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[Zathalus]

pathtracing and 5060 ti shouldnt ever be in the same sentence.

OP said he wanted 1440p and doesn't mind 30fps. With DLSS the 5060ti easily does that on PT games.

 

[dgrdsv]

Waiting won't make anything cheaper for you, you may get better options than now but anyone expecting sudden huge changes around the corner are kidding themselves.
Now is about as good a time to get a PC as it can be. I don't necessarily agree with the RAM doom&gloom but I don't expect things to become any cheaper either.

 

[Paulistano]

I saw dlss3 & 4 and fsr4 with my own eyes and I just can't believe people here saying that fsr4 is vastly inferior to dlss3&4 when it's clearly superior.

 

[DenchDeckard]

5060 Ti 16GB will be going in constraint soon, so if you can grab one at a good price I would do it 100%

If not that card, go 9060 XT 16GB

 

[Mr Moose]

Why´s that?
I have this board Gigabyte B450M DS3H
I´ts not compatible? Wanna know more about that.

Also, i was thinking on the 16 GB model, if i have to go with 8 GB, i´ll grab the regular 5060. There is not point on spending more and having equally decreased performance on the 8GB TI.

Here's 5060 tested on 3.0:

 

[Spyxos]

Why are people recommending 8gb vram gpus in 2025? Especially as op wants to use raytracing.

 

[Spyxos]

Dont post unoptimized shit games like mh wild as a piece of evidence brotha

There are multiple unoptimized games like that each year.

 

[MMaRsu]

There are multiple unoptimized games like that each year.

And they usually arent worth playing

 

[Spyxos]

And they usually arent worth playing

I would still play them, and I did play them, and with slightly better hardware, you definitely get through them better. I don't understand why you should limit yourself so much from day one.

 

[Xdrive05]

On the VRAM question, I would absolutely spring for a higher VRAM card if you can make it work, especially right now.

My 4060 TI 16GB can play Indiana Jones maxed out with full RT and highest settings at 1440p/80fps because of DLSS transformer model and frame generation, and it uses up some 14GB of VRAM. This would be impossible on the MUCH faster GPUs that are paired with 12GB or, heaven forbid, 8GB.

Granted, that is a specific, niche, use case. But I imagine we're only going to see more of those in the future.

 

[dgrdsv]

when it's clearly superior

It's not superior than DLSS4 clearly or otherwise, and with 3 it trades blows depending on content.

 

[StereoVsn]

Why are people recommending 8gb vram gpus in 2025? Especially as op wants to use raytracing.

Because OP is severely CPU constrained.

And overall Path Tracing even on older games isn't happening with lower tier AMD cards. And Nvidia is expensive.

Maybe a used 4070 or 16GB 4060 Ti (depending on a local price) and whatever best CPU (used or new) that can fit the motherboard and budget?

 

[Spyxos]

Because OP is severely CPU constrained.

And overall Path Tracing even on older games isn't happening with lower tier AMD cards. And Nvidia is expensive.

Maybe a used 4070 or 16GB 4060 Ti (depending on a local price) and whatever best CPU (used or new) that can fit the motherboard and budget?

I thought he wanted to upgrade the CPU as well.

 

[MMaRsu]

On the VRAM question, I would absolutely spring for a higher VRAM card if you can make it work, especially right now.

My 4060 TI 16GB can play Indiana Jones maxed out with full RT and highest settings at 1440p/80fps because of DLSS transformer model and frame generation, and it uses up some 14GB of VRAM. This would be impossible on the MUCH faster GPUs that are paired with 12GB or, heaven forbid, 8GB.

Granted, that is a specific, niche, use case. But I imagine we're only going to see more of those in the future.

Bro is asking for a budget option and you guys are saying oh yeah I play on full RT max settings

Broooo

Ofcourse thats not gonna work with an 8gb card.

But it also doesnt make the game better

 

[Bojji]

Yeah ijust upgraded to a 4070ti from the 3070, and the 8gb issue is a none issue in most games. In fact i played a lot of games this year that you could max out with 8gb (at 1080p), Cronos, Hell is Us, in fact i cant think of a game off my head this year that you couldnt max out with 8gb vram, atleast with DLSS which reduces vram slightly.

