AMD’s Radeon RX 9060 XT beats Nvidia’s RTX 5060 Ti for a lot less cash

If you hang out on hardware subreddits long enough, you’ll hear the joke “Nvidia -$50” tossed around about AMD’s long-held Radeon pricing strategy. Well, AMD managed to buck that trend today, in the mainstream segment where pricing matters most.

AMD revealed the Radeon RX 9060 XT during the company’s Computex keynote – and it priced the 16GB model at $349. That not only undercuts Nvidia’s avoid-at-all-costs 8GB RTX 5060 Ti by $30, but it means the 16GB 9060 XT is a whopping $80 cheaper than Nvidia’s actually-pretty-good 16GB 5060 Ti.

Hot damn. Competition is back on the menu y’all!

A quick peek at the Radeon RX 9060 XT’s high-level specs show that it’s available in both 8GB and 16GB configurations (more on the 8GB version below). With 32 RDNA 4 Compute Units, the 9060 XT’s GPU packs half those found in its bigger brother, the $549+ Radeon 9070 series.

By pricing the 16GB Radeon RX 9060 XT so aggressively, it lets AMD show why 8GB of memory isn’t enough in 2025.

The only performance-comparison slide shared with press compares the 16GB Radeon against the 8GB RTX 5060 Ti (which, again, costs more). AMD claims the Radeon tested an average of 6 percent faster across a suite of 40 games, with wins in individual games hitting up to 30 percent faster. Closely note that the testing was performed at the more memory-intensive 1440p resolution here – the numbers would no doubt be closer if AMD’s graphics card was compared against Nvidia’s 16GB version.

The 9060 XT also hangs tough with the 8GB 5060 Ti in Ultra Raytracing games – typically an Nvidia strength. Here, the expanded memory capacity shines even more, driving up to 62 percent higher performance in its peak example. (Ray tracing gobbles up memory.)

Speaking of ray tracing, as we saw with the Radeon RX 9070 series, AMD seriously updated its ray tracing chops this generation – at least on games with basic ray tracing features. In games with more intensive ray tracing features, including path-traced games like Cyberpunk 2077 overdrive mode and Black Myth Wukong, AMD’s RDNA 4 architecture struggled, languishing far behind Nvidia.

AMD attacked the problem head-on at Computex, announcing “FSR Redstone” (Minecraft Mumbo Jumbo fans rise up). This technology takes a multi-step approach to improving visuals and performance in AI tasks, as you can see in the slides above. If it proves successful, Nvidia’s undoubted lead in ray tracing could be under assault (though Nvidia’s vaunted DLSS 4 already works in advanced versions of these features). Look for FSR Redstone to arrive sometime in the second half of 2025.

It’s not the only new Radeon performance-boosting FSR tech coming: AMD says 40 games will support FSR 4 with frame generation when it launches on June 5, with the Radeon RX 9060 series.

Finally, AMD also revealed its RTX 5060 competitor. The 8GB Radeon RX 9060 XT will cost $299 when it launches alongside the 16GB model on June 5.

In case you don’t remember, Nvidia buried RTX 5060 reviews because 8GB of memory simply isn’t enough in 2025, even for 1080p gaming. That’s still true, even with the Radeon RX 9060 XT 8GB. That being said, if the 8GB version of AMD’s new graphics card still manages to outpace the RTX 5060 at the same price, it could be a great value proposition for people who focus on esports or don’t mind turning down graphics in the latest games.

Hopefully AMD provides press with 8GB versions of the Radeon RX 9060 XT for review – unlike Nvidia. (Seriously, don’t buy the RTX 5060 right now.) If not, avoid the 8GB version until independent reviews arrive.

Author: Brad Chacos, Executive Editor, PCWorld