Nvidia and AMD are set for a showdown in March, if this rumor holds any truth - RTX 5060 Ti and 5060 reportedly launching next month

The Nvidia and AMD logos side by side on a black background.

(Image credit: eurogamer)

Nvidia's RTX 5060 Ti and RTX 5060 are reportedly set for launch in March
This will directly compete with AMD's Radeon RX 9000 series launch
We could be seeing a repeat in this generation of 8GB of VRAM with the RTX 5060

Nvidia's RTX 5000 series GPU launch is well underway with the RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 now sold out at virtually every retailer (unsurprisingly), and Team Green looks set to roll out the rest of its lineup very soon - which means key rival AMD may be set for a big battle.

As reported by Tom's Hardware, the RTX 5060 Ti and RTX 5060 are supposedly set to launch in March according to Chinese hardware manufacturer Chaintech. This is when AMD's Radeon RX 9000 series GPU lineup is slated to launch, which would ultimately put Team Green and Team Red in direct competition - AMD has already made it clear that mid-range GPUs will be its focus, and the new xx60-class Nvidia cards could likely challenge them.

A mysterious silhouette of a graphics card with a question mark in the center. — Will the RTX 5060 prove to be the greatest budget GPU the world has ever seen? The jury's still out. (Image credit: Nvidia, Shutterstock)

We're awaiting details regarding the pricing of the RX 9000 series along with just how powerful they could be compared to the previous RX 7900 XT and XTX GPUs - considering the official pricing of Nvidia's RTX 5070 ($549 / £549 / AU$1,109), prices for the RTX 5060 Ti and 5060 could be much lower. Depending on the performance of these GPUs, AMD could win the mid-range battle - just as long as prices for its next-gen GPUs are reasonable.

Can we just be done with 8GB GPUs, please?

Looking at both Nvidia’s and AMD's low and mid-range GPUs, my only hope is that we can finally say goodbye to 8GB of VRAM as a baseline industry standard. Games are becoming increasingly VRAM-hungry, and gamers need every advantage possible considering how bad PC ports have been recently. I believe a minimum of 12GB of VRAM is necessary for modern PC gaming - even just at 1080p - but unfortunately, it doesn't look like that will happen.

EEC filings from Maxsun suggest the RTX 5060 will utilize 8GB of VRAM, which could mean it ends up following in the same footsteps as its predecessor - this will be disappointing, to say the least, especially since Intel's affordable new Battlemage GPUs have opted to give that 8GB figure the boot.

The Intel Arc B570 uses 10GB of VRAM while its big brother the B580 dons 12GB of VRAM - these are both considered to be budget- to mid-range GPUs that are capable of 1440p gaming. While the rumored 8GB RTX 5060 will likely do the same using DLSS 4 and Multi Frame Generation, the comparatively low amount of VRAM would be a worry for those looking for an affordable way into the RTX 5000 series experience.

There's nothing confirmed on Nvidia's part regarding the RTX 5060 Ti or 5060, but let's hope these VRAM rumors are false. But with the RTX 5070 and 5070 Ti slated for release later this month, March certainly does seem like a reasonable launch window for the budget Blackwell GPUs.