AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT: One-minute overview

Having missed the preliminary AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT overview cycle earlier this month for logistical causes, I needed to do extra with this overview than simply attempt to play catch-up with my friends who bought to overview the 16GB card previous to launch.

Luckily, doing this post-launch meant that I used to be in a position to get my arms on each 16GB and 8GB variations of the RX 9060 XT for a single overview, and I am truthfully glad I waited.

Each AMD RX 9060 XT playing cards carry a compelling worth, with the 8GB model beginning at $299.99 / £269.99 / AU$569 and the 16GB variations beginning at $349.99 / £329.99 / AU$689. This places it roughly in the midst of the value pack for the perfect low cost graphics playing cards of the present technology.

Spec-wise, the one distinction between the 2 playing cards is actually the quantity of GDDR6 video reminiscence obtainable, both 16GB or 8GB.

This issues, as that further 8GB VRAM does enhance the efficiency of the RX 9060 XT (and even makes modest 4K gaming potential), however the distinction between the 2 is not so giant that it overrides any consideration of the extra price.

Nevertheless, Nvidia’s RTX 5060 Ti 16GB and RTX 5060 (an 8GB card) supply higher efficiency vis-à-vis the RX 9060 XT 16GB and RX 9060 XT 8GB, respectively. Within the case of the RTX 5060, there isn’t any distinction in worth with the RX 9060 XT 8GB, so that could be a a lot more durable name between the 2 for causes I will dig into in a bit.

However, the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB affords higher efficiency over the RX 9060 XT 16GB, however not so a lot better that it justifies the a lot larger worth.

Ultimately, the AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB strikes the perfect steadiness of worth and efficiency on this class, making it straightforward to suggest as the perfect graphics card on this section for most individuals, and each are two of the perfect AMD graphics playing cards the corporate’s ever put out.

AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT: Worth & availability

• How a lot is it? $299.99 / £269.99 / AU$569 for 8GB, $349.99 / £329.99 / AU$689 for 16GB
• When are you able to get it? Now
• The place is it obtainable? Obtainable within the US, UK, and Australia

The AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT begins at $299.99 / £269.99 / AU$569 for the 8GB model, with the 16GB model beginning at $349.99 / £329.99 / AU$689.

There’s a way more direct comparability between the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT 16GB and the RX 9060 XT 16GB, as each are very comparable spec-wise. In that regard, the RX 9060 XT is a slight worth enhance over the RX 7600 XT (about $20 within the US), but it surely’s probably not giant sufficient to ding its rating.

The RX 7600 XT and RX 7600 are very related, however there are variations past simply their reminiscence swimming pools, so the RX 9060 XT isn’t fairly as similar to the RX 7600, that means despite the fact that the RX 9060 XT is barely dearer (about $30 within the US), it is way more affordable given the comparably sooner clock speeds.

Nvidia’s competing playing cards, the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB and RTX 5060, are dearer ($429 / £419.99 / AU$799 for the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB) or about the identical worth or barely dearer ($299 / £269.99 / AU$599) for the RTX 5060.

Neither RX 9060 XT model has an AMD reference card, so you will want to purchase one from a third-party producer, equivalent to Asus, Gigabyte, or XFX.

The identical is true for Nvidia’s RTX 5060 Ti and RTX 5060, although, so it is arduous to knock the 9060 XT playing cards too arduous for this, particularly as we have seen pretty large availability of MSRP playing cards on the market on-line that you may really purchase.

Luckily, we additionally have not seen any actual inventory shortages of the RX 9060 XT playing cards, so discovering inventory at MSRP is pretty straightforward proper now.

• Worth: 4.5 / 5

AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT: Specs

• PCIe 5.0
• 16GB and 8GB VRAM

Each variations of the AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT have successfully equivalent specs, aside from totally different reminiscence swimming pools and the marginally larger TDP for the 16GB model to account for powering the extra reminiscence.

