AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT vs AMD Radeon RX 9060 Comparison

The AMD Radeon RX 9060 and AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT represent two distinct generations of AMD graphics hardware, separated by the transition from RDNA 1.0 to RDNA 4.0. The benchmark data shows a decisive performance shift, with the RX 9060 winning 9 out of 10 head-to-head comparisons. However, the single loss for the RX 9060 in Vulkan compute presents an interesting anomaly worth examining. The average benchmark score for the RX 9060 is 16014, placing it near the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (16129, -0.7%), while the RX 5500 XT averages 14692, sitting close to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 (14747, -0.4%).

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The most dramatic margin appears in the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test, where the RX 9060 scores 3322 against the RX 5500 XT’s 1032, a 221.9% advantage. This is the largest delta in the entire comparison and indicates that the RX 9060’s architecture handles modern DX12 workloads with far greater efficiency. The RX 5500 XT’s score of 1032 is less than a third of the RX 9060’s result, showing that the newer card is not merely incrementally faster but operates in a different performance class for this workload.

In PassMark DirectX 11, the RX 9060 posts 182 versus 56 for the RX 5500 XT, a 225% difference. This is the second-largest margin and reinforces the pattern of the RX 9060 dominating legacy DirectX titles as well. Similarly, PassMark DirectX 10 shows the RX 9060 at 104 against 46, a 126.1% lead, while DirectX 9 results are 280 versus 133, a 110.5% gap. These consistent triple-digit percentage leads across multiple DirectX versions suggest the RX 9060’s raw shading throughput translates directly into higher frame rates across a wide spectrum of API levels.

The PassMark G3D score, which aggregates overall 3D graphics performance, shows the RX 9060 at 17631 versus 9083 for the RX 5500 XT, a 94.1% difference. This nearly doubles the older card’s result and aligns with the average benchmark score gap of roughly 9% (16014 vs 14692), though the G3D test amplifies the difference more than the average would suggest. The Geekbench OpenCL score also favors the RX 9060 significantly, with 88183 versus 46965, an 87.8% advantage. This indicates strong compute throughput for the newer architecture in general-purpose GPU workloads.

The PassMark GPU Compute test shows the RX 9060 at 9919 versus 4446, a 123.1% lead, further confirming the compute advantage. Even in 2D graphics, the RX 9060 wins with 1002 versus 774, a 29.5% margin, though this is the smallest percentage win aside from the DirectX 12 result. The DirectX 12 PassMark score is notably close: 44 for the RX 9060 versus 40 for the RX 5500 XT, a slim 10% advantage. This near-tie is surprising given the massive lead in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, suggesting that PassMark’s DX12 test may be less representative of real-world performance or that the RX 9060’s drivers are less optimized for this specific benchmark.

The sole win for the RX 5500 XT comes in Geekbench Vulkan, where it scores 44191 against the RX 9060’s 39476, a 10.7% advantage. This is a notable outlier, as the RX 9060 wins the OpenCL test by 87.8% but loses the Vulkan compute test. The data suggests that while the RX 9060 has superior raw compute resources, its Vulkan driver path may not fully utilize them in this specific benchmark, whereas the RX 5500 XT’s older architecture achieves better efficiency in this workload.

Where Each One Wins

The RX 9060 is the clear winner for DirectX-based gaming and general 3D rendering. Its wins span DirectX 9, 10, 11, and 12 in PassMark, with margins ranging from 10% to 225%. For modern DX12 gaming, the 3DMark Steel Nomad result of 221.9% ahead is the strongest indicator, showing that the RX 9060 is built for current and future titles that leverage DX12’s advanced features. The card also dominates compute workloads, as evidenced by the 87.8% lead in OpenCL and 123.1% lead in PassMark GPU Compute, making it suitable for tasks like rendering, scientific computing, or machine learning inference that rely on GPGPU processing.

The RX 9060 also wins in 2D graphics performance, with a 29.5% lead in PassMark G2D, which may benefit desktop compositing or 2D-heavy applications. Its overall percentile ranking of 59th versus the RX 5500 XT’s 57th places it slightly higher among all GPUs, though both are near the middle of the distribution. The RX 9060’s average benchmark score of 16014 puts it in the same league as the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (16129), while the RX 5500 XT’s 14692 is closer to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 (14747). This means the RX 9060 competes with mid-range RTX cards, while the RX 5500 XT sits near older high-end cards from a decade prior.

The RX 5500 XT’s only winning scenario is Vulkan compute, as shown by the Geekbench Vulkan score of 44191 versus 39476. This 10.7% advantage is the single data point where the older card outperforms the newer one. For users who run Vulkan-based compute workloads specifically, the RX 5500 XT may offer better performance, though this is a narrow niche. The RX 5500 XT also has a higher percentile ranking relative to its own generation, but in absolute terms, it trails the RX 9060 in every other benchmark.

