I'm building my first PC and haven't owned one before. I mostly play open-world games like Red Dead Redemption 1 and 2, Skyrim, and Black Myth, along with co-op and horror games. I'm comparing the RTX 5060 Ti and RX 9060 XT, but I'm unsure whether NVIDIA's ray tracing and DLSS features are noticeably better in actual gameplay. I'm willing to spend more if the improvement is worthwhile. Would an RX 9070 XT be the better choice for roughly the same money, or would I be giving up too much by not going with DLSS and NVIDIA's ray tracing?
3 Answers
DLSS is generally a little better than FSR, and NVIDIA has an advantage in ray tracing, but the difference between the 5060 Ti and 9060 XT usually isn’t large enough to justify sacrificing a lot of overall performance. For normal gaming, raster performance matters more most of the time. The 9070 XT is the better pick unless you specifically need NVIDIA features for AI work, professional 3D software, or certain productivity applications.
The RTX 5060 Ti can still be a good all-around card, especially if you want NVIDIA-specific software support, but it doesn’t offer the best gaming performance for the money in this comparison. For the games you listed and a gaming-focused build, I’d choose the RX 9070 XT if your power supply, case, and budget can support it.
If you’re primarily gaming, the RX 9070 XT is the strongest option here. Its raw rendering performance is dramatically higher than the RTX 5060 Ti, often by around 60–80% depending on the game, while costing a similar amount in some markets. The RX 9060 XT is the more sensible budget choice, but the 9070 XT offers a much bigger performance jump.
That helps a lot. I mainly just want to come home and play, so I was worried I’d be missing out by not choosing DLSS or NVIDIA’s ray tracing. The 9070 XT was feeling like the best option, but comparisons often made the choice seem less clear.