The Radeon RX 9060 XT series forms the budget RDNA 4 lineup with 8 GB and 16 GB variants. It uses the Navi 44 monolithic die fabbed on TSMC’s 4nm (N4P) process node. AMD has positioned it so the former competes with the RTX 5060 and the latter with the 5060 Ti 8 GB. We tested the ASUS Prime RX 9060 XT 16 GB OC, pitting it against the MSI GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Ventus.
AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT Specs
| Specs | NVIDIA RTX 5060 | AMD RX 9060 XT | NVIDIA RTX 5060 Ti |
|---|---|---|---|
| Architecture | Blackwell | RDNA 4 | Blackwell |
| CUs/SMs | 30 | 32 | 36 |
| Shaders/Cores | 3,840 | 2,048 | 4,608 |
| RT Cores | 30 | 32 | 36 |
| TMUs/Tensor Cores | 120 | 64 | 144 |
| Base Clock | 2,280 MHz | 2,220 MHz | 2,407 MHz |
| Boost Clock | Up to 2,497 MHz | Up to 3,130 MHz | Up to 2,572 MHz |
| Peak FP32 TP | Up to 19.18 TFLOPS | Up to 25.6 TFLOPS | 23.70 TFLOPS |
| Memory Size | 8 GB | 8GB|16 GB | 8GB|16 GB |
| LLC Cache | 32 MB L2 | 32 MB L3 | 32 MB L2 |
| Memory Type | GDDR7 | GDDR6 | GDDR7 |
| Memory Clock | 28 Gbps | 20 Gbps | 28 Gbps |
| Memory Bus | 128-bit | 128-bit | 128-bit |
| Memory Bandwidth | 448 GB/s | 320 GB/s | 448 GB/s |
| Total Board Power (TBP) | 145W | 150W|160W | 180W |
| Launch Price | $299 | $299|$349 | $379|$429 |
- The Radeon RX 9060 XT features 2,048 stream processors spread across 32 CUs, amounting to 25.6 TFLOPs FP32 TP.
- The GeForce RTX 5060 Ti packs 4,608 cores across 36 SMs. This translates to 23.70 TFLOPs FP32 TP.
- The GPU is paired with 8/16 GB of GDDR6 memory across a 128-bit bus.
- The RTX 5060 Ti also uses a 128-bit bus.
- The GDDR6 memory clocks in at 20 Gbps, producing an external bandwidth of 320 GB/s.
- The 5060 Ti features GDDR7 memory clocked at 28 Gbps, producing 448 GB/s external bandwidth.
- The RX 9060 XT includes 32 MB of L3 (LLC) cache.
- The RTX 5060 Ti has 32 MB of L2 cache.
- It has a total board power (TBP) of 150W for the 8 GB and 160W for the 16 GB variant. The latter will likely run at higher clocks.
- The 5060 Ti has a TBP of 180W for both memory configs.
- The Radeon RX 9060 XT 8 GB has an MSRP of $299, and $349 for the 16 GB model.
- The GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB has a sticker price of $379, and $429 for the 16 GB SKU.
AMD RX 9060 XT vs NVIDIA RTX 5060 Ti: 1080p Gaming
A Plague Tale: Requiem
The Radeon RX 9060 XT is only ~3-4% slower than the GeForce RTX 5060 Ti in Plague Tale: Requiem. The 1% lows show a similar deficit at 1080p using the Ultra quality preset. Regardless, both GPUs average well over 60 FPS without upscaling.
Black Myth: Wukong
Black Myth: Wukong exhibits nearly identical frame rates on the RTX 5060 Ti and the RX 9060 XT, averaging just under 50 FPS. The cinematic quality mode uses Unreal’s Lumen GI, a software ray-tracing technique.
Hogwarts Legacy
Hogwarts Legacy is 8% faster on the GeForce RTX 5060 Ti at 1080p ultra quality settings. Interestingly, the 1% lows are only 6% higher than the Radeon RX 9060 XT. Given the $80 price deficit, it’s not really a bad result.
Elden Ring Nightreign
Nightreign is considerably faster on the RTX 5060 Ti, leading the 9060 XT by 25% at 1080p maximum quality settings. Furthermore, the NVIDIA part used just 130W of power in this game, versus 160W for the Radeon.
Oblivion Remaster
Oblivion Remastered favors the RX 9060 XT as it beats the 5060 Ti by 8% at 1080p ultra using software ray-tracing and TAA. It used 20W more power in this title. Strangely, the Radeon used slightly more memory than its GeForce rival.
Expedition 33
Expedition 33 performed markedly better on the GeForce RTX 5060 Ti, beating the Radeon RX 9060 XT by 14% at 1080p Epic settings. Once again, the 1% lows showed a smaller deficit between the two GPUs, with the 5060 Ti using less memory.
