AMD’s Radeon RX 6700 XT Is So Good That I’m Praying There’s Enough Stock

We were pretty aroused about AMD ’s RX 6800 XT and RX 6800 . Not only did AMD eventually add ray tracing to its latest multiplication of artwork card , but it made them a bit speedy compared to Nvidia ’s latest multiplication of GPUs . While AMD did n’t win all the time , and the GPUs unquestionably fall back behind in ray tracing , the gains AMD made in stem functioning plus its competitive prices make this latest generation of Radeon graphics tease the most exciting in a while . And it ’s no different for theRX 6700 XT .

The RX 6700 XT is built on the sameRDNA2 computer architecture , which has seriously helped AMD ’s latest generation of cards become the telling PC component part they are . I went into this review conceive the RX 6700 XT would be equally telling , free-base on how the RX 6800 XT and RX 6800 perform in the past , and I was n’t disappointed . AMD was n’t kidding when it said this graphics card was made for 1440p play . It beats the RTX 3060 Ti in groundwork performance , and sometimes the RTX 3070 , too .

There are a few wonky thing to look at in terms of the Leontyne Price versus operation and feature like Smart Access Memory ( SAM ) that might have some people remember they should waitress for another AMD or Nvidia card … if only the GPU mart was n’t the hellscape it is the right way now . The RX 6700 XT is just good enough , and reasonably price enough , to possibly convince some people to switch from Nvidia to AMD if they can get their hand on this new GPU when it officially go on sales event tomorrow . Would you rather get an RX 6700 XT at MSRP or a RTX 3060 Ti for $ 1,000 from a scalper ? I ’d pick out the former .

Photo: Joanna Nelius/Gizmodo

AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT

What is it ?

AMD ’s New mid - range GPU to join the Radeon family .

Price

$ 479 MSRP

Base functioning , Smart Access Memory performance

No Like

Ray tracing execution , wish well it was more or less chinchy

All benchmarks , aside from the SAM comparisons , were perform with the follow exam PC : Intel Core i9 - 10900 K CPU ; Asus ROG Maximus Extreme XII motherboard ; 16 GB ( 2 x 8) G.Skill Trident Z Royal DDR4 - 3600 DRAM ; Samsung 970 Evo NVMe M.2 500 GB SSD ; Seasonic Focus GX-1000 PSU ; and a Corsair H150i Pro RGB 360 millimetre AIO for cool .

As you ’ll see from the chart below , the $ 479 RX 6700 XT gets the same performance as the $ 400 RTX 3060 Ti or as the $ 500 RTX 3070 , depending on the game . There ’s a lot more to compare than just basis plot benchmarks and price , like shaft trace and Smart Access Memory , which is AMD ’s fancy name for a BIOS - stage feature that you may turn on to get a frame pace rise in some games .

Its performance in those other areas make it both easy and hard to excuse that $ 479 terms point . It ’s easier to vindicate if there ’s passel of stock useable , but much harder to justify if AMD and its married person fumble launch day and all the circuit card terminate up going to scalper .

allow ’s assume we live in a perfect world for a second and there are spate of RX 6700 XTs to go around . Would I recommend AMD ’s tardy GPU over the RTX 3060 , 3060 Ti , or even the 3070 ? I ’d definitely get the RX 6700 over the RTX 3060 if I was looking for a higher - end , mid - level GPU , because its base operation is so bananas . I would not get it over the RTX 3070 because the ray trace performance on that GPU is far superscript . As for the 3060 Ti … it ’s a flip up .

I am hesitant to call the RX 6700 XT the newmid - range champion . It comes close , but falls brusque in some functioning region and cost . While it ’s tantamount or better than Nvidia ’s RTX 3060 Ti , it still fall behind in ray tracing just like its more expensive siblings .

The operation difference can be explicate by looking at how each company has design its GPU computer architecture . One of the reasons AMD ’s Radeon 6000 - series plug-in can accomplish better , non - ray tracing performance is due to their infinity cache . That infinity cache , which is 96 M deserving in the RX 6700 XT ’s case , acts as a sort of small-scale , temporary retention store that helps off - consignment and process more visual information at once .

