I'm a professional photographer and videographer, and I mainly use my Windows PC for DaVinci Resolve and Lightroom Classic, with some gaming on the side. I'm considering replacing my RTX 2080 Super 8GB with a Gainward RTX 5060 Ti Python III 16GB, which costs about $950 locally. The store does not accept returns or trade-ins, so I'd like some advice before buying.
My current system has a Ryzen 7 3800X, an Asus ROG Strix B450-F motherboard, 32GB of DDR4-3600 CL16 memory, a be quiet! Pure Power 11 700W 80+ Gold PSU, air cooling, and several NVMe SSDs. I use one 3440×1440 display and one 1080×1920 display.
Is 700W enough for the RTX 5060 Ti, or would I need a new power supply? Will the Ryzen 7 3800X hold the card back significantly in gaming or creative applications? Finally, would the 5060 Ti provide a meaningful improvement over my 2080 Super, particularly for DaVinci Resolve, Lightroom, AI features, and extra VRAM, or would it make more sense to wait and upgrade the entire platform later?
4 Answers
Your 700W Gold PSU should be completely adequate. The RTX 5060 Ti uses around 180W, compared with roughly 250W for the RTX 2080 Super, and recommended system power is generally around 600W. The salesperson may simply be trying to sell you another component.
The 3800X could limit performance somewhat at lower resolutions or very high frame rates, especially at 1080p, but the combination should be reasonably balanced at 3440×1440. Creative workloads are more complicated: some Resolve effects and AI features use the GPU, while Lightroom and certain export tasks remain more CPU-dependent.
You should still gain performance, along with newer ray tracing, DLSS features, better AI acceleration, and 16GB of VRAM. It may be a worthwhile upgrade if those features matter to your workflow, though you should not expect every application to improve equally.
For Lightroom, the CPU can still matter a lot because many operations depend heavily on single-core performance. Resolve varies by codec, effects, and timeline, so the GPU can make a substantial difference for accelerated effects and playback, but it will not automatically make every export twice as fast.
A platform upgrade would improve CPU-heavy work, but switching platforms solely because of this graphics card is not necessary. If you mostly want better GPU effects, AI tools, ray tracing, and more VRAM, the 5060 Ti can make sense. If your biggest frustration is Lightroom responsiveness or CPU-based encoding, saving for a broader upgrade may provide more noticeable results.
The upgrade should also run cooler and quieter than the 2080 Super because the 5060 Ti has a lower power draw. In addition to normal gaming performance, newer AI acceleration may help with Lightroom or Photoshop features such as object removal and background editing. At 3440×1440, the extra VRAM and newer feature support could be more useful than the raw average-frame-rate increase alone.
The main concern is the price. Around $950 for a 5060 Ti 16GB sounds extremely high unless local pricing is very different. Check several retailers and independent benchmarks before committing, because the card is roughly a midrange upgrade rather than a dramatic jump over the 2080 Super.
Performance estimates suggest something in the neighborhood of a 30–40% overall improvement, with much larger gains in ray tracing and newer AI-supported features. The additional VRAM could also help with demanding Resolve projects and AI tools. Avoid generic bottleneck calculators; real benchmarks at your resolution will be much more useful.
I appreciate the alternative perspective. I’m much more comfortable staying on Windows because my existing work and gaming setup is built around it, so I’ll focus on comparing Windows hardware options rather than switching platforms.