Take good graphics cards and accelerate them moderately - the spring collection is ready. AMD isn't reinventing the wheel by any means with the Radeon RX 6950 XT, RX 6750 XT and RX 6650 XT, but the fresh designs from the board partners do enrich the gaming graphics card market with some attractive options. However, the hardware, which is familiar at its core, is not merely repackaged; the little surprise in the bag makes this launch, which was initially stamped as predictable, more exciting than expected: The new driver branch 22.10 squeezes the last out of RDNA 2 and thus leaves all RX-6000 graphics cards in a better position than before. Thanks to extensive night tests, we map this development across the entire test field and indeed the optimization of AMD's software pays off: There are three Radeon models in the top 5 gaming graphics cards in Spring 2022 - and two of them rank ahead of the Geforce RTX 3090, which has been unbeaten for more than a year. Both the new Radeon RX 6950 XT and the OEM solution Radeon RX 6900 XT LC prove to be as strong as an ox especially in Full HD/1080p and WQHD/1440p and the first choice for smooth gameplay. However, the higher the resolution, the better the Geforce RTX 30 aka Ampere - this rule is forever valid and is even somewhat reinforced by the latest driver improvements on AMD's side. It is a mystery to us why AMD, in the style of "Because we can!", does not release a Radeon RX 6950 XTX with fluid cooling. With 375 watts of board power and correspondingly high frequencies, the performance crown would be within reach and the efficiency would be relatively high compared to the Geforce RTX 3090 Ti.
The Radeon RX 6750 XT and Radeon RX 6650 XT are less spectacular, but have become attractive graphics cards in their respective market environments. The Radeon RX 6750 XT in particular deserves praise because Full HD and WQHD gamers won't go wrong with this product - if you ignore the relatively high price. The rasterizing performance is consistently high, memory shortages are not an issue thanks to the 12 GB capacity, and ray tracing excursions are also possible as long as you can live with compromises in quality and frame rate. The current graphics card upper class thus presents prospective buyers with an agony of choice, because Nvidia sets other priorities: The comparable Geforce RTX 3060 Ti and RTX 3070 models primarily score with their performance from WQHD and massively better ray tracing usability, not least thanks to DLSS upsampling. However, the sword of Damocles of the lack of memory hovers over these models that are always equipped with 8 GiBytes, which causes the first injuries. Meanwhile, all models are perfectly suitable for a fun transition period until Radeon RX 7000 and Geforce RTX 40.
The Radeon RX 6650 XT will replace the Radeon RX 6600 XT in the medium term. The latter can already distance the Geforce RTX 3060 relatively clearly, provided that you stick to rasterizing and Full HD. If you are looking for a potent 1080p card for popular games that stays well below the 200-watt mark, you will undoubtedly be happy with an RX 66x0. However, looking at the recommended retail price for the Radeon RX 6650 XT, we would rather recommend the Geforce RTX 3060. The latter's strength is not so much in Full HD, but in everything else: It achieves the performance of the RX 6600 XT in WQHD and even outperforms it mercilessly in ray tracing. Thanks to the broad DLSS support and 12 GiByte memory capacity, the future is also rosy for the RTX 3060, whereas the AMD card already shows isolated memory shortage symptoms today. FSR in version 2.0 will help extend the lifespan of the RX 6000 graphics cards later this year as well. According to AMD, it starts with Deathloop, which will already receive an FSR 2.0 update on May 12.