As for the OP, honestly i'd go with Nvidia. DLSS, and especially DLAA, just looks soooo much better than every other upscaler.

Watch the video 1, video 2, video 3. You talked about two UE5 games, UE5 has low vram usage thanks to virtual textures, no luck like that with non UE5 games...

Fucking 1080p... Only difference between two models of 4060ti and two models of 5060ti is VRAM, specs are completely the same. You pay some more for big performance increase in many games and FUTUREPROOFF.

Bro is asking for a budget option and you guys are saying oh yeah I play on full RT max settings

Broooo

Ofcourse thats not gonna work with an 8gb card.

But it also doesnt make the game better

You can play most games in max settings on 16GB versions of 4060ti/5060ti but you can't on 8GB versions (at least in 1080p, check screenshots above). Why limit yourself like that? And when consoles with more than 20GB of memory launch in 2027, 8GB cards will be good only for displaying desktop.

 

[StereoVsn]

I thought he wanted to upgrade the CPU as well.

Yes, but you can't get a new 16GB GPU AND an upgraded CPU in the total budget of $450 AND have path tracing.

So something got to give.

 

[Bojji]

Yes, but you can't get a new 16GB GPU AND an upgraded CPU in the total budget of $450 AND have path tracing.

So something got to give.

Talking about only new GPUs, you can't really talk about path tracing below 5070ti level. But RT? Why now, even on RDNA4 GPUs.

If I was OP I would buy 9060XT 16GB now (when price is still normal) and some time later buy used 5600 or 5700X3D (depending on how much money I would accumulate in that time).

 

[MMaRsu]

Watch the video 1, video 2, video 3. You talked about two UE5 games, UE5 has low vram usage thanks to virtual textures, no luck like that with non UE5 games...

Fucking 1080p... Only difference between two models of 4060ti and two models of 5060ti is VRAM, specs are completely the same. You pay some more for big performance increase in many games and FUTUREPROOFF.



You can play most games in max settings on 16GB versions of 4060ti/5060ti but you can't on 8GB versions (at least in 1080p, check screenshots above). Why limit yourself like that? And when consoles with more than 20GB of memory launch in 2027, 8GB cards will be good only for displaying desktop.

OP doesnt want/need to play games at max settings, like your screenshots prove nothing. Because nobody with a 3070 will play on ultra settings or max settings.

Bro is on a budget. Why would you try to play Doom on Ultra with a 8Gb card?

What a horrible comparisons.
Using dlss quality when dlss balanced with the new transformer model is just as good or even better than old quality model.

 

[Xion_Stellar]

Too many publishers out there are skimping out on optimizing their games on PC because they figured they can just tell people to turn on resolution scaling and/or turn on fake frames on so no I don't recommend 8GB VRAM Cards anymore in this day and age.

I have a WQXGA Laptop with a 4070 and I had awful time with Monster Hunter Wilds.

 

[Bojji]

OP doesnt want/need to play games at max settings, like your screenshots prove nothing. Because nobody with a 3070 will play on ultra settings or max settings.

Bro is on a budget. Why would you try to play Doom on Ultra with a 8Gb card?

What a horrible comparisons.
Using dlss quality when dlss balanced with the new transformer model is just as good or even better than old quality model.

You can fucking play doom on Max settings with playable framerate, as long as you don't have GPU with 10 year old memory configuration...

Telling someone that 8GB is "fine" in 2025 is pure stupidity, ignorance of bad faith.

 

[ThisIsMyDog]

Don't buy the 9060XT. DLSS4 alone makes the RTX 5060 Ti (16GB) a better choice, especially if you want to play at 1440p. Upscalers are used everywhere now, and DLSS4 is a whole generation ahead of FSR4.

 

[Spyxos]

 

[Xion_Stellar]

Don't buy the 9060XT. DLSS4 alone makes the RTX 5060 Ti (16GB) a better choice, especially if you want to play at 1440p. Upscalers are used everywhere now, and DLSS4 is a whole generation ahead of FSR4.

Screw fake frames developers should never list them as part of the game requirements and they shouldn't be used as a crutch for bad game optimization nor should it be used as a reason to absolve developers/publishers of their responsibility of delivering a working product.

