AMD's new mainstream "RDNA 4" GPU is set to hit the store shelves come tomorrow, with graphics cards such as the value-oriented Sapphire PULSE AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB. Can the RX 9060 XT 16GB give NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 5060 Ti and RTX 5060 series a serious run for their money?

On 5 June 2025, AMD's new budget-friendlier "RDNA 4" GPU, the RX 9060 XT, will land on store shelves at your nearest PC hardware retailer. Packing significantly-improved ray tracing performance compared to its predecessors, the RX 9000 series marks AMD's shift away from the flagship GPU scene towards mainstream offerings in a bid to shore up its share of the global GPU market. The new RX 9060 XT is available with either 16GB or 8GB of GDDR6 VRAM, and is intended to give NVIDIA's budget-friendlier "Blackwell" GPUs (chiefly the GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB, the RTX 5060 TI 8GB and the RTX 5060 8GB) a run for their money.

For this review, we'll be unboxing and testing a RX 9060 XT 16GB graphics card by Sapphire - the Sapphire PULSE AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT Gaming OC 16GB GDDR6. Featuring a relatively compact dual-fan "Free Flow" cooler design that sports two AeroCurve fans, the use of Honeywell PTM7950 thermal interface material and an integrated cooling module with composite heat pipes, the PULSE Radeon RX 9060 XT is Sapphire's value-oriented product in its line-up, where the card doesn't come with any RGB bling or fancy accessories, and simply gets the job done without any fuss.

Read on to see how this card performs with a small selection of gaming benchmark tests at the 1440p and 1080p resolution, when paired with AMD's Ryzen 7 7800X3D gaming processor. That's not all - for those of you itching to see how the RX 9060 XT 16GB measures up against Team Green's RTX 5060 Ti 16GB, I've got just the chart to demonstrate how it stacks up with six selected game benchmarks at both 1440p and 1080p!

Summary of Specifications (SKU 11350-03-20G)

• GPU: AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT
• Memory: 16GB GDDR6 RAM (128-bit, 20 Gbps)
• Core Clocks: up to 3290 MHz (boost clock), up to 2700 MHz (game clock)
• Bus Type: PCIe 5.0 x16
• Outputs: 1x DisplayPort 2.1a, 2x HDMI 2.1b
• External Power Required: Yes, 1x 8-pin PCIe
• Recommended PSU Wattage: 450W and above
• Dimensions: 240mm x 124mm x 46.1mm
• Official Sapphire product page: https://www.sapphiretech.com/en/consumer/pulse-radeon-rx-9060-xt-16g-gddr6

Packaging & Accessories

The PULSE AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB comes in a really small box with a striking black, orange and red colourway, where over on the rear, we get the usual overview of features and specifications for this graphics card.

Removing the outer sleeve reveals a simple brown cardboard box that holds the graphics card and a quick installation guide - Sapphire's elected not to include any other accessories or trinkets with the PULSE Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB.

Aesthetics & Physical Features

As can be seen, the PULSE AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB comes with a rather compact dual-fan cooling solution - the said solution includes two AeroCurve fans to improve airflow and cooling efficiency, utilises Honeywell's premium PTM7950 thermal interface material, and employs the use of an "integrated cooling module" with composite heat pipes to better manage the RX 9060 XT GPU's thermal output.

Over on the rear, we get a metal backplate that helps ensure the structural rigidity of the graphics card, all while aiding with heat dissipation.

Given the card's relatively svelte dimensions of 240mm x 124mm x 46.1mm, the PULSE RX 9060 XT 16GB would be very much at home in smaller PC builds with limited space for a graphics card.

Seeing as the RX 9060 XT 16GB is positioned as a mainstream-class GPU that doesn't consume too much power, it's unsurprising to see that the card is powered by just a single 8-pin PCIe power connector.

An immediate plus over NVIDIA's RTX 5060 Ti and RTX 5060 is the fact that AMD's opted to go with a full-fat PCIe 5.0 x16 connection for the RX 9060 XT - this spells good news for folks on platforms that might still use older generations of PCIe interfaces (think PCIe 4.0 x16 and even PCIe 3.0 x16), where the performance impact of using the RX 9060 XT 16GB on such older platforms would likely be smaller than say, using a PCIe 5.0 x8 RTX 5060 Ti graphics card on a PC that supports PCIe 3.0 (which would mean that the said RTX 5060 Ti would operate at PCIe 3.0 x8 mode instead - not a good situation to be in especially if you've got the 8GB variant of the 5060 Ti, where from other reviews and PCIe scaling tests that can be found on the web, 8GB VRAM GPUs tend to fare much worse when PCIe lane bandwidth is constrained).

For your display connectivity needs, Sapphire has included a single DisplayPort 2.1a port and two HDMI 2.1b ports - in this regard, display output connectivity is perhaps one of the areas that the RX 9060 XT loses out on when compared to the RTX 5060 Ti and RTX 5060.

