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Groov-e's Wave Glow with illuminated ELD lights on it's end, lying on its side in a garden

Groov-e Wave Glow review: a portable, budget Bluetooth speaker that sadly doesn’t sound good enough to make the grade

by admin August 19, 2025

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Groov-e Wave Glow: two-minute review

The Groov-e Wave Glow is a very affordable portable speaker and one with sound quality to match that price tag. Yes, this is one that will infuriate the ears of audiophiles sounding somewhat tinny at times and slightly lacking any oomph across the course of my listening.

On the other hand, it has some funky looking lights which I found rather endearing, a comfy to grip strap, and some surprising ways to connect it to your music. Besides Bluetooth, you can also plug in a USB flash drive, slot in a TF card (both admittedly with a tight 64GB limit), and there’s an aux port. It’s not often you see these features in a tiny speaker any more. Granted, not everyone will need these but if you do, well, your options are limited making this more tempting.

Of course, don’t count on it rivalling the best Bluetooth speakers. This is a decidedly cheap speaker. It feels a little cheap to the touch and there’s that dodgy sound quality. I say dodgy; it’s reminiscent of buying a cheap radio or speaker years ago, before good speakers were affordable for the masses. It’s not hideous, exactly, but it’s also fairly ‘blah’.

Away from that disappointing audio quality, the Groov-e Wave Glow has some chunky, tactile buttons for play/pause, volume, and adjusting the lights, and the ports are all hidden behind a pull-out protective shell. Then there’s the lights up top and down bottom, and the elastic strap.

The Groov-e Wave Glow is priced at £23.99 and at the moment is only seemingly available in the UK, but that would make it under $35, or around AU$50. For that price, it’d be silly to expect too much, but if you can stretch further, you will find better options – more on those later. If money is that tight, however, or you’re looking for a cheap gift, the Groov-e Wave Glow still has some appeal.

(Image credit: Future)

Groov-e Wave Glow review: price and release date

Released May 2025
£23.99 at launch
Limited availability

The Groov-e Wave Glow was launched in May 2025 and is currently available to buy in the UK. It’s already seen some modest discounts but is generally available for £23.99.

That makes it one of the cheaper speakers around. The recently released Tribit Stormbox Mini Plus is close but is still usually priced at £39.99. If you’re able to increase your budget to that, there are a few other options like the JBL Go 4, but few as cheap as this one.

Groov-e Wave Glow review: specs

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Weight

645g

Dimensions

13.7 x 8 x 7.5 cm

Connectivity

Bluetooth 5.3, aux-in, USB-C (charging)

Battery life

8 hours (quoted)

Speaker drivers

10W

Waterproofing

n/a

Groov-e Wave Glow review: features

AUX port, microSD slot, and USB flash drive support
LED lights
8-hour battery life

The Groov-e Wave Glow is a fairly typical looking little Bluetooth speaker but with some surprising features. The highlight is its plethora of connections. Sure, you’ll be mostly using its Bluetooth connection, but it has other options. You can use its aux port to connect to other devices (and the speaker actually comes with a 3.5mm jack), while next to it is a TF (read: microSD) card slot, and the USB connection allows you to plug in a USB flash drive. Admittedly, both microSD and USB have a limitation of 64GB so you might have to search around for a compatible option, but it could be that specific situation that fits you perfectly.

There are no mics for speakerphone duties (although few speakers seem to offer that, these days) and battery life is a very unremarkable 8 hours. I’d have liked to have seen more here, especially as it takes 2 hours for a full recharge. Its Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity works fine and I had no issues using it with my iPhone 14 Pro but there were occasional dropouts on my PC – usually when I moved the speaker around.

Elsewhere, the LED lights are my favorite thing about the Groov-e Wave Glow. They visually bounce away while playing music and look suitably vibrant and exciting. They’re potentially more exciting than the audio quality, but I’ll get to that. It’s a neat touch either way and makes up for the lack of app support and thus in-app customization.

(Image credit: Future)

Groov-e Wave Glow review: sound quality

I didn’t expect much of the Groov-e Wave Glow but I have to be honest, it actually sounded a little worse than anticipated. It’s functional, of course, but pretty tinny at times. There’s no bass to speak of, but my word, do the lights try to atone for that. You’re encouraged to feel like it’s doing its best, happily bouncing along. However, it’s pretty tame stuff.

Listening to spoken word – a podcast or YouTube video, say – is fine, but when you switch over to your favorite music, the limitations are much more noticeable. The volume can go pretty high, but that weakens the experience even more. I went for my cheesy favorite, Robbie William’s Let Me Entertain You to start, knowing exactly how it’s meant to sound and there was no urgency or strength in the mids.

I went bold then and loaded up some Muse and sighed as it sounded somewhat pitiful. The soundstage is weak but more importantly, the bass and general ambience is underwhelming.

(Image credit: Future)

Groov-e Wave Glow review: design

Comfy elasticated strap
Tactile buttons
Well hidden ports

The Groov-e Wave Glow is certainly exactly how you expect a speaker to look, but there are a few highlights. I’m a big fan of its buttons being attractive but tactile too, so anyone with visual impairments can find what they’re wanting to press. There are buttons for play/pause, volume, and for toggling the lights on or off.

There’s a chunky section for the ports too which blends in well and feels suitably snug. On another side is the strap which is elasticated but held in quite tightly. The idea is that you can easily hold it through the strap but also attach it to something like a hook. It feels nice in your hands which is the main thing here.

As with other similar speakers, the Groov-e Wave Glow is pretty lightweight to carry around. Up top and down the bottom is the lighting so you can place the Groov-e Wave Glow sideways as well as upright.

What lets it down in this section – and why not go higher than four stars? Well, any discussion on the design has to include the audio architecture under the hood, and as you’ll know if you’ve read this far, this area is where the Wave Glow struggles. Also, unusually for a speaker in 2025, there’s no mention of an IP rating for water or dust ingress – so it won’t be joining the ranks of our best waterproof speakers buying guide any time soon.

(Image credit: Future)

Groov-e Wave Glow review: value

Very cheap
Sturdy design
Useful for a specific situation

The Groov-e Wave Glow is certainly cheap but its sound quality demonstrates exactly why it’s so cheap. Having said that, the aux port, USB flash drive support, and TF card slot could make it exactly what you’ve been looking for. For those people, there’s not much else to rival the Groov-e Wave Glow at this price.

However, if you’re looking for good audio, it’s a smart move to spend a little more on the JBL Go range or something from Anker Soundcore. The Groov-e Wave Glow definitely isn’t the best choice for music lovers, but it is super cheap and for many, that’s the priority.

(Image credit: Future)

Should I buy the Groov-e Wave Glow?

