Nvidia RTX 5060 Ti confirmed for April 16 launch - and while the price looks good, availability certainly doesn't

News
By published

A strong showing from Nvidia, but will you be able to get one?

A selection of Nvidia RTX 5060 Ti graphics cards.
(Image credit: Nvidia)

Nvidia's long-awaited budget (or perhaps I should say 'budget') RTX 5000 GPUs are finally here, with a last-minute announcement that the RTX 5060 Ti will be dropping on April 16 - yes, that's tomorrow.

The pricing is naturally what most people have been waiting to see, and I can confirm that the RTX 5060 Ti will start at a very reasonable $379 / £349 (around AU$595) - although that's for the 8GB model, with the 16GB model setting you back $429 / £399 (around AU$675) at MSRP.

The good news is that's a generational price cut against the RTX 4060 Ti, for both models. Even better, an RTX 5060 (non-Ti) is coming sometime in May, with a $299 price point (other regional prices to be confirmed), and RTX 5060-series laptops will also start dropping in May.

The bad news is that availability is likely to be rough, if the recent carnage in the GPU market is anything to go off. Between ludicrous price inflation, horrendously low stock levels, tariff-related nonsense, and missing ROPs on some cards, it's been a perfect storm that has been borderline disastrous for the other RTX 5000 launches, and there's nothing to indicate this one will be any better.

Graphic violence

An Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

Hell, you know what? I might go so far as to say that I expect availability to be even worse this time around. Announcing the card via a blog post 24 hours before the launch is practically approaching a stealth drop, and while I don't exactly expect the same fanfare we saw for the RTX 5090, this feels almost like Nvidia has kicked it out the door like a problem child on its 18th birthday.

I noted recently that renowned hardware leaker Moore's Law Is Dead (MLID) on YouTube reported on a source claiming that the RTX 5060 Ti launch would be among the worst seen in recent memory. Basically, you're going to struggle to get your hands on one of these cards.

On the bright side, this launch is (availability aside) bringing the boosted performance of Nvidia's Blackwell GPU architecture and DLSS 4 support to PC gamers with smaller budgets, something that has become desperately needed; after all, it's no secret that many recent triple-A PC releases have struggled performance-wise without modern resolution upscaling solutions like DLSS and the increasingly divisive frame-gen.

There's one more stumbling block for Nvidia's newest GPU to overcome, too: the potential for a 'motherboard tax' caused by the upgrade to PCIe 5.0. This is an issue that could sting budget buyers more than anyone who can drop multiple thousands on a high-end card. Personally? I think I'll be keeping an eye on AMD's RX 9060 XT instead...

You might also like...

See more Computing News
TOPICS
Christian Guyton
Christian Guyton
Editor, Computing

Christian is TechRadar’s UK-based Computing Editor. He came to us from Maximum PC magazine, where he fell in love with computer hardware and building PCs. He was a regular fixture amongst our freelance review team before making the jump to TechRadar, and can usually be found drooling over the latest high-end graphics card or gaming laptop before looking at his bank account balance and crying.

Christian is a keen campaigner for LGBTQ+ rights and the owner of a charming rescue dog named Lucy, having adopted her after he beat cancer in 2021. She keeps him fit and healthy through a combination of face-licking and long walks, and only occasionally barks at him to demand treats when he’s trying to work from home.

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.