SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB PULSE OC Review - AMD's Best Mainstream GPU in Years

TweakTown Rating: 85%

Our Verdict

Sure, overall performance sits between the GeForce RTX 5060 and RTX 5060 Ti, but the SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB PULSE OC is proof that RDNA 4 is the start of a new era for AMD gaming GPUs. Compared to the Radeon RX 7600, it's night and day, with impressive ray-tracing and FSR 4.

Pros

• Finally, a mainstream Radeon GPU that can handle ray-tracing
• 16GB of VRAM makes it great for 1080p and 1440p gaming
• FSR 4 image quality is excellent, a real DLSS competitor
• A massive improvement over the Radeon RX 7600
• Sapphire's quiet, efficient, and robust PULSE design

Cons

• FSR 4 adoption is growing, but slowly
• Not much faster than the GeForce RTX 5060 and slower than the RTX 5060 Ti
• Only a single DisplayPort

Should you buy it?

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Introduction

The arrival of the Radeon RX 9060 XT from AMD is a milestone release for the company, as it offers PC gamers the best mainstream Radeon GPU we've seen in years. Mainstream GPUs arrive with a more down-to-earth price point, efficient designs, and the promise of delivering fantastic all-around performance. They're the most popular among PC gamers because the $300 or $400 value proposition makes much more sense than spending upwards of $1,000 or more on a GPU.

According to the latest Steam data, the two most popular graphics cards are the GeForce RTX 3060 and GeForce RTX 4060, which will probably be joined by the GeForce RTX 5060 at some point in the future. And possibly, the Radeon RX 9060 XT. From what we've seen, AMD's previous-generation mainstream GPU combo, the Radeon RX 7600 and Radeon RX 7600 XT, failed to make a marketable impression because it only really excelled at one thing - rasterized or raw performance without ray-tracing or a viable alternative to the AI sorcery that is NVIDIA DLSS.

As seen with the flagship RDNA 4 GPU released earlier this year, the Radeon RX 9070 XT, AMD's latest generation of GPUs, offers much more than a performance uplift over the previous generation. Dramatically improved ray-tracing performance means that Radeon can now compete with GeForce regarding fancy lighting effects, and the new AI-powered FSR 4 presents such a massive improvement over FSR 3 that the difference is night and day. Like DLSS 3 and DLSS 4, FSR 4 is now an upscaling technology that you should enable at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K, because it often offers native-like or better-than-TAA image quality with a free boost to performance.

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It's these two advances that made us excited to check out the new Radeon RX 9060 XT, as even with cut-down specs compared to the Radeon RX 9070 XT (it has half the Compute Units), there's every chance that it would blow the RDNA 3's Radeon RX 7600 out of the water. Especially now, in 2025, where a third of the games in our benchmark suite include testing with ray-tracing effects enabled. And it does, with the SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB PULSE coming in 51% faster for 1080p gaming, and a whopping 61% faster for 1440p gaming when compared to the Radeon RX 7600.

Right off the bat, you might think that this sort of result makes the Radeon RX 9060 XT the clear mainstream winner and something of a GeForce RTX 5060 Series killer. However, the story is much more nuanced than that, with the more expensive GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB GPU outperforming the SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB PULSE by around 10% on average. The overall performance is also much closer to the GeForce RTX 5060 than you might think. Let's dig in.

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RDNA 4 - AMD Levels the Playing Field

Below is a summary of AMD's new RDNA 4 architecture, applicable to all models.

AMD's new RDNA 4 architecture presents a massive improvement over the chiplet design that we saw with RDNA 3. Returning to the monolithic design of RDNA and RDNA 2 might sound like a regression, especially when AMD CPUs have gone in the other direction, but this isn't the case. In a nutshell, RDNA 4 is built for 2025. This GPU architecture embraces ray-tracing performance as a key pillar, lays the groundwork for neural rendering, and supercharges AI performance for the new FSR 4 Super Resolution and complex AI workloads. Throw in a revamped media engine for creators and streamers, and support for next-gen DisplayPort 2.1a displays, and RDNA 4 presents a new and revitalized direction for Radeon graphics.

