Michał Stekla
You wanted a cheap graphics card from the Radeon RX 9000 series? Well, we're sorry—but you'll get it, but without the opportunity to see what it can really do. AMD has just officially lifted the embargo on reviews of the RX 9060 XT and… there are no surprises. Tests have appeared online, but only for the 16 GB version. The cheaper, 8-gigabyte edition? Almost entirely overlooked.
And it's not a coincidence.
In an official response to Linus Tech Tips, AMD explains that "the availability of the Radeon RX 9060 XT 8 and 16 GB depends on demand in specific markets." That's it. Specifically — nothing.
But in practice? The Red team's strategy seems painfully simple:
We do not show 8 GB benchmarks, because they may perform worse, especially at higher resolutions.
We promote 16 GB, because better graphs = more sold cards.
Richer markets like the USA and Europe are to buy the more expensive versions, while cheaper models will go to countries with lower purchasing power.
And what about the 16 gigabyte version?
The AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT is an example of a graphics card that theoretically aimed to level the playing field in the mid-range segment, but in practice, it teeters on the edge of sensibility. The RDNA 4 architecture introduces a number of technical improvements – from a monolithic structure, through a modified CU setup, to better support for AI and ray tracing – yet all of this is wrapped in a configuration that is almost identical to its predecessors from the RX 7600 series. On one hand, we have noticeable technological progress; on the other hand, a disturbingly conservative specification and limited memory bandwidth, which with a 128-bit bus and GDDR6 clearly lags behind the GDDR7 used by NVIDIA. The RX 9060 XT thus looks like a product created more for the sake of marketing narrative than real gamer needs, which only amplifies frustration with AMD's publishing strategy.
So you have a choice: buy a pig in a poke or pay extra for the model that AMD wants you to buy. Trust in the brand? It's getting harder to find in the GPU world, where even the availability of reviews is part of the sales strategy.
