As CES 2025 draws closer, we're hearing more about Nvidia's RTX 50 series GPUs and the upgrades in performance they aim to deliver. Now, a new leak has finally given us a real sneak peek at the RTX 5060 and RTX 5060 Ti graphics cards — and there's one key area that has me worried.
According to Wccftech, sources suggest that Nvidia's upcoming RTX 5060 and RTX 5060 Ti will come packed with GDDR7 memory, which translates to faster, more power-efficient GPUs. That's great news for PC gamers, and a bump up from the RTX 40 series' GDDR6X.
That's not all, as the RTX 5060 Ti is set to offer 16GB of VRAM as standard. That's double the video memory of the initial RTX 4060's 8GB VRAM (later graphics cards came with 16GB). With this 16GB of GDDR7 memory, the RTX 5060 Ti will be able to meet the recommended requirements for many demanding PC titles like The Last of Us Part 1, Microsoft Flight Simulator, Cyberpunk 2077 and plenty more.
As for the base RTX 5060 card, it will stick with the same 8GB VRAM as the RTX 4060, albeit with GDDR7 memory rather than GDDR6. With current GPUs like the Intel Arc B580 "Battlemage" offering 12GB of VRAM at affordable prices, it will be surprising to see an RTX 5060 come sporting just 8GB of GDDR7 RAM.
If this is the case, many will likely be looking to nab an RTX 5060 Ti over the base RTX 5060, and this gap in video memory is big enough for many to scramble to grab the latter. After all, as more high-end PC games require more VRAM, it's safe to say that gamers will want to future-proof their setups.
Is that all the VRAM?
While there aren't many PC games that require more than 8GB of VRAM (as you'll find in this HardwareCorner post), many of them are the most sought-after. Moreover, to achieve the recommended settings, or even High or Ultra settings, so games run as smoothly as possible (and higher than 1080p), you'll want a graphics card that holds over 8GB of VRAM.
As with its previous graphics cards, Nvidia's RTX 5060 aims to cater to mainstream and entry-level gaming PCs. It's safe to say many gamers want to play the latest titles to their best potential, but if many upcoming games set to arrive in 2025 and beyond need more than 8GB of GDDR7 memory to run smoothly, then an RTX 5060 may not be up to the task. While it's slightly disappointing to see, that's not to say it won't be able to play plenty of demanding PC titles — even better than the capable RTX 4060.
However, seeing the RTX 5060 Ti bringing 16GB of VRAM is exciting, as it means many gamers can stick with a (hopefully) more affordable RTX 50 series GPU to play the latest PC games of their choice. Well, at a more affordable price than the RTX 5090, at the very least.
Of course, Nvidia has yet to announce its lineup of Nvidia RTX 50 series graphics cards, teasing their debut at CES 2025. Whether or not the RTX 5060 and RTX 5060 Ti will offer these rumored memory capacities is still up in the air, but I know which graphics card I'll be leaning toward if it is the case.
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