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Attributes

Notes

Rating

Features

No app, but there are a few notable extras not on other models

4/5

Sound quality

The weakest element by far when considering the Wave Glow: tinny and lacking in low end

2/5

Design

Useful straps, fun lights and tactile buttons

4/5

Value

It’s cheap, but given the sound quality, spending less doesn’t always mean value

3/5

Buy it if…

Don’t buy it if…

Groov-e Wave Glow review: also consider

Swipe to scroll horizontallyRow 0 – Cell 0

Groov-e Wave Glow

Tribit Stormbox Mini Plus

JBL Clip 5

Price

£23.99; limited availability in other markets

$39.99 / £32 / AU$65 (approx.)

$79.95 / £59.99 / AU$89.95

Weight

645g

545g

285g

Dimensions

13.7 x 8 x 7.5 cm

90.9 x 90.9 x 118.9 mm

86 x 134.5 x 46 mm

Connectivity

Bluetooth 5.3, aux-in, USB-C (charging)

Bluetooth 5.4 (SBC, AAC codecs), AUX-in, USB-C (charging)

Bluetooth 5.3, USB-C (charging)

Battery life

8 hours (quoted)

12 hours (quoted)

Up to 12 hours

Speaker drivers

10W (dimensions not stated)

48mm

Integrated class D digital amplifiers x 1

Waterproofing

n/a

IPX7

IP67

Groov-e Wave Glow review: how I tested

Tested over 14 days
Used with Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and Twitch
15 years of audio equipment reviewing experience

I used the Groov-e Wave Glow across 14 days in a wide range of ways. I connected it to my PC initially and listened to Spotify, Apple Music and Twitch using that as a source device, then moved to my iPhone 14 Pro.

That meant a solid mixture of spoken audio and also music. My music taste is fairly varied so it went from Robbie Williams to Muse to Chet Baker to various pieces of classical music. I also checked how good battery life appeared to be and monitored how long it took to recharge.

I have 15 years of experience testing audio equipment, specialising in portable, affordable products just like the Groov-e Wave Glow.

Groov-e Wave Glow: Price Comparison

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August 19, 2025 0 comments

Esports

Underdogs Diego Pavia, Vanderbilt look to keep good times rolling

by admin August 19, 2025

Ryan McGeeAug 19, 2025, 07:00 AM ET
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- Senior writer for ESPN The Magazine and ESPN.com
- 2-time Sports Emmy winner
- 2010, 2014 NMPA Writer of the Year

It is so hard for anyone to stand out in Nashville because everyone in Nashville is always trying so hard to stand out.

All of those off-the-bus would-be country music stars, performing in so many Broadway bars owned by so many actual stars, entertaining all those bachelorettes in pink cowboy hats and those dudes who look like they are attending a Luke Combs lookalike contest. Music City, USA is always a good time, but it also becomes very repetitive. This town aches for someone to come along and finally snap it out of its endless two-stepping loop. Say, a big-haired blond woman from Sevierville, Tennessee. Or a Man in Black on the train a-comin’ from Folsom. Maybe a girl from a Christmas tree farm in eastern Pennsylvania.

Or a Bama-beating water bug of a quarterback who rolled in off a desert wind that blew in from New Mexico.

“Straight out the dirt, son,” Diego Pavia says, the 24-year-old laughing as he sits up and slaps his hand on a meeting room table in Vanderbilt football’s quarterbacks meeting room. “When I first got here, you would walk down to Broadway and everyone had on Alabama stuff or Georgia stuff or the bars would just have Tennessee flags out front. Now I see a lot of Vandy V’s out there. I think maybe people didn’t see that coming. Just like they didn’t see me coming.”

They see him now. We all do. One year ago, we saw the 6-foot QB (well, that’s how tall the Vanderbilt media guide says he is, but most everyone lists him at 5-10 … but, when a 5-10 sportswriter looks him in the eye, he might be 5-9 … but who cares because he’s also built like a BMW X4) lead the Commodores to the program’s first winning season, first stint in the AP Top 25 and first bowl win since the 2013 campaign. On Oct. 5, 2024, we saw him emulate his childhood hero, Johnny Manziel, by running past No. 1 Alabama, Vandy’s first win over the Tide in 40 years and first win over a top-5 team ever, ending an 0-60 drought.

And in more recent days, the world has seen Pavia at SEC media days and on Netflix, proclaiming that longtime lowly SEC cellar dweller Vandy can be a national title contender. And as the world entered last weekend, it did so dancing along with No. 2 in a music video that dropped for the song “Pavia Mafia,” as artist Axel Varela declared: “From the 505 to the world, baby!” and “Yo me enamoré del juego,” which translates to “I fell in love with the game.”

What none of us saw were those days when that love affair began for Pavia. It was on the outskirts of Albuquerque, where he grew up as the third of four children, with two older brothers and a kid sister. They were raised by Antoinette Padilla, who found herself in the role of a single mother as Diego was becoming a teenager and realized that her job as a front desk office worker wasn’t going to cover the bills. She had grown up as one of 14 siblings, also in a single-parent home, and refused to put her kids through that same struggle. So she enrolled in nursing school.

“I remember all of her books and papers spread out all over the kitchen table,” Pavia recalls. “She would cook dinner for us and we’d all eat and I’d see she hadn’t eaten anything. I’d ask her about it and she’d just say, ‘Oh, I’m not hungry.’ Now I realize that she was hungry, but that’s all we had. We were kids, so all we knew was that ‘we good, man.’ But now we know it’s because she was always sacrificing.”

Padilla was also always working. Once she began her career as a long-term care nurse, she refused to be saddled with the loans she had taken out to pay for school. She studied house flipping and started buying fixer-uppers around Albuquerque. And who do you think did the fixing?

“We would work in the yards, paint, install new windows, all of it, as kids,” Pavia says with a little shake of his head. “She would rent them out, save up and then sell them. Then she started doing cars on the side. Buy a car cheap at auction, for like $2,000, fix it up and resell it for $6,000.”

So, if one were to buy a house with windows installed or a car detailed by 13-year-old Diego Pavia, were they going to be happy with the results?

“I haven’t received any complaints yet, man.”

Diego Pavia enjoys the moment after Vanderbilt’s stunning win over No. 1 Alabama. Butch Dill/Imagn Images

In their mother’s sizable wake, the three boys attacked every aspect of their lives at full throttle, especially when it came to football and wrestling. Oldest brother Roel participated in both sports at Briar Cliff University, an NAIA school in Sioux City, Iowa. Just as Mom had shown Diego how to scramble out of debt, his brother showed him the benefits of attending college.

“As he got older, he developed into a rock,” Roel says. “He hit that growth spurt and it was all muscle. That’s when the older brothers stop picking on little brother because little brother can kick your ass.”

That growth was in the shoulders and legs. It was not in height. So, even as Diego led the Volcano Vista Hawks to a perfect regular season and the state semifinals, no one in Division I college football gave the QB a serious look. But what hurt the most was when the hometown New Mexico Lobos said they were passing not because they thought he was too small, but because he was too cocky.

“He still isn’t over that one,” Vandy football consultant Jerry Kill says with a laugh. “I don’t think he ever will be over that one. That’s always been part of his gasoline.”

