1. Introduction
The GeForce GTX 1060 6GB is a cost-effective and very popular graphics card released by NVIDIA in 2016, and it may still be in service in many users’ backup systems.
However, it’s been 9 years since its release, and some users might be considering an upgrade. This article compares the gaming performance of the GeForce GTX 1060 6GB and the GeForce RTX 5060 to evaluate how much performance improvement one can gain by upgrading from the former to the latter, for the reference of interested users.
2. Specifications Comparison
The GeForce GTX 1060 6GB was released on July 19, 2016. It uses the GP106 GPU, based on TSMC’s 16nm process, featuring 1,280 shader units, 80 texture units, 48 raster units, and 10 streaming multiprocessors. It has 1,536KB of L2 cache.
Its base clock is 1,506 MHz, with a boost clock up to 1,709 MHz. It comes with 6GB of GDDR5 memory, a memory speed of 8Gbps, a 192-bit memory bus, memory bandwidth of 192.2GB/s, FP32 performance of 4.375 TFLOPS, a power consumption of 120W, and an official suggested retail price of $299.
The GeForce RTX 5060 was released on May 19, 2025. It uses the GB206 GPU based on the Blackwell architecture and TSMC’s 4nm process, featuring 3,840 CUDA cores, 120 texture units, 48 raster units, 30 streaming multiprocessors, 120 tensor cores, 30 ray tracing cores, and 32MB of L2 cache.
Its base clock is 2,280 MHz, with a boost clock up to 2,497 MHz. It comes with 8GB of GDDR7 memory, a memory speed of 28Gbps, a 128-bit memory bus, memory bandwidth of 448.0GB/s, FP32 performance of 19.18 TFLOPS, power consumption of 145W, and a suggested retail price of $299.
3. Test Platform Configuration
The main configuration is as follows:
Processor: Ryzen 7 9800X3D
Motherboard: ASRock X670E PG Lightning
Memory: 32GB DDR5 6000MHz
Graphics Cards: GeForce RTX 5060 8GB and GeForce GTX 1060 6GB
Storage: Two Samsung 970 SSDs
Operating System: Windows 11
4. Game Testing
Seven games were tested, all in 1080P resolution. In the images, the left side represents the GeForce GTX 1060 6GB platform, and the right side represents the GeForce RTX 5060 platform.
Game 1: God of War
GTX 1060:
- Avg FPS: 24
- Min FPS: 23
- Frame Time: 42.7ms
- CPU Usage: 21%
- CPU Power: 47W
- CPU Temp: 51°C
- RAM: 12.9GB
- GPU Usage: 99%
- VRAM: 5.9GB
- GPU Power: 93W
- GPU Temp: 65°C
RTX 5060:
- Avg FPS: 101
- Min FPS: 96
- Frame Time: 9.7ms
- CPU Usage: 18%
- CPU Power: 51W
- CPU Temp: 62°C
- RAM: 12.8GB
- GPU Usage: 99%
- VRAM: 6.1GB
- GPU Power: 140W
- GPU Temp: 54°C
Performance difference: RTX 5060 has 3.1x higher avg FPS (+74 FPS), 33ms lower frame time.
Game 2: Ghostwire: Tokyo
GTX 1060:
- Avg FPS: 24
- Min FPS: 18
- Frame Time: 40.9ms
- CPU Usage: 16%
- CPU Power: 43W
- CPU Temp: 48°C
- RAM: 12.0GB
- GPU Usage: 93%
- VRAM: 5.3GB
- GPU Power: 84W
- GPU Temp: 63°C
RTX 5060:
- Avg FPS: 86
- Min FPS: 75
- Frame Time: 11.5ms
- CPU Usage: 16%
- CPU Power: 45W
- CPU Temp: 51°C
- RAM: 11.3GB
- GPU Usage: 100%
- VRAM: 5.5GB
- GPU Power: 147W
- GPU Temp: 58°C
Performance difference: RTX 5060 has 3.6x higher avg FPS (+62 FPS), 29ms lower frame time.
Game 3: Red Dead Redemption 2
GTX 1060:
- Avg FPS: 29
- Min FPS: 27
- Frame Time: 35.1ms
- CPU Usage: 11%
- CPU Power: 52W
- CPU Temp: 49°C
- RAM: 13.2GB
- GPU Usage: 98%
- VRAM: 4.6GB
- GPU Power: 97W
- GPU Temp: 63°C
RTX 5060:
- Avg FPS: 94
- Min FPS: 75
- Frame Time: 10.7ms
- CPU Usage: 20%
- CPU Power: 59W
- CPU Temp: 54°C
- RAM: 12.5GB
- GPU Usage: 95%
- VRAM: 4.7GB
- GPU Power: 138W
- GPU Temp: 53°C
Performance difference: RTX 5060 has 3.2x higher avg FPS (+65 FPS), 35ms lower frame time.
