When AMD announced its first RDNA 2 video cards for PC at the end of 2020, it moved away from its usual strategy of trying to dominate the middle market. Instead, he announced three GPUs designed to compete directly with the best NVIDIA that could be offered at the time. AMD’s latest video card is a return to form. At $ 479, the RX 6700 XT is $ 100 more affordable than the RX 3800 and is between NVIDIA’s two best GPUs, the $ 399 RTX 3060 Ti and $ 499 RTX 3070. It is also the successor to AMD’s most important video card in recent years, the RX 5700 XT.
AMD
The 6700 XT offers 40 computer units, a 2,424MHz gaming clock and 12GB of GDDR6 RAM while consuming 230 watts of power. How does this compare to the RX 6800? AMD’s latest features include 20 fewer units and 4 GB less RAM. A downgrade, to be sure, but in practical terms, translates these capabilities to a GPU that excels at 1440p, the current sweet spot for computer games.
By AMD’s standards, the RX 6700 XT can consistently deliver more than 60 frames per second in graphically demanding games such as Cyberpunk 2077 and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla while displaying it at maximum settings. In some cases it can be even better than the RTX 3060 Ti and RTX 3070 – although there are almost as many games where the latter can beat it conveniently. Furthermore, in competitive shooters such as Ear Watch and BraveAMD claims that the RX 6700 XT can deliver more than 200 frames per second at 1440p, which more than enables it to drive the latest crop of QHD monitors that are better than 144Hz refresh rates.
AMD
As with AMD’s other RDNA 2-based GPUs, hardware-accelerated beam tracking is on the table. The RX 6700 XT also supports AMD’s Smart Access Memory technology. This is a feature that allows direct CPUs of Ryzen 5000 series – and now also most 3000 series processors – direct access to the fast VRAM on the RX 6700 XT. Depending on the game, you can expect up to 16 percent better performance.
The Radeon RX 6700 XT will be available on March 18 at AMD board partners such as Asus, Gigabyte, MSI and XFX. Of course, the announcement of availability and the fulfillment of the promise are two separate things – as AMD itself has consistently shown since the release of its Zen 3 processors. Like their NVIDIA counterparts, the RX 6900 XT, RX 6800 XT and RX 6800 have been almost impossible to buy since they came out.
AMD
For what it’s worth, an AMD spokesman told Engadget that it would have ‘significantly more’ RX 6700 XT shares at launch than its first RDNA 2 cards had last year. The company also said it would take additional steps to address stock shortages, without determining what it entails.