In any other case, they use the very same GPU die with equivalent clock speeds, so your determination between the 2 is actually about whether or not that 8GB of further GDDR6 VRAM is price the additional funding.

The variety of compute items, ROPs, and obtainable cache on the RX 9060 XT is unchanged over the RX 7600 XT and RX 7600, so the RX 9060 XT is successfully an upgraded model of these playing cards utilizing the brand new RDNA 4 structure and sooner sport and reminiscence clock speeds.

There’s additionally the difficulty of whether or not 8GB is sufficient for a contemporary graphics card, even at a sub-$300 worth level. Given the efficiency I discovered whereas testing, an 8GB card can carry out properly proper now, even at 1440p, on many video games, as long as you do not go anyplace close to ray tracing. How for much longer will that be the case? It is arduous to say, however 8GB playing cards are already beginning to battle, so even a 10GB card would have been higher, a lot much less a 12GB model for the lower-end 9060 XT.

Add to this AMD’s maddening determination to stay with a 128-bit reminiscence bus for these playing cards, which unnecessarily constrains reminiscence bandwidth and inevitably limits the potential efficiency of the RX 9060 XT. This alone knocks some factors off, as a result of if the Intel Arc B570 can use a 160-bit reminiscence bus, there isn’t any motive why AMD or Nvidia proceed to take action on their 60-class playing cards.

That straightforward widening of the bus may noticeably enhance gaming body charges, and it is one thing neither AMD nor Nvidia has been in a position to clarify to me past vaguely gesturing at price constraints. If Intel can afford a 160-bit bus, so can AMD, and it makes me marvel how a lot better these playing cards might need in any other case been.

OK, finish of rant.

• Specs & options: 3.5 / 5

AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT: Design

• No AMD reference card
• Good for SFF instances

There is no such thing as a AMD reference playing cards for both of the RX 9060 XT variations, so the design of the cardboard you get will depend upon the producer.

The 2 playing cards I examined, the Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB and the Asus Twin Radeon RX 9060 XT 8GB, are each pretty slender and compact playing cards.

Neither have any RGB lighting, so for those who’re in search of one thing with extra bling, different playing cards can positively supply that.

Additionally, there are some playing cards from some producers that use triple-fan designs, which appears overkill to me, however if you would like a bigger-looking card for a selected construct, you will positively have that choice.

• Design: 3.5 / 5

AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT: Efficiency

• Large distinction between 16GB and 8GB variations
• RTX 5060 Ti 16GB and RTX 5060 supply barely higher efficiency than the 2 RX 9060 XT playing cards

So far as efficiency goes, there’s quite a bit to love about each AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT playing cards, from their modest energy draw to their stable 1440p gaming efficiency.

It isn’t all constructive although, as there are a number of factors the place Nvidia’s competing playing cards outperform AMD’s newest choices, making the ultimate evaluation a lot nearer than I initially thought it could be once I started testing these playing cards.

Throughout artificial benchmarks, the RX 9060 XT and RTX 5060 Ti are roughly tied throughout resolutions, with Nvidia’s card solely edging out AMD’s in ray tracing efficiency. The RX 9060 XT 16GB is simply about 15% slower than the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB in artificial ray tracing efficiency. Whereas that is anticipated, it is not as large as it has been in earlier generations.

The RX 9060 XT 8GB, in the meantime, outperforms the RTX 5060 in 1080p (about 4% higher), in 1440p (about 10% higher), and in 4K (about 10% higher), although the RTX 5060 does maintain a slight lead in ray-tracing efficiency (about 3%).

In inventive benchmarks, the RX 9060 XT playing cards are largely aggressive in opposition to Nvidia’s GPUs in every thing however 3D mannequin rendering. Sadly, I am unable to say extra about this since Blender Benchmark wasn’t in a position to run on both RX 9060 XT card, so I am unable to say how they’d fare in opposition to the Nvidia RTX 5060 Ti 16GB.

