Friday, May 26th 2023

AMD Confirms: RX 7600 Reference Cards in Retail will Not Have Power Connector Flaw

In the course of our testing of the reference-design AMD Radeon RX 7600 graphics card, we noticed a flaw in the physical design that could impede certain kinds of 6+2 pin PCIe power cables, causing improper power connector contact, posing a potential fire hazard, theoretically. The flaw centers on the design of the card's backplate. The cutout near the power connector is designed such that certain kinds of 6+2 pin PCIe power connectors don't properly insert. Most if not all power supply units (PSUs) have their 150 W, 8-pin PCIe power connectors designed to be 6+2 pin, where you can split two of their pins away, turning them into 6-pin PCIe. While some PSU brands use a passive hook-type tail-end bridge that ensures the 2-pin portion inserts along with the 6-pin portion, some brands use more elaborate stubs that hold the two portions together. The AMD RX 7600 reference backplate design impedes these kinds of connectors.

We reached out to AMD with our findings before the May 24 review NDA, and the company got back to us with a statement:
We are very pleased with the volume of Radeon RX 7600 cards available globally from our AIB partners. We expect RX 7600 reference design cards to be available over the coming weeks with a design that accommodates all power supply cables.
Here's our analysis of the AMD statement.

AMD states that there are plenty of Radeon RX 7600 graphics cards that you can buy right now. These are custom-design (non-reference design) graphics cards from AMD's board partners, such as Sapphire, PowerColor, XFX, ASRock, ASUS, Gigabyte, and MSI. These cards are currently available for purchase, and none of them have the flaw. As for the reference-design (made by AMD) graphics card, AMD says that these cards are not available in retail, but should be over the coming weeks, and will have a revised design without the flaw. AMD didn't spell out a definite timeline, and so "the coming weeks" could even mean months (the company isn't sure). The way we interpret the statement is that the current batch with the bad backplate design will not make it to market, not now, not in the coming weeks or after that.

If you'll notice, none of AMD's AIB partners have published product pages of reference-design RX 7600 cards on their websites, which confirms that AMD has placed a block on the sales and marketing of the reference-design RX 7600, giving them time to work on the revision—which really just needs to be a new backplate, the rest of the card isn't affected. Unlike NVIDIA, which has a de facto reference-design in the form of the Founders Edition graphics card that it directly markets without partner branding; AMD retains a classical marketing approach to its reference graphics card designs—these are sold by its add-in board partners with minimal re-branding (brand-specific retail packaging, stickers, inclusions, extended warranty incentives, etc).

In conclusion, AMD has ensured that none of the cards with the power connector design flaw make it to customers, while it works on a revision that comes out "over the coming weeks." Good job!

Be sure to catch our detailed review of the reference-design AMD Radeon RX 7600, in which we discussed a few workarounds under the assumption that cards with the flaw would make it to retail—which we now know they won't.
Add your own comment

98 Comments on AMD Confirms: RX 7600 Reference Cards in Retail will Not Have Power Connector Flaw

#76
Bomby569
Marcus LYes, obviously during design and QC they didn't plug an 8 pin PCIE cable into the 7600 :cool:
That's not how things work at all, for this they should have measurements of several power connectors and design around it. But failing the obvious, trying the card with several cables would be the next thing, they managed to do neither. It's impressive if you ask me.

Worst part is whatever the redesign involves will be passed to the consumers as always is.
Posted on Reply
#77
john_
Bomby569Worst part is whatever the redesign involves will be passed to the consumers as always is.
Not this time. Custom cards don't have issues and also the price was already announced at $269. They can't change it
"We change the price at $273 because we feel consumers should pay for that design error.".
Posted on Reply
#78
Bomby569
john_Not this time. Custom cards don't have issues and also the price was already announced at $269. They can't change it
"We change the price at $273 because we feel consumers should pay for that design error.".
You'll pay on the next one. Just as you'd pay on the next cards if nvidia had to recall all the stupid burning cables that are still happening.
Trust me when a company f's up, you pay for it.

