In order to meet the forming demands for low plasticity materials and large height-diameter ratio parts, a new process of hydrodynamic deep drawing (HDD) with independent radial hydraulic pressure is proposed. To investigate the effects of loading paths on the HDD with independent radial hydraulic pressure, the forming process of 5A06 aluminum alloy cylindrical cup with a hemispherical bottom was studied by numerical simula- tion. By employing the dynamic explicit analytical software ETA/Dynaform based on LS-DYNA3D, the effects of loading paths on the sheet-thickness distribution and surface quality were analyzed. The corresponding relations of the radial hydraulic pressure loading paths and the part's strain status on the forming limit diagram (FLD) were also discussed. The results indicated that a sound match between liquid chamber pressure and independent radial hydraulic pressure could restrain the serious thinning at the hemisphere bottom and that through adjusting radial hydraulic pressure could reduce the radial tensile strain and change the strain paths. Therefore, the drawing limit of the aluminum cylindrical cup with a hemispherical bottom could be increased significantly.