AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 8GB Cancelled? Not So Fast
It's widely anticipated that AMD's next graphics card launch will be the Radeon RX 9060 XT. If the rumors are accurate, the mainstream SKU will offer a more affordable entry into RDNA 4 territory and flesh out a lineup that currently consists of the Radeon RX 9070 XT and Radeon RX 9070. The question is, will there be one or two models? Despite rumors suggesting AMD scrapped plans to release an 8GB version alongside a 16GB model, the latest chatter suggests otherwise.
How did the rumor begin in the first place? The Radeon RX 9060 XT will purportedly compete against NVIDIA's recently-launched GeForce RTX 5060 Ti, for which there are also two SKUs—one with 16GB of GDDR7 for $429 (like the model we reviewed) and a cheaper $379 variant with 8GB of GDDR7.
Some have been critical of the 8GB model, claiming NVIDIA limited access to the lower-end variant and instead focused on getting only the 16GB version in the hands of reviewers.
You can bet AMD's been paying attention to its rival. Related, Moore's Law Is Dead posted a video claiming that AMD informed a board partner that it may axe the launch of the 8GB Radeon RX 9060 XT, but the folks at Benchlife basically just said that's hogwash.
"As for the AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 8GB version, we have reliable sources telling us that there is currently no plan to stop supply or cancel it. As for the news from the market, it is just a rumor. The main reason is as mentioned earlier, it is entirely due to the reaction to the GeForce RTX 5060 Ti," the site states (via Google Translate).
One of AMD's calling cards in recent years has been to offer more VRAM on its cards compared to NVIDIA, and then underscore the importance of having more memory. Back in 2023, for example, AMD coyly dissed NVIDIA by highlighting how much VRAM certain games chew up when gaming at 4K. The implication was that NVIDIA was skimping on memory, while AMD was not.
Around the same time, AMD's senior director of marketing, Saša Marinković posted a slide on X (Twitter at the time) directly comparing the cost and memory structure of AMD's and NVIDIA's GPUs. There was no coyness about it and the messaging was clear.
That all being the case, we can see how a rumor about AMD cancelling an 8GB version of the Radeon RX 9060 XT could get started. However, if the attributed "reliable sources" are correct, then that won't be the case.
We may find out soon enough—AMD is teasing key gaming product announcements at Computex, with the company planning a livestream event on Tuesday, May 20 at 8:00 p.m. PST (11:00 p.m. EST).