GPU-Z Screenshot

Benchmarks & Test Setup

To get a sensing of the card's gaming performance, the following in-game benchmark test were run:

• Assassin's Creed Mirage in-game benchmark
• Black Myth Wukong Benchmark Tool
• Cyberpunk 2077 v2.21 in-game benchmark
• F1 23 in-game benchmark
• Far Cry 6 in-game benchmark
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider in-game benchmark

The benchmark tests above were run at both the 1440p and 1080p resolution. Upscaling technologies such as FSR as well as Frame Generation were also disabled for the test runs.

Test Setup

A test bench with the specifications as listed below was used:

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D (stock settings, PBO & Curve Optimiser disabled)
• CPU Cooler: Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE ARGB
• CPU Thermal Paste: Thermalright TF7
• Motherboard: Gigabyte X670E AORUS MASTER (F35a BIOS)
• Memory: 32GB (2x16GB) KingBank DDR5 Dark Heatsink UDIMM 6000MHz (DDR5 6000 CL28-35-35-76 1.45V)
• Storage: Lexar NM790 1TB NVMe SSD
• Graphics Card: Sapphire PULSE AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB
• PSU: Cooler Master MWE Gold 1050 V2 ATX 3.0
• Case: Open-air test bench
• Monitor: Gigabyte M27U 27" LCD monitor (4K, 160Hz)
• OS: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro (24H2 with all latest drivers and updates installed, "Balanced" power profile)
• Graphics Driver: AMD Adrenalin Edition 25.10.09.01 (Media Review Driver)
• Resizable BAR: Enabled

The test results shown below were taken from benchmark runs that did not have any screen capture software running in the background.

Assassin's Creed Mirage In-game Benchmark

Kicking things off in the benchmarks section is Assassin's Creed Mirage's in-game benchmark test, where on the 1440p resolution, the test bench achieves an average FPS of 97, with a minimum FPS of 45 and a maximum FPS of 211. These results were obtained on the "Ultra High" preset with Adaptive Quality set to "60 FPS", and all forms of upscaling (e.g. FSR) disabled.

On the 1080p resolution with the same quality settings as the 1440p run, the test bench puts out an average FPS of 126, a minimum FPS of 61 and a maximum FPS of 280.

Black Myth Wukong Benchmark Tool

We've got Black Myth Wukong's Benchmark Tool next, where the test bench achieves an average FPS of 48, with a minimum FPS of 42 and a maximum FPS of 54. These results were obtained on the "High" preset with ray tracing switched off, and Super Resolution set to "100" with TSR as the sampling mode (i.e. FSR was disabled). Frame Generation was also disabled for the duration of the benchmark.

Lowering the resolution to 1080p with the same graphics quality settings as the 1440p benchmark run, the test system achieves an average FPS of 71, a minimum FPS of 55 and a maximum FPS of 80.

Cyberpunk 2077 v2.21 In-game Benchmark

With Cyberpunk 2077 v2.21's in-game benchmark test, the test bench achieves an average FPS of 65.64, a minimum FPS of 56.21 and a maximum FPS of 80.37 on the 1440p resolution. These results were obtained on the "Ray Tracing Low" preset with FSR and Frame Generation disabled.

On the 1080p resolution with the same quality settings as the 1440p test run, the test bench attains an average FPS of 103.16, a minimum FPS of 88.74 and a maximum FPS of 124.30.

F1 23 In-game Benchmark

Moving on to F1 23's in-game benchmark tool, the test system achieves an average FPS of 49, a minimum FPS of 39 and a maximum FPS of 65 at 1440p. These results were obtained on the "Ultra High" detail preset with all forms of upscaling technologies (e.g. FSR) disabled. Anisotropic Filtering was set to the "16x" setting.

Turning down the resolution to 1080p while maintaining the same graphics quality settings, the test system achieves an average FPS of 74, a minimum FPS of 60 and a maximum FPS of 96.

Far Cry 6 In-game Benchmark

With Far Cry 6's in-game benchmark, the test bench achieves an average FPS of 114, a minimum FPS of 105 and a maximum FPS of 131 at 1440p. These results were obtained on the "Ultra" quality preset with all forms of upscaling disabled. and DXR reflections and shadows were enabled throughout the duration of testing.

Bumping the resolution down to 1080p with the same quality settings as the 1440p benchmark run, the test bench achieves an average FPS of 146, a minimum FPS of 123 and a maximum FPS of 172.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider In-game Benchmark

Rounding things off in the benchmarks section is Shadow of the Tomb Raider's built-in benchmark test, where at 1440p, the test bench achieves an average FPS of 58. The results above were obtained on maxed out graphics settings, where Ray Tracing Shadow Quality was set to "Ultra" and all forms of upscaling technologies such as FSR were disabled.

Bumping the resolution down to 1080p and retaining the same graphics settings as the 1440p test run, the test system achieves an average FPS of 89.

