AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT review: decent enough, but not as good a value as it should be

Living in the shadow of the RTX 4060

An AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT on a table
(Image: © Future / John Loeffler)

TechRadar Verdict

A modest upgrade from the RX 7600, the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT is a good way to get into 1440p gaming on a budget, especially with AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution, but the Nvidia RTX 4060 is still better value despite the RX 7600 XT having twice the memory.

Pros

  • +

    Great 1080p performance

  • +

    Solid 1440p performance

  • +

    Decent price

Cons

  • -

    Not as good as RTX 4060

  • -

    More expensive than the RTX 4060

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AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT: two minute review

Well, not everything can be fixed by giving it an extra 8GB VRAM.

The AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT is Team Red's latest play at the lower midrange graphics card market, and for what it is, it's a decent enough graphics card, offering great 1080p performance with some very solid 1440p performance to boot. 

It offers substantially better ray tracing performance than the AMD Radeon RX 7600, making one of the best 1080p graphics cards on the market right now, but the card unfortunately doesn't live in a vacuum. 

With a US MSRP of $329.99 (about £265/AU$420) and with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 offering better performance overall for about $30 less, the RX 7600 XT becomes a lot harder to recommend, which is frustrating since this market segment is much more price sensitive than the midrange and premium tiers are.

There's no reference card model from AMD, so as with the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT, you're limited to whatever AIB partners like XFX and ASRock produce. This means that the design of the cards are going vary considerably, as will their prices and clock speeds.

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AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT specs
AMD Radeon RX 7600 XTAMD Radeon RX 7600Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Reference Specs
Process NodeTSMC 6nmTSMC 6nmTSMC 5nm
Transistor Count13.3 billion13.3 billion18.9 billion
Boost ClockUp to 2,755MHzUp to 2,625MHz2,460MHz
VRAM16GB GDDR68GB GDDR68GB GDDR6
Memory Bus 128-bit128-bit128-bit
Cache32MB32MB24MB
Memory Speed18 Gbps18 Gbps17 Gbps
Memory Bandwidth288.0 GB/s288.0 GB/s272 GB/s
Shaders2,0482,0483,072
Ray processors323224
AI processors646496
TGP190W165W115W
Connector2 x 8-pin1 x 8-pin1 x 8-pin
Outputs1 x HDMI 2.1a, 3 x DisplayPort 2.11 x HDMI 2.1a, 3 x DisplayPort 2.13 x DisplayPort 1.4a, 1 x HDMI 2.1a

Essentially, what you're getting with the RX 7600 XT is an overclocked RX 7600 with an extra 8GB VRAM. It's specs are otherwise pretty much identical, which goes a long way to explaining the level of performance you're getting with this card.

In terms of synthetic performance, the RX 7600 XT comes in about 2% better than the RX 7600, and about 2% worse than the RTX 4060, with the expected difference between stronger rasterization performance for the RX 7600 XT and better ray tracing for the RTX 4060 holding true here.

For gaming, the RX 7600 XT is pretty great for a 1080p card, as was the RX 7600 before it, and the extra VRAM does help it get some extra 1440p performance, especially when it comes to minimum frame rates which help determine a game's stability. Its ray tracing performance is also generally improved over the RX 7600 as well.

Compared to the RTX 4060, however, it comes in about 5% behind overall, which is where we were really hoping to see the RX 7600 XT differentiate itself thanks to the extra VRAM.

In 1440p gaming performance, the extra VRAM does give the RX 7600 XT about 10% better performance on average compared to the RX 7600, and it ekes out a win against the RTX 4060 in non-ray-traced gaming performance at 1440p, but it gets about 25% lower ray-traced 1440p performance than the RTX 4060.

Given the price difference here, the RTX 4060 is simply the better value for both 1080p and 1440p gaming, despite having 8GB less VRAM.

In the end, the memory bandwidth, constrained by a 128-bit memory bus, is simply too small for the larger frame buffer to really make a substantial enough impact. For that, the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT becomes harder to recommend than it should be.

An AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT on a table

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT: Price & availability

  • How much is it? US MSRP listed at $329.99 (about £265/AU$420)
  • When is it out? It is available January 24, 2024
  • Where can you get it? You can buy it in the US, UK, and Australia

You can get the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT starting on January 24, 2024 with an AMD MSRP of $329.99 in the US, which converts to about £265 in the UK and AU$420 in Australia.

Since there's no reference model for this card, you'll also likely find this GPU selling for higher once all the added bells and whistles like RGB lighting and such are factored in.

This is easily the biggest disadvantage of this card, considering that the Nvidia RTX 4060 is $30/£24/AU$36 cheaper, and the RX 7600 is even cheaper than that at $269.99 (about £215/AU$380). Still, for some who want to make sure that their gaming PC is setup for the future with the extra VRAM, the extra investment might be worth it.

An AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT on a table

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

Should you buy the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT?

Swipe to scroll horizontally
ValueThis is essentially a $60 upgrade on the RX 7600, but considering the performance difference, it's a bit too steep a price increase.3 / 5
Specs & featuresThe extra 8GB VRAM does provide a bit of future proofing for more budget-minded gamers.4 / 5
PerformanceThis is a great 1080p graphics card, but so is the RTX 4060 and RX 7600, and the performance inprovement here isn't enough to really recommend this card over those two.3.5 / 5
TotalWhile decent enough, there are simply better options for a 1080p and 1440p graphics card.3.5 / 5

Buy the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT if…

You want the extra VRAM
With 16GB GDDR6 VRAM, this card is better prepared for the future than some other 1080p graphics cards.

You want to dabble in 1440p
While this card's performance isn't lightyears ahead of the RX 7600, the extra VRAM does help with 1440p gaming.

Don’t buy it if…

You want the best value
The level of performance on offer here really doesn't justify the amount you're paying for this card.

Also consider

Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060

Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060
At $299, the RTX 4060 is the perfect balance of performance and price for 1080p gaming.

Read the full Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 review

AMD Radeon RX 7600

AMD Radeon RX 7600
The AMD Radeon RX 7600 is the best cheap graphics card on the market right now thanks to its strong 1080p performance and excellent price.

Read the full AMD Radeon RX 7600 review

How I tested the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT

I spent about a week with the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT, putting it through a full battery of benchmarks and general performance testing, including playing some of the best PC games on the market on the highest settings available at 1080p.

I've been reviewing PC hardware for several years now, and I have extensively tested and retested every major graphics card release of the past two generations of graphics cards, so I am intimately familiar with their varying degrees of performance. As such, I know how well a card needs to perform for a given price, relative to the market, and given my lifelong passion for PC gaming, I also know what the intended audience for a graphics card is going to demand, and whether the cards I review meet these exacting standards.

First reviewed in January 2024

TOPICS
John Loeffler
Components Editor

John (He/Him) is the Components Editor here at TechRadar and he is also a programmer, gamer, activist, and Brooklyn College alum currently living in Brooklyn, NY.

Named by the CTA as a CES 2020 Media Trailblazer for his science and technology reporting, John specializes in all areas of computer science, including industry news, hardware reviews, PC gaming, as well as general science writing and the social impact of the tech industry.

You can find him online on Bluesky @johnloeffler.bsky.social