09-05-2025
Nvidia Is Hiding the RTX 5060 By Delaying Driver Releases
Nvidia is being accused of hiding its upcoming RTX 5060 ahead of its May 19 release by blocking reviewers from accessing a driver that adds official support. This is a little different from the RTX 5060 Ti 8GB launch, where Nvidia just didn't send the cards out. This time, reviewers do have them, and several versions in some cases, but they won't work as intended without the right driver.
Nvidia was hit with a lot of flak over its handling of the RTX 5060 Ti launch. While the 16GB version did go out to reviewers and, by most counts, was reviewed well, with strong performance and features at a reasonable price, Nvidia never sent out any 8GB versions. That despite both cards launching on the same day, too. So reviews of the RTX 5060 16GB could be misconstrued as recommending the 8GB version, and indeed, that card sold out almost as fast as the 16GB version.
This time, though, there just won't be any full reviews of these cards before launch or even on launch day. Gamers will have to buy the card on good faith or Nvidia's own first-party numbers, which are heavily cherry-picked, as we saw with its claims of the RTX 5090 being double the RTX 4090 at CES.
Both Igor's Lab and Hardware Unboxed claim that they have RTX 5060 GPUs ready to test, but that they won't be able to because of the delay in driver releases until the day the card drops. They suggest this is because Nvidia knows the performance will be poor due to its limited 8GB of VRAM and that Nvidia is looking to hide that with its driver launch schedule.
They also claim Nvidia is deliberately launching the card while Computex is going on in order to further hide negative press.
This goes hand in hand with criticism of Nvidia's handling of the RTX 5060 in general. Although its launch was delayed, many argue it should have been pushed back even further to let Nvidia have the time to use newer, larger 3GB VRAM modules. That would let it fit the card with 12GB of VRAM instead, fixing many of the performance issues associated with the 8GB 5060 Ti.
But whether it's for a Computex tie-in, to compete with the impending AMD RX 9060 XT launch, or just because it's saving more VRAM for a Super refresh of the 50-series, Nvidia is pushing ahead with the 5060 8GB's launch nonetheless. Look out for it on the 19th, but don't expect full reviews for a few days afterwards, at best.
