MSI Radeon RX 6700 XT Gaming X Review

Final Score: 85%

No matter how you slice it the Radeon RX 6700XT is pretty much tailor made for the average PC gaming enthusiast who has not yet gotten in on 4K Gaming Goodness™… which according to every poll is pretty much the vast majority of people not actually made of money. At “lower” resolutions the combination of actually improved low-level improvements over its RX 5000-series predecessor with insanely highly core clocks is a winning one. Put bluntly it out muscles NVIDIA’s RTX 3060 Ti in non-RT enabled scenarios and can even give RTX 3070’s a real run for their money. In other words, if you are not overly interested in Ray Tracing, darn near (and sometimes better) RTX 3070 performance at RTX 3060 Ti prices means that RX 6700XT demands to be on most your short list. Put another way, AMD is back baby with serious value options in the mid-tier price bracket. Options that do not just compete on price but actually hold their own in many common scenarios.

Of course, the RX 6700XT is not perfect. Serious compromises have to be made to convert a high-end “Big NAVI” core into a more frugally producible ‘mid-range’ core like the NAVI 22 XT. With only forty first generation Ray Tracing cores, those interested in Ray Tracing are going to be more impressed with what the NIVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 3060Ti can do rather than what the Radeon RX 6700 XT can… and GeForce RTX 3070’s will be much more optimal starting point. Furthermore, the lack of DLSS/FSR abilities is the real killer right now when it comes to Ray Tracing. Yes, AMD promises that FidelityFX Super Resolution (aka FSR… aka their own version of DLSS) will be landing later this year, but that promised time frame is getting awfully close to the rumored release window of the RDNA 3 / RX 7000 / Navi 3X slated for late this / early next year. Either way, right now AMD RX 6000-series is severely handicapped when dealing with Ray Tracing enabled games. Thankfully, the number of Ray Tracing games that are actually worth any performance penalty can be counted on one hand. Outside of fanboy flame wars Ray Tracing is not going to be the deciding factor for most buyers this or the next generation. Value will, and the RX 6700XT has it in spades.

Of the various Radeon RX 6700XT’s out there the unusual form-factored MSI Radeon RX 6700 XT Gaming X 12G is almost guaranteed to impress. It certainly exceeded our expectations and put to bed any concerns we may have had going in to the testing stage. So, while it may be thick ‘n’ chunky compared to some, it is a fantastic example of outside the box thinking that actually results in tangible improvements. Improvements such as offering low noise, high performance… even a downright fun overclocking experience. Yes, this card may not disprove the old saying “There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch”… but it comes fairly close.

Under normal circumstances the MSI Radeon RX 6700 XT Gaming X 12G would be dunkin’ harder than an early 90’s Michael Jordan under the tender loving care of Lance Armstrong’s doctor. This unfortunately is clown world with clown world scalpers… sorry “Video Card Resellers” running amok due major worldwide chip shortages. As such if you can find it for less than say a MSI GeForce RTX 3070 Gaming X you should absolutely buy it… but these days it is more of a case of ”what is in stock?!” and buying whatever you can find that will meet your needs. So be on the lookout, and if you have the time and patience to find it, we highly recommend that 1080P and 1440P PC gaming enthusiasts do just that. The MSI Radeon RX 6700 XT Gaming X 12G really has improved our already high personal opinion on AMD’s Radeon RX 6000-series.