Instead, Pavia settled for New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell, where he led his team to the 2021 junior college national title. That night, his heroics for the Broncos were being shown on local New Mexico television. Bellied up to the bar in the Las Cruces Hooters were Kill and longtime mentee Tim Beck, the just-hired head coach and offensive coordinator at New Mexico State. They were watching the game to scout a quarterback — initially, Pavia’s opponent. But when the fire hydrant playing QB for NMMI ran through Iowa Western for a 34-yard touchdown and an early 14-0 lead, Kill looked at Beck and said, “Hell, man, we’ve been watching the wrong guy.”

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That wrong guy became the right guy for the New Mexico State Aggies, as Pavia led the bottom-10 stalwart to a 7-6 record in 2022. The following year, the Aggies went 10-5, the program’s first double-digit-win season in more than six decades. Pavia most relished the Aggies’ win over New Mexico in Albuquerque, even more than their stunning upset at Auburn. Unfortunately, he went viral after that Rio Grande Rivalry win when video surfaced of him urinating on the UNM logo at its indoor practice facility. That incident came up again at season’s end, when New Mexico State earned an invite to the New Mexico Bowl, hosted by the Lobos, and the Aggies weren’t allowed to use that facility to prepare for the game.

“That was embarrassing and inexcusable and no one knows that more than Diego Pavia,” Kill says. “But I also told you he was still mad about what happened coming out of high school.”

“We all make mistakes,” Pavia admits now.

When Kill retired following that magical 2022 season, Pavia nearly made another mistake, though at the time most believed his mistake to be the decision that he made, not the one he backed out on. Suddenly a hot commodity at the dawn of the NIL era, Pavia accepted an invite and a nice payout to transfer from New Mexico State to Nevada. Then his phone rang. It was Kill, whose retirement had lasted all of a few weeks.

“I went to Las Cruces to try and convince Tim Beck to come help us with our offense,” Clark Lea says of the trip he took in late fall 2023, just as he had wrapped up his third season as head coach at Vanderbilt, his alma mater. It was a crushingly disappointing year, the Commodores starting 2-0 but finishing 2-10. “Jerry sat in on some of our conversations and we all connected immediately.”

Diego Pavia takes a selfie with the Roman god Vulcan depicted on the Birmingham Bowl trophy after Vandy’s first bowl win since 2013. Matthew Maxey/Icon Sportswire

Soon Beck was headed to Nashville with several of his offensive players in tow. Kill tells the story that he was on the beach in Mexico, three margaritas deep, when Beck and Lea finally convinced him to join them. Pavia tells the story that Kill then called him and said, “Don’t make a mistake and go to Nevada. I’m moving to Nashville and you’re coming with me.”

Pavia loves Kill and Beck so much that he made the move without hesitation, even leaving money on the table at Nevada. He also refused to leave Vandy after the storybook tale of 2024, telling the “Bussin’ With The Boys” podcast that he had passed on a $4 million-plus NIL offer from an SEC rival to remain in Music City. What’s more, he won an injunction versus the NCAA for one more year of eligibility, instead of being penalized for time served at the junior college level.

“I think that it is easy to see the guy who likes to talk a little and who likes to celebrate a lot and think, ‘Oh, he’s that guy,'” Lea says. “But look at what he has done to be here and stay here, and look at the 50 people who come from New Mexico to be with his family at our games. That’s someone who loves this place.

“Talk to our basketball office or [Vandy baseball head coach] Tim Corbin, and they will tell you that Diego is in their offices, asking about what it takes to win. He has big dreams for himself, but he came here and all of those people come here with him because they love it here.”

Now, everyone else is coming, too, to be with the Pavia Mafia to watch college football at, of all places, Vanderbilt. Yes, he is most definitely prone to hyperbole, but Pavia’s observation about the gentle transfusion of black and gold into the college football identity of the bars along the Cumberland River is no exaggeration. It’s visible. As are the construction cranes that cover FirstBank Stadium, long the SEC’s time capsule of football venues, and the ground being broken to replace the team’s cramped subterranean 1990s football facilities.

All of that renovation was already on the books before Pavia arrived. But the kid who used to flip houses with his mother has injected that sweat equity investment mentality into Nashville’s business community and Vanderbilt’s alumni base.

Nashville is a city that has been constructed atop the idea of having a good time. Residents and visitors alike have never had a problem finding that good time everywhere from Tootsies to the Titans. Now, thanks to the QB that no one saw coming, they are discovering a good time at a place that has been hiding in plain sight since it hosted the state of Tennessee’s first college football game in 1890.

“Building stuff is fun, man,” Pavia says. “It isn’t easy. But nothing worth it is ever easy. So when that work pays off, let’s enjoy it, Vandy. We earned it because we built it.”

Straight out the dirt?

“Straight out the damn dirt.”

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August 19, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Dog-Led Horror Movie Good Boy Gets First Trailer

by admin August 19, 2025

I like horror movies okay, but I need a good concept to draw me in. Good Boy certainly has one of those, but the concept that makes it compelling is also one that taps into my most deep seated fears, and I don’t know if I can handle it. As the name suggests, Good Boy is a spooky movie whose events are viewed from the perspective of a dog. Aren’t we as humans subjected to the horrors enough? Do we need to bring our canine companions into the pain and suffering?

Good Boy premiered at South by Southwest way back in March, and the reception to the supernatural horror movie has been really strong so far, with early reviews calling it one of the best in the genre this year. Though I don’t know where it all ends up, several reviews call out that it’s very emotional and heartbreaking—which could mean anything, really—so if you’re looking for a straightforward scare, be aware that Good Boy might have a bit more going on. The film stars Indy as a dog whose owner has suffered a death in the family and who moves into a haunted house. Ever the watchful companion, Indy notices that something is amiss and he and his owner are not alone. Now, he has to do what he can to save his owner from the dangers lurking in their new home.

Y’all, I’mma throw up. There’s a reason Does the Dog Die?, an entire website dedicated to asking if a dog you see in movie trailers is going to die, exists, and it’s for people like me who can’t handle that shit. There’s already a page for Good Boy on that website and I saw it as I was grabbing the link. I can barely handle seeing a dog be in distress under normal circumstances, much less supernatural ones. Whether Indy makes it out or not, he’s about to have a bad night. I guess I’ve got some time to figure out if I want to see Good Boy, as the movie is coming to theaters on October 3.

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August 19, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Battlefield 6’s Open Weapon System Is Good

by admin August 18, 2025

When I first heard about EA and Battlefield Studios’ plan to implement an open weapon system in the upcoming Battlefield 6, I scoffed! And playing the game in Los Angeles for an event last month didn’t sell me on it, either; I still worried it would make classes feel less unique. Now, after playing the open beta for nearly 20 hours, I’m here to say: I was wrong.

