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June 2021 LXF276 19
www.techradar.com/pro/linux
resolutions. The RX 6700 XT performance dropped by
23 per cent compared to 1080p ultra, but all of the games
we tested, at the settings we tested, stayed above 60fps.
The console comparison is appropriate, considering
the 6700 XT likely comes in around the same level as the
Xbox Series X — XSX has 52 CUs clocked at 1.83GHz,
compared to 40 CUs at 2.4GHz for the 6700 XT, so
they’re pretty close. How can an Xbox manage 4K gaming
while a PC can’t? Easy: dynamic resolution scaling
combined with slightly lower settings. 1440p upscaled to
4K at well over 60fps is often what you get on consoles,
and you can get the same with PCs.
Overall standings don’t change too much with the
higher resolution. The 6700 XT still came in seven per
cent ahead of the 3060 Ti, but it’s now three per cent
behind the 3070. The RX 6800 lead increased to 21 per
cent, while the 6700 XT beat the 5700 XT by 30 per cent
and the 2060 Super by 48 per cent.
4K ultra tends to require extreme GPUs for 60fps, but
if you’re willing to tweak the settings a bit then it’s
certainly within reach. Across the full suite of games, the
6700 XT managed 57fps on average, with some of the
games breaking 60fps. Memory bandwidth starts to play
a bigger role at 4K, however, so the RX 6700 XT’s lead
over the RTX 3060 Ti now shrinks to just two per cent –
and again, DLSS (deep learning super sampling) can
easily make up for the difference and then some.
Temperatures, clocks and fans
Fan speeds directly affect temperatures, and here we see
the reduced cooling capacity of AMD’s reference design.
It’s not loud, but it does hit higher temperatures – not that
72°C is particularly hot. The larger fans help make up for
the reduced number of fans, but the triple fan cards all
achieve lower temperatures.
Lower fan speeds naturally mean lower noise levels.
The noise floor of our test environment and equipment
measures 34dB at a distance of 15cm from the side of the
GPU. We put the SPL (sound pressure level) meter close
to the GPU fans to focus on their noise, rather than case
fans or other noise sources. The reference RX 6700 XT
measured 40dB.
More and less Navi
If all of the Nvidia Ampere and AMD RDNA2 GPUs were
available at prices close to MSRP then the RX 6700 XT
would look a bit overpriced. It’s essentially a match for
the RTX 3060 Ti, without the option for DLSS at an £80
price premium. Calling this an RTX 3070 competitor is a
bit too ambitious.
AMD’s Navi 22 chip takes over from the previous
generation Navi 10 chip, packing in new features and a
large Infinity Cache that results in 33 per cent larger die.
It’s not just ray tracing and cache, though, because VRS,
mesh shaders and a reworked pipeline that can hit much
higher clocks are all part of the package. If nothing else,
the clocks on AMD’s RDNA2 parts are impressive, and the
6700 XT typically runs at clocks around 40 per cent
higher than RX 5700 XT. Combined with the other
architectural tweaks and enhancements that yields
gaming performance which is around 30 per cent faster,
together with 50 per cent more VRAM to ensure you
won’t hit memory limits in the most voracious of games.
Is that enough? At ‘official’ prices – which are basically
just fantasyland right now – we’d call this a good card, but
the RX 6800 and RX 6800 XT are better overall picks.
More memory, more cores, better performance and not
that much more expensive. We’d also give the RTX 3060
Ti and RTX 3070 an edge over the 6700 XT, due to
features, performance and pricing (in that order).
Even if mining weren’t making a bad situation worse,
the latest GPUs would likely still be hard to come by, and
shortages on various tech components – including GPUs,
memory, substrates, and even automobile and
smartphone chips – are projected to last until 2022.
The good news is that, as a smaller chip, AMD planned
for higher sales back when it ordered Navi 22 wafers. If
AMD follows the usual pattern then there’ll probably be
twice as many RX 6700 XT cards as all the Navi 21 cards
combined. If you can find one for sale at MSRP tomorrow,
you should probably just buy it.
WAITING FOR RAYTRACING
It’s barely worth mentioning at this stage but Linux systems are still
waiting for Vulkan-based raytracing to appear. While Nvidia and AMD
cards now both offer affordable performance levels, AMD is yet to
release a driver with the required extensions either in a packaged
driver or AMDVLK, which will be part of the v21.x major update later in
2021. Even then it’s likely that Linux will only see gaming raytracing
through Valve’s Steam Play using VKD3D-Proton, which enables
DirectX 12 raytracing to be implemented through Vulkan. There are
some Vulkan-based demos that show off the potential of raytracing
but even so, the large performance hit for a minor increase in visuals
means that this feature is of minor interest, for now at least.
It’s a big card and
it need reasonably
big power!
VERDICT
Delivering good performance, it’s doubtful AMD will meet the
demand at launch, but thinking long-term this should prove
a competitive offering in the GPU market.
FEATURES 8/10
PERFORMANCE 8/10
EASE OF USE 9/10
VALUE 8/10
Rating 8/10
DEVELOPER: AMD
WEB: www.amd.com/radeon6700
PRICE: £419