AMD debuts the Radeon RX 7600 XT at CES for entry-level 1440p gaming
AMD is taking on the RTX 4080.
Even though gamers have been eager to see new high-end GPUs from AMD, the company isn't ready to refresh the Radeon RX 7900 and 7900 XT at CES 2024. Instead, AMD is unveiling the $329 Radeon RX 7600 XT in Las Vegas, a slightly souped-up version of last year's entry-level RX 7600 with higher clock speeds and 16GB of VRAM. While that earlier card was laser-focused on 1080p gameplay, AMD is positioning the RX 7600 XT as a potential upgrade for entry-level 1440p gaming, as well as a better card for running AI tasks.
The Radeon RX 7600 XT features the same basic specs as its predecessor: 32 compute units and ray accelerators; 64 AI accelerators; and 2,048 stream processors. But its clock speeds now range from 2.47GHz to 2.76GHz (in boost mode), instead of 2.25GHz to 2.66GHz. Having 16GB of VRAM will also give it more headroom for handling larger textures in 1440p, content creation and larger AI workloads.
According to AMD's benchmarks, the Radeon RX 7600 XT performs slightly better than the RX 7600 in most titles: It averages 71 fps in Starfield while playing in 1080p with maxed-out settings, compared to 61fps on the 7600. But the improvements are more dramatic in AMD-optimized titles like Forza Horizon 5: the new GPU averages 94 fps in 1080p with FSR 2 and RT Extreme flipped on, compared to 67 fps on the RX 7600.
In 1440p, the RX 7600 XT averages 60 fps with maxed out graphics settings in Starfield and Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Its predecessor average 53 fps and 54 fps, in comparison. Forza Horizon 5 also shines in 1440p: It averages 81fps on the new GPU compared to 56 fps on last year's model. AMD is also lording its scores over the NVIDIA RTX 4060 8GB: the RX 7600 XT averages 245 fps in Modern Warfare III in 1080p with FSR and frame generation turned on. The 4060 8GB, meanwhile, reaches 146 fps with DLSS3 and its own frame generation.
Of course, the better comparison would be the RX 7600 XT against 16GB RTX 4060 GPUs, but those scores were conspicuously absent from AMD's press materials. The big takeaway, though, is that the 7600 XT should be a solidly more capable GPU than the 7600.
The Radeon RX 7600 XT will be available on January 24 from its AMD's board partners (ASUS, Acer and the like) for $329.
We're reporting live from CES 2024 in Las Vegas from January 6-12. Keep up with all the latest news from the show here.