Let’s back up for a moment and explain, briefly, open and closed weapon class systems in Battlefield. (I promise this won’t be too boring.) Basically, for nearly as long as the franchise has been around, classes were locked to certain weapons. Recon, for example, had to use a sniper rifle. Over time, developers at Dice tweaked this and added “neutral” weapons that could be picked by multiple classes, or they spread specific types of weapons across a few classes. Battlefield 2042 threw a lot of this out the window when it launched without classes and let players essentially build custom heroes who could use any gadget or gun. It then added classes back in when people got angry. Anyway, Battlefield 6 is trying to find a happy balance between 2042‘s total, unbalanced openness and the classic closed weapon system of the past games. And I think, despite being nervous about the change and all the debate raging online among players on both sides, Battlefield Studios has mostly nailed it.

In Battlefield 6, any class can use any weapon. So you can spawn in as a recon soldier, but instead of a sniper rifle, you could bring an SMG. Engineers, traditionally a class that uses SMGs, can rock snipers and LMGs. At first, this seemed like a bad idea to me. I worried that players would just pick the class with the best abilities and pick the best assault rifle, and you’d lose all the uniqueness that comes from BF’s old-school class system. And in some smaller, more combat-focused modes, this is indeed the case. But in bigger, more Battlefield-y modes, like Conquest and Rush, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how things have worked out.

In my hours with the beta, I found that in many matches players were spread all around the four classes. In some past games (looking at you, Battlefield 3), people would pick whatever class had the best assault rifle, and that was that. During a Q&A with the devs last month in LA, they talked about this and said that the open weapon system was partly designed to combat this. The idea is that now people will pick classes based on what the team needs and their unique abilities and tools, rather than the weapons they can and can’t use.

And yeah, that’s exactly what I saw happening in many BF6 open beta matches. If the enemy team, for example, brought in a bunch of vehicles or tanks, I’d see players swap to engineers to use that class’s RPG to take all those machines out. Likewise, I saw players and friends swap to the support class to help hold a point and revive people, or swap to recon to help pin down a target. It seems now that weapons can be freely equipped on any class, people are far more open to playing different classes and helping out the team. Sure, maybe some of these players have just equipped the same assault rifle on all of the classes, but if it helps my team stop a tank from destroying us, I’m fine with it. That’s a much better scenario than in past BF games, where a whole team might be assault soldiers and you’d be unable to get ammo resupplies or fight back against helis.

Battlefield 6 also rewards players for choosing a weapon that is more aligned with their class. Recon soldiers get a ton of exclusive sniper perks that make it almost silly to use a sniper rifle on any other class. But you can do it, if that makes you happy. And this is where I’d suggest some tweaks.

I think rewarding players who pick class-specific weapons is a smart idea, but I almost feel like the devs could do more to make sure picking an assault rifle on every class isn’t an easy option. Perhaps class-specific weapon punishments could work? An assault class soldier picking a sniper rifle might mean they don’t get the recon benefits, and perhaps they also reload the big rifles more slowly. Or an engineer picking an assault rifle has more kick and can’t carry as much ammo for it. These tweaks would reward people playing classes more traditionally, could be overcome with skill or teamwork, and would still allow for the weapon freedom the devs want in BF6.

But even if Battlefield 6 devs don’t steal my totally-awesome-and-perfect idea, I think the open weapon system is a good change. It lets players enjoy all the classes without forcing them to play with specific guns. This leads to matches in which all the classes are used, and that leads to more enjoyable Battlefield action. And that’s what I’m looking for. Sure, maybe it means that I’ll be killed a lot by a few popular assault rifles, but it might also mean that there will be more medics running around who can heal me. That would be nice. And don’t worry; if you hate the open weapon system, EA is going to offer playlists and modes that feature locked weapons, too. Everyone wins.

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August 18, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

DICE lead responds to criticism that Battlefield 6 beta maps were ‘not how Battlefield should be,’ urges everyone to ‘go play some smaller/medium maps in BF3 and BF4 to get a good example of the intensity curve’

by admin August 18, 2025

By all reasonable metrics, the Battlefield 6 beta was a resounding hit. Not only is BF6 already very fun based on the handful of maps and modes we got our hands on, but the two-weekend playtest period broke records for the series on Steam.

The beta wound down this morning with players clamoring for its October 10 launch day, but not without reservations. Among longtime fans, the loudest criticism surrounded map size: The beta lacked a truly big map that captured classic Battlefield chaos.

DICE lead producer David Sirland has been the one to field these complaints over the last few weeks. After the first beta weekend, Sirland assured folks that ‘large maps exist’ in BF6, but the studio chose to test small ones to show it could handle the “full-octane” chaos of CoD.

Then, well, it added yet another small map in weekend two, reinforcing concerns that the full map pool of nine will prioritize CoD run ‘n gunning over Battlefield’s traditional spaced-out firefights.

“That’s not how Battlefield should be,” X user Blasts4Satan replied to Sirland on August 15. “Listen to the veteran players, not the CoD fanboys. This is y’all’s last chance and it’s already looking a little too much like the other game in the room.”

We are very much looking back at our past modern incarnations when it comes to pacing. I’d urge everyone to go and play some smaller/medium map BF3 and BF4 to get a good example of the intensity curve.It is slower and more deliberate on the larger maps, as it was in the past.August 18, 2025

Returning to the thread days later to reply, Sirland reaffirmed that BF6’s pacing is on the same trajectory as the games it’s most inspired by, Battlefield 3 and 4.

“We are very much looking back at our past modern incarnations when it comes to pacing. I’d urge everyone to go and play some smaller/medium maps in BF3 and BF4 to get a good example of the intensity curve,” Sirland wrote. “It is slower and more deliberate on the larger maps, as it was in the past.”

It’s true that close-quarters, high-intensity maps are nothing new for the series: BF3 and BF4 had loads of smaller, linear meat grinder maps that folks remember fondly. I remember the disappointment when the only map available in the 2011 BF3 console beta (the PC version got an extra, larger map) was Operation Metro, a cramped trek through grass and tunnels that was unfriendly to vehicles.

Battlefield 3: Operation Metro Multiplayer Gameplay Trailer (E3) – YouTube

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At the time, I thought BF3 didn’t feel much like Battlefield, but I warmed to it at launch after playing Caspian Border: a wide valley of rolling hills, military compounds, and jet runways that checked every Battlefield box.

Still, Sirland repeatedly saying “large maps exist” and pointing to a 14-year-old game for proof doesn’t inspire much confidence. If large maps were a focus of BF6, you’d think we’d know what they look like by now. It’s reasonable to conclude that the BF6 beta was BF Studios debuting the primary identity of the game: Pretty and destructible maps, cramped gunfights, and sometimes vehicles.

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August 18, 2025 0 comments

NFT Gaming

Bitcoin At $1 Million By 2026? Not The Good News You Think

by admin August 17, 2025

Trusted Editorial content, reviewed by leading industry experts and seasoned editors. Ad Disclosure

Bitcoin crossing the $1 million mark in 2025 is a scenario many crypto enthusiasts dream of, but not everyone sees it as good news. Instead of celebrating, some experts warn it would reveal deep cracks in the US economy.

Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz said in a recent podcast that such a price surge wouldn’t be a victory but a warning sign.