This is one way how , despite all of AMD ’s newfangled computer graphic cards being configure with a 192 - bit bus to remove data , AMD can get higher frame rate with ray tracing turn off .

That ’s a simplified edition of how the computer architecture play , and does n’t take into write up the speeds and size of the unlike type of hoard , but it ’s clear AMD ’s eternity cache is helping cost increase speed over Nvidia ’s cards with a 256 - bit bus . A card like the RTX 3060 Ti , which has equivalent performance to the RX 6700 XT , has a 256 - bit bus so it can handle more data point at once , but it only has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory where the RX 6700 XT has 12 G .

This is not the same as AMD ’s eternity hoard , but it appears AMD ’s combination of 96 mebibyte eternity cache and 12 GB computer memory is what lets it go toe - to - toe with the RTX 3060 Ti , despite its larger bus size of it . The RTX 3060 , in direct contrast , has 12 GB of retention with a 192 - bit bus , and the RX 6700 XT is geographical mile ahead of it in the same way the RTX 3060 Ti is ahead of it . Without eternity stash , it ’s potential the RX 6700 XT ’s execution would be close to the RTX 3060 .

But AMD ’s GPUs do n’t have dedicate ray tracing cores like Nvidia ’s . Nvidia ’s shaft of light tracing essence ( RT ) are dedicated hardware on the GPU itself that help accelerate lighting effects specific to ray tracing . AMD does have its own light beam tracing hardware call ray accelerators , but those are part of the larger compute whole that make up the GPU instead of being totally separate . In other words , ray accelerators are not their own dedicated hardware like RT substance .

The way Nvidia has built its Ampere ray tracing architecture is more effective than AMD ’s , so its shaft tracing benchmark are higher . That ’s why you see the RX 6700 XT falling in between the RTX 3060 Ti and RTX 3060 most of the clock time with ray trace on .

However , if it was n’t for that infinity stash , operation could be worse . The RX 6700 XT might be a perfect 1440p GPU , but when it come to radiate tracing it ’s at best a 1080p card with some of the most demanding games out there .

But there is a little help from AMD ’s Smart Access Memory . When we tested that feature film in ourRadeon RX 6800 XT and RX 6800 review , SAM boosted skeleton rate anywhere between 10 - 30 fps , depending on the resolution . However , it did not work for every game and that ’s the case again here .

Our SAM - focused tech bench included : Ryzen 9 5950X CPU ; Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Hero motherboard ; 16 GB ( 2 x 8) G.Skill Trident Z Royal DDR4 - 3600 DRAM ; Samsung 970 Evo NVMe M.2 500 GB SSD ; Seasonic Focus GX-1000 PSU ; and a Corsair H150i Pro RGB 360 mm AIO for cooling .

The RX 6700 XT also benefit from have SAM enable . For instance , with the RX 6800 , Borderlands 3 got a 18 fps boost at 1080p on extremist , but the RX 6700 XT develop a 13 fps boost at the same resolution and computer graphic setting . However , that difference is with the Intel test bench .

Running the same bench mark on the AMD test bench has a more marked outcome ; the AMD CPU / GPU combo only nett 95 Federal Protective Service on the same preferences , but with SAM on it baffle 135 Federal Protective Service — a 40 fps increase . For all the other game where SAM has an effect , the same is true . AMD CPU and GPU together , plus SAM , puts the RX 6700 XT ’s bag performance in between the RTX 3070 and RTX 3080 .

All that said , where does that leave the RX 6700 XT ? When mate with an Intel processor it get serious carrying out , but it can get better performance with an AMD CPU as long as SAM is turned on . It gets the same or better performance than the RTX 3060 Ti on the same test workbench , but its ray trace performance is the same as the RTX 3060 . And it ’s $ 79 more than the RTX 3060 Ti , but $ 21 less than the RTX 3070 .

The RX 6700 XT is distinctly a wonderful yet complex graphics card that will have a major advantage over Nvidia at this specific bit in time because of the graphic card shortage — but only if AMD can stop the the scalpers and get the GPU into the hands of genuine consumer . If you see one , should you buy it ? Absolutely .