It’s AMD’s turn. After months of long discussions of $2,000+ GPU and DLSS, we were finally on the turf of the Red Team. The power of AMD has historically been at the end of the spectrum’s budget, with most gamers playing at 1080p and the entire system cost $1,000 or less.
Even if we do recommend splurge on GPUs, this is not the reality for most people. The $800 GPU requires $1200 on other parts, and then most people who don’t participate in PC games would start buying Xbox.
The Radeon RX 9060 XT trades at 1080p for a similar price RTX 5060 for under $400 and moves forward with 1440p performance. If you both look at both on the shelf, this card will last longer and perform better in demanding games and higher resolutions.
Symbol and power
Photo: Brad Bourque
I know people want to go straight into performance, so I don’t want to spend it on the physical side of the card forever. This Gigabyte Windforce OC model is somewhat premium, with a full metal backplane for cooling and has three full-size fans. If you have a room, the extra fan will make your system quieter and reduce the risk of hot issues.
It still uses the standard eight-pin PCIE power you use, so don’t worry about upgrading the power supply or buying an adapter. I think this will make it easier for most people to upgrade paths, which is crucial to the budget GPU world.
An interesting note about the gigabyte model I received is that there is an RGB LED on the upper/outer corner. There is a plastic sliding piece with a Gigabyte logo that you can put on it to reduce light, but you need to turn it off using Gigabyte software or other RGB LED controller.
Benchmark
Comparing a card with the same GPU manufacturer is easier than crossing the line. The choice of individual developers and the use of different technologies can shift the meter by a few%, which is usually the difference in GPUs at the same price. Synthetic benchmarks can help us understand more precisely the relative performance in the vacuum, with minimal differences in game optimization.
Courtesy of Brad Bourque