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RDNA 4's overhauled Compute Unit, which houses all of the raster, ray-tracing, and AI hardware, has seen several enhancements over RDNA 3 and is one of the reasons why the Radeon RX 9000 Series GPUs deliver impressive performance gains. The RDNA 4 Compute Unit, or CU, features an enhanced memory subsystem, improved scalar units (for raw raster), dynamic register allocation to reduce latency and bottlenecks, and increased efficiency. The improvements also mean that Radeon RX 9000 Series GPUs can ship with much higher clock speeds than their RDNA 3 counterparts, hitting close to 3 GHz in several 9070 XT models, with 9060 XT models pushing up to 3.3 GHz.

The show's star, at least in terms of the massive improvement over what has come before, has to be the arrival of RDNA 4's 3rd Generation Ray-Tracing Accelerators. AMD is aware that game developers across PC and console are embracing ray-tracing, which presents a realistic depiction of lighting and related effects like shadows and reflections. The only problem is that real-time ray-tracing is complex, requiring the right blend of raw performance and innovative technologies to enhance efficiency and deliver a playable experience.

One area RDNA 4's RT Accelerator delivers where RDNA 3's don't is the arrival of "Oriented Bounding Boxes," an innovative method of handling ray-tracing Bounding Volume Hierarchy (BVH) data. Think of it as efficiently tracing rays through an environment and geometry with a lower memory cost and less hardware. RDNA 4's RT Accelerator also adds a second intersection engine to double the performance of specific raytracing workloads and calculations. The results can be seen in titles with heavy ray-tracing like Alan Wake 2 and Cyberpunk 2077, where the Radeon RX 9070 XT delivers a significant 30+% performance improvement over the previous gen flagship - the Radeon RX 7900 XTX. A card with 50% more RT Accelerators than the Radeon RX 9070 XT. The mainstream Radeon RX 9060 XT also delivers substantially faster ray-tracing performance than the Radeon RX 7600, to the point where mainstream RDNA 4 is now what you'd call RT-ready.

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RDNA 4 also fully embraces AI, with new AI accelerators that support FP8 while delivering double the FP16 and four times the INT8 performance compared to RDNA 3's AI accelerators. For gamers, this means the new AI-powered FSR 4 leverages AI to deliver a massive improvement in image quality over FSR 3. However, AMD's custom AI model, which was trained on powerful AMD Instinct hardware, is FP8-based, so it is exclusive to RDNA 4 hardware.

AMD is also looking to introduce its answer to NVIDIA's DLSS Ray Reconstruction and Frame Generation for Path Tracing with Project Redstone's new AI-based Ray Regeneration and Frame Generation, alongside support for Neural Radiance Caching. FSR "Project Redstone" is currently in development and on track for release in the second half of 2025.

With improved raw performance and a massive boost to ray-tracing and AI performance, RDNA 4 presents an enormous leap forward over RDNA 3. However, catching up to GeForce RTX in these areas and offering a viable DLSS alternative does mean that early adopters will need to wait for game support and AMD to deliver its Path Tracing solution. With 60+ FSR 4-ready titles available now, there's still a massive deficit compared to DLSS 3 and DLSS 4 as we head toward 2026. Falling behind for over five years in these areas means there's a lot of catching up to do, and this will take time.

This brings us to RDNA 4's enhanced Media Engine, which offers creators and streamers a big improvement to H.264, HEVC, and AV1 encoding and decoding. NVIDIA's lead in this area has meant that few creators use Radeon hardware. With RDNA 4, AMD is looking to close the gap and offer a viable alternative, especially regarding image quality, when using popular settings in apps like OBS.

