You might be familiar with the RX 9060 XT, the GPU that AMD launched back in June. It launched in both 8GB and 16GB VRAM variants, and offered decent value to budget gamers. A few months later, AMD silently announced another GPU with a very similar name, the RX 9060. This graphics card sported 8GB VRAM yet again, despite the industry clamoring for bigger framebuffers to become the standard. The VRAM capacity wasn't the only problem, though. The non-XT 60-series card from AMD is somehow reserved for pre-built systems. It can also be confused with the 8GB variant of the RX 9060 XT. Let's talk about it.

The 8GB VRAM curse refuses to die

Is the similarity between 8 and infinity at play?

GPU manufacturers like Nvidia and AMD might want us to believe that 8GB VRAM is enough for 1080p or budget gaming, but that's nothing but hogwash. Modern titles have repeatedly shown poor performance on GPUs with 8GB of VRAM, even at 1080p. Texture popping and outright crashes are enough to convince anyone that the time for 8GB VRAM ended long ago. AMD's latest 90-series GPU, i.e, the RX 9060, is proof, however, that GPU companies will try to sell us anything. The RX 9060 is a cut-down variant of the RX 9060 XT, as you'd expect, but AMD could have shipped it with more VRAM to make it shine in comparison to other budget offerings.

A GPU belonging to the budget segment is no excuse to skimp on VRAM. Look at Intel's Arc B580, a $250 GPU that sports 12GB of VRAM. Even the cheaper Arc B570 has 10GB of VRAM, which isn't ideal, but it's still more than that of many Nvidia and AMD cards. AMD's confusing decisions don't end there; the company also decided to limit the availability of the RX 9060, which is what I cover in the next section.

You can't even buy the RX 9060

Even if you wanted to

Another surprising decision by AMD was to reserve the RX 9060 for the pre-built market, allowing only system integrators access to its latest graphics card. So, you can't even buy an RX 9060 if you wanted to. This choice might be linked to a challenging supply or AMD's hopes of avoiding too much media attention around the 8GB VRAM GPU. Whatever the reason, DIY PC builders can't get one for their budget builds, and buying a pre-built system is the only way to use one. As for the relative performance, the RX 9060 is around 13–14% slower than the RX 9060 XT 8GB, based on testing by Hardware Unboxed.

Assuming the RX 9060 would have been priced around 15% cheaper than its XT sibling, it would have been a worthy option for PC builders. At around $240–$250, it would have been considerably faster than the similarly priced Arc B580, and slightly faster than the $280 RTX 5060. The 8GB VRAM would have been a challenge in modern titles, but you'd still get more performance for less money, which is always a win. Some people believe that AMD might be working on an RX 9050 as well, but even if that's true, the company might reserve it for the pre-built PC market, too.

It's easy to confuse it with the RX 9060 XT

Pre-built buyers can easily miss the "XT"

The average gamer who is shopping for a gaming PC on a site like Amazon will probably sort the results by price, and see two different systems: one with the RX 9060 and another with the RX 9060 XT 8GB. The former system will obviously be cheaper, but still display 8GB VRAM in the GPU section, convincing the buyer that they're getting a better deal for essentially the same GPU. The "XT" next to the GPU in the pricier system is easy to miss by the uninformed buyer. Even the RX 9060 XT 8GB and RX 9060 XT 16GB should not have had the same name. Nvidia has also indulged in this shady strategy with the previously unlaunched RTX 4080 12GB.

Companies explore various strategies to maximize revenue, but such questionable tactics should not be one of them. The RX 9060 and RX 9060 XT (8GB) have a similar name and the same VRAM capacity. AMD could have avoided this by calling the 8GB variant of RX 9060 XT, say, RX 9060 in the first place. Even after the fact, the company could have picked a different name for the prebuilt-exclusive RX 9060 to appropriately differentiate it from the RX 9060 XT 8GB. Hoping that customers would buy the cheaper card after confusing it with the faster variant is an unethical decision, plain and simple.

The curious case of the RX 9060

AMD's latest entrant in the 90-series lineup could have been a decent offering had it actually been available to buy from retail channels. Despite the 8GB VRAM limitation, its performance could have made it a better value than competing offerings from Nvidia and Intel. However, AMD decided to reserve it for system integrators selling pre-built PCs. The issue surrounding the potential confusion with the similarly named RX 9060 XT is a real one, especially for the average gamer searching for pre-built gaming PCs on Amazon.