Nvidia’s RTX 5060 is finally here, and many people hoped it’d put up a fight against some of the best graphics cards. Does it really, though? Reviewers are split on the matter. Alas, I’m not here to judge the card. I’m here to show you some alternatives.
While Nvidia’s xx60 cards typically become some of the most popular GPUs of any given generation, they’re not the only option you have right now. The RTX 5060 might not even be the best option at that price point. Below, I’ll walk you through four GPUs that I think you should buy instead of the RTX 5060.
Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060
I’m not sure whether this will come as a surprise or not, but based on current pricing and benchmarks, the GPU I recommend buying instead of the RTX 5060 is its last-gen equivalent.
The RTX 4060 is one of the last RTX 40-series graphics cards that are still readily available around MSRP. I found one for $329 at Newegg, and it’s an overclocked model, meaning slightly faster performance than the base version. However, you might as well just buy a used RTX 4060 if you find it from a trustworthy source, as that’ll cost you a whole lot less.
The RTX 5060 and the RTX 4060 have a lot in common. Spec-wise, they’re not at all far apart, although Nvidia’s newer Blackwell architecture and the switch to GDDR7 VRAM give the newer GPU a bit more oomph. But, unfortunately, both cards share the same 8GB RAM — an increasingly small amount in today’s gaming world — and the same narrow 128-bit bus.
Some reviewers note that the RTX 5060 isn’t far ahead of the RTX 4060 in raw performance. The newer card gets the full benefit of Nvidia’s Multi-Frame Generation, though. Overall, they’re pretty comparable, but if you can score a used RTX 4060 for cheap, I’d go for it.
AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT (or the RX 9060 XT)
I wasn’t a big fan of the RX 7600 XT 16GB upon launch, and I still have some beef with that card. Much like Nvidia’s options, AMD equipped its mainstream GPU with a really narrow memory interface, stifling the bandwidth and holding back its performance. Still, in the current climate, I’ll take that 16GB with the 128-bit bus over a card that has the same interface and only sports 8GB VRAM.
The cheapest RX 7600 XT 16GB costs around $360, and you can find it on the shelves with ease. But it’s the same scenario here — if you can find it used from a trustworthy source, it might be worth it, assuming you’re on a tight budget. The state of the GPU market as of late has made me appreciate second-hand GPUs a lot more.
The RX 7600 XT is slower than the RTX 5060, and it’ll fall behind in ray tracing, but it gives you plenty of RAM where Nvidia’s card offers very little. That alone makes it worthy of your consideration.
AMD’s upcoming RX 9060 XT could be a great option here, too. I expect it to offer better ray tracing capabilities than the RX 7600 XT, and it’ll have the same $300 price tag as Nvidia’s RTX 5060.
Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB
If your budget is a little bit flexible, you could go one level up and get the RTX 5060 Ti with 16GB of RAM. Unfortunately, the cheapest options are at around $479 right now, which is well over the MSRP and a whopping $180 more than the RTX 5060. However, for that price, you’ll get yourself a GPU that’s better suited to stand the test of time.
With 16GB of video memory and the full benefit of GDDR7 RAM, the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB offers an upgrade over the last-gen version. It’s not perfect by any stretch, though. Reviewers put the GPU below the RX 9070 non-XT, the RTX 5070, and even the RTX 4070 when you consider pure rasterization. This means no so-called “fake frames,” which is what Nvidia’s DLSS 4 delivers.
That leaves the RTX 5060 Ti in an odd spot. Basically, if your budget can stretch to it, the RX 9070 and the RTX 5070 are both better cards; they’re also a lot more expensive.
Intel Arc B580
Less demanding gamers might find an option in Intel’s Arc B580. Upon launch, the GPU surprised pretty much everyone with its excellent performance-per-dollar ratio. The downside? That ratio is now a lot less impressive, because unexpected demand and low stock levels brought the price of the Arc B580 far above its $250 recommended list price (MSRP).
The Arc B580 is a little bit slower than the RTX 4060 Ti, so it’ll be slower than the RTX 5060, too. It also can’t put up a fight as far as ray tracing goes. But it’s a budget-friendly GPU and a solid alternative to the RTX 5060 if you’d rather pick up something else this time around.
My advice? Wait it out
It’s not a great time to buy a GPU.
The more successful and impressive cards from this generation, such as AMD’s RX 9070 XT or Nvidia’s RTX 5070 Ti, keep selling above MSRP. Those that aren’t quite as exciting may stick around MSRP (which is where the RTX 5060 sits right now, mere days after launch) … but that doesn’t make up for their shortcomings.
Given the fact that reviews of the RTX 5060 are still pretty scarce, I’d wait it out for a week or two. Read some comparisons, check out the prices, and then decide. Gambling on a GPU just because the previous generations were solid doesn’t work anymore, and that’s now clearer than ever.