Specs and Test System

Specifications

Here's a comparison of the Radeon RX 9060 XT specs to those of the previous generation's Radeon RX 7600 XT and the Radeon RX 9070 Series.

Like the GeForce RTX 5060 Ti, the Radeon RX 9060 XT arrives in two variants: a model with 8GB of VRAM starting from $299 and one with 16GB of VRAM starting from $349. And like our review coverage of the GeForce RTX 5060 Ti, we've only been supplied the 16GB variant, so this review will not include any analysis or differences between the two variants. With that out of the way, looking at the Radeon RX 9060 XT specs, its overall configuration looks similar to the previous generation's Radeon RX 7600, albeit with a shift to a more advanced TSMC 4nm process.

There's a lot more going on, with the Radeon RX 9060 XT's GPU comprising 29.7 billion transistors compared to the Radeon RX 7600's 13.3 billion. Compared to the flagship Radeon RX 970 XT, the cut-down RX 9060 XT features 32 Compute Units and Ray Accelerators versus 64. However, with a 160W power rating delivered over a single 8-pin PCIe power connector, it also uses around half the power, making RDNA 4's most efficient GPU by a long shot.

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The Radeon RX 9060 XT features a similar memory configuration as its predecessor, with GDDR6 on a 128-bit interface clocked slightly higher at around 20.1 Gbps. However, compared to the GeForce RTX 5060 Series, which uses faster GDDR7 memory on a similar 128-bit interface, the 9060 XT's overall memory bandwidth is notably slower. That said, the Radeon RX 9060 XT features one of the fastest Boost Clock speeds we've ever seen for a Radeon or GeForce graphics card, with the SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB PULSE shipping with an impressive overclocked Boost Clock speed of 3290 MHz.

Power-wise, the Radeon RX 9060 XT maintains a similar 160W rating as the RDNA 3 mainstream offering; however, when gaming, we found that the power draw was higher than the GeForce RTX 5060 and RTX 5060 Ti, which gives GeForce the efficiency edge. OC models like the one reviewed here can push the power to its limit or even higher, depending on the configuration. Still, with up to 61% faster performance using the same power, the Radeon RX 9060 XT is remarkably more efficient than the Radeon RX 7600. And with more advanced AI hardware, the Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB also doubles as an efficient performer for AI workloads.

Kosta's Test System

Physical Design and Cooling

SAPPHIRE's PULSE line-up for the Radeon RX 9000 Series represents the company's affordable or reference-spec designs that forego things like RDB lighting for a simpler, compact design. That said, after testing a few different SAPPHIRE PULSE GPUs over the years, this revamped and improved version for RDNA 4 is easily the most impressive to date, especially when temperatures barely rise above 56 degrees Celsius with a modest fan speed.

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The SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB PULSE retains previous models' black and red look, albeit with some changes to the venting and adding a metal SAPPHIRE plate on the side, giving it a more premium feel. With a 2.3-slot thickness and a relatively lightweight build, the SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB PULSE won't have any issue fitting in more minor cases of SFF builds.

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Even though it's compact, the design is still all about thermal performance with a metal backplate, an Integrated Cooling Module that offers direct contact with the GPU, memory, and VRMs, composite heatpipes tuned for optimal heat transfer, improved fans, a high-density 10-layer copper and high TB PCB, and Honeywell PTM7950 Thermal Interface Material (TIM) for key components. As they say, the proof is in the pudding with the SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB PULSE running cool and quiet even during extended gaming sessions.

Finally, and this is something for those who use multiple displays, the SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB PULSE, like all Radeon RX 9060 XT GPUs, only features three display outputs, two HDMI ports, and one DisplayPort. Yeah, as a fan of DisplayPort over HDMI, it's not ideal.