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB is on average <10% faster (72 FPS vs. 66 FPS) than the Radeon RX 9060 XT at 1080p, costing $80 more. Of course, the MSRPs don’t mean much these days, and the real-world market prices will determine their cost effectiveness.
AMD RX 9060 XT vs NVIDIA RTX 5060 Ti: 1440p Gaming
A Plague Tale: Requiem
The RTX 5060 Ti increases its lead to 5% at 1440p using the same graphics settings in Requiem. Unlike earlier, the 1% lows are 13.5% higher than the RX 9060 XT, likely a result of the higher memory bandwidth.
Black Myth: Wukong
Black Myth: Wukong averages ~36 FPS on both GPUs, with the RTX 5060 Ti pulling ahead with superior lows. It uses 1 GB less memory than the RX 9060 XT, and 10W less power.
Hogwarts Legacy
Hogwarts Legacy favors the GeForce card with a 6% lead over the RX 9060 XT and a slightly wider 1% deficit. Unlike at 1080p, the 5060 Ti’s faster GDDR7 memory impacts 1440p performance.
Elden Ring Nightreign
Elden Ring Nightreign extends the RTX 5060 Ti’s advantage over the 9060 XT to 28% at 1440p.
Oblivion Remaster
Oblivion Remastered maintains the Radeon RX 9060 XT in a 5% lead over the RTX 5060 Ti at 1440p with a smaller deficit in the 1% lows. However, the AMD GPU used 2 GB more VRAM than its NVIDIA rival at the same settings.
Expedition 33
Expedition 33 is 11-12% faster on the RTX 5060 Ti at 1440p. The 1% lows maintain a similar deficit, with the RX 9060 XT using more VRAM.
The GeForce RTX 5060 Ti continues to hold a 9% lead (52.5 FPS vs. 48 FPS) over the Radeon RX 9060 XT at 1440p. These numbers are comparable to upscaled 4K balanced and quality mode results, albeit with a larger advantage for the 5060 Ti. However, a 9% performance gain for an $80 markup is hardly appealing.
AMD RX 9060 XT vs NVIDIA RTX 5060 Ti: Ray Tracing
A Plague Tale: Requiem
A Plague Tale: Requiem is 20% faster on the RTX 5060 Ti using 1080p ray-tracing and upscaled 1440p. The 1% lows are 46% higher than the RX 9060 XT. We saw something similar with the Radeon RX 9070. Shifting the viewport leads to stuttering, perhaps stalling the RT pipeline on AMD GPUs.
Cyberpunk 2077
Cyberpunk 2077 is 15% faster on the RTX 5060 Ti using 1080p Ultra Ray-tracing. The 1% lows are 26% higher than the RX 9060 XT, a drawback of the lower memory bandwidth.
Path tracing (1080p) expands the performance deficit between the GPUs to 28%, with the 5060 Ti producing 37% higher lows. We used balanced mode upscaling. Path tracing isn’t possible on the Radeon without frame generation.
Doom: The Dark Ages
Doom: The Dark Ages uses ray-traced reflections and global illumination. Interestingly, the RX 9060 XT is faster than the 5060 Ti at 1080p and 1440p at the Ultra Nightmare quality preset.
Hogwarts Legacy
Hogwarts Legacy’s ray-tracing pipeline is broken, as it barely scales past 40-45 FPS without frame generation. The 5060 Ti is 18% faster than the 9060 XT at 1440p with ultra quality ray-tracing.
Oblivion Remaster
The Radeon RX 9060 XT retains its slim lead in Oblivion: Remastered, even with hardware ray-tracing. The game averages over 60 FPS on both GPUs using quality mode upscaling.
AMD’s RDNA 4 GPUs have nullified much of NVIDIA’s ray-tracing advantage. However, Team Green still holds a noticeable lead over the Radeon RX 9000 series cards in ray-tracing workloads. Furthermore, path tracing runs poorly on AMD hardware, exhibiting half the frame rates in ReSTIR GI (Black Myth).
Thermals & Power Consumption
The Radeon RX 9060 XT uses up to 174W of power under load, about 20W more than the 155W maximum for the RTX 5060 Ti. Of course, these are driver-reported values, so slight variations are likely.
The ASUS Prime OC variant ran cool and quiet, with an average GPU temperature of 51°C and a peak of 54°C. The MSI Ventus averaged 67°C and peaked at 71°C.
Conclusion: $80 Cheaper for 8% Less Performance
The Radeon RX 9060 XT is a well-rounded 1080p and 1440p graphics card. It delivers similar performance to the pricier GeForce RTX 5060 Ti ($429), costing $80 less ($349). Unlike its predecessor, it excels in ray-traced games, with superior AI-based FSR 4 upscaling. It draws slightly more power, but 20W is hardly a concern for a desktop PC gamer.
One curious observation was the higher VRAM usage across most titles than rival GeForce offerings at the same settings. It’s unclear whether this pertains to the memory standard (GDDR6 vs. GDDR7) or vendor-specific compression algorithms.