He explained that the crypto could only reach that level if the country is facing severe economic distress.

“I’d rather have a lower Bitcoin price in a more stable United States than the opposite,” he said, stressing that sudden currency collapses often come at a heavy social cost.

Bitcoin Seen As A Crisis Hedge

When national currencies weaken, investors often turn to Bitcoin, calling it “digital gold.” That’s why Novogratz believes a skyrocketing BTC price would be tied to instability.

His comments echo remarks from crypto analyst Wolf Of All Streets, who said last year that if BTC moves too fast, it likely means the world is in trouble.

Stories and lessons from a decade in crypto with Mike @Novogratz.

We talk about $GLXY, the 80,000 bitcoin transaction, whether Mike has any investing regrets, maxis and altcoin communities, Bitcoin’s roadmap to $1 million and much more.

Timecodes:
00:00 Meet Mike Novogratz:… pic.twitter.com/4HrOi1juE5

— Natalie Brunell ⚡️ (@natbrunell) August 12, 2025

Still, not all predictions are gloomy. Cathie Wood of ARK Invest believes Bitcoin could hit as high as $1.5 million by 2030. Even her lower estimates land in the hundreds of thousands, with the forecast tied to growing institutional demand and the crypto’s limited supply.

Reports show that BitMEX founder Arthur Hayes expects Bitcoin to climb between $750,000 and $1 million by 2026, while Strategy executive chairman Michael Saylor recently said that “Winter is not coming back,” and he went as far as saying that if Bitcoin is not going to zero it could reach $1 million.

Concerns Over US Debt

Novogratz also voiced frustration with how the government is handling debt. He said US President Donald Trump’s choice of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent hasn’t produced the results many expected. According to him, debt-to-GDP remains unaddressed and the US deficit is set to rise, not shrink.

BTCUSD now trading at $118,222. Chart: TradingView

That fiscal outlook has added to investor anxiety. Market watchers believe rising debt and deficits could weaken confidence in the dollar, fueling demand for Bitcoin.

But Novogratz warned against cheering too loudly, suggesting the long-term costs of such a shift could outweigh the short-term price excitement.

Treasury Adoption Sparks Worries

Another point of concern for Novogratz is the growing number of companies adopting Bitcoin for their treasuries. He revealed Galaxy Digital is now receiving around five calls a week from businesses wanting to put BTC on their balance sheets. To him, this surge feels more like a frenzy than steady adoption.

For Novogratz, the warning is clear: Bitcoin at $1 million wouldn’t mean triumph. It would mean the US economy is in a fragile and dangerous place.

Featured image from BCB Group, chart from TradingView

Editorial Process for bitcoinist is centered on delivering thoroughly researched, accurate, and unbiased content. We uphold strict sourcing standards, and each page undergoes diligent review by our team of top technology experts and seasoned editors. This process ensures the integrity, relevance, and value of our content for our readers.

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August 17, 2025 0 comments

Product Reviews

Anthros V2 Chair review: one of the most expensive gaming chairs in the world for good reason

by admin August 17, 2025

Why you can trust TechRadar

We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

Anthros Chair V2: One-minute review

The Anthros V2 Chair is, as the name would imply, the second iteration of Anthros’ gaming chair. Geared towards both desk workers, whether in-office or remote, and gamers alike, it is a complicated product, with more knobs and levers than your local knob-and-lever factory.

It also promises to ‘fix your sit’ which, if true in its promise, would be life-changing for anyone that struggles with posture or back pain.

There’s one caveat, however; this baby is expensive. With the base model sitting at a list price of over $2,000, before any of the optional bells and whistles you can add on, such as materials, colours, and even arm rests which come as extras, you’d be forgiven for hoping this chair might make you breakfast and do the laundry for you while you’re at it.

For context, this is far more expensive than our current favorite premium pick, the Herman Miller x Logitech Embody, and you could also buy three Branch Verve chairs for the same price, too (roughly).

Everything about the chair screams premium, though, from the materials used to the build quality of every component. I could never bring myself to spend this much money on a chair, but since I’m at my desk for a minimum of eight hours every day, comfort and back support are essential. And I’m not sure you’re going to find it anywhere better than with the Anthros V2 Chair.

(Image credit: Future)

Anthros Chair V2 review: Price and availability

$2,146 / Around £1,600 / Around AU$3,300
Price doesn’t include extras – even armrests
More expensive than the Herman Miller X Logitech Embody

Outside of the astronomical price tag, what are you actually getting with the Anthros V2 Chair? How could it possibly be worth that much? Well, according to Anthros themselves, it’s all about the technology behind it, and how it’s “engineered to relieve pain”. The seat features a contoured cushion that utilises ‘Cloudtex’ and ‘Cloudfloat’ technology, as opposed to traditional office and gaming chairs, which are usually flat.

This is part of what makes the Anthros V2 Chair so comfortable to sit in for extended periods, and in my experience with it over the last four months, it works. Compared to my previous office butt-rest, which was a bog-standard gaming chair from a relatively cheap brand compared to some of the premium offerings in that department, this has been like night and day.

The seat isn’t everything, though, as the Anthros V2 Chair promises plenty of lumbar support, and this comes from two areas. The back rest is in two segments, which are “designed to promote an optimal ’S’ curve of the spine by supporting the pelvis”, according to the official site. Both are controlled individually with knobs underneath the seat, so you can position them as you see fit. It’ll feel slightly uncomfortable at first, but the idea is that the chair makes you unable to slouch by keeping your spine upright.

An important note to make folks aware of is, at the time of writing, the Anthros chair is only sold on a US-facing website, but shoppers from outside the United States can still order it with international shipping.

Anthros V2 Chair review: Specs

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Price

$2,146 (around £1,600 / AU$3,300 plus shipping from the US)

Dimensions (L x W x H)

28 x 18.3 x 43.7in (45.7 x 46.6 x 110.9cm)

Max user weight

300 lbs (136kg)

Seat width

19.8in (50.3cm)

Warranty

12 years

Finish

Athlon performance fabric

Anthros Chair V2 review: Design and aesthetics

Premium feel…
Except one minor part
Lacks a headrest

I’ve talked about the cost a lot because of how jaw-dropping it is initially, but I also must stress how it isn’t completely unjustified. Every part of this chair is high quality, from the swivel base to the seat cushion, back panel, arm rests, and the control knobs.

All of the mandatory parts for the chair feel excellent, but the one exception to this is the footrest. They’ve currently dropped it from $199 to $49, which the skeptic in me would assume is because they’ve had feedback that it’s so underwhelming and cheap-feeling compared to the rest of the chair. It’s plasticky, lacks many adjustments such as the ability to raise or lower it, and it can’t even be locked at a specific tilt angle. Save your cash and pick one up from another manufacturer.

There’s also no headrest on the Anthros V2 Chair, which some folks may find frustrating. It put me off at first, but after a while, you don’t miss it. It’s easier to stay awake and alert without a headrest, and while I’d like an optional headrest attachment to use when I’m reclining and playing video games with a controller, it’s a small thing to lose when I feel better in my posture and more attentive during the working day.