The Games and Tests

PC gaming not only covers a wide range of genres and styles, from indie games with simple 2D graphics to massive 3D worlds lit by cutting-edge real-time ray tracing technology. With that, the needs and requirements of each gamer vary. High refresh rates and latency reduction become more important than flashy visuals or playing at the highest resolution possible for those who live and breathe fast-paced competitive games. For those who want to live in a cinematic world and become a key player in an expansive narrative, ray-tracing, and high-fidelity visuals are a stepping stone toward immersion.

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Our chosen benchmarks cover various games, engines, APIs, and technologies. For the Radeon RX 9060 XT, all tests are run at 1080p and 1440p and include results for performance-boosting Super Resolution technologies like AMD's new AI-powered FSR 4, alongside older FSR 3 and FSR 2 versions. However, our benchmark results are still sorted using 'raw performance' or native rendering.

Here's the breakdown of games, settings, and what's being tested.

Games and Settings Benchmarked

Path Tracing Games and Settings Benchmarked

Gaming Performance Analysis - 1080p and 1440p

Average Gaming Performance - 1080p Results

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As mentioned in the introduction, with RDNA 4's massive improvement to ray-tracing performance and other architectural optimizations compared to RDNA 3, the Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB is substantially faster for 1080p gaming than the Radeon RX 7600. It's a whopping 51% faster, which translates to it also being 60% faster than the GeForce RTX 3060, the most popular gaming GPU, according to

Steam. For those with a GeForce RTX 3060 looking to upgrade, yes, the SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB PULSE will be a game-changer no matter what game you're playing.

Compared to the GeForce RTX 4060, it's 35% faster for 1080p gaming; however, with the recent launch of the GeForce RTX 5060, it's only 6% faster than NVIDIA's latest 1080p offering, on average. With the GeForce RTX 5060 starting from $299, the same price as the Radeon RX 9060 XT 8GB variant, that 6% is probably not enough to sway someone away from NVIDIA's robust set of features like DLSS 4, NVENC for creators, and more. FSR 4 brings Radeon as close to feature parity with GeForce as we've ever seen. However, adoption is still insufficient to make it a key "buy it for this feature" like DLSS has been for a couple of years. The GeForce RTX 5060 Ti is 6% faster for 1080p gaming than the Radeon RX 9060 XT, with AMD's mainstream RDNA 4 GPU also being around 40% slower than the beefier Radeon RX 9070 16GB - the next model up.

The average results don't quite tell the whole picture, as performance between the Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB and the GeForce RTX 5060 Series varies from title to title. At 1080p, Black Myth: Wukong performance for the Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB matches the baseline GeForce RTX 5060, while Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 punches well above its weight, matching the GeForce RTX 5070. Counter-Strike 2 performance, on the other hand, falls behind the RTX 5060 and the RTX 5060 Ti, while Cyberpunk 2077 and DOOM Eternal with ray-tracing pull slightly ahead of the GeForce RTX 5060. Check out the individual game benchmarks below for detailed results.

Average Gaming Performance - 1440p Results

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With 16GB of VRAM, the SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB PULSE is better equipped for 1440p gaming than the GeForce RTX 5060, and its overall performance matches that of the GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 8GB GPU. The GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB is, on average, 9% faster at this resolution, which is a relatively modest margin of victory. The SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB PULSE is a far better 1440p gaming GPU than the Radeon RX 7600 XT 16GB GPU, thanks to the arrival of FSR 4 and RDNA 4's improved ray-tracing performance.

Using the FSR 4 'Quality' preset at 1440p delivers impressive image quality, and sees Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 hit 113 FPS using the Ultra quality graphics preset. Horizon Forbidden West is another great-looking example of FSR 4, which pushes the 72 FPS of native rendering to 83 FPS with the FSR 4 'Quality' preset. Space Marine 2, the final game where we paid close attention to FSR 4 jumps from 71 FPS to 90 FPS using the 'Quality' preset, which offers better image quality and stability than TAA. If AMD can ramp up FSR 4 adoption for new and older titles, it will be a mainstay in the years ahead.

