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My New GPU: AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT

02 | 27th Jan 2024

For my 19th birthday, my parents asked me what I wanted, and me being priviledged and expecting everything from them, I asked them for a new graphics card. The average person would call you insane for spending so much money on a new computer part, but the average person also spends an extra 30 quid on a book because the front of it looks different than the copies of the book you usually find in stores...

Anyways, the main reason I want a new graphics card is because, while the 1070 is a great card that can do a lot of things I throw at it, I've started to realize I can boost my requirements now that I have a custom built PC. I'm no longer as restricted by unknown power supply wattage (the prebuilt had all its labels removed??) and I'd like to achieve higher framerates at 1080p, considering I have a 240Hz 1080p monitor that I rarely get to take full advantage of.

I'd also like a more future-proof card with more VRAM, as my GTX 1070 only has 8GB.

Choosing the right card

Date of writing: 16th Jan

Choosing the right graphics card was a difficult choice because I wanted to go for something that satisfied my needs and didn't put anyone too heavily in debt. My main decision for a while was the RTX 4060 for its seemingly decent performance according to UserBenchmarks.com, as for its price it seemed like the best deal you could get.

Then I read UserBenchmarks's reviews.

If you ever look at the review of a Nvidia or Intel product, it'll sound a bit like
"This card has 59 fart cores, 12 dookies per second and uses the spaghetti architecture. It does specifically this, has specifically this, and is a great card if you're kinda into this."

The reviews for AMD products, however...
"Welp, seems like AMD's nation of scamtubers and neets are once again trying to get you under the influence of their deadly poison products that will kill you in under 12 days and make your computer explode immediately upon plugging them in."

(While this is obviously a parody exaggeration, the reviews aren't far off from that level of ridiculousness. See here, for example).

Knowing that for most of my time learning about computers I've been using an untrustworthy and biased source, I decided to reach out to other people in the tech community who I knew would be speaking from real experience. My main source of information regarding this card was a user on a private community Discord server, who had coincidentally made a setup for his cousin using the same CPU I had.

He told me that, for my price range, I should head for AMD's similarly priced series because the RTX 40 series isn't worth the money. Seeing that VRAM is suddenly a deciding factor for GPUs (even for 1080p) and that the 4060 had only 8GB, there was one card that was an obvious choice for me.

The AMD Radeon 6700 XT.
With 20% higher average 1080p performance, almost no CPU bottleneck and 12GB VRAM, this card seems to have stomped the RTX 4060 in almost all fields. Not only has it dominated in terms of specs, but it's also much better value for money with some local shops selling a model for around 340 quid. While it's still more expensive than the 4060, that 20% improvement in performance makes the extra 40 quid so worth it.

I have made up my choice, and I await the day I can come back here to tell you all how the day went.

The day of arrival

Date of writing: 25th Jan

Happy birthday to me! The day was quite relaxed compared to my other birthdays since I didn't have a school to go to, but it was still a fun day with the prescence of people I love.

The card was given to me early in the morning and installed not long after. I did have to hassle around with adding another PCI cable to my system because it turns out the card requires two power connectors, but other than that installation was straightforward, easy and fun.

We went out to dinner at a nearby joint, and I had a very nice 8oz sirloin steak. I didn't receive many gifts (probably because I have really specific wishlists lol) but I did get a decent amount of money to spend on myself. Good day overall!

Benchmark Comparison: Old vs New

To compare these cards, I used Unigine's Superposition Benchmark to easily determine how much of a jump I've made. For both benchmarks, I used the 1080p Extreme preset.

Old: Nvidia GTX 1070

I've had the GTX 1070 for as long as I've owned a PC, since December 2021. I don't really play demanding games nor do I expect to run games at the highest settings, even at 1080p. If I'm honest, playing at a stable 60FPS at any quality setting has made me happy enough and mid-tier graphics processing is something this card is good at.

Most games run at 60FPS or higher. The most demanding thing I play frequently is Minecraft with shaders and this also runs fine, but the GPU does run hot while doing so. I also concern for its condition during summer, as previously the GPU would heat up to 50 degrees celcius ON IDLE.

If you're interested in getting into PC gaming and you're looking for a budget graphics card (and 1080p is your chosen resolution) then the 1070 is a great card for you. With a 1080p 60Hz monitor, you can play games like Fortnite, Counter-Strike, Minecraft with Shaders and more at a stable 60FPS on mid-high quality settings.

Throughout this test, the 1070 ran at a very stable average of 25FPS, with a high of 30FPS and a low of 21FPS. The temperature this card ran was static once it hit 64 degrees celcius.

Overall, this card's benchmark rating was 3403.

AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT

As I mentioned above, one of the main reasons I invested into this graphics card is because my monitor is 240Hz, and my current 1070 struggles to hit that mark even in low-end games. Now I didn't expect this card to hit this mark or anything, I'd honestly just be happy if I could get at least better high-quality results than my 1070. Luckily for me, my standards were exceeded.

Games such as TF2 and Minecraft with shaders reached more than 300FPS at times. Higher-end games such as Overwatch and Fortnite stayed over 70FPS on second-to-max quality settings (though I do need to fine-tune) and the new game Palworld consisted over 75FPS (bearing in mind I had V-Sync enabled and this monitor is 75Hz, my main monitor is still in uni). Overall more than enough for me to enjoy games at good quality.

Throughout the same benchmark that the GTX 1070 went through, this card ran at a consistent 48FPS, with a high of 58FPS and a low of 38FPS. The temperature of this card did not exceed over 60 degrees celcius (the benchmark didn't track this for some reason), and when you also consider that it didn't exceed 60 degrees with most games on max, the card does generally run very cool.

Overall, this card's benchmark rating was 6393, which is 2990 higher than the GTX 1070.

Conclusion

Overall, this GPU upgrade was definitely worth the cost. On my 240Hz monitor, I'll expect to finally appreciate the high framerates that my GTX 1070 could not provide before.

If you're looking to play most games at least with 60FPS in 1080p, I'd say this card is probably overkill for you. But if you're looking for 60FPS in 1440p or you have a higher refresh rate monitor and you want to appreciate its spec, then this card is definitely the best deal at the moment. Bear in mind, however, you won't be able to take advantage of some technologies like ray-tracing at a stable 60FPS+ or Nvidia's CUDA, if it matters to you specifically. Do be aware that AMD are working on their own technologies though.

The UI of AMD's driver software is also superior to Nvidia's, giving you a lot more options out of the box especially with overclocking and general game-specific performance. It even comes with a built in video recorder and streamer! The card's also a good pick for Linux users, as AMD runs on open-source display drivers and with most distros the drivers are installed by default.

10/10 from me :)