AMD is adding three new graphics cards to its Radeon RX 6000 series: the 6650 XT, 6750 XT, and the 6950 XT.
These new models are direct upgrades to older models as evident by the “50” in their name. The 6650 XT is an upgrade to the 6600 XT, the 6750 XT refines the 6700 XT, and so on. Despite being upgrades, the performance on the new cards really isn’t all that different except for the new features and a bigger price tag.
All three cards are built on top of the AMD RDNA 2 architecture, but they’ve all been tweaked to perform better than the older cards while sharing all of the same features.
First is FidelityFX Super Resolution 2.0 which improves the frame rate and image quality on supported games. Next is AMD Software Adrenalin Edition, which can boost the performance of certain DirectX 11 games by 10 percent.
AMD Smart Access Memory (SAM) Technology is a feature that can boost a rig’s performance when paired with a Ryzen CPU and has an AMD 500 motherboard. If the 6950 XT is paired with a Ryzen 7 5800X3D processor, that performance can go as high as 14 percent according to AMD.
And then there’s AMD Infinity Cache which reduces latency and power consumption.
Analysis: a rather minor upgrade
The new AMD Radeon RX 6X50 XT cards announced today are modest upgrades to their base 6000-series counterparts and mostly stick to tweaks to the cards' game and boost clock speeds..
The 6650 XT now has a game clock and boost clock of 2,410 MHz and 2,635 MHz, respectively.
The 6750 XT has a game clock of 2,496 MHz and a boost of up to 2,600 MHz, while the 6950 XT has a 2,100 MHz game clock, with a boost up to 2,310MHz. This makes it the slowest of the bunch, but it has a substantially higher TGP and both the 6950 XT and 6750 have the same memory speed of 18 Gbps, with the 6650 XT being a little lower at 17.5 Gbps.
These aren’t bad numbers by any means; just not a big increase. For example, the older 6600XT has a game frequency of 2,359 Mhz and a boost clock of 2,589 Mhz, which isn't very far behind the 6650 XT at all.
But if you want that slight boost, the 6950 XT and 6750 XT are currently on sale at AMD's website. The 6650 XT is not on sale from AMD, however, but all cards are available from AIB partners like Gigabyte and Asus through various retailers. The RX 6950 XT starts at $1,099, the RX 6750 XT starts at $549, and the RX 6650 XT starts at $399, though third-party cards can cost you more depending on the additional features they offer.
