The best value GPU is still $350 this Cyber Monday, so upgrade your old card to a 16 GB RX 9060 XT before the RAM price crisis ruins things completely

(Image credit: PowerColor)

Ever since AMD and Nvidia launched their current generation of graphics cards (Radeon RX 9000-series, GeForce RTX 50-series), I've been advising budget-conscious PC gamers not to ignore 8 GB versions of the mainstream models. Yes, there are some games that, when using certain settings, perform much worse with 8 GB of VRAM compared to the same GPU paired with 16 GB.

We're curating all the best Cyber Monday PC gaming deals over here

However, it's not that many games and even then, you can always adjust the settings to claw back the performance. Of course, one can take the view that in 2025, we shouldn't have to do that: if the GPU is capable, then the whole card should be too.

And that's where the likes of the 16 GB Radeon RX 9060 XT come in. It's no faster than the 8 GB variant (when memory capacity isn't a limiting factor), but the extra VRAM makes the card a little more futureproof.

Giving the whole thing a lot more weight is the fact that RAM prices have shot through the roof, due to AI companies demanding more memory than can be supplied right now. So manufacturers have been reducing the production of every other type of RAM, just to keep up with AI orders, and that includes VRAM.

Which leads me to suspect that the 16 GB Radeon RX 9060 XT, currently $350 at Amazon, won't stay at that price for much longer. It might not even stay around full stop, because if graphics card vendors can't get hold of enough GDDR6 memory, they may be forced to stop producing 16 GB models.

The XFX Swift AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT on a set of bookshelves, with various sci-fi novels behind it — There's a lot of VRAM hidden away in this little Radeon. (Image credit: Future)

You might be wondering why I'm not suggesting that you upgrade your old graphics card to a 16 GB GeForce RTX 5060 Ti. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that GPU, and it's actually a little bit faster than the RX 9060 XT. While I've only shown you our Cyberpunk 2077 benchmark results above, the performance gap between the two remains roughly the same once you average out across dozens more games.

However, the lowest price for the 16 GB RTX 5060 Ti I've found in the Cyber Monday sales is $420 at Newegg. That makes it 20% more expensive than the RX 9060 XT, and since it isn't 20% faster, the GeForce card isn't as good value for money as the Radeon.

With graphics card prices set to climb yet again, this time due to VRAM costs, the 16 GB Radeon RX 9060 XT is not only a great little GPU, but it's also the most sensible one to buy this Cyber Monday.

👉Shop all of Amazon's Cyber Monday GPU deals👈

Best graphics card 2025

1. Best overall: AMD Radeon RX 9070

2. Best value: AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 16 GB

3. Best budget: Intel Arc B570

4. Best mid-range: Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti

5. Best high-end: Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090

👉Check out our full graphics card guide👈

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Nick, gaming, and computers all first met in the early 1980s. After leaving university, he became a physics and IT teacher and started writing about tech in the late 1990s. That resulted in him working with MadOnion to write the help files for 3DMark and PCMark. After a short stint working at Beyond3D.com, Nick joined Futuremark (MadOnion rebranded) full-time, as editor-in-chief for its PC gaming section, YouGamers. After the site shutdown, he became an engineering and computing lecturer for many years, but missed the writing bug. Cue four years at TechSpot.com covering everything and anything to do with tech and PCs. He freely admits to being far too obsessed with GPUs and open-world grindy RPGs, but who isn't these days?

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