Especially with this tech giants, that clearly don't want to lose a inch of ground from the pandemic and crypto gains.
Posted on Reply
#79
Wirko
Some users are perfectly able to fix the flaw themselves. I mean properly, without damaging anything. AMD should clearly state if such a modification voids the warranty or not.
Posted on Reply
#80
ZoneDymo
SOAREVERSORThere is a dirty reality that high end PC gamers forget or just deny. Most PC gamers run potato PCs that get smoked by modern consoles. The dirty reality of PC gaming is it's largely 1060, 2060, 3060, or even 1660 nvidia stuff that will get upgraded to another mid range card later and people are running at 1080p 60hz with lower details and frame rates than a console would spit out. But it's worth it because piracy and game sales make it the poor mans gaming option and the ability to cheat like crazy is the draw when it comes to gameplay.

For how most people game on the PC this card is just fine and a good deal. That those of us here wouldn't touch it doesn't change that.
I know and recognize that, but again my point is something this "low end" should not even be released today, we need to move forwards...not just stay were we are.

Look im one of those people, I still run an RX480 today, mostly because gaming just barely grabs my attention anymore, I have been gaming for over 20 years now and I see games basically dont progress in meaningful ways for me, I recently started playing Prince of Persia Sands of Time (already completed the first...literally 20 years ago (2003 game) but never the sequels, I own it all on PC so I thought id do a complete playthrough) and obviously that runs at hundreds of FPS just fine, and playing that I once again am confronted about how little games have progressed so yeah, gaming barely grabs me anymore, just more of the same year in year out.

Cyberpunk was going to move the needle....and we all saw how that turned out, it moved the needle alright...just backwards.

Anywho, long story short, they could bring out a GPU today whos performance is equivalent to a GTX980 and it would be better then my RX480....the point is that that would be laughable to release today...there should not be a standard that low.....

and the same for this RX7600...it should not exist as this low end a product imo....
Posted on Reply
#81
john_
WirkoSome users are perfectly able to fix the flaw themselves. I mean properly, without damaging anything. AMD should clearly state if such a modification voids the warranty or not.
You don't need to cut the backplate or remove it. Either find an 8pin extension cable that fits, or just trim the plastic bump on the cable you already have. No reason to do anything on the card.
ZoneDymosomething this "low end" should not even be released today
The only problem is the price. 15 years ago something that was just a little faster than an integrated GPU was prices at under $50, even lower than $30. Today at $100+. A low end GPU was priced at under $100, today at under $300. That's the problem, pricing.

As for the reason why it is released today. Well, the fact that there where bigger, stronger, faster cars than a modern Smart 50 years ago, doesn't mean that anything under a Ferrari doesn't make sense today. It does. As you can do your job with the RX 480, the same someone can do their job with an RX 6500XT, a GTX 1650, even an A380. At a lower price 7600 will be a very good option for people who don't care setting everything at ultra, or are satisfied with lower settings, indy games, or older games at high/ultra settings.
Posted on Reply
#82
eidairaman1
The Exiled Airman
SquaredThis reminds me a lot of the RX 480 launch. The RX 480 4GB was about $250 at launch in 2023 dollars, compared to $270 for the RX 7600. The 480 reference card had a 6-pin power connector but it drew more power than the spec allowed until a firmware update, and the 7600 reference also has a power connector issue (but this time customers won't see the issue). Neither was power-efficient for its time (but the RX 480 was AMD's most power-efficient graphics card in its time, whereas the 7600 is the least-efficient of RDNA3). I almost like it. If it had 16 PCIe lanes it'd be a very nice upgrade from my RX 480 4GB. But it only has 8 lanes, and I saw this coming so I replaced my RX 480 4GB months ago with a full x16 card.

(I know, usually there's no significant performance hit to PCIe 3.0 x8 as Tech Power Up tested on the RX 6600 XT. But the 7600 outperforms the 6650 XT, so it needs more bandwidth, and in the worst case the performance loss may be over 10%, which means it'll perform on par with the 5700 XT which can be bought used for much cheaper and has a full PCIe 4.0 x16 interface.)

