AMD is on a roll with its Ryzen 9000 processors and Radeon 9000 graphics cards. After the massive success of the RX 9070 XT, all eyes were on the RX 9060 XT as it is competing with the RTX 5060 & 5060 Ti, but AMD claims that it is faster, which hyped up the community even more.

The reviews of the RX 9060 XT are live, 24 hours ahead of the release time, and the performance difference between it and its competition, the RTX 5060 Ti, is within a few percentage points, with both taking home some victories. However, the 5060 Ti offers slightly better performance, but not anything that justifies its higher price point, meaning the 9060 XT wins this round due to its better value for money. 

RX 9060 XT review round-up

Here are some of the best reviews we've spotted online, but keep in mind that all of these are for the 16GB variant. 

TechPowerUp

When it comes to reviews, testing, or even general tech information, TechPowerUp is a go-to. So, it goes without saying, the folks over there have tested and reviewed the RX 9060 XT, and regarding the details, they leave no stone unturned. 

The test bench they used consisted of the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, MSI X870E Carbon WiFi, and 2x 16 GB DDR5-6200 MHz RAM. The GPU was tested with a lot of games, but we'll highlight some of the most popular and demanding ones to draw a comparison. 

In Cyberpunk 2077, at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K, the RX 9060 XT managed 111, 72, and 33 FPS, respectively. For comparison, the RTX 5060 Ti delivered 114, 76, and 35 FPS. So, there isn't a lot of difference in performance, and certainly doesn't make sense to pay more for the 5060 Ti for a 3 or 4 FPS increase. 

XDA 

According to XDA, the RX 9060 XT just became the best mainstream GPU, and that should tell you everything about how much they liked what the 9060 XT had to offer. They tested the ASRock RX 9060 XT Challenger and gave it an 8/10 rating. The test bench consisted of the Ryzen 9 9950X, Gigabyte X870E Aorus Master, and 2x16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR5-6000. 

They tested a handful of games, and we'll take the out of Cyberpunk 2077 (Ultra High). In Cyberpunk 2077, the RX 9060 XT managed 114 FPS at 1080p, 72 FPS at 1440p, and 31 FPS at 4K. 

The RTX 5060 Ti delivered 124, 78, and 34 FPS in the same three resolutions. So, once again, there is a slight difference, but not enough to make a huge impact that would make you want to buy the 5060 Ti over the 9060 XT.  

TechSpot

TechSpot said that the RX 9060 XT has 1440p power for under $400. They also tested the RX 9060 XT to see if AMD's claims stood up, and they did. They commented: “Based on our testing, that claim holds up. We observed virtually identical performance at 1440p.” 

Their test bench also has the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, which isn't surprising, the MSI MPG X870E Carbon WiFi with ReBAR enabled, and G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB DDR5-6000 RAM. We check out all of the games tested, but focus on specific titles that are graphically demanding, like Cyberpunk 2077, to see how the GPU will perform under stress. 

At 1080p, the 9060 XT delivered 118 FPS in Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty and 80 FPS at 1440p. The RTX 5060 Ti, in comparison, managed 125 and 82 FPS at FHD and QHD. So, this is only a 2.4% difference at 1440p, which can be neglected.

The 18-game average done by TechSpot put the RX 9060 XT at 70 points while the 5060 Ti scored 71 FPS. So, there is minimal difference at 1440p, which puts the odds in Team Red's new budget GPUs’ favor. 

IGN

IGN is a big name in the gaming industry, and it isn't surprising that they've also reviewed the RX 9060 XT. They said: “The 16GB 9060 XT is an excellent value, however if the price gets closer to the $429 RTX 5060 Ti, the value will quickly disappear.”

We agree with this statement because if you're paying close to or the same amount as the RTX 5060 Ti, then you might as well go with it, because it does offer slightly better performance. The test system that the folks at IGN used had the 9800X3D, Asus ROG Crosshair X870E Hero, and 32GB G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo @ 6,000MHz memory. 

Cyberpunk 2077 at 1440p with Ray Tracing and upscaling balanced ran with 60 FPS while the 5060 Ti delivered 70 FPS. On the other hand, at 1080p with ray tracing and upscaling set to Quality, the 9060 XT and 5060 Ti churned out 80 and 88 FPS, respectively. 

What this means is that even with DLSS, the 5060 Ti couldn't put much distance between its competition and highlights the improvements AMD has made over the years. 

PCMag

After reviewing the RX 9060 XT, PCMag gave it a 4.0 rating. They tested the Sapphire Pulse RX 9060 XT with the Ryzen 9 9950X, Gigabyte X870E Aorus Master, and 16GB DDR5 RAM running at 6,000MHz. 

In their testing, they also check the synthetic performance as well as the gaming output. In synthetic testing, the RX 9060 XT managed 9,828 in Port Royal while the 5060 Ti delivered 10,651 points. 

This means that the latter is better at ray tracing, but the 9060 XT isn't far off, as the difference comes around to 8%. They also ran Cyberpunk 2077 at ultra settings, and the 9060 XT churned out 47 FPS at FHD, 29 FPS at QHD, and 14 FPS at 4K.

In comparison, the 5060 Ti was missing the results for 1080p, and the reason was mentioned, but at 1440p and 4K, it delivered 35 and 17 FPS, respectively.  Besides that, the 9060 XT also showcased significant improvement over its predecessor, the RX 7600 XT, which managed 25, 15, and 7 FPS.

We've also reviewed the 7600 XT, and in Cyberpunk 2077, it managed 86 FPS at 1080p and 53 FPS at 1440p. So, the difference is a lot between numbers, but the in-game settings and test bench matter a lot, but this is just to provide more details to better draw a conclusion. 

Final word

Overall, the RX 9060 XT seems to have delivered on its promise, and we might see it quickly become the next upgrade option for many, as it has excellent synthetic and gaming performance and also costs much less than the RTX 5060 Ti. 

However, there are concerns that it'll lose its value if the cost of third-party variants comes close to that of the 5060 Ti, but if that happens, we expect the price of the 5060 Ti to rise as well. So, in this situation, the RX 9060 XT will still be the better graphics card to go for. 

The only big gun that the RTX 5060 Ti had in its arsenal was DLSS 4, and according to XDA, FSR 4 has come a long way that the difference between the two is extremely close, so that two games put side by side with DLSS and FSR enabled are very difficult to tell apart. So, this is another massive win for AMD.

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