The RX 6750 XT features a core overclock of 19 MHz… not 19%, 19 MHz, but you’re getting faster 18 Gbps memory, which results in a 12.5% boost to memory bandwidth when compared to last year’s RX 6700. There’s also a 9% increase in board power and that’s it. Oh wait, no it’s not. You’re also faced with a 15% increase in MSRP which has gone from $480 to $550.

We’ll analyze just how much of a “deal” the 6750 XT is in our cost per frame segment towards the end of the review. On hand for testing we have the MSI Gaming X Trio and Sapphire Nitro+ models, both excellent boards.

For testing, all AMD and Nvidia GPUs were clocked at their official specifications, with no factory overclocking. All the data collected is fresh for this review and was gathered in the past week a half using a Ryzen 7 5800X3D system equipped with 32GB of dual-rank, dual-channel DDR4-3200 CL14 memory on the Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Extreme using the latest BIOS supporting the AGESA 1207 microcode.

We tested 11 games at 1080p, 1440p and 4K, but because the results are quite repetitive we didn’t find the need to go into too much detail, you will agree once you see them. We will nonetheless look at the 11 game average at all resolutions and the cost per frame analysis.

Benchmarks

Starting with Rainbow Six Extraction, we see that the 6700 XT and RTX 3060 Ti are evenly matched which is a good result for AMD in the current climate considering the 6700 XT is much cheaper. Based on current Newegg pricing the 6700 XT is down at $490 while the 3060 Ti is at $590.

The 6750 XT is expected to settle in at $570, at least based on current pricing, which would place it very close to the 3060 Ti in terms of pricing and in this example it’s 8% faster. When compared to the RTX 3070 it’s just 2% slower, but we estimate it’s around 19% cheaper, so a great result for AMD in the current market. All of that said, it’s just 7% faster than the 6700 XT, so that 15% bump in price is a bit rough, frankly you’d be best off just overclocking the 6700 XT, which is basically all AMD’s done.

The GeForce GPUs fare better at 1440p and here the 6750 XT is only able to match the 3060 Ti, making the RTX 3070 13% faster. Perhaps most disappointing is that the refresh is just 4% faster than the 6700 XT.

At 4K the margins change again, the 6750 XT is 8% faster than the 6700 XT which we feel is a best case scenario. It matched the RTX 3060 Ti again, this time marking it just 5% slower than the RTX 3070.

Next we have Watch Dogs: Legion and the 6750 XT is very impressive here relative to the GeForce competition, though rather underwhelming when compared to the 6700 XT as it was just 4% faster. A bad result compared to what it’s refreshing, but great compared to the RTX 3070 as it was 22% faster.

That margin was reduced at 1440p, but still the 6750 XT was 13% faster than the RTX 3070, which is an excellent result given how much cheaper this GPU is. Of course, paying 15% more for the 6750 XT over the 6700 XT is a bit rough given it was just 5% faster.

As usual, Nvidia’s Ampere architecture is much better leveraged at 4K whereas the opposite is true for RNDA2, which becomes bandwidth constrained. As a result the RTX 3070 now matches the 6750 XT. The 6750 XT was 6% faster than the 6700 XT.

Moving on to Shadow of the Tomb Raider we find that at 1080p the 6750 XT was good for 139 fps, making it 7% faster than the 6700 XT for what basically amounts to RTX 3070 performance.

At 1440p the 6750 XT pulled out to a 9% margin over the 6700 XT and that allowed it to stick with the RTX 3070 which as we’ve mentioned before, given current pricing that’s a good result for AMD.

As we move to 4K, the RTX 3070 is able to pull ahead as the 6750 XT trails by a 5% margin and is now on par with the RTX 3060 Ti and just 8% faster than the original 6700 XT.

The Outer Worlds has been added to the day-one review games list as this title balances out what is now the 11 game sample to more closely represent the margins seen between competing AMD and Nvidia products across our massive 50 game tests. Like many Unreal Engine 4 titles this one favors GeForce GPUs and we see this as even the RTX 3060 Ti is faster than the 6750 XT, which was just 7% faster than the original 6700 XT.

Moving to 1440p further favors the GeForce GPUs and now the 6750 XT is 6% slower than the RTX 3060 Ti and 14% slower than the RTX 3070. Meanwhile, it was 7% faster than the 6700 XT, and what we’ve come to expect, miniscule gains.

Then at 4K the GeForce GPUs pull away further and now the 6750 XT is 7% slower than the RTX 3060 Ti and 18% slower than the RTX 3070. Unfortunately, the faster GDDR6 memory didn’t help much as we’re seeing a 4% boost over the 6700 XT.

At this point we’ve worked out the 6750 XT if we hadn’t already with a quick glance at the specs. So we’ll wrap up with F1 2021. At 1080p, the 6750 XT was just 5% slower than the RTX 3070 and 7% faster than the 6700 XT and RTX 3060 Ti.

Then at 1440p it was 7% slower than the RTX 3070, 3% faster than the 3060 Ti and 9% faster than the 6700 XT.