Wait. The 5700 XT performs as well in 4K, probably thanks to its 256-bit memory interface. Maybe I'm being too optimistic about this card; it's a little bit of an electricity guzzler, it only has 8GB of memory, it struggles at higher resolution where it's cache isn't enough to make up for it's 128-bit memory, and it has only 8 PCIe lanes. This is no RTX 4060 Ti, which costs 48% more and has all the same downers except power efficiency while only performing 25% better in today's games, but I guess the RX 7600 is still a little disappointing.
Good luck finding a 5700xt that hasnt been abused like a rx580
john_You don't need to cut the backplate or remove it. Either find an 8pin extension cable that fits, or just trim the plastic bump on the cable you already have. No reason to do anything on the card.


The only problem is the price. 15 years ago something that was just a little faster than an integrated GPU was prices at under $50, even lower than $30. Today at $100+. A low end GPU was priced at under $100, today at under $300. That's the problem, pricing.

As for the reason why it is released today. Well, the fact that there where bigger, stronger, faster cars than a modern Smart 50 years ago, doesn't mean that anything under a Ferrari doesn't make sense today. It does. As you can do your job with the RX 480, the same someone can do their job with an RX 6500XT, a GTX 1650, even an A380. At a lower price 7600 will be a very good option for people who don't care setting everything at ultra, or are satisfied with lower settings, indy games, or older games at high/ultra settings.
A Ry7 5800 Rig I built is using a XFX RX250X Ghost in Windows 11 using the AMD driver (Not the MS Driver) no uefi issue with it either. Not everyone can afford a $400+ card (I can but I have priorities)
Posted on Reply
#83
AusWolf
ZoneDymoI know and recognize that, but again my point is something this "low end" should not even be released today, we need to move forwards...not just stay were we are.

Look im one of those people, I still run an RX480 today, mostly because gaming just barely grabs my attention anymore, I have been gaming for over 20 years now and I see games basically dont progress in meaningful ways for me, I recently started playing Prince of Persia Sands of Time (already completed the first...literally 20 years ago (2003 game) but never the sequels, I own it all on PC so I thought id do a complete playthrough) and obviously that runs at hundreds of FPS just fine, and playing that I once again am confronted about how little games have progressed so yeah, gaming barely grabs me anymore, just more of the same year in year out.

Cyberpunk was going to move the needle....and we all saw how that turned out, it moved the needle alright...just backwards.

Anywho, long story short, they could bring out a GPU today whos performance is equivalent to a GTX980 and it would be better then my RX480....the point is that that would be laughable to release today...there should not be a standard that low.....

and the same for this RX7600...it should not exist as this low end a product imo....
Why not? Just because you don't need one, no one else should?
Posted on Reply
#84
mechtech
ZoneDymoI genuinely dont know why anyone would be interested in a card that preforms worse then a 3060ti
I don’t know why anyone would be interested in a car that performs worse than a Bugatti.

oh wait I do….money, budget, needs vs wants…

:)
Posted on Reply
#85
eidairaman1
The Exiled Airman
AusWolfWhy not? Just because you don't need one, no one else should?
It be like me writing what's the point of a gf fx 5500 or a fx 5200

He's gone off his rocker...
Posted on Reply
#86
mechtech
ZoneDymoI know and recognize that, but again my point is something this "low end" should not even be released today, we need to move forwards...not just stay were we are.

Look im one of those people, I still run an RX480 today, mostly because gaming just barely grabs my attention anymore, I have been gaming for over 20 years now and I see games basically dont progress in meaningful ways for me, I recently started playing Prince of Persia Sands of Time (already completed the first...literally 20 years ago (2003 game) but never the sequels, I own it all on PC so I thought id do a complete playthrough) and obviously that runs at hundreds of FPS just fine, and playing that I once again am confronted about how little games have progressed so yeah, gaming barely grabs me anymore, just more of the same year in year out.

Cyberpunk was going to move the needle....and we all saw how that turned out, it moved the needle alright...just backwards.

