Introduction

We have with us the MSI GeForce RTX 5060 Ti Gaming 16 GB, a powerful and compact variant of the MSI RTX 5060 Ti Gaming Trio 16 GB, which we’ve separately reviewed for you today. This card comes with reduced 25 cm length, compared to the 30 cm of the Gaming Trio, but doesn’t compromise on cooling performance, because while the Gaming Trio has a 2-slot thickness and uses slightly smaller fans, the twin-fan gaming is 3-slot thick, is taller by a centimeter, and uses larger fans. MSI is giving you an interesting choice between two very similar cards to suit your gaming PC build. Both cards come with the same factory overclocked speeds, and the same amount of RGB LED bling. This card is about $10 cheaper than the Gaming Trio. The new GeForce RTX 5060 Ti is an interesting new GPU from NVIDIA that occupies the gray area between mid-range and performance segment. It is recommended for 1080p maxed out gaming by NVIDIA, but is capable of 1440p in many scenarios, if you can get the game setting right, or can tap into the awesome power of DLSS 4 and Multi Frame Generation.

The GeForce RTX 5060 Ti is powered by the latest GeForce Blackwell graphics architecture, which introduces Neural Rendering, a potentially revolutionary new concept in consumer 3D graphics, which leverages generative AI to create richly detailed visual assets in real time, combining it with the rest of the conventionally rendered game, just like it combines ray traced assets. This relies on the GPU being able to accelerate AI models and render 3D graphics in tandem, and making it possible is the AI Management Processor (AMP), a new hardware scheduler that’s being introduced with Blackwell. DLSS 4 replaces the convoluted neural networks (CNN) based AI models driving the various components of DLSS with newer Transformer-based models, which are more accurate, and improve image quality at every performance tier. Multi Frame Generation is a new Blackwell-exclusive feature that lets the GPU create up to 3 frames succeeding every conventionally rendered frame using AI, effectively quadrupling frame-rates. This relies on hardware flip-metering, which is being introduced with the new updated display engine.

NVIDIA is building the Blackwell generation of gaming GPUs on the same NVIDIA 4N foundry node as the RTX 40-series Ada generation, so all efficiency improvements you see are purely a function of the architecture. The new Blackwell SM comes with concurrent FP32+INT32 execution capability on all CUDA cores in the SM, not just half of them. The new CUDA cores and shader execution reordering components come with awareness for Neural Shaders. The new 5th Gen Tensor core comes with FP4 capability for even more throughput. The new 4th Gen RT core improves performance and comes with even more fixed-function hardware, which enables Mega Geometry, or the concept of increasing the poly counts of ray traced objects using hierarchical memory structures, just like with Mega Textures. The new display engine supports DisplayPort 2.1 with UHBR20, while the new NVENC and NVDEC video accelerators come with support for 4:2:2 color formats.

The GeForce RTX 5060 Ti introduces the new GB206 silicon, which it maxes out, enabling all 36 SM present on the silicon, working out to 4,608 CUDA cores, 144 Tensor cores, 36 RT cores, 144 TMUs, and 48 ROPs. While the memory sizes aren’t changed compared to the previous RTX 4060 Ti, and the memory bus width remains the same at 128-bit, NVIDIA switched to the newer GDDR7 memory. With a memory speed of 28 Gbps (GDDR7-effective), this results in a massive 55% increase in bandwidth compared to the 18 Gbps GDDR6 used for the RTX 4060 Ti. NVIDIA also generationally increased the GPU clock speeds to around the 2500 MHz-mark; all of which results in a TGP of 180 W, which can be met with a single 8-pin PCIe power input, although most board partners have implemented 16-pin 12V2x6 power inputs for their premium custom designs, including the MSI RTX 5060 Ti Gaming OC 16 GB.

This card comes with a dual-fan variant of MSI’s latest generation of Gaming cooling solutions, included a compacted albeit thicker aluminium fin-stack heatsink, and a pair of axial airflow fans. The RGB LED lighting setup is similar to the Gaming Trio. The card offers the same 2647 MHz factory overclock as the Gaming Trio, while the memory speed is left untouched at 28 Gbps. The card is being offered at $540, or $10 less than the Gaming Trio, although this is still a pretty steep 27% premium over the NVIDIA baseline price for the RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB.