summary
Advantages
Excellent 1080p gaming performance
power efficiency
AV1 encoding, DisplayPort 2.1 (optional)
First Affordable Product Launched Since the Pandemic and Supply Shortages
8-pin power connector only, no adapter required
Reference cards are almost silent
disadvantage
Poor ray tracing performance
Upscale function (FSR/DLSS) is not good at 1080p
8GB of VRAM requires lower settings for graphics-intensive games, even at 1080p
overall rating
Graphics card prices that have skyrocketed for years have finally calmed down with the Radeon RX 7600. Released at a good price of $269, this product is great for 1080p gaming, with many advantages such as reasonable price and power efficiency, if you don’t expect much from ray tracing.
Finally, a laudable graphics card has arrived.
AMD’s new $269 Radeon RX 7600 (available May 25) is small, quiet, extremely power efficient, and delivers fantastic 1080p gaming that can even drive high refresh rate monitors. Competitor Nvidia has stagnated performance upgrades in its next-generation products and overpriced the GeForce RTX 40 series. On the other hand, AMD’s Radeon RX 7600, which boasts the best price/performance ratio, offers improved frame rates while costing $60 less than its predecessor. Another advantage.
Low-end graphics cards require compromises. In particular, image upsampling techniques such as FSR 2.0 and Nvidia’s DLSS are poor at 1080p resolution, so the Radeon RX 7600 has poor ray tracing performance. But let’s not get it wrong. In the case of the Radeon RX 7600, aside from the very powerful and expensive RTX 4090 and Radeon RX 7900 XTX, it’s the first notable sub-$300 graphics card in the pandemic. Really.
AMD Radeon RX 7600 Specifications and Features
AMD built the Radeon RX 7600 using the same RDNA 3 graphics core that debuted in its flagship 7900 series GPUs. It offers a dedicated AI accelerator, AV1 encoding, DisplayPort 2.1 (1.4a for the RTX 40 series), second-generation ray tracing and Infinity Cache hardware.
What is the difference between Radeon RX 7600 and RX 7900 series? High-end GPUs use state-of-the-art chiplet designs on the side of the main die that houses the memory controller, while entry-level chips like the Radeon RX 7600 stick to a single, conventional 6-nanometer die (204mm2) that houses everything.
The Radeon RX 7600 packs more hardware at a lower price than its predecessor, the Radeon RX 6600 (which is still a good product). The memory and GPU clock speeds have improved, the number of stream processors and RT accelerators has increased, and AI accelerators are also included as part of the AI drive effort. Unlike Nvidia’s $400 GeForce RTX 4060 Ti, it applies new technologies that have evolved over generations.
Like the 4060 Ti (and its predecessor, the Radeon RX 6600), the Radeon RX 7600 features 8GB of GDDR6 memory and a 128-bit bus. That means the Radeon RX 7600 is built for 1080p gaming. That’s pretty much what you’d expect from a reasonably priced graphics card. You can also play at 1440p resolution if you lower some settings, but you can quickly hit the limit. AMD’s on-die Infinity Cache also helps with 1080p play. Scaling up to 1440p is not recommended as more data is transmitted in 128 bits.
The Radeon RX 7600 should be able to play most games at ultra settings and high frame rates at 1080p resolution, but some particularly memory-hungry games may require some graphics tuning to fit the 8GB memory buffer. PCWorld contributor Keith May has been testing the Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 7600 and reports that Hogwarts Legacy or The Last of Us, which consume the most VRAM, play nicely even on High settings. there is a bar Again, it’s a reasonable compromise at this price point.
When asked about the 8GB capacity, AMD’s Aaron Steinman said, “We still believe that 1080p gaming is enough for even the most demanding modern games, and our tests prove it. And memory is expensive.” This GPU consumes a bit more power than its predecessor, but is more efficient with higher performance and best-ever idle power utilization.
Power is supplied via a single 8-pin connector without the need for an unsightly 12VHPWR adapter like the 4060 Ti. The reference card provided by AMD not only boasts a reasonable thickness of about two slots, but is also quite small, about 8 inches long. Despite the pint-sized cooler, the reference card runs almost silently. Another testament to the efficiency of the 7600 GPU.
The reference card supports a single HDMI port and three fast DisplayPort 2.1, but custom products from other manufacturers that are not references may use DisplayPort 1.4 instead to save money.
If you’re interested in streaming, you’ll appreciate the inclusion of a cutting-edge AV1 encoder, especially now that YouTube and OBS support AV1 uploads. Testing AMD’s new RDNA 3 AV1 encoder on the Radeon RX 7900 XTX, the results were fantastic. AMD Adrenaline software’s Record & Stream options are much better than before, as covered in the same review by ‘Stream Professor’ EposVox.
“AMD ships its own recording and streaming software with the GPU, similar to Nvidia Shadowplay. However, it is far better than ShadowPlay in almost every way, with more settings, performance and features. Nvidia will have to update ShadowPlay immediately.”
Let’s not overlook the superiority of adrenaline. Nvidia gets high praise for software features like DLSS 3, Reflex, and Nvidia Broadcast, and it deserves it. But Team Red has some useful software in its own right.
Smart Access Memory reliably improves performance in modern systems more than any PC combination of Intel and NVIDIA chips. The new Smart Access Video feature boosts encoding performance on Ryzen and Radeon PCs by up to 32%. FSR 2.0 will be a formidable competitor to Nvidia’s DLSS, and Radeon Super Resolution introduces simple FSR 1.0 technology to boost performance through upscaling in any game. Radeon Boost and Anti-Lag keep temperatures and latency low. You can also use Adrenaline for overclocking or undervolting your graphics card. One thing it’s missing is its competitor, the DLSS 3 Frame Generation, but AMD is gearing up for FSR 3.0, due out later this year.
Now let’s move on to the benchmarks.
Tags: AMD Radeon Review long awaited cheap affordable modern GPU
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