The new mid-range: The AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT Desktop GPU is equipped with 12 GB of VRAM

Unfortunately, the graphics card market is still completely overwhelmed, which is reflected in the very poor availability of various graphics cards. Whether AMD manages to prevent the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT from suffering the same fate will be seen in the near future.

With the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT, there's now an additional graphics card based on the new RDNA architecture that made its debut late last year. All the new features are included in the new mid-range model. For instance, there's support for both SAM (Smart Access Memory) and ray tracing. We received the reference model directly from AMD, and it appears to be quite compact compared to current graphics cards. Therefore, you don't have to pay much attention to case compatibility here. However, things can look different for custom designs, which are usually also equipped with a higher power target and, accordingly, a larger cooling system.

We find the trend of installing more VRAM to be positive. Due to the 192-bit memory interface, 6 or 12 GB is possible. Thankfully, AMD opted for the 12 GB variant. Nvidia also took the same step with the GeForce RTX 3060. This takes the wind out of critics' sails right away, since we're not dealing with a memory cripple with only 6 GB of VRAM here. The Navi 22 graphics chip reaches surprisingly high clock rates, although the base clock speed is only 1,569 MHz. However, the so-called "game clock" is actually 2,424 MHz, and the maximum boost speed is as high as 2,639 MHz. We were able to confirm all these high clock rates in our review, although the maximum boost speed is only available very briefly. Most of the time, the GPU ran at 2,580 MHz when gaming.

In terms of power demand, the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT's energy consumption is similarly frugal as that of the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT. At 230 watts (TGP), the graphics card isn't excessively power-hungry. As for the reference model's workmanship, it can be said that everything looks very high-quality. Both the front and the backplate are made of metal and don't feel cheap, either. Visually, an illuminated "Radeon" logo decorates the graphics card. AMD recommends using at least a 650-watt power supply for operation. The AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT offers one HDMI port and three DisplayPorts for connecting monitors.

With the AMD Radeon RT 6700 XT, the manufacturer is primarily targeting gamers who predominantly play in 1440p. We can confirm this claim, and the numerous gaming tests showed that the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT can still run titles at QHD resolution without being overtaxed. "Still" is the keyword here, because the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT was also regarded as a 1440p gaming graphics card at the time of its release. If we take a closer look at the new Hitman 3, for example, we can see that the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT already struggles quite a bit with an average of 52 FPS. Things don't look any better for our GPU when it comes to the popular building simulation Anno 1800. However, a significant performance improvement in the form of driver updates has often been seen in the past. Nevertheless, these two games present an extreme scenario that is not transferable to all tested games. Many games can even be experienced in 2160p with the new Radeon RX 6700 XT. As usual, AMD is ahead at times and Nvidia at others in the gaming tests. Therefore, if you want to buy a graphics card based on your favorite games, you should take a close look at the performance comparison beforehand.

As always, we use the game The Witcher 3 (Ultra preset) to measure the frame times and frame rates. Apart from a single outlier, there are no irregularities here. The logged frame times are surprisingly constant and low in our sample. The performance curve of the frames per second registered is relatively stable over the course of the test. This means that there is no noticeable drop in performance during long gaming sessions.