(Image credit: Future)

Anthros Chair V2 review: Comfort and Adjustability

Comfy for long periods
You can feel a difference in your posture
Somewhat of a learning curve

As mentioned earlier, the motto for the Anthros V2 Chair is that it will “fix your sit”, but doing that requires comfort. I am extremely happy to report this is by far the comfiest chair I’ve used for long periods… although I didn’t think that at first. It takes some getting used to because if you’re using it correctly, you’ll have the lower back section pushing into you. If you let it shape your back, then over time, your posture should improve.

Anthros are well aware that purchasing such an expensive chair is an investment, so you’re offered a video call with one of their on-staff therapists to “learn more about the chair and how it can specifically help you”.

I spoke with Anthros’ Ambassador Community Director, Ashley Williams, for 20 minutes or so, alongside carrying out this review, learning a little more about the science behind it, how they went through iterations of the product, and what it looks like underneath the shell. She also helped me set up all the various configurations to perfectly suit my height and desk setup, such as where the arm rests sit, how far forward the lower back support should be, and more.

(Image credit: Future)

That customer service goes a long way, so even though the chair was provided free of charge for review purposes, knowing that service is available to anyone who buys the chair – or who wants to discuss the product prior to purchase – it’s the sort of support you value. It’s especially helpful when you consider how many knobs and adjustments the chair has, which means it has a slight learning curve, and referring to the manual is required until you learn which part tweaks each aspect.

Four months in and I’m thoroughly impressed. If I’d spent upwards of $2,000 on the chair, would I feel the same? I’m not sure, but that’s because that’s a lot of money for me. If you’re lucky enough that this wouldn’t be such a financial investment, this is one of the best chairs on the market for long-term ergonomic support.

(Image credit: Future)

Anthros Chair V2 review: Assembly

Putting it all together is a painless experience, entirely feasible to do by yourself, and you’ll be done in under an hour.

However, this comes with a caveat. Everything with the assembly went flawlessly until the very final step, which is to install the upper back cuff.

This plastic cover for the upper back hinge refused to go on, no matter how hard I tried, so I put it down for a few days. I came back to it later, and it eventually clicked into place, but be prepared to use some serious force.

Image 1 of 4

(Image credit: Future)(Image credit: Future)(Image credit: Future)(Image credit: Future)

Should I buy the Anthros Chair V2?

Buy it if…

Don’t buy it if…

Anthros Chair V2: Also consider

If the Anthros V2 Chair hasn’t sunk its claws into you or it’s out of reach financially, consider one of these other desk chairs that promise similar results.

Swipe to scroll horizontallyRow 0 – Cell 0

Anthros V2 Chair

Herman Miller x Logitech Embody

Branch Verve

Price

$2,146 (around £1,600 / AU$3,300 plus shipping from the US)

$1,795 / £1,496

$549 (about £495, AU$860)

Dimensions (L x W x H)

28 x 18.3 x 43.7 in (45.7 x 46.6 x 110.9 cm)

29 x 29.5 x 45 in (73.7 x 74.9 x 114.3 cm)

27 x 27 x 37 to 41 in (68.6 x 68.6 x 104.1 cm)

Max user weight

300 lbs (136kg)

Seat width

19.8in (50.3cm)

29.5in (74.9cm)

16.5in (41.9cm)

Warranty

12 years

7 years

Finish

Athlon performance fabric

100% polyester fabric

3D knit polyester fabric

(Image credit: Future)

How I tested the Anthros Chair V2

Used regularly for almost four straight months
Worked from it during the day, usually locked into the upright position
Often gamed from it in the evening, reclining with a controller in hand

I can never see myself going back to any other seat or gaming chair after using the Anthros V2 Chair for so long. My back feels better for it, and I’m looking forward to experiencing some more of the long-term benefits. As explained above, it’ll take a little while for you to start feeling positive changes, but it’s well worth sticking with it.

I work 9-5, typing and using my computer as normal, then recently I’ve started playing Rematch in the evenings on PC, for which I use an Xbox controller. I adjust the tilt and recline, keeping the back supports in the same position, so my spine still fits into that S shape.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed: August 2025

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August 17, 2025 0 comments

NFT Gaming

Shibarium Block Time Skyrockets 62%, Is This Good Thing?

by admin June 25, 2025

Shibarium, Shiba Inu’s layer-2 blockchain solution, has witnessed an unusual change in its block time, which could negatively impact transactions on the network. According to Shibariumscan data, the average block time has increased by 62%.

Why Shibarium block time matters

Notably, the average block time on Shibarium prior to now is pegged at 5.0 seconds. This helps to ensure new transactions are quickly added to the blockchain, an appealing feature for users of the ecosystem.

Is adoption causing strain on Shibarium?

Despite the spike in block time, the last logged volume of daily transactions stands at 4.51 million. However, if nothing is done to reduce block time, this figure could plummet rapidly as congestion builds up.

‘Deus Ex’ Did Good Work, and I Wish It Could Do More

by admin June 23, 2025

For as many long-running franchises were born during the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 era—your Assassin’s Creeds and Borderlands, to name a few—some old series tried making a return. Among those was Deus Ex, a series of cyberpunk role-playing games which just turned 20 years old and had an unfortunately short-lived return with a duology that under better circumstances, would’ve been a trilogy.

The original game hailed from Ion Storm on June 23, 2000 for PC and eventually PlayStation 2. At the time, its big claim to fame was being the directorial debut of Warren Spector, a producer on System Shock and the Ultima series, and having a mix of role-playing, shooter, and stealth elements. Considered one of the best games of all time and a key example of the immersive sim genre, wherein players have open-ended (and often emergent) solutions to problems crafted by the developers. While Ion Storm helmed the sequel Invisible War, the franchise eventually wound up in the hands of Eidos Montréal, who made its debut with a third Deus after previous attempts at Ion had failed before its closure in 2005.

And thus came 2011’s Deus Ex: Human Revolution, a prequel set decades before the first two games and which focused on mechanical augmentations rather than the nanotech found in its predecessors. As the game opens, augmented humans have become upper class owing to their newfound abilities while regular humans too poor or distrustful to be similarly augmented are lower on the totem pole. Amidst this divide, it falls to the newly augmented Adam Jensen to uncover a conspiracy and investigate the attack on his employer, biotech corporation Sarif Industries.

Human Revolution released in a year filled with heavy hitters from well-established franchises like Legend of Zelda and Uncharted. Other than it being a revival, what helped it stand out was how different it looked and carried itself. At a time when sci-fi games were looking at Star Trek or Halo for inspiration, the developers set out to put their own spin on cyberpunk instead of just replicating Blade Runner. That ambition certainly comes through in its visuals, which lean more toward the Renaissance than Japanese or Chinese culture that typically influences stories within the genre. Once players got their hands on it and experienced its mix of first-person stealth and action, the reception and sales were so strong, it seemed inevitable there’d be a sequel after Eidos finished the game’s DLC and Director’s Cut re-release that featured (among other things) much better boss fights.

