attached access to the newer, more detailed Transformer model as part of DLSS 4, there’s quite a bit more value in the new graphics card.

One of the main selling points of RTX 5060 is its access to Multi Frame Generation, which slots in a second and third artificially-generated frame for every native one. Meanwhile RTX 4060 tops out at one artificial frame via standard Frame Gen. Unfortunately, both graphics cards fall short of the 60fps average necessary for the best experience, so latency is an issue here.

Ignoring the noticeable lag, both GPUs are bottlenecked by their 8GB frame buffer, making it difficult to contend with the demands of a path traced Night City. Performance is wonky across the board, meaning it’s not worth wading into when DLSS Super Resolution simply performs better. That said, the feature will play nicer when you remove path tracing from the equation entirely, making MFG a nice feature to have in your corner as and when you need it.

Vitals

Despite a 26% rise in total board power, RTX 5060 remains respectful asking for just 8% more than its predecessor at 259W under load. It bucks the trend of efficiency we’ve seen throughout 2025, but forgivably so given the performance increase on offer.

As uncle Ben famously said, with more power comes a slightly higher temperature. Your mileage will vary depending on the model you go for as there’s no Founders Edition to compare with, but we can’t quibble when there’s just six degrees in it between MSI GeForce RTX 5060 Gaming OC and Palit GeForce RTX 4060 Dual.

Just like temperatures, noise profile will differ depending on which cooler is attached to your GPU. Logarithmic scales mean that 3.6dBA equates to around a 28% increase in perceived loudness, which is notable but both are quite quiet to the ear.

Conclusion

There’s no question that GeForce RTX 5060 comes out the winner in all of this, even if it sips a bit more from your electric bill. The performance increases aren’t quite enough to get anyone currently rocking an Ada Lovelace graphics card to upgrade but those coming from something a bit older should gravitate more towards Blackwell’s budget offering.

GeForce RTX 5060

It’s a better entry point than RTX 4060, but with AMD providing solid alternatives, there’s a question of whether it’s worth its $300 price tag. Read our review.

Buy from Amazon (US)

Buy from Amazon (International)

That said, AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT is quite literally just around the corner. We recommend leaving RTX 5060 in the basket until we see how Team Red’s value proposition stacks up. After all, it promises double the memory at 16GB for just $50 more, which can be transformative if MSRP stays in its lane.