AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT review: High-performance 1440p gaming

AMD takes aim at 1440p gaming

The AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT arrives in the middle of a global GPU shortage, promising performance that sits neatly between the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti and RTX 3070. It is the direct successor to the Radeon RX 5700 XT and built on second-generation RDNA 2 architecture. Featuring the Navi 22 GPU core, which is basically a cut-down version of the Navi 21 found in the Radeon RX 6800 XT, the Radeon RX 6700 XT brings RDNA 2 to a slightly more accessible price point at US$479.

That said, this is still a relatively high-end card, and anyone looking for a truly affordable 1080p gaming on AMD's latest architecture will have to wait a while longer. 

As an RDNA 2 card, it packs 96MB of Infinity Cache, still more memory, even higher clock speeds, and of course, Ray Accelerators. Infinity Cache was first introduced on RDNA 2 as a way to get around the need for a wider, more power-intensive memory bus without sacrificing memory bandwidth. The benefits of this are evident in the Radeon RX 6700 XT, which features a narrower 192-bit memory bus width compared to the 256-bit on the Radeon RX 5700 XT. And despite its significantly higher clock speeds, the total board power has increased by a mere 5W to 230W, evidence of the power efficiency gains AMD has made with RDNA 2.  

The amount of VRAM is another one of the headline features – the Radeon RX 6700 XT features 12GB of GDDR6 memory, compared to the 8GB on the GeForce RTX 3070. 

The final thing that needs mentioning is the Ray Accelerators, which debuted on RDNA 2 and help bring hardware support for ray tracing to AMD. That said, the Radeon RX 6700 XT comes with just 40 Ray Accelerators, a modest number that doesn't put it in the higher echelons of ray tracing cards. 

Here's an overview of its specifications and how it compares to the higher-end Radeon RX 6800 series and the Radeon RX 5700 XT: 

The Radeon RX 6700 XT also supports PCIe 4.0, which allows you to take advantage of Smart Access Memory if you have an AMD 500-series motherboard and Ryzen 5000 processor for a small performance boost. 

Elsewhere, AMD has also ditched the blower-style cooler it usually favours for an open-air design that runs cooler and quieter. The reference card adheres to a reasonably compact dual-slot design, measuring just 267mm long. It is powered by 6-pin and 8-pin connectors, so unlike with NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 3000 series Founders Edition cards, your regular power connectors will still work. Compared to the Radeon RX 6800 XT however, the Radeon RX 6700 XT has just two axial fans instead of three, complete with support for a zero RPM fan mode for less noise. 

The Radeon RX 6000 series has really improved in terms of design from the previous generation, and the card now boasts a hefty diecast aluminum frame for improved structural rigidity. AMD is talking up the PCB design too. It's apparently a 10-layer PCB with two layers of copper, complete with nine-phase voltage regulation to ensure the card remains stable. 

Test setup

Here are the specifications of our test rig:

• AMD Ryzen 9 5900X CPU
• MSI MEG X570 Godlike
• Samsung 980 Pro 1TB SSD
• Windows 10 Home 64-bit
• ASUS ROG Swift PG43UQ 4K Gaming Monitor

We'll be comparing the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT against the two NVIDIA cards it sits in between, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti and 3070 Founders Edition. 

The following synthetic benchmarks and games were run, with the games chosen from a wide range of genres to give a better indication of performance across different segments:

• 3DMark
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider
• Total War: Three Kingdoms (Battle)
• Wolfenstein: Youngblood
• Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
• Metro: Exodus
• Watch Dogs: Legion
• Control

3DMark

3DMark is a synthetic benchmark that tests graphics and computational performance at different resolutions, starting at 1080p and going all the way up to 4K. A series of two graphics test, one physics test, and then a combined test stresses your hardware in turn to assess its performance.

Performance was a pretty mixed bag here for the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT. It was more or less on par with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti for the DirectX 12 Time Spy benchmarks, but it managed to inch ahead of even the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 in all three Fire Strike tests. In the 1440p Fire Strike Extreme benchmark, it was roughly 5% faster. But synthetic benchmarks only tell part of the story, and the real test will come in real-world games. 

1440p Benchmarks (Max Settings)

These 1440p benchmarks are of the most interest here, since the Radeon RX 6700 XT is positioned primarily as a card for 1440p gaming. It's difficult to tease out a clear pattern of performance here too, and the Radeon RX 6700 XT's standing in relation to the two NVIDIA cards varied from game to game. For instance, it was neck and neck with the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti in Metro: Exodus, but 10% slower in Total War: Three Kingdoms. On the other hand, it was roughly 4% faster than the GeForce RTX 3070 in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, while sitting between both NVIDIA cards in Watch Dogs Legion and Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

4K Benchmarks (Max Settings)

The 4K benchmarks paint a similar picture and relative performance varies from game to game as well. However, it's clear that the Radeon RX 6700 XT isn't really intended as a 4K card, with middling performance in most titles. 

Ray Tracing Benchmarks (4K, Max Settings)

Finally, in games that support ray tracing, the Radeon RX 6700 XT is still far behind both NVIDIA offerings. NVIDIA has the headstart in hardware-based ray tracing support, and AMD only just enabled real-time ray tracing on the Radeon RX 6800 XT. 

Temperature and power

Despite the improvements made to AMD's cooler design, the Radeon RX 6700 XT still runs hotter than both NVIDIA cards, which is slightly disappointing given that the GeForce RTX 3070 runs faster. Board power draw was much better, sitting between the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti and 3070. 

Conclusion

The AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT is one of those middle-of-the-road cards that aren't really super exciting. With a US$479 price tag and performance that sort of straddles both the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti and 3070, it's neither tantalisingly affordable nor breathtakingly fast. It's a more mainstream version of AMD's new RDNA 2 architecture, and it serves up a more than decent gaming experience, but that's about the most interesting thing you can say about it. 

Still, it is a solid alternative to both the US$399 NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti and US$499 3070, and features like Smart Access Memory may give you more incentive to pick Team Red over Green if you also own an AMD processor. We're still waiting for AMD's DLSS equivalent however, so NVIDIA still has a slight advantage in this area. 

Nevertheless, the Radeon RX 6700 XT is a very capable card on its own. Performance at resolutions up to 1440p is great, but with numbers that are on par with the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti at times, there's good reason to still consider NVIDIA's card which is a hundred dollars cheaper. Either way, we should never turn our noses up at more choice – but because performance can vary so much from game to game, you'd best make your choice by looking at review benchmarks for the games you play to see how well the Radeon RX 6700 XT runs on them.

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