That followup came with 2016’s Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, in which Adam and his task force investigate a train bombing in Prague and its potential connections to the Illuminati. Following the previous game’s chaotic event wherein Augmented people forcibly went insane (later dubbed the Aug Incident), they’ve lost their rights and become forced into ghettos. Mankind is an angrier game than its predecessor, with everyone resenting some person or organization to some extent, and while players choose Adam’s responses and actions, he generally keeps a level head throughout. Some have come around on him in the years since, but his unshakeable demeanor can make him come off more wooden and flat than the writers intended. He’s at his most fun in conversational boss fights, or when Prague cops try to hassle him only to discover he’s way above them on the law enforcement hierarchy.

All this anger and unease makes itself known throughout Mankind’s story mode. Golem City, a ghetto Adam skulks through in the game’s first act, is just full of despair as Augs try to make a life out of a bad situation. Cops are casually everywhere throughout Prague in the first two acts, and by act three, martial law has been enacted. When they’re not shooting Adam on sight, they’re rounding up anyone out after curfew or imprisoning suspected dissidents. Subtle, Mankind was not, and its writing earned plenty of criticism. Some found its topics and themes undeveloped, others thought the game already stepped in it with its pre-release controversy, which included the term “mechanical apartheid” and promotional art featuring the “Augs Lives Matter” slogan the developers insisted predated the “Black Lives Matter” slogan that began in 2013. Its biggest fault, though, is that it’s a middle chapter for a final entry that’ll likely never come.

After Mankind, Eidos Montréal moved on to Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy and co-developed Marvel’s Avengers. Embracer bought it and other parts of Square Enix Europe in 2022, and months later, reports alleged a third Adam-led entry was in the earliest stages of development. Embracer later killed the project and laid off staff working on it, and Eidos Montréal has since become a support developer for the upcoming Grounded 2 and Fable. This past January, Human and Mankind writer Mark Cecere revealed the team intended to have Adam’s actions unintentionally create the world of the original Deus Ex, thus tying the two sagas together. At the moment, that’s all we know about how the studio’s plans for both Adam and the franchise at large, leaving things forever trapped in a cliffhanger.

Human Revolution and Mankind Divided were my introduction to Deus Ex, and as such, I’ll always have a soft spot for them: they’re products of their time, but their atmosphere and immersion remain timeless. Eidos Montréal made a pair of games that were very good at what they did, and while the franchise’s DNA can be found in games like Dishonored and Cyberpunk 2077, it’s disappointing the studio won’t get to close out or expand the story on their terms. On the bright side, the original Deus Ex recently came to PlayStation+, and the series goes on sale often, so it’ll always be there for old heads to replay and love, and for newcomers to see what it has to offer.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

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June 23, 2025 0 comments

Product Reviews

AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB/8GB review: both are a good value

by admin June 23, 2025

Why you can trust TechRadar

We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT: One-minute review

Having missed the initial AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT review cycle earlier this month for logistical reasons, I wanted to do more with this review than just try to play catch-up with my peers who got to review the 16GB card prior to launch.

Fortunately, doing this post-launch meant that I was able to get my hands on both 16GB and 8GB versions of the RX 9060 XT for a single review, and I’m honestly glad I waited.

Both AMD RX 9060 XT cards bring a compelling value, with the 8GB version starting at $299.99 / £269.99 / AU$569 and the 16GB versions starting at $349.99 / £329.99 / AU$689. This puts it roughly in the middle of the price pack for the best cheap graphics cards of the current generation.

AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT: Price & availability

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

How much is it? $299.99 / £269.99 / AU$569 for 8GB, $349.99 / £329.99 / AU$689 for 16GB
When can you get it? Now
Where is it available? Available in the US, UK, and Australia

The AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT starts at $299.99 / £269.99 / AU$569 for the 8GB version, with the 16GB version starting at $349.99 / £329.99 / AU$689.

There’s a much more direct comparison between the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT 16GB and the RX 9060 XT 16GB, as both are very comparable spec-wise. In that regard, the RX 9060 XT is a slight price increase over the RX 7600 XT (about $20 in the US), but it’s not really large enough to ding its score.

The RX 7600 XT and RX 7600 are very similar, but there are differences beyond just their memory pools, so the RX 9060 XT is not quite as comparable to the RX 7600, meaning even though the RX 9060 XT is slightly more expensive (about $30 in the US), it’s much more reasonable given the comparably faster clock speeds.

Nvidia’s competing cards, the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB and RTX 5060, are more expensive ($429 / £419.99 / AU$799 for the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB) or about the same price or slightly more expensive ($299 / £269.99 / AU$599) for the RTX 5060.

Neither RX 9060 XT version has an AMD reference card, so you’ll need to buy one from a third-party manufacturer, such as Asus, Gigabyte, or XFX.

The same is true for Nvidia’s RTX 5060 Ti and RTX 5060, though, so it’s hard to knock the 9060 XT cards too hard for this, especially as we’ve seen fairly wide availability of MSRP cards for sale online that you can actually buy.

Fortunately, we also haven’t seen any real stock shortages of the RX 9060 XT cards, so finding stock at MSRP is fairly easy right now.

AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT: Specs

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

PCIe 5.0
16GB and 8GB VRAM

Swipe to scroll horizontallyAMD RX 9060 XT SpecsHeader Cell – Column 0

RX 9060 XT (16GB)

RX 9060 XT (8GB)

Process Node

TSMC N4P

Transistor Count (Billion)

29.7

Compute Units

Shaders

2,048

Ray Accelerators

AI/Matrix Processors

Render Output Units

Cache (MB)

Base Clock (MHz)

1,700

Boost Clock (MHz)

3,130

Memory Clock (MHz)

2,518

Memory Type

GDDR6

Memory Pool (GB)

Memory Interface (bits)

128

Effective Memory Speed (Gbps)

20.1

Memory Bandwidth (GB/s)

322.3

PCIe Interface

5.0 x16

TGP (W)

160

150

Recommended PSU (W)

450

700

Power Connector

1 x 8-pin

Both versions of the AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT have effectively identical specs, other than different memory pools and the slightly higher TDP for the 16GB version to account for powering the additional memory.

Otherwise, they use the exact same GPU die with identical clock speeds, so your decision between the two is really about whether that 8GB of additional GDDR6 VRAM is worth the extra investment.

The number of compute units, ROPs, and available cache on the RX 9060 XT is unchanged over the RX 7600 XT and RX 7600, so the RX 9060 XT is effectively an upgraded version of those cards using the new RDNA 4 architecture and faster game and memory clock speeds.

There’s also the issue of whether 8GB is enough for a modern graphics card, even at a sub-$300 price point. Given the performance I found while testing, an 8GB card can perform well right now, even at 1440p, on many games, so long as you don’t go anywhere near ray tracing. How much longer will that be the case? It’s hard to say, but 8GB cards are already starting to struggle, so even a 10GB card would have been better, much less a 12GB version for the lower-end 9060 XT.