Anywho, long story short, they could bring out a GPU today whos performance is equivalent to a GTX980 and it would be better then my RX480....the point is that that would be laughable to release today...there should not be a standard that low.....

and the same for this RX7600...it should not exist as this low end a product imo....
It would be nice, but there is profit margins, and I would assume selling a 16GB RX6800 for $250 probably wouldn't meet the margins or possibly even be profitable. In a way I am kind of suprized that grfx cards aren't more money. I think of it in terms of CPU, maybe I am wrong to think of it in those terms. So if I buy a $300 CPU its usually good for ~6yr, and there is no PCB, no ram, no level of driver support like a GPU requires, no VRM like graphics card, etc. etc. If you put the motherboard and cpu together a lot of times it's combined value is more than a mid entry card.

Also most reviews run ultra max settings, which I suppose is a good way to see what the card can handle at max, but I find is they don't do medium or optimized settings to show that the card is still completely capable of playing most games.

I had an RX480 when BL3 came out and on auto settings at 1440p it would drop well below 60fps and the fans were very loud.............I watched an optimization video, and adjusted my settings with virtually no/minimal visual loss and held 60fps consistantly and fans never ramped up.

As for the RX7600 it's probably over double the performance of an RX480 if not more, and the RX480 was $239 in 2016 ...........is equivalent in purchasing power to about $302.09 today, while the RX7600 is $269, plus it has more features (whether or not you use them is another thing) supports newer standards and features, etc. etc.

I suppose another thing is back in 2016, 1080p was probably still king.............with 1440p and 4k there is more market areas now as well? So anywho, I'm kind of glad there is a 7600 beacuse I don't want to pay $250 for an RX6400 :)
Posted on Reply
#87
Bomby569
Going against the trend, i do get his point, what is the point of releasing the 7600 and 4060 when they bring nothing to the gpu market? And worst in some cases they can be a poisoned pill for uninformed buyers

Posted on Reply
#88
john_
mechtechIt would be nice, but there is profit margins, and I would assume selling a 16GB RX6800 for $250 probably wouldn't meet the margins or possibly even be profitable. In a way I am kind of suprized that grfx cards aren't more money. I think of it in terms of CPU, maybe I am wrong to think of it in those terms. So if I buy a $300 CPU its usually good for ~6yr, and there is no PCB, no ram, no level of driver support like a GPU requires, no VRM like graphics card, etc. etc. If you put the motherboard and cpu together a lot of times it's combined value is more than a mid entry card.
An R5 5500, a B450 motherboard and 16GBs of DDR4, is much more silicon and PCB and parts than an RX 7600 or an RTX 4060 Ti, but they cost less (much less compared to 4060 Ti). And they are 3 times marketing, 3 times boxes, 3 times almost every expenses, compared to one product, one card. But profit margins are probably also much lower. Granted AM4 is old, but it is still on the market, so I guess it still makes profit and that's why it still sells. Comparing to AM5, or LGA 1700, with DDR5, probably we will go over the RX 7600 price, but we will remain way under the 4060 Ti price.

It's more or less relative to what you compare.

In my opinion, a $300 CPU is the equivalent to a $700 graphics card. So the comparison should be done with those cards. And even then I believe that the hardware on a graphics card is much less expensive compared to the hardware on a current gen motherboard, with a current gen CPU and plenty of DDR4/5 memory on it.
Also most reviews run ultra max settings, which I suppose is a good way to see what the card can handle at max, but I find is they don't do medium or optimized settings to show that the card is still completely capable of playing most games.
Using specific settings makes it easier to compare all cards, from the faster to the slowest. Getting 60 fps with an RTX 4090 at ultra settings and 60 fps with an RTX 4060 Ti at medium settings, will only create confusion, because most people will look at those 60fps, but they will have a problem spotting that "medium" in place of "ultra" in the charts. People without technical knowledge would not even know that they have to search for that little detail.
I had an RX480 when BL3 came out and on auto settings at 1440p it would drop well below 60fps and the fans were very loud.............I watched an optimization video, and adjusted my settings with virtually no/minimal visual loss and held 60fps consistantly and fans never ramped up.