For those looking to upgrade, the SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB PULSE (as long as it can be picked up for around $349) is an excellent option for those with older GeForce RTX 60-class GPUs. For 1440p gaming, it's 61% faster than the GeForce RTX 3060, 41% faster than the GeForce RTX 4060. However, like with the 1080p results, there is a significant performance gap between the Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB GPU and the Radeon RX 9070, with the latter being 51% faster for 1440p gaming. That said, the Radeon RX 9070's MSRP is also 57% higher, which makes the Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB better value.

Benchmarks - 3DMark Synthetic Tests

3DMark offers a suite of synthetic benchmarks built to test GPUs in various scenarios. 3DMark Steel Nomad is a cutting-edge DirectX 12 benchmark with newer, modern rendering techniques designed to push GPUs to their limit. The 'Light' version tests at 1440p, while the main Steel Nomad benchmark tests pure native 4K rendering. Port Royal is a benchmark focusing exclusively on real-time ray tracing for lighting effects like reflections, shadows, and more.

With the GeForce RTX 50 Series and the arrival of the Radeon RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT, we've found that the 1440p and 4K Steel Nomad Light and Steel Nomad synthetic benchmark results have offered a somewhat skewed representation of what you might find in-game. That said, the Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB's Steel Nomad score being 63% higher than the Radeon RX 7600 is essentially what you'll find when playing most games at 1440p. Depending on the test, the score is either higher than the RTX 5060 or lower, or falling short of sitting on par with the RTX 5060 Ti. Come to think of it, with the varied in-game results, this discrepancy reflects what you'd find in-game; it'll just depend on the game and the workload.

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The 3DMark Port Royal synthetic benchmark results are interesting because, for the first time, a mainstream Radeon GPU is outperforming a mainstream GeForce RTX GPU, with the SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB PULSE's score sitting 10% higher than the GeForce RTX 5060. This is a result that reflects what you'll find in-game with light or even heavy ray-tracing, including Cyberpunk 2077 with the 'RT Ultra' preset, which sees the SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB PULSE delivering 48 FPS at 1080p compared to 46 FPS for the RTX 5060. Granted, this is only a couple of frames, but it's an unprecedented result for Cyberpunk 2077 with ray-tracing. This mode has traditionally only run well on mainstream GeForce RTX GPUs.

Benchmarks - 1080p Gaming

Benchmarks - 1440p Gaming

FSR 4 and AMD Frame Generation

With the arrival of the Radeon RX 900 Series and the new Radeon RX 9070, AMD's new FSR 4 represents a massive improvement over FSR 3.1, FSR 3, and FSR 2. The shift to a custom and powerful AI model for upscaling shows that ML or AI is the definite way to maintain image quality that is on par or even superior to native rendering. As FSR 4 was explicitly designed for RDNA 4, and trained on powerful AMD hardware, it is exclusive to the Radeon RX 9000 Series due to the advanced AI hardware requirements. The good news is that games with FSR 3.1 are automatically upgraded to FSR 4 via AMD's Adrenalin Software, with a nice overlay showing a green FSR 4 tick when booting up a compatible game.

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After seeing what it can do at 4K, 1440p, and even 1080p, it's safe to say that FSR 4 is the real deal. Image quality might still come in second to NVIDIA's DLSS 4, but as an AI upscaling solution, it's a winner and something that will only improve with time. The only downside is that it's a fresh start for AMD, as it only works on RDNA 4 GPUs and requires at least FSR 3.1 for a driver-based override. With FSR 4 now available in 60 games, it's a good starting point, but it will take time to become a DLSS competitor.

Likewise, while impressive, AMD's FSR Frame Generation isn't as responsive or impressive as NVIDIA's AI approach. The results are certainly playable, and the additional smoothness is excellent for those with high-refresh-rate displays. Still, it probably won't be until AMD's AI-powered Frame Generation arrives (which is slated for a 2025 debut) that we'll get the complete picture of what FSR 4 with Frame Generation looks like. As it stands, FSR 4 Super Resolution on the Radeon RX 9060 XT delivers excellent results, adding to its chops as a 1440p gaming GPU.