Game 4: Cyberpunk 2077
GTX 1060:
- Avg FPS: 22
- Min FPS: 19
- Frame Time: 43.2ms
- CPU Usage: 26%
- CPU Power: 60W
- CPU Temp: 57°C
- RAM: 12.8GB
- GPU Usage: 99%
- VRAM: 5.9GB
- GPU Power: 92W
- GPU Temp: 66°C
RTX 5060:
- Avg FPS: 84
- Min FPS: 70
- Frame Time: 11.1ms
- CPU Usage: 49%
- CPU Power: 78W
- CPU Temp: 62°C
- RAM: 11.6GB
- GPU Usage: 98%
- VRAM: 6.7GB
- GPU Power: 141W
- GPU Temp: 56°C
Performance difference: RTX 5060 has 3.8x higher avg FPS (+62 FPS), 32ms lower frame time.
Game 5: The Light and Shadow: Expedition 33
GTX 1060:
- Avg FPS: 20
- Min FPS: 16
- Frame Time: 50.9ms
- CPU Usage: 22%
- CPU Power: 56W
- CPU Temp: 57°C
- RAM: 10.8GB
- GPU Usage: 99%
- VRAM: 5.6GB
- GPU Power: 96W
- GPU Temp: 64°C
RTX 5060:
- Avg FPS: 76
- Min FPS: 60
- Frame Time: 13.4ms
- CPU Usage: 29%
- CPU Power: 74W
- CPU Temp: 62°C
- RAM: 10.4GB
- GPU Usage: 98%
- VRAM: 5.9GB
- GPU Power: 132W
- GPU Temp: 54°C
Performance difference: RTX 5060 has 3.8x higher avg FPS (+56 FPS), 37ms lower frame time.
Game 6: Horizon Forbidden West
GTX 1060:
- Avg FPS: 27
- Min FPS: 17
- Frame Time: 37.5ms
- CPU Usage: 40%
- CPU Power: 81W
- CPU Temp: 67°C
- RAM: 15.1GB
- GPU Usage: 99%
- VRAM: 5.3GB
- GPU Power: 104W
- GPU Temp: 64°C
RTX 5060:
- Avg FPS: 87
- Min FPS: 79
- Frame Time: 11.6ms
- CPU Usage: 41%
- CPU Power: 73W
- CPU Temp: 63°C
- RAM: 11.8GB
- GPU Usage: 99%
- VRAM: 7.5GB
- GPU Power: 142W
- GPU Temp: 54°C
Performance difference: RTX 5060 has 3.2x higher avg FPS (+60 FPS), 26ms lower frame time.
Game 7: The Last of Us Part II
GTX 1060:
- Avg FPS: 31
- Min FPS: 21
- Frame Time: 34.0ms
- CPU Usage: 43%
- CPU Power: 59W
- CPU Temp: 52°C
- RAM: 15.3GB
- GPU Usage: 99%
- VRAM: 5.4GB
- GPU Power: 81W
- GPU Temp: 60°C
RTX 5060:
- Avg FPS: 113
- Min FPS: 71
- Frame Time: 9.2ms
- CPU Usage: 36%
- CPU Power: 80W
- CPU Temp: 65°C
- RAM: 12.3GB
- GPU Usage: 99%
- VRAM: 7.5GB
- GPU Power: 124W
- GPU Temp: 51°C
Performance difference: RTX 5060 has 3.7x higher avg FPS (+82 FPS), 25ms lower frame time.
5. Comparative Conclusion
Overall, the comparison results align with previous expectations—the GeForce GTX 1060 was thoroughly “crushed” throughout, unable to meet the minimum thresholds for smooth gameplay in either frame rate or frame time, and is now completely obsolete.
Based on the comprehensive data above, the GeForce RTX 5060 delivers approximately 3.5 times the performance of the GeForce GTX 1060 6GB. In other words, upgrading from the GTX 1060 6GB to the RTX 5060 results in a 250% improvement in gaming performance. Additionally, despite a generally higher power consumption by a few dozen watts, the temperatures are lower. This is the conclusion of the article, for reference only.
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