As for the RX7600 it's probably over double the performance of an RX480 if not more, and the RX480 was $239 in 2016 ...........is equivalent in purchasing power to about $302.09 today, while the RX7600 is $269, plus it has more features (whether or not you use them is another thing) supports newer standards and features, etc. etc.

I suppose another thing is back in 2016, 1080p was probably still king.............with 1440p and 4k there is more market areas now as well? So anywho, I'm kind of glad there is a 7600 beacuse I don't want to pay $250 for an RX6400 :)
There is stagnation. Going back to 2016 to find a favorable scenario, it is bad already. But we see companies doing it in their slides lately all the time, going back 2-3 generations with the excuse of "we want to show to users of old hardware that now it is the time to upgrade". Why? Because there is no real performance improvements compared to previous gens. 50-100% performance improvements where normal many many years ago. Of course now we have hit some ceiling and we can't expect 50-100% performance improvements to come easily. But still, what do we get under $500? The RTX 4060 Ti offers performance close to the RTX 3070 at a price close to that of an RTX 3070. RX 7600 offers the same performance at the same price as the RX 6650 XT having about the same specs. AMD cut the XT from the name to have the excuse to compare the card with the plain 6600, but 6600 costs $200, not 270.

Stagnation. The company that CAN offer higher performance at under $500, increases prices, the company that CAN'T offer higher performance at under $500, keeps offering the same performance at the same price.
Posted on Reply
#89
mechtech
john_1. An R5 5500, a B450 motherboard and 16GBs of DDR4, is much more silicon and PCB and parts than an RX 7600 or an RTX 4060 Ti, but they cost less (much less compared to 4060 Ti). And they are 3 times marketing, 3 times boxes, 3 times almost every expenses, compared to one product, one card. But profit margins are probably also much lower. Granted AM4 is old, but it is still on the market, so I guess it still makes profit and that's why it still sells. Comparing to AM5, or LGA 1700, with DDR5, probably we will go over the RX 7600 price, but we will remain way under the 4060 Ti price.

It's more or less relative to what you compare.

2. In my opinion, a $300 CPU is the equivalent to a $700 graphics card. So the comparison should be done with those cards. And even then I believe that the hardware on a graphics card is much less expensive compared to the hardware on a current gen motherboard, with a current gen CPU and plenty of DDR4/5 memory on it.


Using specific settings makes it easier to compare all cards, from the faster to the slowest. Getting 60 fps with an RTX 4090 at ultra settings and 60 fps with an RTX 4060 Ti at medium settings, will only create confusion, because most people will look at those 60fps, but they will have a problem spotting that "medium" in place of "ultra" in the charts. People without technical knowledge would not even know that they have to search for that little detail.


3. There is stagnation. Going back to 2016 to find a favorable scenario, it is bad already. But we see companies doing it in their slides lately all the time, going back 2-3 generations with the excuse of "we want to show to users of old hardware that now it is the time to upgrade". Why? Because there is no real performance improvements compared to previous gens. 50-100% performance improvements where normal many many years ago. Of course now we have hit some ceiling and we can't expect 50-100% performance improvements to come easily. But still, what do we get under $500? The RTX 4060 Ti offers performance close to the RTX 3070 at a price close to that of an RTX 3070. RX 7600 offers the same performance at the same price as the RX 6650 XT having about the same specs. AMD cut the XT from the name to have the excuse to compare the card with the 4. plain 6600, but 6600 costs $200, not 270.

