Nvidia launches GB206-based RTX 5060 for $300 along with RTX 5060 Laptop GPUs amidst reviewer consternation for lack of testing drivers

At Computex 2025, Nvidia is finally launching its entry-level RTX 5060 Blackwell GPU for desktops and laptops. Both the desktop and laptop RTX 5060 cards are based on the same GB206 GPU as the RTX 5060 Ti but with reduced CUDA core counts along with 8 GB of 128-bit GDDR7 VRAM.

The RTX 5060 desktop features 3,840 CUDA cores, 120 texture mapping units (TMUs), 120 tensor cores, 48 raster operations pipelines (ROPs), and 30 ray tracing (RT) cores. The GPU has a default boost clock of 2,497 MHz together with a 1,750 MHz (28 Gbps effective) memory clock. The RTX 5060 will be available from Nvidia's add-in board (AiB) partners at a starting MSRP of $299.

The RTX 5060 Laptop GPU, on the other hand, comes with even lower specs to cater to notebooks. The RTX 5060 Ti Laptop GPU offers 3,328 CUDA cores, 104 TMUs and tensor cores, 32 ROPs, and 26 RT cores. The GPU can be configured by OEMs with a total graphics power (TGP) between 45 W and 100 W, with max boosts hitting 1,455 MHz.

Nvidia says that the RTX 5060 can enable 100+ fps performance at 1080p max settings with DLSS 4 and multi-frame gen enabled in many modern AAA titles.

Nvidia also announced eight new laptop designs featuring the RTX 5060 Laptop GPU including the Acer Predator Triton 14 AI, Asus TUF Gaming A14, Alienware 16X Aurora, Gigabyte A16 Pro, HP Omen Transcend 14, Lenovo Legion 9i, MSI VenturePro A14 AI+, and the Razer Blade 14. These devices support Blackwell Max-Q and will be priced starting from $1,099.

Nvidia also compared the performance of the RTX 5060 Laptop GPU with that of the RTX 4060 Laptop and the RTX 3060 Laptop. Unsurprisingly, the numbers are inflated due to using a 100 W TGP variant and enabling multi-frame generation with the RTX 5060 Laptop, a feature not supported by previous gen GPUs.

Unfortunately, many publications including ours couldn't have day 0 reviews of the RTX 5060 desktop GPU as Nvidia chose to not offer press drivers under embargo, which is usually the norm. This means reviewers will only get access to RTX 5060 drivers at the same time as everyone else, which is later today.

Day 0 reviews help potential buyers in making informed purchase decisions, so naturally many reviewers were upset about Nvidia's call to not go ahead with embargoed reviews for the RTX 5060. The company's reasoning in a recent Computex 2025 pre-brief call was that it aimed to offer the best experience for end-users on availability date and declined to comment further.

The few that did get access to early reviews like GameStar Tech and Ascii.jp were only allowed to do so on Nvidia's terms. This included comparing the RTX 5060 to just the RTX 3060 and the RTX 2060 Super and limiting game performance comparisons to select titles like Avowed, Doom: The Dark Ages, Marvel Rivals, Cyberpunk 2077, and Hogwarts Legacy with DLSS or FSR frame generation enabled as the case may be.

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