RTX 5060 Ti 16GB vs RX 9060 XT 16GB - Six-Game Comparison at 1440p & 1080p

Bearing in mind that the RX 9060 XT 16GB has a MSRP of US$349, the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB a MSRP of US$429 and the RTX 5060 Ti 8GB a MSRP of US$379, I decided to pit the RX 9060 XT 16GB's performance against the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB, instead of the RTX 5060 Ti 8GB as 1) from a practical perspective, I did not receive any media samples of the 5060 Ti 8GB and hence do not have any like-for-like benchmark data and 2) I thought it'd be more relevant to pit 16GB VRAM GPUs in a similar performance class against each other, seeing as they'd have more legs to run from a product longevity perspective. This is in contrast to 8GB cards that are very likely to become obsolete in the short-to-mid-term - we've seen from the multitude of reviews out there covering new graphics cards with 8GB of VRAM (i.e. the RTX 5060 Ti 8GB and RTX 5060 8GB), where such GPUs tend to lose steam pretty quickly once games fully saturate the said 8GB of VRAM, especially at higher resolutions.

Unsurprisingly, from the six games that were used to benchmark the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB and the RX 9060 XT 16GB, the AMD GPU falls short of the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB's performance, but not by that large of a margin all things considered, seeing as four of these six game benchmarks had ray-tracing enabled - ray tracing has never been a strong suit of AMD's, but the RDNA 4 architecture has certainly seen Team Red catch up by leaps-and-bounds compared to the brand's previous-gen GPUs.

In case you're wondering, the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB performance data was lifted from a review that I did of the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB EAGLE OC ICE 16G some weeks back - the test bench had exactly the same specs save for a different PSU and different BIOS revision for the motherboard, and the game benchmarks were conducted with identical quality settings as those in this review, with upscaling and frame generation disabled.

Power Consumption, Thermals & Acoustics

Power Consumption

Under Load (F1 23 In-game Benchmark, 1440p, Ultra High Detail Preset, TAA, 16x AF, FSR Off, Singapore Circuit, Three Laps)
• Avg. Total Board Power: 169.1W
• Min. Total Board Power: 90.0W
• Max. Total Board Power: 174.0W

Idle
• Avg. Total Board Power: 27.1W
• Min. Total Board Power: 26.0W
• Max. Total Board Power: 29.0W

The figures above were obtained from "GPU BRD PWR" readouts from AMD Adrenalin control panel logging data.

Thermals

Under Load (F1 23 In-game Benchmark, 1440p, Ultra High Detail Preset, TAA, 16x AF, FSR Off, Singapore Circuit, Three Laps)

Idle
• Avg. GPU Temperature: 47.1°C
• Min. GPU Temperature: 46.0°C
• Max. GPU Temperature: 48.0°C
• Avg. GPU Hot Spot Temperature: 51.4°C
• Min. GPU Hot Spot Temperature: 50.0°C
• Max. GPU Hot Spot Temperature: 53.3°C
• Avg. GPU Memory Junction Temperature: 67.1°C
• Min. GPU Memory Junction Temperature: 66.0°C
• Max. GPU Memory Junction Temperature: 68.0°C

The figures above were obtained from "GPU Temperature" & "GPU Memory Junction Temperature" readouts from HWiNFO64. Do note that these figures were obtained with an open-air test bench, with an ambient temperature of around 30°C.

While under gaming workloads with default fan curve settings, I found the PULSE AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB's fans to be reasonably quiet, where any fan noise was masked by the test bench's CPU fans. I'm happy to report that while the card had some amount of coil whine, the said coil whine was not very loud and manifested itself in the form of a low buzzing noise - on a scale of zero to five, with zero being no coil whine at all, I'd rate the amount of coil whine with this card a 1.5/5.

Conclusion & Pricing

In conclusion, the Sapphire PULSE AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB comes across as a dependable and no-nonsense rendition of a Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB graphics card, where it has decent thermal performance (at least with the open-air test bench that I used). I do wish however, that the card had come with more display output ports - a single DisplayPort connector in this day and age does come across as rather parsimonious.

With the RX 9060 XT 16GB's performance (at least from the small sample of gaming benchmarks that I've run), it'll handle 1080p gaming with ease, and 1440p gaming with some of the eye candy turned down. It's great to see too that ray tracing performance has improved somewhat, where we're definitely getting playable levels of FPS compared to AMD's previous-gen RX 6000 series and RX 7000 series offerings. If you're amenable to employing the use of upscaling tech such as AMD's FSR and frame generation, you can definitely expect to eke out more performance from the RX 9060 XT 16GB.

From a value perspective against the competition (i.e. the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB/8GB), if retailers are able to maintain AMD's MSRP of US$349, the RX 9060 XT 16GB should be a compelling product for those looking to build a 1440p/1080p gaming PC without breaking the bank all too much, seeing as the RX 9060 XT 16GB's performance does slot it comfortably beneath the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB by not too far off a margin, all while costing US$80 less. However, given the state of the GPU market of late, where prices tend to be above MSRP, we'll have to see how and where the dust settles before arriving at a definitive conclusion on whether the RX 9060 XT 16GB can comfortably hold its own against the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB/8GB from a value perspective.

Editor's Note as of 5 June 2025: It appears that the PULSE Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB is available to purchase from Newegg at the MSRP price of $349, and is currently in stock as of the time of writing this update.

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The graphics card featured in this article was a review unit provided on loan from AMD Singapore.