In addition to the GeForce RTX 5060 and RTX 5060 Ti desktop graphics card announcements today, Nvidia has pulled the curtain off the RTX 5060 for gaming laptops. According to Nvidia’s promotional materials, models packing the discrete card will be available from “every major OEM,” including Acer, Asus, Dell/Alienware, Gigabyte, HP, Lenovo, MSI, and Razer.
Nvidia says that models packing the mid-range Blackwell GPU will start at $1099 and be “as thin as 14.9mm,” or .59 inches, with availability beginning as soon as May. Though Nvidia didn’t specify how much video RAM will be packed into the RTX 5060 laptop card, 8GB seems like a safe bet, considering that’s what’s going into the base model RTX 5060 card on desktops, and the laptop 5070 already offers 8GB of VRAM.
How much performance can you expect? That’ll depend on the other components of your laptop, of course, not to mention variables in game design and settings. But directly comparing the new 5060 to the laptop 4060 and 3060 cards, Nvidia made a stunning claim: 146 frames per second for the 5060, versus 60 on the 4060 and just 21 on the 3060. That’s running a benchmark in Cyberpunk 2077 with “Max Settings” (presumably path tracing), DLSS quality mode, and max frame gen.
Nvidia
“Max frame gen” is, presumably, how the newer card managed such a huge increase. DLSS 4 can create three “AI-generated” frames for every one fully rendered frame, which would largely account for the doubled framerate versus the 4060 card (which can only generate one AI frame for every rendered frame). Some critics call these “fake frames,” though the take from PCWorld reviewers Brad Chacos and Adam Patrick Murray is a little more nuanced. In short: it looks pretty amazing in games that support it, though it might not be relevant to you if you demand pure rendered performance.
Nvidia gave other examples of performance in popular games, without directly comparing to previous laptop cards. The quoted framerates were shown with the same setup: 100-watt TGP on the GPU, paired with a Core 9 Ultra, 1080p, maximum settings, and maximum frame generation.
Nvidia
It’s not surprising that every big gaming laptop manufacturer is on board, considering Nvidia’s domination of the graphics card industry even as end users yearn for more affordable hardware. An xx60 laptop that “starts” at $1100 is still pretty dang pricey — laptops with RTX 4060 cards can regularly be found on sale in the $700 range, albeit years after they debuted. And who knows how the prices will fluctuate as the Trump tariff situation in the US shifts, making a pig’s ear of any kind of pricing predictions that go beyond a single day.
Author: Michael Crider, Staff Writer, PCWorld
Michael is a 10-year veteran of technology journalism, covering everything from Apple to ZTE. On PCWorld he's the resident keyboard nut, always using a new one for a review and building a new mechanical board or expanding his desktop "battlestation" in his off hours. Michael's previous bylines include Android Police, Digital Trends, Wired, Lifehacker, and How-To Geek, and he's covered events like CES and Mobile World Congress live. Michael lives in Pennsylvania where he's always looking forward to his next kayaking trip.