AMD has launched a refresh of their current Radeon graphics lineup. We have six reviews for you today: Sapphire RX 6950 XT Nitro+ Pure, MSI RX 6950 XT Gaming X Trio, Gigabyte RX 6950 XT Gaming OC, ASUS RX 6750 XT STRIX OC, MSI RX 6750 XT Gaming X Trio, and MSI RX 6650 XT Gaming X.

The new AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT is very similar to the Radeon RX 6700 XT. It is based on the same 7 nanometer Navi 22 graphics processor with 2560 GPU cores and 12 GB of GDDR6 memory. The only changes are that the memory chips are now of the faster 18 Gbps variety, up from 16 Gbps, and that the GPU clocks have been increased. The ASUS RX 6750 XT STRIX OC is a factory-overclocked custom-design that increases the GPU clocks even further, to 2554 MHz, compared to a reference speed of 2495 MHz.

Averaged over our whole game test suite at 1440p resolution, we find the ASUS STRIX 8% faster than the Radeon RX 6700 XT reference design. This increase is a bit smaller than expected, but enough to match the GeForce RTX 3070 and reduce the lead of the RTX 3070 Ti to only 6%. AMD's own Radeon RX 6800 non-XT is 11% faster now, and the RTX 3060 Ti is conclusively beat with a +11% difference. While these gains don't seem as big as many expected, they are still enough to achieve several important psychologically victories as NVIDIA can now no longer claim performance leadership and charge a premium for it. With these performance numbers, the RX 6750 XT is a fantastic choice for gaming at 1440p, or 1080p with a high-refresh-rate display. In many lighter titles, or when dialing down settings, you might even be able to run 4K with it. Another approach could be to use AMD's FSR and RSR upscaling technologies to render your games at slightly lower resolution and upscale them to 4K with a minimal loss in image quality.

While the card has full support for ray tracing, the performance cost of enabling the technology makes it a somewhat difficult choice because you'll no longer be able to run at native resolution, or with maximum details. Considering that RT is a technology that's supposed to add fidelity on top of maxed out settings, I'm not sure if I'd be willing to make that tradeoff. Most games also come with ray tracing effects that only add a little bit and are not game changers. While NVIDIA does offer better RT performance because they execute more RT operations in hardware, I don't think it's a huge deal.

The ASUS Radeon RX 6750 XT STRIX OC comes with a large, powerful triple-slot, triple-fan thermal solution that achieves temperatures that seem to be too good to be true. With only 57°C, you could think the card is running at temperatures other cards idle at. There's a catch, though—with 38 dBA, the card is loud, "very loud" even considering its midrange performance positioning. We tested three Radeon RX 6950 XT cards today, and they are all considerably quieter than what ASUS is offering here. To me, this looks like someone didn't pay attention to properly balancing the fan speed settings for a good mix between noise and temperature. What's even more surprising is that the "quiet" BIOS that, well, is supposed to be quiet, is only "less loud." We also tested the MSI RX 6750 XT Gaming X today, and it does MUCH better in terms of noise levels; it's actually whisper-quiet while running at 66°C, which is hardly a temperature I'd call high. You will be able to fix the ASUS fan settings with a custom fan curve, but I'd say it's reasonable to expect a good out-of-the-box experience, especially if it's something as premium as "STRIX," for which a lot of money is charged. Maybe there's hope for a BIOS update down the road that improves acoustics.

Power consumption of the RX 6750 XT is surprisingly high. We measured 270 W during gaming, which is 50 W higher than the 220 W we saw on the RX 6700 XT reference card. Spending 23% additional power to gain 8% real-life performance seems a bit excessive. It seems the new memory chips consume quite a lot of extra power, and clocking the GPU higher also takes more juice. Energy efficiency has dropped considerably, down to levels comparable to NVIDIA's RTX 3090, and behind even the RTX 3090 Ti released just weeks ago. It seems like this isn't ASUS's fault, though. The MSI RX 6750 XT Gaming X Trio we tested today runs at 286 W, which is even worse. For every day usability, this isn't a dealbreaker as neither power cost nor room temperatures will be all that different to the original RX 6700 XT. It does make me wonder whether the next generation of graphics cards will be even power hungrier and thus even hotter and louder.

AMD announced an MSRP of $550 for the RX 6750 XT, which is very competitive if the cards actually goes for that. I think more realistic pricing for current market conditions is $600, which isn't bad, either. For example, the RTX 3070 non-Ti sells for $650 and offers similar performance. The RTX 3070 Ti is only 6% faster, and NVIDIA wants $700 for it. Of course, AMD's own Radeon RX 6700 XT is a strong competitor, selling for $540 right now. NVIDIA's RTX 3060 Ti might be worth a look, too, but seems a bit expensive for $570. As you can see, there are lots of interesting options in this segment, which usually leads to one thing: Lower prices for us customers because the mining boom seems to be over and stock levels are starting to normalize. ASUS tells us that the STRIX OC will sell for $630, which seems like a pretty steep increase over the AMD MSRP of $550. There's no way I'd pay that much extra, maybe $20–30, but beyond that point, other products will begin offering better value. As mentioned before, you have to consider that AMD's MSRP might not be realistic, though. I think the baseline cards will sell for $600. Overall, the Radeon RX 6750 XT is a solid card that can be recommended if you can find it at decent pricing.