AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT review

Our VerdictWith many similarities to the much cheaper RX 7600—which was inevitable due to AMD’s choice of GPU—and only marginal benefits to gamers in the short and likely medium-term, the RX 7600 XT doesn’t offer enough to justify spending any extra money on it. It also struggles to compete with Nvidia and Intel’s cheaper alternatives.

Our Verdict

With many similarities to the much cheaper RX 7600—which was inevitable due to AMD’s choice of GPU—and only marginal benefits to gamers in the short and likely medium-term, the RX 7600 XT doesn’t offer enough to justify spending any extra money on it. It also struggles to compete with Nvidia and Intel’s cheaper alternatives.

For16GB is plentyDrivers are solidRuns cool and quietAgainstBetter value options availableFactory OC ramps up priceLarger VRAM often doesn’t make a differenceSame GPU silicon as much cheaper card

For16GB is plentyDrivers are solidRuns cool and quiet

AgainstBetter value options availableFactory OC ramps up priceLarger VRAM often doesn’t make a differenceSame GPU silicon as much cheaper card

PC Gamer’s got your backOur experienced team dedicates many hours to every review, to really get to the heart of what matters most to you.Find out more about how we evaluate games and hardware.

The underlying core of the RX 7600 XT is pretty much identical to the RX 7600, which launched in May of last year. They both use the same Navi 33 GPU, featuring up to 2,048 shaders split across 32 compute units (CUs). What’s too bad for the XT model is that the regular RX 7600 uses the full complement of cores available with this chip, the full 2,048, meaning there’s no room for improvement on the XT without an entirely different GPU design. Since that’s not happening, we’re left with an XT that resembles the non-XT inalmostevery regard.

From the identical shader count to the memory subsystem, the RX 7600 XT offers no surprises. There’s 32MB of Infinity Cache, which is used to help limit calls out to the VRAM, and when the GPU does need to go further afield, it does so over a 128-bit memory bus.

The XT does come with faster clock speeds than the non-XT card, even on the standard non-OC models. That said, the PowerColor Hellhound I’m looking at here is a factory OC model and runs up to 2,539MHz game clock and 2,810MHz boost clock, above the reference specification of 2,460MHz and 2,760MHz, respectively.

Swipe to scroll horizontallyHeader Cell - Column 0RX 7600 XTRX 7600GPUNavi 33Navi 33ArchitectureRDNA 3RDNA 3LithographyTSMC 6nmTSMC 6nmStream Processors20482048Compute Units3232Ray Accelerators3232AI Accelerators6464ROPs6464Infinity cache32MB32MBBoost clock (reference)2,760MHz2,625MHzMemory16GB GDDR68GB GDDR6Memory interface128-bit128-bitMemory bandwidth288 GB/s288 GB/sDie size204mm²204mm²Transistors13.3B13.3BTGP190W165WPrice (MSRP)$329 (~£330)$269 (~£250)

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Header Cell - Column 0RX 7600 XTRX 7600GPUNavi 33Navi 33ArchitectureRDNA 3RDNA 3LithographyTSMC 6nmTSMC 6nmStream Processors20482048Compute Units3232Ray Accelerators3232AI Accelerators6464ROPs6464Infinity cache32MB32MBBoost clock (reference)2,760MHz2,625MHzMemory16GB GDDR68GB GDDR6Memory interface128-bit128-bitMemory bandwidth288 GB/s288 GB/sDie size204mm²204mm²Transistors13.3B13.3BTGP190W165WPrice (MSRP)$329 (~£330)$269 (~£250)

Running out of VRAM on your graphics card can be pretty catastrophic for game performance. However, having access to greater amounts of memory is not necessarily going to help you net higher performance in every game, only those where 8GB of memory capacity is a problem, which is very few of them, as clear from the benchmarks laid out below.

Test rig

Graphics cards:PowerColor Hellhound Radeon RX 7600 XT 16GBAMD Radeon RX 7600 (MBA)Acer Predator BiFrost Arc A770 16GBMSI Ventus Black 2X RTX 4060

How much of that small uplift across my benchmarking suite is down to increased memory demand is another question entirely.

The Hellhound lights up the test bench while benchmarking.(Image credit: Future)

PowerColor Hellhound RX 7600 XT graphics card on a red background,

But I’m not entirely satisfied with this explanation. That’s due to a thorn in AMD’s side, named Nvidia. The RTX 4060 comes with 8GB and performs almost identically to the RX 7600 XT in Far Cry 6. That flies in the face of the theory, and both Nvidia and AMD stuff a lot of cache into their modern cards. That said, perhaps Nvidia’s approach with vastly increased L2 cache amounts on the RTX 40-series is a better fit for Far Cry 6 than AMD’s Infinity Cache and smaller L2 cache, and that somehow keeps the wolves from the door for Nvidia’s plucky card.

(Image credit: Future)

PowerColor Hellhound RX 7600 XT graphics card on a red background,

In most other games, the RX 7600 XT and RX 7600 perform within a few frames of one another at almost every resolution. The only other exception being Cyberpunk 2077 at 4K. You could suggest, from looking at the numbers, the RX 7600 XT doesn’t collapse like the non-XT card under the sheer weight of Cyberpunk 2077’s ray-traced glory, though this is clutching at straws. All budget graphics cards struggle in the single-digits due to the intense ray tracing used throughout this benchmark. It’s a bloodbath.