Stagnation. The company that CAN offer higher performance at under $500, increases prices, the company that CAN'T offer higher performance at under $500, keeps offering the same performance at the same price.
1. thats all last gen not current
2. relative to opinion and where you live in the
3. perhaps - but feel free to start up a company and make an RX6800 16GB equivalent for $250 and I will buy one :)
4. again last gen and now it does...............it didnt when it was released.............I can get a 10 year old car cheaper than a new one as well :)

End of the day it's a decision, don't have to buy anything, vote with your wallet I belive the saying is.
Posted on Reply
#90
john_
mechtech1. thats all last gen not current
2. relative to opinion and where you live in the
3. perhaps - but feel free to start up a company and make an RX6800 16GB equivalent for $250 and I will buy one :)
4. again last gen and now it does...............it didnt when it was released.............I can get a 10 year old car cheaper than a new one as well :)

End of the day it's a decision, don't have to buy anything, vote with your wallet I belive the saying is.
1. It doesn't matter if the example is last gen. I don't understand how this is a parameter. Still a 13th gen i3, an under $100 new motherboard and 16GBs of DDR5 will cost as much as an RX 7600 if not less.
2. It's relative. Making assumptions about pricing it's relative. That's what I am saying. I wasn't going to use that $300 example, but you did, so I played with your rules. And you can't compare a $300 CPU to a $260 card. The $260 card is considered entry today. The $300 CPU not. It's mid range close to hi end. So you have to compare with a $700 card at least.
3. This is not an argument. What you post is not an argument. Explain to me why it is an argument. We have stagnation and what you post is not an argument. I really don't know what it is.
4. Well, that old car is in fact brand new meaning with full support and warranty. It has almost the same specs, the same performance as the new one. You are again missing my point here. Maybe you didn't understood what I wrote, maybe you choose to miss my point. Don't know.

Closing with a general comment with which the majority agrees, doesn't make the rest of the post correct.
Posted on Reply
#91
Chrispy_
Aren't the incompatible plugs the fault of the PSU manufacturer? Only plugs violating the Molex MiniFit Jr. connector standard don't fit, because they're not using the approved, certified, standard plug.

I mean, it's good that AMD are making the change, but it's not their fault that PSU manufacturers are taking liberties with the connector standard in the first place...
Posted on Reply
#92
mechtech
john_1. It doesn't matter if the example is last gen. I don't understand how this is a parameter. Still a 13th gen i3, an under $100 new motherboard and 16GBs of DDR5 will cost as much as an RX 7600 if not less.
2. It's relative. Making assumptions about pricing it's relative. That's what I am saying. I wasn't going to use that $300 example, but you did, so I played with your rules. And you can't compare a $300 CPU to a $260 card. The $260 card is considered entry today. The $300 CPU not. It's mid range close to hi end. So you have to compare with a $700 card at least.
3. This is not an argument. What you post is not an argument. Explain to me why it is an argument. We have stagnation and what you post is not an argument. I really don't know what it is.
4. Well, that old car is in fact brand new meaning with full support and warranty. It has almost the same specs, the same performance as the new one. You are again missing my point here. Maybe you didn't understood what I wrote, maybe you choose to miss my point. Don't know.

Closing with a general comment with which the majority agrees, doesn't make the rest of the post correct.
1. it does due to how quickly tech depreciates.
2. everything is relative
3. I know
4. again depreciation / early adopter tax

simple facts
RX480 2016 MSRP $239 (2023 $ 302)
RX 6600 2021 MSRP $330 (2023 $369)
RX 7600 2023 MSRP $270 - 2023

My only argument is that when comparing realease to release the RX7600 relatively speaking is decent card for the money for 1080p gaming. It's not awesome, but not bad.

Now of course last gen is better bang for the buck, I'm not arguing that, that's why I built in Nov. 2022, used all older/last gen stuff that was on good sales.

Would I get a 7600 now? Not if I can get a 6600/xt/50xt at a better price. Would I upgrade from a 6600 - nope. But if I had an RX480 it would be a good upgrade, but so would a 6600/xt/50xt
Posted on Reply
#93
AusWolf
eidairaman1It be like me writing what's the point of a gf fx 5500 or a fx 5200

