Early RTX 5060 Ti benchmarks reveal why Nvidia withheld the 8GB version from reviewers

In brief: Nvidia’s marketing for the RTX 5060 Ti has so far focused exclusively on the 16GB model, raising eyebrows as the company has refused to provide reviewers with access to the 8GB version. This decision suggests an effort to downplay the cheaper variant’s underwhelming performance, and an early review appears to confirm those suspicions – at least, in certain scenarios.

A review on Bilibili offers an early look at the 8GB version of Nvidia’s RTX 5060 Ti, which has not been made available to Western media. The video reveals that halving the VRAM significantly affects performance in several notable games and hampers the effectiveness of multi-frame generation, the RTX 50 series’ standout feature.

To be fair, the 8GB RTX 5060 Ti holds its own against the 16GB model in synthetic benchmarks and many titles, including Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty (at reasonable settings), Counter-Strike 2, Resident Evil 4, Forza Horizon 5, F1 24, Call of Duty, and even Alan Wake 2. However, performance gaps do emerge in more demanding scenarios.

Assassin’s Creed: Shadows shows a 10 percent performance gap between the two variants, but the 8GB model performs significantly worse in Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered. At 1080p, average frame rates are about 23 percent lower, with one percent lows dropping by a staggering 30 percent. The gap narrows somewhat at 1440p.

Even multi-frame generation can’t fully mask the disparity due to the 8GB card’s limited VRAM. In Cyberpunk 2077 at max settings, the 16GB model dips to 18 FPS, while the 8GB version bottoms out at just nine FPS. Activating 2x framegen equalizes performance, but a slight gap reappears at 4x, indicating that the 8GB card may struggle to benefit fully from multi-frame generation in future titles.

RTX 5060 Ti “8GB” performance
Yes, 8GB is worse even with MFG. https://t.co/yvfG38LFdh pic.twitter.com/iVaNonAuAX

– 포시포시 (@harukaze5719) April 16, 2025

Our recent review of the 16GB model labeled the RTX 5060 Ti as yet another misfire in an already disappointing lineup, and we haven’t even touched the 8GB variant. Releasing a mid-range graphics card with just 8GB of VRAM in 2025, eight years after AMD’s Radeon RX 580 launched with the same amount, should be unacceptable. Expect a full review from TechSpot once the 8GB 5060 Ti reaches store shelves.

The continued push for 8GB mainstream GPUs is troubling, especially since this segment dominates the most popular price tier. Most of the top 10 GPUs on Steam are 60-class Nvidia cards with 8GB of VRAM, a trend the RTX 5060 Ti 8GB and the upcoming standard 5060 are likely to extend for years. That means a large share of PC gamers will remain stuck with memory-constrained hardware, limiting their performance in modern and future titles.