Jacob Roach / Digital Trends
AMD and Nvidia are always contend when it come to producing thebest graphics cardof the twelvemonth . It ’s safe to say that they both alwaystry , but AMD ’s previous attempt feels like it may seriously backfire .
The newRX 7600 XTfeels like an attempt to furbish up problems with the original RX 7600 , but it end up being something that Nvidia should be post AMD a fruit basket for .
Jacob Roach / Digital Trends
AMD repeated Nvidia’s mistakes
Nvidia’sRTX 40 - seriesis , for the most part , a success . The addition ofDLSS 3made the low-pitched - tier cards really pop , and the flagshipRTX 4090offers a massive generational upheaval . But Nvidia made a couple of mistakes with this multiplication , and astonishingly , AMD repeated them both with the RX 7600 XT .
For starters , the value for the money of some RTX 40 graphics cards is reasonably terrible . Take the RTX 4080 — that was a $ 1,200 GPU that should have cost $ 800 to $ 900 . Nvidia fixed that mistake with theRTX 4080 Super , but that ’s an outlier and not the norm . For the most part , Nvidia ’s GPUs could stand to be cheaper in this gen , and this is true for GPUs like theRTX 4070 Tiand theRTX 4060 Ti , too . At their current price , they ’re still too expensive .
However odd that might voice , the $ 330 RX 7600 XT suffers from the same predicament .
It ’s a budget graphics plug-in , to be sure , but that just makes the Leontyne Price tag more detectable than it would have been on a mellow - end model . At $ 60 more than its herald , the RX 7600 XT does n’t really have much of a call to that form of increase . It makes horse sense that AMD would bump up the Leontyne Price a little bit with the XT model , but aboveboard , even $ 300 would have felt up like a lot given that the GPU offers little to justify the variety .
That ’s the second mistake that AMD has made — the specs of the RX 7600 XT leave something to be desire . It ’s essentially the same graphics wit as the $ 270RX 7600 , with the same number of stream multiprocessor ( SMs ) and compute units ( Cu ) . We ’re getting a small rise in the game clock speed and a excrescence in TDP . More notably , the RX 7600 XT gets twice the remembering as its precursor , proceed from 8 GB to 16 GB VRAM . Unfortunately , AMD pick out to keep the same narrow 128 - bit bus , efficaciously stifling the poster ’s bandwidth .
This is the same thing that Nvidia ’s done with the RTX 4060 Ti . Controversial from the get - go due to the $ 400 price ticket and less - than - telling performance , the GPU received a second version not long after its launch . It sports the precise same glasses , apart from the VRAM , which has go up from 8 GB to 16 gigabit . And , again , that memory is spread across a 128 - bit interface .
Putting those two boner together makes for a dissatisfactory card . Instead of harness the budget section , the RX 7600 XT only serves to make Nvidia ’s mediocre card look better .
Too much competition
We ’ve tested the RX 7600 XT extensively and compared it to our benchmark for some of its rivals . It ’s dependable to say that AMD has strayed from what worked for it in the past .
TheRTX 4060is an obvious example of this . It cost $ 30 less , but across our entire test cortege , it came out to be around 2 % quicker than the RX 7600 XT on average in 1080p gaming . This is a GPU that was disappointing in its own rightfield , seeing as it could n’t even keep up with the last - gen RTX 3060 Ti — and it ’s not leagues faster than the RTX 3060 , either . Putting it at a high price point is nothing for AMD to be proud of mightily now .
In term of actual gameplay , the RX 7600 XT is corresponding to the RTX 4060 in most title . However , in some games , the extra VRAM — against all odds — helps it film in front . This includesRed Dead Redemption 2andThe Last of Us Part I. On the other hand , inResident Evil , the RTX 4060 wins by a decent gross profit margin of 125 .
move on to 1440p help the RX 7600 XT catch up to Nvidia ’s RTX 4060 . And it still wins in certain games that benefit from the 16 GB of memory , but it ’s not a victory across the board . If anything , it just proves that the RTX 4060 does a amazingly decent job with just 8 GB of VRAM .
