Impact of PCIe Gen on 9060 XT performance might be the final nail in the coffin for 8GB GPUs
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It isn't surprising that the gaming community isn't pleased with NVIDIA and AMD's decision to churn out 8GB GPUs. The graphical fidelity of modern titles is increasing by the day, and game devs are facing difficulties optimizing titles to run smoothly with VRAM or hardware limitations.
While upscaling technologies can mediate this issue for a bit, that doesn't help in productivity, and overall, more VRAM is preferred by gamers and creators.
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- Sapphire Pulse AMD Radeon™ RX 9070 XT Was $779 Now $719
- AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D Processor Was $449 Now $341
- Skytech King 95 Ryzen 7 9800X3D gaming PC Was $2,899 Now $2,599
- LG 77-Inch Class OLED C5 TV Was $3,696 Now $2,996
- AOC Laptop Computer 16GB RAM 512GB SSD Was $360.99 Now $306.84
- Lexar 2TB NM1090 w/HeatSink SSD Was $281.97 Now $214.98
- Apple Watch Series 10 GPS+ Smartwatch Was $499.99 Now $379.99
- AMD Ryzen 9 5950X processor Was $3199.99 Now $279.99
- Garmin vívoactive 5 Smartwatch Was $299.99 Now $190
*Prices and savings subject to change. Click through to get the current prices.
To showcase the limits of 8GB VRAM, Hardware Unboxed, one of the most reputable gaming tech channels, showcased it by running various titles with the RX 9060 XT but using different PCIe configurations. This is how it went.
RX 9060 XT PCIe 3.0, 4.0, and 5.0 gaming performance (8GB and 16GB)
In a recent YouTube video by Hardware Unboxed, the folks over there tested the 8GB and 16GB variants of the RX 9060 XT, but instead of using an older processor to limit the PCIe bandwidth, they used the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, but isolated the PCI bus by manually adjusting it via the BIOS.
The first title showcased was the F1 25 running at 1440p, very high preset with FSR set to Quality mode. The RX 9060 XT (16GB) with a PCIe 3.0 x16 connection was able to churn out an average of 73 FPS. In comparison, the 9060 XT (8GB) with a PCIe 5.0 x16 connection, which has more bandwidth than PCIe 3.0, was 18% slower and managed an average of 56-57 FPS.
Going a step below that and using the PCIe 4.0 x16 bandwidth, the FPS dropped even more as the 8GB struggled to even hit the 60 FPS mark, and with PCIe 3.0, it fell to an average of 35 FPS, making it 53% slower than the 16GB variant running on the same configuration.
You never want PCIe bandwidth to be a performance limiting Factor. You don't want it to have a chance to influence performance, and the only way to ensure this is to have enough VRAM.
Steve – Hardware Unboxed
However, when the preset was dropped to high instead of very high, the 9060 XT (8GB) variant saw a drastic improvement, but that was the only time it was able to bridge the gap by however much.
The RX 9060 XT (16GB) with PCIe 3.0 had an average FPS of 190 FPS, while the 8GB model with PCIe 5.0 managed 161 average FPS, or in other words, it was 11% slower. So, unsurprisingly, the performance took a 12% hit as the configuration was moved to work with the PCIe 4.0 limitation and delivered 149 FPS on average.
Image source: Hardware Unboxed
Image source: Hardware Unboxed
Image source: Hardware Unboxed
PCIe 3.0 lowered the output even more compared to the 16GB 9060 XT's performance, as the difference came around to 13% with an average FPS of 123.
Overall, other than F1 25 running on high preset, the pattern of the RX 9060 XT was the same as it was held back by its 8GB VRAM and even with the latest PCIe connection, 5.0, it struggled to match the output of the RX 9060 XT (16GB) running with a PCIe 3.0 configuration.
However, when these cards were tested with the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, which supports a 4.0 x16 connection, the difference wasn't a lot for the 16GB variant. F1 25 was able to manage virtually the same performance (183-184 FPS) running at 2K with very high present and FSR Quality, with the 5800X3D (PCIe 4.0 x16) and 9800X3D (PCIe 3.0 x16).
On the other hand, the RX 9060 XT, when paired with both of these GPUs with the PCIe 4.0 configuration, managed an average of 142 – 148 FPS with the 9800X3D and 123 to 133 FPS with the 5800X3D, but that test bench was also using slower DDR4 memory.
With everything said and done, the limitations of the 8GB were clearly shown in this video, and it is time that the big name in the GPU market realizes that the new budget standard needs to be upgraded.
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