 

[The Cockatrice]

Whatever you pick DO NOT buy anything less than 16GB vram.

 

[MMaRsu]

Screw fake frames developers should never list them as part of the game requirements and they shouldn't be used as a crutch for bad game optimization nor should it be used as a reason to absolve developers/publishers of their responsibility of delivering a working product.

Dlss isnt fake frames.

 

[MMaRsu]

Whatever you pick DO NOT buy anything less than 16GB vram.

Bro has 450 USD to spend .......

 

[Xion_Stellar]

Dlss isnt fake frames.

DLSS 4 encompass both Resolution Scaling and Multi Frame Generation they are seperate settings in a game but they are part of the same suit/technology

 

[MMaRsu]

DLSS 4 encompass both Resolution Scaling and Multi Frame Generation they are seperate setting in a game but they are part of the same suit/technology

Ok but mfg is mfg and dlss is dlss

 

[The Cockatrice]

Bro has 450 USD to spend .......

Amazon.com : 5060ti 16gb

 

[MMaRsu]

Amazon.com : 5060ti 16gb

Yes but bro is on pcie3

Thats a great option tho, but he wont have any money to upgrade cpu

So a second hand 3070 is a good option too

 

[The Cockatrice]

Yes but bro is on pcie3

And? PCIE are backwards compatible. 5.0 will work on a 3.0 slot.

 

[SScorpio]

OP doesnt want/need to play games at max settings, like your screenshots prove nothing. Because nobody with a 3070 will play on ultra settings or max settings.

Bro is on a budget. Why would you try to play Doom on Ultra with a 8Gb card?

What a horrible comparisons.
Using dlss quality when dlss balanced with the new transformer model is just as good or even better than old quality model.

I just don't get the current tech reviewers. I remember games being released where the fastest hardware of the time couldn't give playable framerates at the highest settings. But two years later and you got to enjoy the eye candy.

Entry level is now all iGPU as it's "good enough". So even the XX70 cards are still "mid range". All the benchmarks show 1080p maxed out.

Now it's like it's expected everyone pays out the nose to max everything to be able to accurately render flaws in how lenses work on cameras. Or you can play indies and get over 100+ FPS on an iGPU.

DLSS 4 encompass both Resolution scaling and Multi Frame Generation

DLSS refers to render scaling. Frame Generation is always a separate option you can enable.

 

[Magic Carpet]

Bro has 450 USD to spend .......

I would take 450 for my RTX 4070 so I can apply that money for a 5080.
The 4070 has 12GB so far only Indiana Jones Great Circle has been an issue and even that game has settings to lower the Vram usage.
Any takers?

 

[SScorpio]

And? PCIE are backwards compatible. 5.0 will work on a 3.0 slot.

Yes, but that 5060ti is a PCIe 5.0 x8 card. It will be running at PCIe 3.0 x8 and be very bandwidth bottlenecked.

 

[StereoVsn]

Talking about only new GPUs, you can't really talk about path tracing below 5070ti level. But RT? Why now, even on RDNA4 GPUs.

If I was OP I would buy 9060XT 16GB now (when price is still normal) and some time later buy used 5600 or 5700X3D (depending on how much money I would accumulate in that time).

Yeah, that's not a bad idea. I was thinking if a used 4060Ti or 4070 is decently priced that might not be a terrible buy either. Although path tracing is probably out of reach for the most part in either case.

The thing is it's all going to be heavily dependent on OP's local country market for hardware. Personally though I wouldn't go lower than Nvidia's 4000 series generation.

 

[Donald mac Ronald]

Get a used 3070 man, its a great card for a budget.

Lol I just sold mine on eBay £160. So they're selling cheap. I feel like it should have been 200 at least.

 

[The Cockatrice]

Yes, but that 5060ti is a PCIe 5.0 x8 card. It will be running at PCIe 3.0 x8 and be very bandwidth bottlenecked.

Minimal difference in actual gaming scenarios besides the fact that he can upgrade his mobo in the future.

 

[StereoVsn]

Lol I just sold mine on eBay £160. So they're selling cheap. I feel like it should have been 200 at least.

3000 series is losing value pretty rapidly. Which makes something like a 3080 a potential purchase for the OP as well.

