MSI GeForce RTX 5060 Gaming OC VS Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 9060 XT 8GB

The MSI GeForce RTX 5060 Gaming OC and the Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 9060 XT 8GB differ in several key performance aspects. The GPU clock speed of the MSI model is 2280 MHz, while the Sapphire model has a lower clock speed at 1700 MHz. However, the Sapphire card has a higher GPU turbo speed of 3290 MHz compared to the MSI's 2625 MHz. This means the Sapphire card can potentially reach higher peak performance under turbo conditions.

Looking at pixel rate, the Sapphire card leads with 210.6 GPixel/s, significantly higher than the MSI's 126 GPixel/s. The floating-point performance also favors the Sapphire model, delivering 26.95 TFLOPS compared to the MSI's 20.16 TFLOPS, which indicates it could handle more complex calculations. For texture rate, the Sapphire card again takes the lead with 421.1 GTexels/s, surpassing the MSI's 315 GTexels/s.

In terms of GPU memory speed, the Sapphire model outperforms the MSI with a faster 2518 MHz compared to the MSI's 1750 MHz. The Sapphire card also has more shading units (2048 vs 3840 on the MSI), though the MSI has more texture mapping units (120 vs 128 on the Sapphire). Lastly, both cards feature double precision floating-point (DPFP) support, so there’s no difference in that regard. The Sapphire card also has more render output units (64 vs 48 on the MSI), which could help with rendering efficiency in certain workloads.

The MSI GeForce RTX 5060 Gaming OC and the Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 9060 XT 8GB share the same VRAM size of 8GB, but their other memory specifications differ. The MSI card features a faster effective memory speed of 28000 MHz, while the Sapphire model has a lower effective memory speed of 20000 MHz. This difference may affect the speed at which data is accessed by the GPU.

In terms of memory bandwidth, the MSI card offers a higher maximum bandwidth of 448 GB/s, compared to the Sapphire’s 322.3 GB/s, suggesting the MSI card can handle more data throughput in memory-intensive tasks.

Both cards use a 128-bit memory bus width and support ECC (Error-Correcting Code) memory, ensuring that both are capable of error detection and correction during memory operations. The MSI card uses GDDR7 memory, while the Sapphire card uses GDDR6, with GDDR7 generally offering higher performance potential due to its newer design.

The MSI GeForce RTX 5060 Gaming OC and the Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 9060 XT 8GB share several key features, though there are some differences. Both cards support DirectX 12 Ultimate, OpenGL 4.6, and ray tracing, as well as multi-display technology and 3D support. However, the MSI card offers support for OpenCL 3, while the Sapphire card only supports OpenCL 2.2, which may affect performance in certain compute-heavy tasks.

When it comes to additional technologies, the MSI card supports DLSS, which can enhance performance in supported games, while the Sapphire card does not. Both cards do not have XeSS (XMX) support. The MSI card also has RGB lighting, while the Sapphire model lacks this feature.

In terms of display support, the MSI card can handle up to 4 displays, while the Sapphire model supports up to 3 displays. Additionally, the MSI card supports Intel Resizable BAR, whereas the Sapphire card supports AMD SAM, which is similar but tied to different system architectures. Both cards have no LHR (Lite Hash Rate) limitations, ensuring full mining performance.

Both the MSI GeForce RTX 5060 Gaming OC and the Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 9060 XT 8GB have an HDMI output, with each featuring 1 HDMI port that supports HDMI 2.1b. However, the MSI card offers 3 DisplayPort outputs, while the Sapphire card has 2 DisplayPort outputs. Neither card has USB-C, DVI, or mini DisplayPort outputs, which means their connectivity options are primarily limited to HDMI and DisplayPort.

Both cards share similar HDMI capabilities and lack USB-C and DVI ports. The main difference lies in the number of DisplayPort outputs, with the MSI offering one more than the Sapphire card, which could be important for users needing to connect multiple DisplayPort monitors.

The MSI GeForce RTX 5060 Gaming OC and the Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 9060 XT 8GB differ in several general specifications. The MSI card uses the Blackwell GPU architecture, while the Sapphire card is built on the RDNA 4.0 architecture. The MSI card has a thermal design power (TDP) of 145W, whereas the Sapphire card's TDP is higher at 170W. This suggests the Sapphire card may require more power for its operations.

In terms of semiconductor size, the MSI card is based on a 5 nm process, while the Sapphire card uses a smaller 4 nm process, potentially offering improved efficiency. The number of transistors also differs, with the MSI card having 21,900 million transistors, compared to the Sapphire card's 29,700 million transistors, which may indicate greater computational potential in the Sapphire card.

Both cards support PCIe version 5, and neither has air-water cooling. When comparing physical size, the MSI card is slightly larger at 248 mm in width and 135 mm in height, while the Sapphire card is a bit more compact, measuring 240 mm in width and 124 mm in height.