When new models come onto the market late in the production cycle of a GPU generation, they often only fill small gaps in the price structure or offer very manageable added value. With the Radeon RX 6700 from AMD, which was released about two months ago, things are currently looking different.
There are hardly any test reports, videos and other content about the GPU so far. Admittedly, we in the GameStar tech department have not paid much attention to it either.
At the time of release, it was also clearly too expensive at around 480 dollars. At around 410 dollars, it has currently reached a new low price, which makes it a real price/performance tip for playing in WQHD (and with certain drawbacks also in 4K).
You can find out how fast the RX 6700 is in comparison to over 60 other graphics cards in our large overview with current and older models from AMD and Nvidia under the following link:
Graphics cards 2022 in comparison: Over 60 GPUs in the large performance ranking
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Where does the RX 6700 come from and what makes it so interesting?
At its core, it is a chip of the current RX-6000 generation based on the RDNA2 architecture, intended for notebooks, which is belatedly finding its way onto circuit boards for desktop PCs.
The RX 6700 has compared with that XT-Modell primarily fewer shader units (2,304 instead of 2,560), less memory (10.0 instead of 12.0 GB) and less infinity cache (80 instead of 96 MB) as well as clock rates that are around 300 MHz lower.
In terms of performance, it should therefore be clearly ahead of the RTX 3060 and the RX 6650 XT – which are currently only around ten to twenty dollars cheaper. A performance level higher in the form of the RX 6700 XT and the RTX 3060 Ti, on the other hand, is only available from around 70 to 80 dollars more. In the price range of 400 dollars, the RX 6700 is currently a very good choice.
Also worth mentioning: With a TDP of 175 watts, the RX 6700 is also in the regions of the RTX 3060 and the RX 6650 XT. It should therefore be possible to cool comparably well (and quietly) at higher performance.
What is the catch?
So far there have only been two models in price comparisons, the Radeon RX 6700 Fighter from PowerColor and the Sapphire Radeon RX 6700. The selection is therefore still very limited.
The PowerColor GPU has been available for the said 409 dollars for almost two weeks. In view of the competing models, the costs of the Sapphire variant shown below of around 430 dollars actually fit the picture better. Therefore, we do not expect further price reductions as long as the prices of the other GPUs remain stable for the time being.
One of currently just two models of the RX 6700, which can be found at dealers in Europey.
Also not to be forgotten: the new generations of AMD and Nvidia are expected at the end of 2022. It can be assumed that the price range of the RX 6700 will only be served by the RX 7000 and RTX 4000 over the course of the next year. In principle, the costs for the RX 6000 and RTX 3000 could drop again a bit when the first new models appear in two or three months.
At the same time, the RX 6700 has its right to exist with a price of around 430 to 440 dollars, if the RX 6650 XT and RTX 3060 cost around 50 dollars less and the RX 6700 XT and RTX 3060 Ti around 50 dollars more, especially since we have the 10 GB VRAM consider appropriate for a GPU of this performance class. You can find out more about the video storage issue in the following article:
How much VRAM do I need? Measurements and recommendations from Full HD to 4K
What do you think of the Radeon RX 6700 without the XT addition? A recommended card that can be very worthwhile from a price/performance point of view, a late-release GPU that nobody needs anymore, or something in between? Feel free to write it in the comments!