Ray tracing is still the Achilles ’ heel of AMD GPUs , and although the RX 7600 XT is n’t tough at in this regard , Nvidia does it better . No surprise there , but it ( again ) makes me question what that extra $ 30 is getting me .
Nvidia ’s RTX 4060 is n’t the only competitor of the RX 7600 XT , however . This section is becoming quite crowded , with cards like the RTX 4060 Ti and the Arc A770 all offer similar performance . Even AMD ’s last - gen RX 6700 XT is a feasible choice , seeing as it only cost around $ 20 more .
It ’s no surprisal that the RTX 4060 Ti shoot ahead of the other GPUs on the leaning . Comparing the $ 400 Nvidia calling card to the $ 330 AMD option really makes the RTX 4060 Ti front like it ’s some sort of a enceinte deal , which — let ’s be clean — it is n’t . It ’s comparable to the last - gen RTX 3060 Ti in many game , and even when it win , it does n’t advance by much . Then there ’s the 16 GB version that sometimes ends up being deadening than the 8 GB one , and even when it ’s not , it ’s close to the same .
See how standardised that spot is to what we ’re seeing with AMD here ? It ’s really like Team Red ’s take on the RTX 4060 Ti all over again .
The RX 7600 XT also just slightly outpace Intel ’s Arc A770 , and that GPU costs $ 300 to $ 320 with 16 GB VRAM . Intel does n’t have the same kind of trump carte du jour that Nvidia does in this generation , though . Nvidia also provides entree toDLSS 3.5 . physical body propagation can upgrade the RTX 4060 to much high levels of performance , and , whileAMD ’s rival FSR 3is an improvement over the former gens , it just exists right now . It ’s only supported by four games so far . Nvidia ’s list is far longer , at around 80 claim , let in some of the most pop AAA games out right now .
AMD should have won this battle
Nvidia ’s midrange GPUs in this generation have n’t been too impressive . With mediocre performance gains and inflated prices , the 60 - level cards are n’t the go - to options that they once were . TheRTX 4070 Superis the first corking value / great performance offering in Nvidia ’s card , and that card is $ 600 . Everything below that price point should be ripe for the pick , and AMD should be dominating those sale . Instead , it ’s pushing buyers toward Nvidia .
Not every GPU needs to be a masterpiece to be remembered for eld like some of thebest artwork cards of all time . All AMD had to do to make the RX 7600 XT worthwhile was to price it according to its capabilities . The design choices are questionable , but it wouldd still be a enough choice to Nvidia ’s overprice GPUs … if only AMD had follow its usual performance - per - dollar strategy . The RX 7800 XT , at $ 500 , is a antic hatful . The RX 7600 , at $ 270 and below , is a solid 1080p selection .
AMD ’s title to fame is usually that it can extend more for less .
The RX 7600 XT , while not a unfit GPU , makes very small sense to buy over Nvidia ’s option . Even if the RTX 4060 ( and the Ti rendering ) is poor note value , the RX 7600 XT is just as unfit . With similar public presentation and with no DLSS 3.5 to justify the price rise , all it does is make Nvidia ’s “ meh ” offer reckon good than they are in reality .
AMD ’s claim to fame is normally that it can offer more for less . It also typically offers more VRAM than Nvidia . It ’s hard to say why it chose to ramble from what worked in the yesteryear by overpricing the RX 7600 XT and adding 16 GB VRAM without an user interface to match .
I care to rout for the underdog , but I rightfully ca n’t see many reasons to buy the RX 7600 XT over an RTX 4060 right now . Unless you specifically only want to encounter the few game where the 16 GB of VRAM will make a monolithic difference , or need the GPU for computer memory - intensive task , there ’s just no point in spending that extra $ 30 . AMD could n’t have done Nvidia a magnanimous favor .