Cranking up the resolution to 4K will often result in higher memory demands, and on rare occasions in excess of 8GB. Though I want to try and be realistic here: that’s pretty much the opposite of what this affordable graphics card is intended to be used for.

(Image credit: Future)

PowerColor Hellhound RX 7600 XT graphics card on a red background,

Buy if…✅You must have 16GB:If you’re desperate to ditch 8GB, you could maybe justify picking up the RX 7600 XT. Though don’t sleep on the Intel Arc A770 16GB, either. Or the RX 6700 XT!

Buy if…

✅You must have 16GB:If you’re desperate to ditch 8GB, you could maybe justify picking up the RX 7600 XT. Though don’t sleep on the Intel Arc A770 16GB, either. Or the RX 6700 XT!

Don’t buy if…

❌You want the best value graphics card:You could save some cash and net equal or better performance with an RTX 4060, or you could spend the same on last gen’s RX 6700 XT for more frames and still plenty of memory.

For the most part, this RX 7600 XT is a 1080p card, and a good one at that. It’ll usually crank out over 60 frames per second in the latest games at highest settings, and you can use AMD’s wonderful FidelityFX Super Resolution and Frame Generation to pump those numbers up even further in supported titles. It’s also reasonable to expect solid 1440p performance, depending on the game. But a 4K capable card, it is not.

I do realise that the quantity of games that will demand greater memory capacity is only set to rise in coming years. We’ve already seen The Last of Us Part 1 come around with high VRAM demands, though that’s largely been chalked up to a poor PC port rather than intrinsic limitation of the game’s engine. I’m sure there will be games that require pulling back some graphics settings in order to get working on 8GB cards atsome pointin the future, but my argument today is this card costs too much to justify taking a punt on 16GB when it comes attached to a fairly small GPU.

What’s more is the price of this specific model: the PowerColor Hellhound. It’s a$350card, and while it runs quietly and maintains low temperatures under load, it’s even tougher to justify the RX 7600 XT for an increased price. For that money, you could consider the wildcard option: the frequently discountedRX 6700 XT. With 12GB of memory and performance consistently ahead of the RX 7600 XT, for around the $340 mark today, it’s a solid buy while stocks last.

Personally, I’d stick with AMD’s last generation card, or failing that, the RTX 4060, which can be found under $300, for any affordable PC build I was planning today. If you really must have access to 16GB on a budget, say for some AI experimentation you’re doing, anIntel Arc A770 16GBwillcost you lessthan AMD’s card and occasionally outperform it. Intel’s Arc card does bounce around in benchmarking more than AMD or Nvidia’s alternatives, but it’s still a solid performer and often going cheap.

AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT: Price Comparison

$339.99View$349.99View

$339.99View

ASUS Dual Radeon RX 7600 XT…

Amazon

$339.99View

$339.99

$349.99View

XFX Speedster SWFT210 Radeon…

Amazon

$349.99View

$349.99

We check over 250 million products every day for the best prices

The Verdict62Read our review policyAMD Radeon RX 7600 XTWith many similarities to the much cheaper RX 7600—which was inevitable due to AMD’s choice of GPU—and only marginal benefits to gamers in the short and likely medium-term, the RX 7600 XT doesn’t offer enough to justify spending any extra money on it. It also struggles to compete with Nvidia and Intel’s cheaper alternatives.

The Verdict

62Read our review policyAMD Radeon RX 7600 XTWith many similarities to the much cheaper RX 7600—which was inevitable due to AMD’s choice of GPU—and only marginal benefits to gamers in the short and likely medium-term, the RX 7600 XT doesn’t offer enough to justify spending any extra money on it. It also struggles to compete with Nvidia and Intel’s cheaper alternatives.

62Read our review policy

AMD Radeon RX 7600 XTWith many similarities to the much cheaper RX 7600—which was inevitable due to AMD’s choice of GPU—and only marginal benefits to gamers in the short and likely medium-term, the RX 7600 XT doesn’t offer enough to justify spending any extra money on it. It also struggles to compete with Nvidia and Intel’s cheaper alternatives.

AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT

TOPICSRadeon

TOPICS

LatestToday’s Wordle answer for Friday, January 10We may not have a roadmap or balance patch just yet, but at least Path of Exile 2’s bugfix patch notes are funnyDeus Ex: Mankind Divided writer didn’t like the ending either: ‘Nothing is resolved’See more latest►

Latest

Today’s Wordle answer for Friday, January 10We may not have a roadmap or balance patch just yet, but at least Path of Exile 2’s bugfix patch notes are funnyDeus Ex: Mankind Divided writer didn’t like the ending either: ‘Nothing is resolved’

Today’s Wordle being played on a phone

Today’s Wordle answer for Friday, January 10

Path of Exile 2 showing the Warbringer ascendancy class bludgeoning his way through a pack of hyenas

We may not have a roadmap or balance patch just yet, but at least Path of Exile 2’s bugfix patch notes are funny

Adam Jensen with his head in his hands.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided writer didn’t like the ending either: ‘Nothing is resolved’

See more latest►

Most PopularTurtle Beach Stealth Pivot reviewIkea Matchspel gaming chair reviewASRock DeskMini X600 reviewZotac Zbox Magnus EN374070C reviewMinisforum AtomMan G7 Ti reviewSamsung Galaxy Book4 Ultra reviewNoctua NH-D15 G2 reviewGulikit KK3 Max reviewBallionaire reviewMarvel Rivals reviewBe Quiet! Dark Rock 5 review

Our Verdict#

Our Verdict