AMD has launched a refresh of their current Radeon graphics lineup, and 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, too. The MSI RX 6750 XT Gaming X Trio is a factory-overclocked custom-design that increases the GPU clocks even further, to 2554 MHz from the reference speed of 2495 MHz.

Averaged over our whole game test suite at 1440p resolution, we find the MSI Gaming X 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 psychologically important 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 a game changer. While NVIDIA does offer better RT performance because they execute more RT operations in hardware, I don't think it's a huge deal.

MSI's Gaming X Trio thermal solution works great—no surprises here. Temperatures are very low with 66°C, but what's more important is that noise levels are whisper-quiet. With only 28 dBA, the card will barely be audible in even a quiet room with a quiet PC. This makes the card an excellent choice for gamers who want decent GPU horse power, but don't want a lot of noise coming out of their PC. We also tested the ASUS STRIX OC today, and it runs much louder while only offering marginally better temperatures. Just like all other recent releases, the RX 6750 XT Gaming X Trio includes the highly popular fan-stop capability, which shuts off the fans completely during idle, desktop work, internet browsing, and light gaming.

Power consumption of the RX 6750 XT is surprisingly high. We measured 286 W during gaming, which is 60 W higher than the 220 W we saw on the RX 6700 XT reference card. Spending 29% 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 needs more juice. Energy efficiency has dropped considerably, down to levels that are comparable to NVIDIA's RTX 3090 and behind the RTX 3090 Ti released just weeks ago. It seems like this isn't MSI's fault, though. The ASUS RX 6750 XT STRIX we tested today runs at similar power levels, too. For your every day usability, this isn't a dealbreaker though, as neither power cost nor room temperatures will be that much different compared to the original RX 6700 XT. It still makes me wonder whether the next generation of graphics cards will be more power hungrier, running even hotter and louder.

AMD announced an MSRP of $550 for the RX 6750 XT, which is very competitive if the cards actually go for that. I think a more realistic pricing given 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. MSI says they are unable to provide us with a price point for the RX 6750 XT Gaming X Trio, which makes my job as reviewer more difficult. I expect the card to sell for around $630, which at first looks 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.