Path Tracing Performance - 1080p

Path Tracing takes real-time ray-tracing and applies the concept of ray-traced effects to anything and everything - global illumination, shadows, reflections, indirect lighting, and more. With multiple bounces, it's a hardware-intensive and cutting-edge look at the future of PC gaming that is only possible thanks to AI tools and technologies. With RDNA 4 dramatically improving ray-tracing performance compared to RDNA 3, GPUs like the Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB are capable of rendering stunning Path Traced visuals; however, it's more proof of concept than something practical.

Alan Wake 2 and Cyberpunk 2077 are playable on the SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB PULSE with Full Ray Tracing or Path Tracing, but it's not the same experience as playing these games on the GeForce RTX 5060 Ti. Regarding performance and image quality, these games look much better when running on RTX hardware. This is due to FSR 4 adoption and AMD's FSR 4 Project Redstone being on track for a second-half of 2025 launch. Redstone will offer a DLSS Ray Reconstruction-like technology for RDNA 4, alongside introducing Neural Radiance Cache to improve performance and lighting quality.

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We'd love to see FSR 4 Project Redstone come to Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, as its Path Tracing mode with DLSS 4 enabled is like looking at the future of in-game graphics. As seen in the performance numbers above, this is a game where the SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB PULSE should be able to deliver playable entry-level Path Tracing - something that is currently limited to the GeForce RTX 5060 Series.

Temperature and Power Efficiency

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The SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB PULSE's GPU temperature hit 56 degrees Celsius in our stress test, and even then, the fan speed was only at 25% and whisper quiet. SAPPHIRE's Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB GPU, even with its Boost Clock speed of 3290 MHz, also keeps its power draw to around 160W when gaming, which makes it the most efficient mainstream Radeon GPU since the RDNA 2 generation. The GeForce RTX 5060 and RTX 5060 Ti are still more efficient, but the results show that RDNA 4 scales well, so we'd love to see the architecture make its way to mobile devices.

Final Thoughts

Mainstream RDNA 4 is here, and yes, it offers a massive improvement over the previous RDNA generations while also bringing the fight to the GeForce RTX 5060 Series. However, it's a far cry from a blowout. With SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB PULSE being a 16GB model with an MSRP of $349, compared to the $299 GeForce RTX 5060, it's only 6% faster for 1080p gaming and 10% faster for 1440p gaming, on average. Likewise, the GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB GPU is 6% faster than the 9060 XT for 1080p gaming and 9% faster for 1440p gaming, on average. For those expecting the Radeon RX 9060 XT to come in and make the RTX 5060 Series look like a joke, that's not the case. We've got a more competitive mainstream competitor from AMD, and the company's best mainstream Radeon GPU in a long, long time.

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To put that into perspective, with the improved ray-tracing performance and the shift to a more advanced and efficient process, the Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB in SAPPHIRE PULSE form is up to 61% faster than RDNA 3's mainstream Radeon RX 7600. This sort of generational improvement is nowhere to be seen when looking at the GeForce RTX 50 Series. When you add FSR 4 into the mix, and AMD's new AI-powered rendering technologies are coming soon, the modest gen-on-gen gains for the RTX 50 Series have allowed AMD to close the gap, both feature- and performance-wise.

Is it enough to make it easy to choose the Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB over the RTX 5060 or RTX 5060 Ti? Well, not really. NVIDIA's mature feature set and the widespread adoption of DLSS make it the sort of premium feature you'd pay a little extra for. However, several titles are already out there with FSR 4 support. If you're a competitive gamer who loves nothing more than jumping into rounds of Call of Duty, the Radeon RX 9060 XT is probably the way to go. Ultimately, mainstream RDNA 4 is a game-changer compared to mainstream RDNA 3. However, it's not quite that when going toe-to-toe with GeForce.