Nvidia RTX 5050, 5060 and 5060 Ti: Small Upgrades in the Blackwell Lineup
After the underwhelming launches of the Nvidia RTX 5090, 5080, 5070 Ti and 5070, the entry-level and midrange GPUs in the Blackwell family are expected to arrive soon. According to leaked information, these products have more CUDA cores, draw more power and move up to GDDR7 VRAM, but keep the same memory capacity, except for the RTX 5050, whose configuration looks a lot like the RTX 3050's.
Well-known leaker Kopite7kimi recently revealed the specifications of the RTX 5050, 5060 and 5060 Ti, GPUs that Nvidia may announce this week. Like the earlier Blackwell GPUs, these three look like only slight upgrades over their predecessors.
The most notable detail is that the RTX 5060 and 5050 still have just 8GB of VRAM. In 2025, Nvidia sticking with this amount of VRAM could disappoint gamers. Meanwhile, the RTX 5060 Ti gets an additional 16GB option, confirming that the RTX 5090 remains the only Blackwell card with more VRAM than its predecessor.
Specifications: Slightly More CUDA Cores and Power Draw
Nvidia may position this lineup as an affordable graphics solution for high-refresh-rate 1080p monitors (460Hz and 500Hz). Even in the entry-level segment, though, some users may be unhappy that Nvidia is sticking with only 8GB of VRAM for a third generation in a row, especially when a rival like the Intel Arc B580 already offers 12GB of VRAM.
Compared with the RTX 40 series, the RTX 5060 and 5060 Ti have slightly more CUDA cores. Specifically:
- The RTX 5060 goes up from 3,072 to 3,850 CUDA cores.
- The RTX 5060 Ti rises from 4,352 to 4,608 CUDA cores.
The higher core counts bring higher power consumption. The RTX 5060 has a 150W TDP (up from 115W), while the RTX 5060 Ti has a 180W TDP (up from 165W).
Meanwhile, the RTX 5050 is not much different from the RTX 3050, which launched in 2022. It keeps the same 2,560 CUDA cores, 130W power draw and 8GB of GDDR6 VRAM, while every other Blackwell card has moved to GDDR7. The exact clock speeds of these three GPUs have not been revealed yet.
Are the RTX 5060 and 5060 Ti Worth Buying?
Judging by the Blackwell GPUs that have already launched, each model tends to improve less than the higher-end card in the same series. For example, the RTX 5070 performs almost on par with the RTX 4070 Super, and at times even falls behind it. That leaves many people wondering whether the entry-level and midrange GPUs are really worth upgrading to.
Still, even if the specs are not very impressive, history suggests the RTX 5060 and 5060 Ti could remain Nvidia's best-selling cards. 60-series GPUs have always dominated the Steam hardware survey, thanks to reasonable prices and performance that is good enough for the vast majority of users. That said, the appeal of the RTX 5060 and 5060 Ti will depend on how they stack up against AMD's competitors, especially the Radeon RX 9060 and 9050.
According to earlier reports, Nvidia may announce the RTX 5060 and 5060 Ti on March 13. However, these GPUs may not go on sale right away, with stock arriving only the following month.