The 4K results are a bit of a blowout and now even the RTX 3060 Ti is a tad faster than the 6750 XT while the RTX 3070 is 20% faster. Meanwhile, the 6750 XT was just 5% faster than the original version.

Power Consumption

A quick look at total power consumption shows that the 6700 XT pushed usage to 336 watts, meaning the 6750 XT increased system consumption by 13%, which is significant given the single digit performance gains just seen. The result isn’t surprising though as AMD is overclocking the 6750 XT beyond its efficiency window. When compared to the RTX 3060 Ti and RTX 3070, power usage for the 6750 XT is reasonable nonetheless.

Performance Summary

In terms of performance, the Radeon RX 6750 XT looks fine compared to the RTX 3060 Ti and 3070 across the few games we just looked at, but wasn’t exactly exciting sitting next to the 6700 XT. To get a better idea of how they stack up, let’s take a look at our 11 game average…

Starting with the 1080p average data, the 6750 XT comes out 6% faster than the 6700 XT, which is not great given the 15% price hike. Inserted into a graph the result on its own looks good though as it’s a little faster than the much more expensive RTX 3070 and only slightly slower than the RTX 3070 Ti, which is even more expensive. That said, the 6700 XT is obviously better value given the MSRPs, but it’s also better value given you can just overclock it yourself for 6750 XT levels of performance.

Increasing the resolution to 1440p sees the 6750 XT and RTX 3070 neck and neck, and the refreshed model is 5% faster than the original.

Then at 4K the 6750 XT was 6% faster than the 6700 XT and that meant that it was now 6% slower than the RTX 3070.

Cost Per Frame

First we’ll look at a MSRP comparison, just for fun since this won’t tell us nothing. If this generation GPUs were to sell at the MSRP there would be some interesting match ups… The RTX 3060 Ti would be the bee’s knees for value shoppers, coming in at a cost of just $4.54 per frame according to our 11 game data, making it 17% cheaper per frame than the 6600 XT and 13% cheaper than the 6700 XT. But at the higher end of the market the RX 6800 and 6800 XT would have looked quite good with the 6800 XT coming in at a 12% discount per frame when compared to the RTX 3080.

But, none of these prices are real on store shelves. However we thought they were worth showing because MSRP vs. reality (a moving target) is quite the interesting comparison…

Looking at the typical prices seen over at Newegg right now, we see Radeon GPUs occupying the top of the graph with the GeForce GPUs mostly taking up the bottom half, quite a stark contrast. Of the GPUs compared in this review, the 6700 XT is the standout, costing just $5.32 per frame making it a massive 21% cheaper than the 3060 Ti and 26% cheaper than the RTX 3070. That’s a massive cost saving. The 6750 XT sends AMD backwards a bit, increasing the cost per frame by 10%. That’s not great but still has the 6750 XT 12% cheaper per frame when compared to the RTX 3060 Ti, and 19% cheaper than the RTX 3070. We feel anything over 10% makes the Radeon GPUs a viable option in the face of much weaker ray tracing performance and less mature upscaling technology.

Cooling

In terms of cooling performance of the Sapphire and MSI models we have on hand, the MSI 6750 XT Gaming X Trio is triple fan model which peaked at just 66C with a fan speed of 1350 RPM, making it a cool and quiet model. The cores typically clocked at 2680 MHz, which is a good result overall.

The Sapphire 6750 XT Nitro+ was slightly better, dropping the peak temperature to 63C with a fan speed of 1250 RPM, and on top of that the cores averaged a higher clock frequency at 2720 MHz. The Nitro+ also features a dual BIOS which is a great feature to have on $300+ graphics cards.

What We Learned

The Radeon RX 6750 XT is an underwhelming launch next to what AMD already had in the market. It’s essentially the same GPU with a small factory overclock which accounts for a small speed gain, and then there’s the price hike. AMD fans will argue about inflation, increased shipping costs, and so on, and we’re aware of those factors. Our point is simply that this new release offers you nothing, or certainly nothing you couldn’t have achieved previously with the 6700 XT and a little OC know-how.

From AMD’s perspective though, it’s obvious why they’re doing this. Even with the 15% price hike, the 6750 XT still offers competitive value over Nvidia GPUs at retail and with Nvidia still able to easily outsell AMD, they might as well increase profit margins as it’s unlikely to deter sales further.

AMD assures us that 6700 XT supply won’t be affected and those models will continue to sell as they were, meaning they’re just giving gamers more options with the 6750 XT. If that’s true, then it’s a non-issue. However, we’re not sure we believe AMD when they say the 6700 XT will continue to exist and sell at a lower price, it doesn’t make sense for them to do that, but we guess we’ll see how that plays out in time.

As of writing, the Radeon 6750 XT at $570 seems to be a much better deal than the RTX 3070 at $700, and possibly a better deal than the RTX 3060 Ti at $590, depending on where you stand on ray tracing and DLSS, though we should note the former is not great at these performance tiers. Finally, we’ll make it clear we don’t even recommend you consider the 6750 XT at $570, the 6700 XT at $490 is a far better deal and a much better buy than even the RTX 3060.