He's gone off his rocker...
I've seen a lot of people come with the argument "at this price point, you should just stick to your iGPU", but those people seem to forget how much better even a 1050 Ti is than your average iGPU.
Posted on Reply
#94
john_
mechtechMy only argument is that when comparing realease to release the RX7600 relatively speaking is decent card for the money for 1080p gaming. It's not awesome, but not bad.
RX 7600 sells at the same price as the RX 6650 XT while offering the same performance. AMD did something very simple. It matched the price of the RDNA2 product that offers the same performance and removed the XT from the name to compare with 6600 and not 6650 XT. Looking at specs and current pricing, everyone can see that 7600 Xt is a replacement of 6650 XT and not of 6600. So, while it is decent, it is also stagnation for 2 more years.
Posted on Reply
#95
AusWolf
Bomby569Going against the trend, i do get his point, what is the point of releasing the 7600 and 4060 when they bring nothing to the gpu market? And worst in some cases they can be a poisoned pill for uninformed buyers
The reason I agree with that sentiment is that it would be a lot cheaper to continue making the 6600/6650 series without any investment in R&D. As for Nvidia, the 3060 Ti is what we got all over again, but with fake frames this time. Sure, Nvidia could easily enable DLSS3 on Turing and Ampere (they admitted that the required hardware is there), but then no one would buy the 40-series.
john_RX 7600 sells at the same price as the RX 6650 XT while offering the same performance. AMD did something very simple. It matched the price of the RDNA2 product that offers the same performance and removed the XT from the name to compare with 6600 and not 6650 XT. Looking at specs and current pricing, everyone can see that 7600 Xt is a replacement of 6650 XT and not of 6600. So, while it is decent, it is also stagnation for 2 more years.
Stagnation isn't bad when you're still good with your last-gen hardware for another 4-6 years.
Posted on Reply
#96
mechtech
john_RX 7600 sells at the same price as the RX 6650 XT while offering the same performance. AMD did something very simple. It matched the price of the RDNA2 product that offers the same performance and removed the XT from the name to compare with 6600 and not 6650 XT. Looking at specs and current pricing, everyone can see that 7600 Xt is a replacement of 6650 XT and not of 6600. So, while it is decent, it is also stagnation for 2 more years.
Well it might be stagnation for longer than that, just due to fab scale, which is out of AMDs and Nvidias hands. If we go back a long ways say to HD4850 era on 55nm, then 5850 on 40nm, etc. decent die shrinks came more often then now. It's the die shrinks that really capitalized on power savings and increasing transistor counts.
But real growth seems to go in spurts

HD 3850 320 cores
HD4850 800 cores
HD5850 1440 cores
HD 6850 960 cores
HD7850 1024 cores
R9 270 1280 cores
......
RX 480 2304 cores
RX 6600 1792 cores
RX 7600 2048 cores

It increased good from 3850 to 5850 then dropped and increased slowly then got a good spurt going to RX480 and then dropped again, even though there was a die shrink..........maybe due to the cost difference from GF 14/12nm to TSMC 7nm, maybe everyone was milking covid, there was crypto as well which didn't help either.

But yes, it would be great if the RX7600 would have been 2560 cores on a 256-bit bus and 16x slot for $270....................however I think now with 1080p and 1440p and 4k, everyone jumped on board with Intel's marketing segregation and says its a top 1080p car and its a top 1440p card and its a top 4k card, which I think is just marketing shenanigans to try to set higher prices. I think the real stagnation is gimping the memory bus and pcie wiring.

Well lets hope maybe there will be a 7600XT with 2560 cores, or hopefully on increasing core counts for the same $ but I won't hold my breath.
Posted on Reply
#97
Bomby569
Cards aren't for 1080 or 4k, cards are for whatever people does with them, one game can easily do 4k (CSGO) and other only 720p, idk. The segmentation is a way to segment price, not performance. It's marketing.

They purposefully and arbitrarily cut performance, cores, memory bandwidth, etc... to serve the price stack they figure maximizes profit, and don't fool yourselves, this is not random, this was thought out, was calculated.
Posted on Reply
#98
Indigox_
I... I thought this was just about a backplate design?
Posted on Reply
Add your own comment
May 4th, 2024 22:24 EDT change timezone

New Forum Posts

Popular Reviews

Controversial News Posts