XFX Qick309 RX 7600 XT GPU Evaluate: Your 1440p Improve at a First rate Worth Leave a comment

Professionals

• Glorious excessive 1080p/mid 1440p-quality efficiency so long as you do not care about ray tracing
• DisplayPort 2.1 assist

Cons

• Card could also be too lengthy or too tall to suit comfortably into smaller programs

Playing cards utilizing AMD’s XT graphics chips are analogous to Nvidia’s Ti variations: Usually the identical, however designed to attract extra energy in an effort to eke extra efficiency out of it the place potential. AMD’s Radeon RX 7600 XT fills the slot simply above the RX 7600, beginning at roughly $50 extra ($330), although extra highly effective playing cards just like the XFX Speedster Qick309 RX 7600 XT I’ve examined can come at a barely greater premium. Within the Qick’s case, which means $350.

The Qick309 has a smaller, cheaper sibling, the $330 Swft210 It is bought two followers as an alternative of three and tops out at decrease clock speeds. That additionally means it does not draw as a lot energy and will get by with a single 8-pin energy connection as an alternative of two, just like the Qick. (AMD does not make its personal card for this GPU.)

There is a first rate efficiency hole, at the least with the  between the Qick309 and the RX 7600 I reviewed final yr, although not throughout the board. The additional 8GB that the XT gives over the opposite chip partially permits for greater high quality settings in each 1080p and 1440p, and the additional energy could make some video games tip over to playable in 4K, so long as you are keen to make use of AMD’s upscaling and optimization software program. 

The smaller dimension and lesser energy draw of the Swft mannequin make it extra appropriate for upgrading compact programs over the three-fan mannequin. However given the minimal $20 value distinction, it looks as if that could be its solely benefit; with 16GB VRAM, on the very least the 7600 XT is more likely to final you longer. 

In case your funds does not stretch to that further value, it is a extra sophisticated determination, as a result of the choice is a card utilizing the cheaper (about $300) and fewer highly effective GeForce RTX 4060 — until you see ray tracing or different video games that use DirectX 12 Final for its higher-quality results.

Unsurprisingly, the Qick309 7600XT and the Qick319 7700 XT I reviewed in September 2023 have extraordinarily related designs. The mannequin quantity signifies the quantity and dimension of followers, so the 7600 XT has three 90mm followers, the place the RX 7700 XT had two 100mm followers and one 90mm. The 7600 XT actually does not want these two, that are positioned to extra strongly transfer heat air away from the middle of the cardboard; even three followers appears overkill, because it did not get extremely popular (although it’d if you happen to overclock it). 

The 7600 XT in any other case has the identical stable backplate that acts as a warmth spreader, miles of these sharp steel fins for a warmth sink and plenty of open area for airflow. Although it is nonetheless lots smaller than than the 7700 XT, it is nonetheless a bit large and will not work as an improve in a small- to mid-size system. When putting in, I discovered the 2 energy connectors actually tight and a bit too shut to one another to simply maneuver and ended up having to reopen my system and extra aggressively reseat the plugs. That is much less of a gripe than a troubleshooting tip, until you are always swapping playing cards like me.

Like all fashions within the RX 7000 sequence, the cardboard has assist for DisplayPort 2.1, which has the mandatory bandwidth to assist 165Hz at 8K and 12 bits per colour (up from 10 bits) for HDR, and to allow full gamut protection of Rec.2020 or as much as 480Hz in 4K. That is a hyperlink bandwidth of as much as 54Gbps, up from 20Gbps in DP 1.4a, which Nvidia’s playing cards nonetheless use. I am unable to think about attempting to play in 8K with one of many RX 7600 sequence, however extra bandwidth for HDR is at all times welcome.

The RX 7600 XT’s efficiency is just about precisely the place you’d anticipate it to be relative to its siblings and its competitors. Gaming at 1080p and 1440p at typical “excessive” high quality settings, which do not burden on VRAM, runs about the identical because the 8GB RX 7600. At 4K or extra “extremely” high quality ranges, together with raytracing, the hole between the playing cards widens — however I would not purchase the RX 7600 XT anticipating to play at 4K with out numerous compromise, like sub-60fps body charges and/or clearly lesser high quality. 

There are fewer than a handful of video games that already assist AMD’s newest FidelityFX Tremendous Decision 3 (with Fluid Movement Frames), so you may seemingly find yourself utilizing the much less optimum driver-based model if you’d like upscaling and efficiency optimizing, or use earlier variations of FSR which can be built-into some video games. The software program model positively delivers a elevate, nevertheless it’s not essentially sufficient to knock the body charges up a category. It does sometimes tip it over, although, like pushing it to 75fps from 53fps in Guardians of the Galaxy.

I do discover that a lot of an upscale — from 1440p to 4K — finally ends up wanting oversharpened, with concomitant aliasing (rolling edges) on skinny strains that I can by no means unsee. However I am much more choosy about sharpening then lots of people, and it is a kind of issues that individuals have a tendency to love extra when it is “fallacious” than when it is proper. And you’ll cut back it.

The 7600 XT’s 16GB of VRAM does give it an edge over the 7600 with some varieties of nongame graphics at 4K decision, nevertheless it’s nonetheless basically choked by having the identical reminiscence bandwidth and utilizing solely 4 PCI lanes moderately than the eight utilized by playing cards one class up.

In one of many fewer-than-a-handful of video games the place FSR 3 has been included, Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Identify, it nonetheless usually ran at lower than 60fps upscaling to 4K in High quality mode and ended up backing down a top quality stage. Even on the FSR High quality setting, I noticed some annoying (however not essential) artifacts, although it is potential that is the sport too.

On the upside, if you happen to’ve bought an RX 6000 sequence card you are simply tolerating, give FSR3 in AMD’s Adrenalin software program a attempt. Possibly you possibly can reside with it for one more yr. I have not examined it with a kind of RDNA playing cards, although, so I do not know what efficiency is actually like.

AMD’s RNDA 3 (utilized by the RX 7000 sequence) nonetheless lags Nvidia at video games that use DX12 Final as a result of it is nonetheless less than efficiency par on among the algorithms utilized by that programming interface not simply ray tracing however optimization instruments like mesh shaders. For those who’re extra interested by greater decision and/or quicker body charges than the higher lighting and reflections ray tracing permits, then don’t be concerned about it.

This can be a stable value/efficiency choice if you wish to improve to 1440p, however you may have to switch it when you begin to yearn for 4K. 

Relative efficiency of current comparable GPUs