Nvidia RTX 5060 & RTX 5070 GPUs for Gaming Laptops: Early Performance Review

Recently, we had the opportunity to test Nvidia’s new mid-range laptop graphics cards—the RTX 5060 and RTX 5070—during MSI’s Computex event in Taipei. Although the laptops we tested were engineering samples and not final retail models, their performance offers a promising preview of what gamers and creators can expect from these GPUs when they become widely available.

The Test Laptops

Our RTX 5070 sample was housed in the MSI Crosshair 18HX, which features a 115-watt version of the RTX 5070 paired with Intel’s powerful 275HX processor, 32 GB of RAM, and a spacious 2TB SSD. The laptop sports a large 18-inch QHD+ display, perfect for high-quality gaming and content creation. This model is expected to retail at around $1,800.

The RTX 5060 was tested in the MSI Stealth A6, a sleek laptop with a durable full-metal magnesium alloy body. It pairs a 95-watt RTX 5060 with a Ryzen 7 processor, 32 GB RAM, and a 240Hz QHD+ IPS display, offering a solid balance between performance and portability.

Benchmark Results

We ran several benchmarks, including 3DMark’s Fire Strike, Time Spy, and Port Royal, to evaluate the GPUs’ capabilities. CPU choice greatly impacted the results, especially in Fire Strike, where the Intel HX CPU in the Crosshair 18 gave the RTX 5070 a noticeable advantage.

The RTX 5060 held up surprisingly well against its predecessor and often matched or exceeded the performance of older GPUs, despite its lower power rating. In GPU-intensive tests like Port Royal, differences between the RTX 50-series and 40-series narrowed but still highlighted performance improvements.

Gaming Performance

For real-world tests, we played Cyberpunk 2077 and Baldur’s Gate 3 at 1080p on ultra settings. The RTX 5060 performed impressively, closely matching the lower wattage RTX 5070 in some setups, such as the Gigabyte Arrow laptop. The Crosshair 18 with the RTX 5070 consistently led in performance.

Baldur’s Gate 3 showed that CPU power matters—Ryzen 7’s eight cores occasionally limited performance compared to Intel’s HX series, which helped narrow the gap between these GPUs in some scenarios.

At QHD resolution, the RTX 5060 continued to shine, delivering better frame rates in Cyberpunk than the previous generation RTX 4060, even when paired with faster CPUs. However, gaming performance varied between titles, showing how much impact the CPU and game optimization can have.

DLSS and Frame Generation

Nvidia’s DLSS and Frame Generation technology are major selling points of the 50-series GPUs. We tested these features on Cyberpunk at 1080p with ray tracing on ultra settings. Without DLSS, performance was playable but far from smooth. With DLSS and Frame Generation enabled, frame rates surged to around 170 FPS in benchmarks and similar numbers in actual gameplay.

These results are impressive, especially for the RTX 5060 running under 100 watts. Latency was low, providing a smooth and responsive gaming experience, although individual experiences may vary.

Conclusion

While video memory limitations and certain game settings might cause performance issues in some cases, early tests suggest these won’t be widespread problems. Pricing for the RTX 5060 laptops is expected to be attractive, making these GPUs a strong choice for budget-conscious gamers.

In fact, the RTX 5060’s performance could make upgrading to the RTX 5070 unnecessary for many users, unless they need the extra power for very demanding tasks.

What do you think of Nvidia’s new mid-range laptop GPUs? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for more hands-on reviews and updates.