AMD's Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB GPU reportedly set to take retail priority over 8GB counterpart - is this the beginning of the end for 8GB GPUs?

AMD and Nvidia look set to battle it out again, with both anticipated to launch GPUs this May, but one of Team Red's may not get much spotlight in the market.

May 2, 2025 - 11:27

AMD's Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB GPU reportedly set to take retail priority over 8GB counterpart - is this the beginning of the end for 8GB GPUs?

AMD is reportedly prioritizing the Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB GPU for retailers
It corroborates rumors that it may cancel or discontinue the 8GB GPU
If it's true, it could be a sign that Team Red won't make 8GB GPUs going forward

AMD's Radeon RX 9060 XT GPU is on the horizon (it's projected to launch in May), with 16GB and 8GB variants. However, a new report suggests one of them may not be readily available for consumers at launch.

As reported by Wccftech, AMD could be set to prioritize the Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB variant over the 8GB counterpart in terms of availability for retailers at launch, according to Benchlife. It comes after the rumor that hinted at the 8GB model being cancelled or discontinued, and this new rumor certainly suggests that something is going on with the 8GB model.

Essentially, this means consumers may not see the 9060 XT 8GB available on shelves or online retailers apart from rare occasions. If this is true, it could be a huge indication of AMD's future stance on low VRAM capacity GPUs.

Nvidia's RTX 5060 Ti recently launched with 16GB and 8GB variants, with the latter receiving a lot of flak; consumers have been expressing displeasure with 8GB graphics cards for a while, and Benchlife claims that this is AMD's reasoning behind the potential case of prioritizing the 16GB GPU.

The Radeon RX 9060 XT series is expected to be unveiled at Computex, with a potential May 21 launch - but apparently, it won't actually go on sale until June (considering AMD's Q2 2025 estimation). Regardless, this puts the GPUs in direct competition with the RTX 5060, expected to launch on May 19. So, we could be in for another fierce battle between these two tech giants.

An AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT made by Sapphire on a table with its retail packaging — (Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

Please, let this be the end of 8GB GPUs...

If this rumor is legitimate, it suggests to me that Team Red is well aware that PC gamers are increasingly of the opinion that 8GB of video memory is simply not enough for modern games at high resolutions. If there's anything good to come from this, it's that we could soon see the end of 8GB graphics cards.

Triple-A games aren't easy going regarding VRAM usage, and while 8GB of VRAM isn't completely useless, I'd say it's a limitation for those looking for better performance. Gaming at 1080p is still the most popular resolution (according to Steam's hardware survey), but more demanding games with higher graphics settings enabled, like Cyberpunk 2077 or Black Myth Wukong, will end up choking 8GB GPUs.

It's also worth mentioning the cost of GPUs in this current market with inflated pricing; a prime example is the XFX Speedster Radeon RX 7900 XTX, sold at $1,129.99 on Best Buy (it's a three-year-old GPU), despite its $999 launch price. Inflation like this makes other low-end graphics cards seem much less appealing, as they no longer have low prices that justify the compromises made to performance. If you're going to be spending that kind of money on a GPU, you'd be better off looking at more powerful cards.

At the very least, I feel that modern graphics cards should come with 12GB VRAM at a minimum, because anything less just won't suffice in 2025 and onwards...