 

[SScorpio]

Minimal difference in actual gaming scenarios besides the fact that he can upgrade his mobo in the future.

Motherboard and CPU. But if you're doing a core platform upgrade, it's pointless to stay on AM4. AM5 is a big bump where the 7600X competes against the 5800X3D, and only increases from there.

It's also a 5-15% performance hit depending on the game. But it's a Zen+ CPU. These are much slower than a Zen 2, which was then a good jump to Zen 3, etc. Upgrading the GPU will give a good performance bump, but unless it's possible to upgrade the rest in a year or so. It would be better to spend less on the GPU, and at least get a faster CPU which comes down to what the MB can support.

 

[The Cockatrice]

Motherboard and CPU. But if you're doing a core platform upgrade, it's pointless to stay on AM4. AM5 is a big bump where the 7600X competes against the 5800X3D, and only increases from there.

It's also a 5-15% performance hit depending on the game. But it's a Zen+ CPU. These are much slower than a Zen 2, which was then a good jump to Zen 3, etc. Upgrading the GPU will give a good performance bump, but unless it's possible to upgrade the rest in a year or so. It would be better to spend less on the GPU, and at least get a faster CPU which comes down to what the MB can support.

I dont think we can decide whats better for him. He can certainly buy something super cheap now, save up and do a proper upgrade later when he has the mobo/cpu to back it up, but that might also not happen which would make the 5060ti a good choice now. Tough choice for OP.

 

[AltruisticFormality]

My current set up i´ts quite old, Ryzen 5 2600, 16 GB RAM and GTX 1660 Super, LG Ultra Gear 1440p 165 Hz 32" Monitor (i also have a 4K LG B4 55" but i use it for movies and consoles, mainly PS5). I´ve had this PC configuration since 2020....So 5 years old for me, and probably like 7 years old for industry standards.

I want to upgrade to have a modern budget configuration which can last at least a couple of years, and i wanna start with GPU.

Also, i put anytime graphics over fps and, since i´m a console gamer mainly, i give zero fucks if i gotta play 30 fps but with a beautiful presentation and i really wanna experience some ray tracing on current games and Cyberpunk, but i´m aware with my budget, won´t have exactly the best of this technology. But, in fact, i´m more excited to have RT on old games, so would love to play decently Half Life 2 RTX Remix, Quake 2 RT, Render 96, NFS U with RT, Max Payne 2 with RT and lotta old games upgraded with RT, mainly by the community itself. Also, i would like to still playing in 1440p as possible.

I recently upgraded my graphics card also on a PCIe 3.0 system and I went for a 9060XT 16GB over a 5060Ti 16GB. The 5060Ti was anywhere from €90 (≈105USD) to €130 (≈150USD) more expensive. For heavy RT/PT games/RTX remix the 5060Ti is not great either and your CPU will also have more trouble keeping up. Those old games with RTX Remix (path tracing) are very demanding even for current high end GPUs.

If you value graphics avoid 8GB cards. Especially Nvidia "budget" current options. RXT 5050, 5060 and 5060 Ti are all PCIe 5.0 x8 which means that your bandwidth will be severely cut down with PCIe 3.0, tanking your perfomance when reaching into system memory.

There are games where maxing out textures improves the presentation by a lot and it won't lower perfomace if you have enough VRAM. No Man's Sky recommends more than 8GB of VRAM for textures on Ultra at 1080p and that's not taking into account other settings that also demand more VRAM, like reflections, tessellation, etc. In my testing I've seen it using more than 8GB and 10GB just at 1080p.

Spoiler

First MEM₁ value is allocated VRAM, second is amount used by the process.

In other cases there are no performance hit with only 8GB but textures don't load correctly or fade in and out.

Spoiler

 

[Bojji]

I recently upgraded my graphics card also on a PCIe 3.0 system and I went for a 9060XT 16GB over a 5060Ti 16GB. The 5060Ti was anywhere from €90 (≈105USD) to €130 (≈150USD) more expensive. For heavy RT/PT games/RTX remix the 5060Ti is not great either and your CPU will also have more trouble keeping up. Those old games with RTX Remix (path tracing) are very demanding even for current high end GPUs.