The RTX 5060, apparently sufficient, could not run Blender Benchmark both, so this should be a problem I will examine additional and replace my outcomes as soon as I’ve them, however provided that Blender Benchmark Cycles renderer is optimized for Nvidia CUDA (as is sort of all 3D modeling software program), I’m very assured that the RX 9060 XT playing cards aren’t going to be aggressive on this workload, it is actually only a matter of how far behind the RX 9060 XT playing cards land ultimately.

Inventive workloads aren’t what AMD Radeon playing cards are most identified for, although. PC gaming is the place these playing cards actually compete, and on this regard, the RX 9060 XT 8GB is available in about 4% slower than the RTX 5060 in 1080p total, whereas the RX 9060 XT 16GB comes up about 9% slower than the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB at 1080p total.

Gen-on-gen, although, the RX 9060 XT 16GB outperforms the RX 7600 XT by about 44% at 1080p, total, whereas the RX 9060 XT 8GB equally is available in about 46% sooner than the RX 7600 at 1080p total.

At 1440p, the story is analogous for the RX 9060 XT, with it coming in about 9% slower than the RTX 5060 Ti, total. For the RX 9060 XT 8GB, the hole widens a bit because it is available in about 8% slower than the RTX 5060, total.

At 1440p, the gen-on-gen efficiency enchancment is even better, with the RX 9060 XT 16GB outperforming the RX 7600 XT by about 53% total, whereas the RX 9060 XT 8GB outperforms the RX 7600 by a large 62.5% total.

When it comes to energy consumption, the height energy consumption of the RX 9060 XT playing cards are in keeping with the place the RTX 5060 Ti lands and barely above the listed TDP for the 2 playing cards. The RTX 5060, in the meantime, is available in an excellent bit decrease at peak, in my exams.

Temperature, in the meantime, will largely depend upon the mannequin card you find yourself shopping for, as they are going to all have totally different cooling methods. That mentioned, the Sapphire Pulse RX 9060 XT 16GB stayed a couple of levels cooler than the Asus Twin RX 9060 XT 8GB in my exams, purchase your mileage might differ.

Ultimately, the RX 9060 XT playing cards stored issues fairly near their respective competitors from Nvidia, although could not fairly overtake them, even contemplating that I did not issue Blender Benchmark’s outcomes into the ultimate inventive rating for any of the playing cards examined, provided that I wasn’t in a position to run it on three of the playing cards in query.

Had these exams run efficiently and been factored into the ultimate scores, the 2 Nvidia playing cards would have pulled additional forward, most certainly.

However would they’ve pulled far sufficient forward to justify shopping for them? Within the case of the RX 9060 XT 8GB, the RTX 5060 merely affords you a greater worth provided that each might be bought for MSRP proper now, however for those who do not need to give Nvidia your cash, you are probably not shedding something by going with the RX 9060 XT 8GB as a substitute.

For the RX 9060 XT 16GB, although, it comes inside only a few factors of the RTX 5060 Ti at a a lot cheaper price, making it the one I would suggest to anybody looking for a GPU on this worth vary.

• Efficiency: 4.5 / 5

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How I examined the AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT

• I spent about three weeks with the RX 9060 XT 16GB and 8GB variations
• I used my full GPU testing suite to investigate the cardboard’s efficiency
• I examined the cardboard in on a regular basis, gaming, inventive, and AI workload utilization

I spent about three weeks with each RX 9060 XT playing cards, utilizing my normal suite of benchmark exams with trade normal instruments like 3DMark, PassMark, PugetBench for Creators, and extra.

For gaming, I exploit built-in benchmark instruments in video games like Black Fantasy: Wukong, Cyberpunk 2077, and F1 2024.

I additionally used each playing cards for a few week every because the GPU in my very own PC at house the place I used it for work, content material creation, and gaming outdoors of formal testing.

• Initially reviewed June 2025