INTRODUCTION

    As most people reading these lines are aware there's never been a better point in time for someone to be a gamer, at least when it comes to available graphics cards models. AMD, NVIDIA and Intel are releasing new models in higher frequency than ever before and so regardless of what segment of the market you are there's a graphics card out there for you. AMD recently announced their Radeon RX 9060 XT series graphics cards both with 8GB and 16GB of GDDR6 VRAM and today I'm testing the PULSE AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB Gaming model by SAPPHIRE.

    SAPPHIRE Technology continues to be a world leading manufacturer and global supplier of innovative graphics and mainboard products, delivering its AMD Radeon based products to the PC market addressing gaming and performance graphics hardware enthusiasts, as well as delivering an array of embedded technology solutions and commercial graphics products.

    The latest Radeon RX 9060 XT cards are based on the brand new Navi 44 GPU by AMD (RDNA 4 / 4nm lithography) which just like its higher-end brother (Navi 48) supports their latest FSR 4 AI super resolution technology (neural rendering ready according to AMD), Hyper-RX (1-click solution enabling Radeon anti-lag, boost and super resolution), Fluid Motion Frames 2.1 (improved picture quality, reduced ghosting and improved temporal tracking), Image Sharpening 2 (improved picture detail) and Radeon anti-lag 2. In terms of specifications the AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT packs 32 RDNA 4 compute units, 2048 stream processors, 64 raster units (or render output units), 32 ray accelerators (or ray tracing cores), 128 texture mapping units, 32MB of Infinity Cache and a total of 64 AI accelerators. VRAM amount for the Radeon RX 9060 XT series is set at 8/16GB 20Gbps GDDR6 (the PULSE model sports Samsung modules) based on a 128-bit wide bus interface and thanks to AMD's latest memory management system called Out-of-Order Memory Queuing RT performance gets a boost by eliminating memory request stream misses. Once again, the PULSE model by Sapphire also features Dual-X Cooling equipped with Dual-Ball bearing fans featuring the newest AeroCurve blades, Honeywell PTM7950 Thermal Interface Material (TIM) for superior thermal conductivity, Digital Power for increased stability, fuse protection, accurate power control and power efficiency, 10-layer High TG Copper PCB for excellent reliability, Optimized Composite Heatpipes, Integrated Cooling Module and a metal backplate for additional rigidity. The PULSE AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB Gaming features game clocks up to 2700MHz, boost clocks up to 3290MHz, VRAM set at 2518MHz and as for power draw SAPPHIRE reports 170W. Finally in terms of connectivity the PULSE AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB card by Sapphire features a single DisplayPort v2.1a output and two HDMI v2.1b outputs.