The Verdict

Based strictly on the benchmark data, the AMD Radeon RX 9060 is the superior choice for virtually all use cases. It wins 9 out of 10 comparisons, with margins that are often in the triple digits. The average benchmark score of 16014 versus 14692 represents a 9% overall advantage, but the head-to-head tests show much larger gaps in specific workloads. For gamers, the RX 9060’s 221.9% lead in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 indicates it will handle modern titles far better than the RX 5500 XT. For compute users, the 87.8% OpenCL and 123.1% GPU Compute leads make the RX 9060 the clear pick.

The RX 5500 XT only makes sense for users who prioritize Vulkan compute performance, where its 10.7% advantage in Geekbench Vulkan could be relevant. However, this is a single benchmark, and the broader compute results favor the RX 9060 overwhelmingly. The RX 5500 XT is also end-of-life, while the RX 9060 is still active in production, which may influence availability and driver support going forward. Its launch MSRP of 169 USD was specified at release, but no such figure exists for the RX 9060 in the data.

For anyone building a new system or upgrading from the RX 5500 XT, the RX 9060 offers a massive performance uplift. The data does not support any scenario where the RX 5500 XT is preferable outside of Vulkan compute. The RX 9060’s percentile ranking of 59 versus 57 is close, but the actual benchmark scores tell a different story, with the RX 9060 nearly doubling the RX 5500 XT in several key tests.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 9060 has an average benchmark score of 16014, while the AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT averages 14692.

Q: What is the largest performance gap between the two cards?

A: The largest gap is in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, where the RX 9060 scores 3322 versus 1032 for the RX 5500 XT, a 221.9% difference.

Q: Does the RX 5500 XT win any benchmark?

A: Yes, the RX 5500 XT wins the Geekbench Vulkan test with a score of 44191 versus 39476 for the RX 9060, representing a 10.7% advantage.

Q: How does the RX 9060 compare to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti?

A: The RX 9060’s average score of 16014 is 0.7% lower than the RTX 3060 Ti’s 16129, making them closely matched.

Q: What is the memory difference between the two cards?

A: The RX 9060 has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory with 288.0 GB/s bandwidth, while the RX 5500 XT has 4 GB of GDDR6 with 224.0 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: Which card has a higher boost clock?

A: The RX 9060 has a boost clock of 2990 MHz, compared to 1845 MHz for the RX 5500 XT.

Architecture Differences

The RX 9060 is built on the Navi 44 chip using RDNA 4.0 architecture, while the RX 5500 XT uses the Navi 14 chip with RDNA 1.0. The process node differs significantly: the RX 9060 uses a 4 nm process from TSMC, whereas the RX 5500 XT uses a 7 nm process. This results in a transistor count of 29,700 million for the RX 9060 versus 6,400 million for the RX 5500 XT, with die sizes of 199 mm² and 158 mm² respectively. The transistor density is 149.2M per mm² for the RX 9060, far higher than the 40.5M per mm² of the RX 5500 XT.

The RX 9060 features 1792 shading units, 112 texture mapping units, and 64 raster operation units, while the RX 5500 XT has 1408 shading units, 88 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. The RX 9060 also includes 28 ray tracing cores, which the RX 5500 XT lacks entirely. Pixel rate for the RX 9060 is 191.4 GPixel/s versus 59.04 GPixel/s for the RX 5500 XT, and texture rates are 334.9 GTexel/s versus 162.4 GTexel/s. The FP32 performance is 21.43 TFLOPS for the RX 9060 versus 5.196 TFLOPS for the RX 5500 XT, a 4x difference. FP16 performance is 21.43 TFLOPS (1:1) for the RX 9060, while the RX 5500 XT achieves 10.39 TFLOPS with a 2:1 ratio.

Memory configurations differ in capacity and speed: the RX 9060 has 8 GB of GDDR6 at 2250 MHz (18 Gbps effective) with 288.0 GB/s bandwidth, while the RX 5500 XT has 4 GB at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective) with 224.0 GB/s bandwidth. Both use a 128-bit bus. The RX 9060 supports PCIe 5.0 x16, while the RX 5500 XT uses PCIe 4.0 x8. Display outputs also differ, with the RX 9060 offering 1x HDMI 2.1b and 2x DisplayPort 2.1a, while the RX 5500 XT has 1x HDMI 2.0b and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a. The RX 9060 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the RX 5500 XT only supports DirectX 12 (12_1). Both support OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4. The RX 9060 has a TDP of 132 W, slightly higher than the RX 5500 XT’s 130 W, and both use a single 8-pin power connector with a 300 W suggested PSU. The RX 5500 XT has a length of 180 mm (7.1 inches), while the RX 9060’s dimensions are not specified.