Add to this AMD’s maddening decision to stick with a 128-bit memory bus for these cards, which unnecessarily constrains memory bandwidth and inevitably limits the potential performance of the RX 9060 XT. This alone knocks some points off, because if the Intel Arc B570 can use a 160-bit memory bus, there’s no reason why AMD or Nvidia continue to do so on their 60-class cards.

That simple widening of the bus could noticeably improve gaming frame rates, and it’s something neither AMD nor Nvidia has been able to explain to me beyond vaguely gesturing at cost constraints. If Intel can afford a 160-bit bus, so can AMD, and it makes me wonder how much better these cards might have otherwise been.

OK, end of rant.

Specs & features: 3.5 / 5

AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT: Design

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

No AMD reference card
Good for SFF cases

There is no AMD reference cards for either of the RX 9060 XT versions, so the design of the card you get will depend on the manufacturer.

The two cards I tested, the Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB and the Asus Dual Radeon RX 9060 XT 8GB, are both fairly slender and compact cards.

Neither have any RGB lighting, so if you’re looking for something with more bling, other cards can definitely offer that.

Also, there are some cards from some manufacturers that use triple-fan designs, which seems overkill to me, but if you want a bigger-looking card for a specific build, you’ll definitely have that option.

AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT: Performance

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

Big difference between 16GB and 8GB versions
RTX 5060 Ti 16GB and RTX 5060 offer slightly better performance than the two RX 9060 XT cards

A note on my data

The charts shown below offer the most recent data I have for the cards tested for this review. They may change over time as more card results are added and cards are retested. The ‘average of all cards tested’ includes cards not shown in these charts for readability purposes.

As far as performance goes, there’s a lot to like about both AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT cards, from their modest power draw to their solid 1440p gaming performance.

It’s not all positive though, as there are several points where Nvidia’s competing cards outperform AMD’s latest offerings, making the final assessment much closer than I initially thought it would be when I began testing these cards.

Across synthetic benchmarks, the RX 9060 XT and RTX 5060 Ti are more or less tied across resolutions, with Nvidia’s card only edging out AMD’s in ray tracing performance. The RX 9060 XT 16GB is only about 15% slower than the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB in synthetic ray tracing performance. While this is expected, it’s not as wide as it’s been in previous generations.

The RX 9060 XT 8GB, meanwhile, outperforms the RTX 5060 in 1080p (about 4% better), in 1440p (about 10% better), and in 4K (about 10% better), though the RTX 5060 does hold a slight lead in ray-tracing performance (about 3%).

In creative benchmarks, the RX 9060 XT cards are largely competitive against Nvidia’s GPUs in everything but 3D model rendering. Unfortunately, I can’t say more about this since Blender Benchmark wasn’t able to run on either RX 9060 XT card, so I can’t say how they’d fare against the Nvidia RTX 5060 Ti 16GB.

The RTX 5060, interestingly enough, couldn’t run Blender Benchmark either, so this will have to be an issue I’ll investigate further and update my results once I have them, but given that Blender Benchmark Cycles renderer is optimized for Nvidia CUDA (as is nearly all 3D modeling software), I am very confident that the RX 9060 XT cards aren’t going to be competitive on this workload, it’s really just a matter of how far behind the RX 9060 XT cards land in the end.

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

Creative workloads aren’t what AMD Radeon cards are most known for, though. PC gaming is where these cards really compete, and in this regard, the RX 9060 XT 8GB comes in about 4% slower than the RTX 5060 in 1080p overall, while the RX 9060 XT 16GB comes up about 9% slower than the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB at 1080p overall.

Gen-on-gen, though, the RX 9060 XT 16GB outperforms the RX 7600 XT by about 44% at 1080p, overall, while the RX 9060 XT 8GB similarly comes in about 46% faster than the RX 7600 at 1080p overall.

At 1440p, the story is similar for the RX 9060 XT, with it coming in about 9% slower than the RTX 5060 Ti, overall. For the RX 9060 XT 8GB, the gap widens a bit as it comes in about 8% slower than the RTX 5060, overall.

At 1440p, the gen-on-gen performance improvement is even greater, with the RX 9060 XT 16GB outperforming the RX 7600 XT by about 53% overall, while the RX 9060 XT 8GB outperforms the RX 7600 by a massive 62.5% overall.

In terms of power consumption, the peak power consumption of the RX 9060 XT cards are in line with where the RTX 5060 Ti lands and slightly above the listed TDP for the two cards. The RTX 5060, meanwhile, comes in a good bit lower at peak, in my tests.

Temperature, meanwhile, will largely depend on the model card you end up buying, as they will all have different cooling systems. That said, the Sapphire Pulse RX 9060 XT 16GB stayed a few degrees cooler than the Asus Dual RX 9060 XT 8GB in my tests, buy your mileage may vary.

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

In the end, the RX 9060 XT cards kept things pretty close to their respective competition from Nvidia, though couldn’t quite overtake them, even considering that I didn’t factor Blender Benchmark’s results into the final creative score for any of the cards tested, given that I wasn’t able to run it on three of the cards in question.

Had those tests run successfully and been factored into the final scores, the two Nvidia cards would have pulled further ahead, most likely.

But would they have pulled far enough ahead to justify buying them? In the case of the RX 9060 XT 8GB, the RTX 5060 simply offers you a better value given that both can be purchased for MSRP right now, but if you don’t want to give Nvidia your money, you’re not really losing anything by going with the RX 9060 XT 8GB instead.

For the RX 9060 XT 16GB, though, it comes within just a few points of the RTX 5060 Ti at a much lower price, making it the one I’d recommend to anyone shopping for a GPU in this price range.

Should you buy the AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT?

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)Swipe to scroll horizontallyAMD Radeon RX 9070 XT Scorecard

Buy the AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT if…

Don’t buy it if…

How I tested the AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT

I spent about three weeks with the RX 9060 XT 16GB and 8GB versions
I used my complete GPU testing suite to analyze the card’s performance
I tested the card in everyday, gaming, creative, and AI workload usage

Test System Specs

Here are the specs on the system I used for testing:

Motherboard: Gigabyte X870E Aorus Elite WiFi 7 ICE
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D
CPU Cooler: Gigabyte Auros Waterforce II 360 ICE
RAM: G.SKILL Trident Z5 Neo DDR5-6600 (2 x 16GB)
SSD: Samsung 9100 Pro 4TB SSD
PSU: Thermaltake Toughpower PF3 1050W Platinum
Case: Praxis Wetbench

I spent about three weeks with both RX 9060 XT cards, using my standard suite of benchmark tests with industry standard tools like 3DMark, PassMark, PugetBench for Creators, and more.

For gaming, I use built-in benchmark tools in games like Black Myth: Wukong, Cyberpunk 2077, and F1 2024.

I also used both cards for about a week each as the GPU in my own PC at home where I used it for work, content creation, and gaming outside of formal testing.

Originally reviewed June 2025

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June 23, 2025 0 comments