If you value graphics avoid 8GB cards. Especially Nvidia "budget" current options. RXT 5050, 5060 and 5060 Ti are all PCIe 5.0 x8 which means that your bandwidth will be severely cut down with PCIe 3.0, tanking your perfomance when reaching into system memory.

There are games where maxing out textures improves the presentation by a lot and it won't lower perfomace if you have enough VRAM. No Man's Sky recommends more than 8GB of VRAM for textures on Ultra at 1080p and that's not taking into account other settings that also demand more VRAM, like reflections, tessellation, etc. In my testing I've seen it using more than 8GB and 10GB just at 1080p.

Spoiler

First MEM₁ value is allocated VRAM, second is amount used by the process.

In other cases there are no performance hit with only 8GB but textures don't load correctly or fade in and out.

Spoiler

Yeah, there are potentially tons of issues when games go out of vram. 9060XT 16GB seems like the best budget choice.

Meanwhile CP2077 with PT can eat ~15GB of VRAM with internal resolution of... 1536x864.

 

[JohnSpartanLee]

Upgraded from a budget 1060 to a 5080 - can recommend, it was worth it.

Considering I now won't need a PS5 Pro or a PS6. And no more paid online.

 

[MMaRsu]

The vram issue is so overrated and turned into a big thing by youtubers, but if you have an 8gb card ofcourse you're never gonna max out the latest and greatest games.

You"re gonna mix and match settings so that it looks great and runs great. But oh well

 

[RafterXL]

Op wants the impossible. A cheap GPU that runs high end graphics options and needs to be somewhat future proof. Path tracing and low end should never be in the same sentence and even if you want those things you have to go Nvidia. But if you go Nvidia you are going to get less vRam. So pick your poison. Personally if it were me, I'd forget about RT and just play games without it if I had to use that budget. Get a 9060xt, or just stick to consoles, you'll get a much better experience at that point.

I saw dlss3 & 4 and fsr4 with my own eyes and I just can't believe people here saying that fsr4 is vastly inferior to dlss3&4 when it's clearly superior.

Go see your eye doctor immediately, and have someone else drive you, please.

Yes, but that 5060ti is a PCIe 5.0 x8 card. It will be running at PCIe 3.0 x8 and be very bandwidth bottlenecked.

No, it won't. There is literally no difference between the two on a card that speed. You can run a 5070 ti on PCIE 3.0 with virtually zero frame loss. Even a 5090 is like 1-3% difference between 3.0 and 5.0.

 

[Spyxos]

Yeah, there are potentially tons of issues when games go out of vram. 9060XT 16GB seems like the best budget choice.

Meanwhile CP2077 with PT can eat ~15GB of VRAM with internal resolution of... 1536x864.

Yeah, i was running out of vram on 4070 super with pathtracing on 1080p. And it has 12 gb vram.

 

[Bojji]

The vram issue is so overrated and turned into a big thing by youtubers, but if you have an 8gb card ofcourse you're never gonna max out the latest and greatest games.

You"re gonna mix and match settings so that it looks great and runs great. But oh well

You don't have to do that in games if you have enough vram. Epic/Ultra High settings are usually stupid and not worth it over high but texture settings? Playing with shit textures is fucking pain, same goes with lowering resolution even if you don't need to ONLY because you don't have enough memory. And this is A.D. 2025, it will only get worse from now...

 

[AltruisticFormality]

Yes, but that 5060ti is a PCIe 5.0 x8 card. It will be running at PCIe 3.0 x8 and be very bandwidth bottlenecked.

No, it won't. There is literally no difference between the two on a card that speed. You can run a 5070 ti on PCIE 3.0 with virtually zero frame loss. Even a 5090 is like 1-3% difference between 3.0 and 5.0.

The 5070Ti uses all 16 PCIe lanes and it is a 16GB card. It's not a good reference point since 5060Ti and below RTX 50 cards are limited to 8 lanes, with only the 5060Ti having an 16GB option.
PCIe bandwidth is way more significant when exceding VRAM, which is not that hard to do in current games if you only have 8GB.

https://www.techspot.com/review/3004-nvidia-rtx-5060-ti-pcie-benchmark/#Benchmarks

 

[Bonfires Down]

Honestly, I think I would recommend upgrading to a Ryzen 5600 first and then buy the best GPU you can afford with the remaining funds.