Renowned tech company AMD has today launched sales of their mid-level Radeon RX 7600 XT GPU, garnering significant attention from the global tech media circuit. Notably, the new offering has seen far more positive reviews than its predecessor, the Radeon RX 7600. This popularity is mainly due to its substantial video memory capacity, as evidenced by headlines proclaiming “16GB VRAM shifts the playing field” and “Ample VRAM for AI and future gaming.”
Stipulating the Radeon RX 7600 XT Detailed Features
The Radeon RX 7600 XT is powered by the identical 6nm Navi 33 GPU with RDNA 3 architecture as its predecessor. The chip features 2048 streaming processors, 64 AI-blocks, 32 ray tracing accelerators, 128 texture and 64 raster units. The Radeon RX 7600 XT showcases higher clock frequencies compared to the Radeon RX 7600, with the gaming frequency raised from 2250 MHz to 2470 MHz and the boost frequency from 2660 MHz to 2760 MHz.
Doubling Up Video Memory: A Game Changer
The significant change in the Radeon RX 7600 XT, as highlighted by reviewers, is its doubled video memory compared to the Radeon RX 7600. However, the memory speed and bus width remain unchanged at 18 Gbps and 128 bits, respectively. The bandwidth also remains steady at 288 GB/s. This larger memory volume and raised frequencies have led to increased energy consumption, peaking at 190W.
Performance Comparison: Radeon RX 7600 XT vs. Competitors
Tom’s Hardware tested the Sapphire Radeon RX 7600 XT Pulse and found that, on average, it outperforms the Intel Arc 770 and GeForce RTX 3060 but lags behind the Radeon RX 6700 XT and GeForce RTX 4060 in gaming at 1080p resolution (1920 × 1080 pixels) with maximum graphics settings and, when possible, maximum ray tracing settings.
Benchmarking the Radeon RX 7600 XT
When ignoring games with ray tracing, the AMD newcomer outperforms the GeForce RTX 4060 but remains behind the Radeon RX 6700 XT. However, examining the ray-tracing tests independently reveals that the Radeon RX 7600 XT falls short of the GeForce RTX 3060 and Intel Arc 770.
Substantial Video Memory Impacts Performance
The Radeon RX 7600 XT proved thoroughly capable of managing games at 1440p resolution under maximum graphics settings, benefiting largely from its substantial video memory. However, when maxing out ray tracing, the card cannot ensure playable FPS in most games. For 4K gaming, this new GPU is almost completely unsuitable, barely managing just over 32 FPS on average without ray tracing.
Tom’s Hardware noted that only three out of 18 games in the testing suite found the additional memory helpful: Forza Horizon 5, Spider-Man: Miles Morales, and Total War: Warhammer 3. In all these games, the new card demonstrated at least a 20% advantage compared to the RX 7600. However, critics emphasized that the Radeon RX 7600 XT holds a strong reserve for future games, which are becoming increasingly demanding in terms of video memory. Additionally, the card performed well in work tasks such as 3D rendering and AI algorithmic work, like Stable Diffusion.
Evaluating the Trade-offs: Performance vs. Energy Consumption
While the Radeon RX 7600 XT demonstrated higher energy consumption than the Radeon RX 7600, it proved less noisy and not as heated, most likely thanks to the custom coolers. In the case of the Sapphire Radeon RX 7600 XT Pulse, the average GPU temperature during gaming was 66.9 °C compared to more than 73 °C for the standard RX 7600. The load noise level was just 38 dBA. Average consumption during gaming was 190W (in 1080p), slightly higher than the much higher-performing GeForce RTX 4070’s 183W, and significantly above the 154W of the Radeon RX 7600.
Assessing Market Value and Competition
Despite slightly heightened pricing, at a recommended cost of $329 in the US, reviewers agreed that the Radeon RX 7600 XT is an excellent entry-level gaming GPU. However, if AMD and its partners could drop the 7600 XT price to $300 or below, it would become far more appealing, Tom’s Hardware suggested. A potentially more appealing choice currently might be the Radeon RX 6700 XT, which can be purchased in the US for $350. Computer Base concluded, “Despite all its flaws, the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT is currently the best entry-level graphics card in the pricerange up to 400 euros.”
