The tech industry, in particular, kept moving forward in its own way—full of launches, rumors, sky-high prices, and, every now and then, a bit of good news.
This week, for example, something remarkable happened—even if only for a few hours—you could actually snag an RTX 5070 at MSRP. Yes, it sounds unreal. But it happened. For us simracers who dream of buttery-smooth graphics across triple monitors or in VR without having to mortgage our wheelbase, this felt almost as miraculous as nailing a perfect lap in the rain at Spa.
And even though it sold out in the blink of an eye, it left behind a curious feeling: there’s still hope. Because let’s be honest, in recent years, building a decent simracing setup has started to feel a lot like building a real car. Between the cockpit, the base, the pedals, and now the GPU, you end up staring at your bank account like it’s an F1 dashboard running on fumes.
But back to the news.
Leaks also surfaced this week about the upcoming RTX 5060 Ti, which could be launching any day now. The good news: it’s expected to come in cheaper than its predecessor, with 13–14% better performance in Vulkan and OpenCL. Sure, those aren’t the gold standard benchmarks for simracing, but it’s a promising sign—especially if you’re using well-optimized sims like iRacing or Automobilista 2 , where every single frame counts.
A small but welcome detail: many models will feature 8-pin power connectors instead of the troublesome 12v2x6. If you’ve ever wrestled with cables while mounting a GPU into a cramped, cluttered rig (like my humble aluminum extrusion setup), you’ll know just how valuable simple, reliable connections really are.
And GPUs weren’t the only headline this week. From China, a new video connection standard called GPMI is on the horizon. It promises double the bandwidth of HDMI 2.1 and up to 240W of power delivery over a single USB-C cable. Just imagine that on a future ultra-wide simracing monitor—no mess of wires, no external power bricks. Sounds like sci-fi, but it’s a reality in the making.
Which brings me to a thought. Sometimes we get so caught up chasing the next upgrade, the next piece of the puzzle, that we forget why we started in the first place. And in simracing, we started for the thrill. For the adrenaline of a wheel-to-wheel battle. For that deep breath we take when we cross the line by mere thousandths.
Technology helps, of course. But it’s not everything. So if you didn’t get the GPU, monitor, or pedals you were after this week, don’t stress. The heart of it is still there: you, the wheel, and the track.
Happy Racing!
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Iracing isn’t a well optimized sim. It looks like the 2008 game that it is running at 😯 frames/s with a 4070 super. It needs the 9800x3d to run smooth.