Nvidia RTX 4060 Ti 16GB vs AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB: Which is the best for gaming?

The Nvidia RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB and Radeon RX 9060 XT 16 GB are some of the top $350 options for entry-level FHD and QHD gaming GPUs in the market. While AMD has perfected its ray tracing and upscaling formulas with the latest RDNA 4 lineup, the last-gen Nvidia card stays competitive with slashed prices. While it initially launched at $499, the GPU is readily available for $380-390 these days, with even cheaper prices in the used market.

This raises the question: Should you buy the current-gen AMD GPU or go for the slightly older Nvidia option? Let's dissect the two offerings and find out which card offers the best bang for the buck.

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The Nvidia RTX 4060 Ti 16GB and AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB bring strong 1080p and 1440p gaming performance

The Nvidia RTX 4060 Ti continues to be a strong FHD and QHD gaming GPU (Image via Nvidia)

The RTX 4060 Ti and AMD RX 9060 XT are quite different in terms of their on-paper specs. While both GPUs have 8 and 16 GB variants, that's where all similarities end. Let's review the on-paper specs before delving into the performance differences.

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Specs comparison

The RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB is based on the last-gen Ada Lovelace architecture. Under the hood, it packs 4,352 CUDA, 34 RT, and 136 Tensor cores. This results in a total of 22.06 TFLOPs of rendering performance. In terms of VRAM, the card is available in both 8 and 16 GB GDDR6 variants. However, since it's limited to a 128-bit memory bus, you get just 288 GB/s total bandwidth.

The 9060 XT shares the DNA of the 4060 Ti. It is based on a cut-down Navi 44 graphics chip with the latest RDNA 4 architecture. Since AMD's new design naturally clocks higher, you get up to 3.13 GHz faster boost speeds, ~600 MHz higher than AMD. While you get the same 16 GB GDDR6 VRAM based on a 128-bit bus, the card delivers a slightly higher bandwidth of 322 GB/s due to faster 20 Gbps video memory. This results in 25.6 TFLOPs of performance.

The 9060 XT is a PCIe Gen 5 card, based on the full x16 interface. The 4060 Ti, on the other hand, cuts corners with a Gen 4 x8 interface. Here's the full specs table:

Specification	RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB	RX 9060 XT 16 GB
Architecture / GPU	Ada Lovelace (Ada-Lovelace)	RDNA 4 (Navi 44)
CUDA / Stream Processors	4,352 CUDA cores	2,048 Stream Processors
Boost Clock	~2.54 GHz	Up to ~3.13 GHz (Game Clock ~2.53 GHz)
Memory	16 GB GDDR6, 128-bit	16 GB GDDR6, 128-bit
Memory Bandwidth	288 GB/s	~322 GB/s (20.1 Gbps × 128-bit)
FP32 Compute (TFLOPs)	~22.06 TFLOPs	~25.6 TFLOPs
Ray Accelerators / RT Cores	34 3rd-Gen RT cores	32 RA (ray accelerators)
AI / Tensor Cores	136 4th-Gen Tensor cores; 353 AI TOPS	64 AI accelerators; 410 TOPS (INT8), 821 TOPS (INT4)
PCI Express Interface	PCIe 4.0 ×8	PCIe 5.0 ×16
Power Consumption (TDP)	160 W / 165 W typical board power	160 W (16 GB variant)
3DMark Performance	~13,462 (Time Spy)	~16,421 (Time Spy)
Price	$405-430	$380

In terms of pricing, the RX 9060 XT is maintaining its sub-$400 spot consistently. Several dual-fan and some entry-level triple-fan variants are consistently selling for $380. The Nvidia card, however, is available in the $405-430 range.

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Performance comparison

The RX 9060 XT is AMD's latest 60-class gaming GPU (Image via AMD)

Here's how the performance between the two video cards differs in some of the latest titles. All of the tests were conducted at 1440p with a Ryzen 7 9800X3D CPU. The numbers are taken from the YouTube channel Testing Games.

	Nvidia RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB	AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 16 GB
Silent Hill 2	65 FPS	63 FPS
The Last of Us Part II	56 FPS	55 FPS
Doom: The Dark Ages	47 FPS	52 FPS
Ghost of Tsushima	51 FPS	63 FPS
Forza Horizon 5	95 FPS	134 FPS
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024	42 FPS	50 FPS
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2	41 FPS	42 FPS
Cyberpunk 2077	50 FPS	61 FPS
Cyberpunk 2077 w/ RT	50 FPS	53 FPS
Red Dead Redemption 2	55 FPS	70 FPS
Horizon Forbidden West	62 FPS	73 FPS

On average, the RX 9060 XT is about 15% faster than the Nvidia RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB. The largest gains are seen in Forza Horizon 5 (+41%), Red Dead Redemption 2 (+27%), Ghost of Tsushima (+24%), and Cyberpunk 2077 (+22%). The Nvidia GPU wins in ray tracing-heavy games like Silent Hill 2 (+3%) and The Last of Us Part II (+2%). However, these gains are too small to be noticeable.

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The AMD RX 9060 XT is the unbeaten champion in terms of value for money in the mid-range market, exactly as Team Red marketed it at launch. The RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB is a bad investment in mid-2025, given that it's barely cheaper than the RTX 5060 Ti. If you have $430-450 to spend, consider buying the newer Blackwell alternative as it ships with DLSS 4 multi-frame generation and faster GDDR7 VRAM.