ASRock Steel Legend Radeon RX 9060XT 16 GB Review – White and silent with a touch of RGB

1 - Introduction and technical data 2 - Test system and equipment 3 - Teardown with PCB and cooler 4 - Material analysis 5 - Gaming performance 6 - Power consumption, transients, PSU recommendation 7 - Clock rate. thermography and temperatures 8 - Fan curves and noise 9 - Summary and conclusion

With the ASRock Steel Legend RX 9060 XT 16 GB, another variant of the new AMD graphics card is on the test bench today, which clearly stands out visually from the usual uniform gray with its white cooler design. I was particularly curious to see how this model would fare in comparison to the two cards already tested, because in addition to the external appearance, I was particularly interested in the technical details under the hood. Of course, I will once again go into all the details that are often left out of the usual reviews.

General introduction to RDNA4 and technical differences to RDNA3

In addition to the increased computing power, AMD has also comprehensively revised the ray tracing capabilities in RDNA 4. The third generation of RT accelerators uses a double ray intersection engine and an additional ray transformation block for the first time. The latter significantly accelerates traversal within complex structures such as BVH trees. A further technical advance concerns the introduction of oriented bounding boxes, which capture geometric shapes more efficiently and thus reduce memory requirements and bandwidth usage. Overall, this results in a doubling of the ray tracing throughput rate compared to RDNA 3, which marks AMD’s biggest development leap in this area to date.

Another focus is on the improved use of artificial intelligence. To this end, RDNA 4 integrates so-called second-generation AI accelerators, which now also support FP8 as a format in addition to the previous FP16 and INT8 support. This extension is particularly relevant for inference calculations. According to AMD, targeted structural sparsity and additional specialized calculation units increase performance by up to eight times compared to RDNA 3. These computing capacities benefit FSR4 and the HYPR-RX framework, among others, which use neural algorithms to dynamically interpolate image information and thus enable a smoother display.

Within the new Radeon generation, the RX 9060 XT is available as a mid-range model with two memory variants: eight or sixteen gigabytes of GDDR6, each connected to a 128-bit interface. The memory clock is 20 Gbps, resulting in a bandwidth of 320 GB/s. Both versions are based on TSMC’s N4P production and are only available as partner cards. According to AMD, the typical power consumption is 150 to 160 watts; a power supply unit with at least 450 watts is recommended. The connection is made via PCIe 5.0 with full x16 connection.

The sixteen gigabyte version is aimed at users who want to play at WQHD resolution with maximum details and active ray tracing. The smaller eight-gigabyte version is aimed at Full HD gamers who are looking for a good price-performance ratio. Frame rates above 100 FPS are also possible in this resolution at high settings, and significantly more for less demanding titles or in the esports area. However, modern games such as Starfield or The Last of Us Part I quickly show that eight gigabytes are no longer up to date as soon as high texture details are required. But there still seems to be a market for this.

The Radeon RX 9060 XT is fully compatible with DisplayPort 2.1a with UHBR13.5 and HDMI 2.1b. This means that it is also equipped for high-resolution and high-frequency displays, which underlines its long-term suitability for modern systems. Combined with Ryzen 9000 processors, system performance can be further optimized via Smart Access Memory and other AMD-specific optimizations such as HYPR-RX or Fluid Motion Frames. The fact is that RDNA 4 achieves clear advances in efficiency, ray tracing and AI functionality compared to the previous generation. The Radeon RX 9060 XT sees itself as a solid mid-range product in the lower segment with high relevance for Full HD and WQHD gaming. The performance values are comparable to those of the GeForce RTX 5060 Ti in many cases, which should be interesting.

The ASRock Steel Legend Radeon RX 9060XT 16GB

The ASRock Steel Legend RX 9060 XT 16 GB features an eye-catching, almost completely white cooling design. The triple-fan cooling uses three semi-transparent fans, each with nine curved rotor blades optimized for low start-up speed and high static pressure. The two outer fans bear the stylized Steel Legend logo, the middle one the ASRock logo. The fans are equipped with an intelligent zero RPM mode, i.e. they switch off completely when idling. The card is visually tailored to white builds, whereby the white is not pure but slightly warm-toned, which is particularly noticeable in mixed lighting.

A translucent light diffuser with the Steel Legend lettering is located in the middle of the upper edge. Behind it are addressable RGB LEDs that can be controlled via ASRock’s Polychrome Sync software. Directly next to it is a small, recessed slide switch for switching the lighting on and off. The card has one eight-pin PCIe power connector, which can be considered enough dimensioned in view of the moderate power consumption. The fin structure of the heat sink extends over the entire length of the card and is open on both sides for better airflow.

The heatpipe architecture uses four nickel-plated heatpipes, which are embedded in a two-part cooling fin package that is staggered at different heights in order to channel the airflow more efficiently. The clean cable routing with white sheathing and the elaborately milled plastic shroud, which consistently continues the “military style” theme of the Steel Legend series, are striking. The height corresponds to 2.7 slots, which in practice usually means blocking a third slot.

The backplate is made of white-painted aluminum and features large openings as well as a targeted airflow opening in the area of the slot bracket, through which the warm air from the rear fan zone can be discharged directly to the outside. The heat pipes are clearly visible. In addition to the large Steel Legend logo, an additional ARGB header is also integrated, which can be used to control other RGB components synchronously. Several shades of gray are integrated into the design, which contrast slightly with the white and underline the typical geometric style of the series.

The rear end of the card is closed and designed without additional openings. The plastic end is a perfect fit and provides a clean border to the system housing. The slight bulge in the upper area serves to stabilize the shroud and cover the slat package.

The slot bracket offers two DisplayPort 2.1a outputs and an HDMI 2.1 connection. It is perforated in the typical Steel Legend pattern for ventilation, although most of the exhaust air escapes to the side and downwards. All outputs are neatly enclosed, with the HDMI socket at the bottom. The slot bracket itself is made of stainless steel and is significantly more robust than many entry-level models.

The dimensions are 320 millimeters in length, 131 millimeters in height and 58 millimeters in depth. The weight is around 1.3 kilograms, which is to be expected given the massive heat sink and stable backplate. Overall, the workmanship leaves a high-quality impression and is clearly above the simple AIB standard. The combination of well thought-out design, solid technology and functional RGB should particularly appeal to users who value visually coherent system integration.

Generation comparison

This joint presentation allows for a quick and direct comparison of the four cards across all technically relevant characteristics, with the RX 9060 XT with 16 GB positioning itself as a balanced compromise for 1440p gaming, while the 8 GB version aims for maximum efficiency and price-performance ratio in the Full HD segment. The RTX 5060 Ti is superior in terms of memory bandwidth, but suffers from the same limited interface width and, in some cases, memory configuration. The RX 7600 XT, on the other hand, loses out to RDNA 4 in terms of efficiency and future-proofing.

XFX Swift Radeon RX 9060 XT and Sapphire Nitro+ RX 9060 XT Review – AMD’s Two-Pronged Response to the GeForce RTX 5060 Ti

ASRock Radeon RX 9060 XT Steel Legend 16GB OC, RX9060XT SL 16GO, 16GB GDDR6, HDMI, 2x DP (90-GA5JZZ-00UANF)

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