As you could have already seen, AMD formally showcased its upcoming Radeon RX 9070 and 9070 XT earlier this week, together with pricing particulars that had been an especially welcome sight. Now, I’m beginning to surprise in regards to the Radeon RX 9060 – a GPU that, if priced accurately, may very well be an extraordinarily engaging worth proposition for PC players.

Naturally, I’m not going to get too excited till we see some real-world efficiency figures for the brand new AMD playing cards. Group Purple made some daring claims in its RX 9070 XT efficiency showcase, inserting the GPU simply barely above the Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti when it comes to native 4K gaming efficiency regardless of it being $150 cheaper (and let’s be trustworthy, you’ll be able to’t get a 5070 Ti at retail value proper now anyway).

I think that’s a load of baloney, since AMD used an overclocked RX 9070 XT for his or her testing and their comparability 5070 Ti was probably fished out of a crypto miner’s dumpster after which spat on for good measure (AMD: it is a joke, please don’t sue me). AMD additionally solely showcased uncooked native 4K framerates, whereas Nvidia is eager to push the effectiveness of its new DLSS 4 and Multi Body Technology options, which – for all the talk surrounding them – do considerably enhance your in-game fps.

Nonetheless, it’s very spectacular stuff – however at $549 (round £520 / AU$880), even the non-XT model of the RX 9070 can’t precisely be referred to as a finances GPU. It’s extra of a midrange card, and whereas it seems to be like a nice midrange card, I’d nonetheless argue that your best option proper now for PC builders on a finances is the Intel Arc B580, which scored a uncommon 5 stars in our evaluate for its stable 1440p gaming efficiency and very affordable $249.99 / £249.99 / AU$449 price ticket.

Figuring it out

So, as issues stand proper now, it seems to be like AMD is likely to be taking the midrange GPU area by storm, whereas Intel holds onto the finances market and Nvidia stays the undisputed king of the high-end. However with extra RX 9000-series playing cards but to return, it’s totally doable that AMD might descend on Intel with some fiery (however reasonably priced) wrath – in any case, AMD made it clear final 12 months that it will now not be focusing on the premium area, with a better concentrate on midrange and finances GPUs.

So, the RX 9060. We all know little or no about it proper now, however we will make some affordable extrapolations about it primarily based on earlier leaks and our current data of the RX 9070 playing cards.

For starters, some leaks from again in December proved to be largely correct concerning the 9070 and 9070 XT, accurately predicting the title change from RX 8000 and the improve to RDNA 4 in addition to AMD’s new FSR 4 upscaling tech. These leaks claimed that pricing for the 2 new GPUs could be within the $449 to $649 vary, which has additionally confirmed correct, though it was admittedly a reasonably extensive web being solid there. The identical leaker claimed that upcoming Navi 44 GPUs (the 9070 playing cards are Navi 48) would sit within the $179 to $349 value vary, presumably with the RX 9060 XT – or maybe only a plain previous RX 9060 – on the prime.

That is the place I begin to doubt the leaks somewhat; a value of $349 could be a $200 hole between that card and the RX 9060, which seems like a reasonably extensive spacing with regards to pricing. $399 feels a bit extra affordable to me, particularly if we do get an RX 9060 XT – and as PC Gamer stories, we will apparently count on “a number of RX 9060 merchandise” to land within the second quarter of 2025.

Efficiency with out the value

But when the leaks are correct and AMD does produce an RX 9060 XT for $349 or much less in a number of months’ time, I’ll completely lose my merde (pardon my French). The Radeon RX 7600 XT was an honest sufficient GPU, however it did not measure as much as Nvidia’s competing RTX 4060 when it got here to bang in your buck.

AMD seems to be to be making main strides in that division, although. Even when the RX 9070 XT is 10% behind the RTX 5070 Ti when it comes to uncooked efficiency – and I think the common is likely to be rather a lot nearer than that – it’s a full 20% cheaper, and there’s nonetheless no signal of a desktop RTX 5060 from Nvidia. Whereas I do think about that card will finally floor, AMD has the gloves off within the reasonably priced GPU area proper now – and there’s frankly not a hope in hell we’ll see a desktop RTX 5050, so something under that efficiency degree that AMD decides to supply might completely dominate that value level. Sure, I do know Intel’s new finances GPUs are good. No, I don’t suppose they’ll outclass new Radeon playing cards.

The actual fact is that AMD has had pores and skin within the finances recreation for a very long time. My companion, who admittedly largely performs Stardew Valley, continues to be rocking a Radeon RX 570 that runs completely effectively for 1080p gaming – a graphics card that retailed at simply $179 within the US when it was launched again in 2017. I’ve supplied to switch it with one thing a bit extra present, however he says “Why? It nonetheless works nice.”

The reasonably priced to midrange area is the place Group Purple excels, and after some small missteps within the earlier desktop technology, I reckon it’s able to take again its crown. With Nvidia targeted on AI and ridiculously excessive efficiency GPUs, there’s no time like the current.

• The most effective graphics card in 2025: our picks for all budgets
• New Nvidia drivers ought to repair a significant RTX 50 collection GPU concern
• Nvidia’s RTX 5090 has already been pushed past its restrict – ROG Astral mannequin overclock reaches 3.45GHz and 35 Gbps VRAM