Question Upgrade now to an RX 6700 XT or wait for the RTX 4060 Ti 16GB

[ProPlayerGR]

Hey everyone. I'm planning on upgrading my 7 year old GTX 1070 but my budget is a bit limited, at about 400 euros. I live in Greece and I have found a really good deal on an RX 6700 XT from Powercolor at about 360 euros, but these cards are selling fast so I have to make a desicion soon. I was waiting for the 4060 ti but it was a disaster of a release and really not worth it with only 8GBs of VRAM, I want my next card to last for the next 3-4 years. So right now I'm thinking if I should upgrade now and spend significantly less money or wait for the release of the 4060 ti 16GB, which comes out in July. The problem is if I wait, I'm sure there will be no good deals left on 6700XTs so I will be doomed to wait to save up more money. Keep in mind that I also want to upgrade my CPU to a Ryzen 5 5600 (currently running a 2600), so the total package is about 500 euros. I game at 1080p 144hz and I have no interest in ray tracing, dlss or video encoding. I only use my pc for gaming. The only problem I have is that I'm not sure the 6700XT will be able to last me 4 years from now, as it's a 2 year old card already. When I bought the 1070 back in 2016 it had just come out. That's all, I'm waiting for your recommendations. Thanks in advance!

 

[Avro Arrow]

There's no need to wait for that card to come out because it's not going to be any faster than the 8GB model, it's just going to have more VRAM and cost $500.

Here's what I think that you should do:

• Don't wait!
• If you want a 12GB card, get an RX 6700 XT
• If you want a 16GB card, get an RX 6800 XT

Here's why I think that you should do it:

• ASRock Radeon RX 5700 XT 12GB - $310
• ASRock Radeon RX 6800 XT 16GB - $500

The 16GB RTX 4060 Ti is going to cost you at least $500 (that's the MSRP) and it will still otherwise be the same "worst mid-range video card release in memory" (according to Steve Burke and Steve Walton). According to the TechPowerUp GPU Database, the RX 6800 XT is a whopping 20% faster than the RTX 4060 Ti.

Waiting for the RTX 4060 Ti 16GB wouldn't just be a pointless exercise in futility (although it would definitely be that) but it could possible be counter-productive because while you're wasting your time waiting for it to come out, the RX 6800 XT could sell out or the price could rise and then you'll be stuck. I have an RX 6800 XT myself and it's just an incredible card, a card that I don't regret getting (although I do regret paying what I did for it).

 

[ProPlayerGR]

There's no need to wait for that card to come out because it's not going to be any faster than the 8GB model, it's just going to have more VRAM and cost $500.

Here's what I think that you should do:

• Don't wait!
• If you want a 12GB card, get an RX 6700 XT
• If you want a 16GB card, get an RX 6800 XT

Here's why I think that you should do it:

• ASRock Radeon RX 5700 XT 12GB - $310
• ASRock Radeon RX 6800 XT 16GB - $500

The 16GB RTX 4060 Ti is going to cost you at least $500 (that's the MSRP) and it will still otherwise be the same "worst mid-range video card release in memory" (according to Steve Burke and Steve Walton). According to the TechPowerUp GPU Database, the RX 6800 XT is a whopping 20% faster than the RTX 4060 Ti.

Waiting for the RTX 4060 Ti 16GB wouldn't just be a pointless exercise in futility (although it would definitely be that) but it could possible be counter-productive because while you're wasting your time waiting for it to come out, the RX 6800 XT could sell out or the price could rise and then you'll be stuck. I have an RX 6800 XT myself and it's just an incredible card, a card that I don't regret getting (although I do regret paying what I did for it).

Yeah I guess you're right, the 4060 ti 16GB isn't worth waiting for and NVIDIA doesn't deserve my money to be honest. This card should be 400 euros MAX. I don't have the budget for the 6800XT, but thanks for your helpful insight. I have decided on either the 6700XT or the 6750XT, they cost 360 euros and 420 euros respectively (the cheapest models I could find in my country). I know it sounds stupid when you look at the prices for 5 FPS difference, but I don't know if I can trust a Powercolor Fighter 6700XT, the 6750XT is a GIGABYTE OC that has 3 fans instead of 2 and RGB which I don't really care about, but I wouldn't mind it. I have searched for reviews on the 6700XT Powercolor Fighter, but I couldn't find any useful information to be honest. Also it's smaller than my 1070 Founders Edition in length and I'm afraid the temps will not be very good, although I have a full tower case. What is your opinion on these grounds? Thanks in advance!

 

[Avro Arrow]

Yeah I guess you're right, the 4060 ti 16GB isn't worth waiting for and NVIDIA doesn't deserve my money to be honest. This card should be 400 euros MAX. I don't have the budget for the 6800XT, but thanks for your helpful insight.

I'm glad to help where I can.

I have decided on either the 6700XT or the 6750XT, they cost 360 euros and 420 euros respectively (the cheapest models I could find in my country).

That means the RX 6750 XT is 17% more expensive than the RX 6700 XT but only 8% faster and with the same 12GB of VRAM.

If I were you, I'd choose the RX 6700 XT because while 8% isn't nothing, it's small enough that the biggest difference that it could make would be at the end of the card's life. You wouldn't notice an 8% difference during most of the card's lifetime, especially if your monitor is only 60Hz (like most monitors are).

I know it sounds stupid when you look at the prices for 5 FPS difference, but I don't know if I can trust a Powercolor Fighter 6700XT, the 6750XT is a GIGABYTE OC that has 3 fans instead of 2 and RGB which I don't really care about, but I wouldn't mind it.

Take it from someone who has owned cards by Albatron, XFX, Sapphire, Palit, Powercolor and Gigabyte... They're all more or less the same. They all know how to make video cards and they've been doing it for years. Just get whichever brand offers you the best price. If you can get a 3-fan model for like $10 more, I would get the 3-fan model because it makes much better use of your Full Tower case. However, if they want like $25 or $30 more, I would stick with the 2-fan card because that's getting too steep.

After having the card for a month or two, you'd become accustomed to any noise it makes and you wouldn't even notice anymore. As for temps, as long as they're within spec, it won't matter.

I have searched for reviews on the 6700XT Powercolor Fighter, but I couldn't find any useful information to be honest. Also it's smaller than my 1070 Founders Edition in length and I'm afraid the temps will not be very good, although I have a full tower case. What is your opinion on these grounds? Thanks in advance!

I'm sure that it's fine. You have to remember that base model cards like the Powercolor Fighter, the Gigabyte Eagle and the ASRock Challenger are rarely reviewed because these manufacturers want the reviewers to review their flagship-level models so that's what reviewers get sent. They want people to see the flashy Red Devil, AORUS and Phantom Gaming D cards.

The Powercolor Fighter model has been around for years and I've never heard anything bad about it. I know that it's a pretty plain-looking card:

but who cares if it's inside your case anyway? Powercolor has made Radeons for close to 20 years and they know what they're doing. I actually chose to get a Powercolor RX 6500 XT ITX card which looks like a single-fan version of the Powercolor Fighter:

When cards have simple and plain designs like this, they're able to make them more cheaply while still maintaining full functionality. When you buy a fancy card, some of the money you're spending on it is for those fancy shrouds and RGB lighting while a simple card only charges you for what it can do. That RX 6500 XT that I bought is for my mother's HTPC. Since she doesn't game but just browses and watches videos, even a single-fan card is ideal for her because 90%+ of the heat and power consumption in a video card these days come from their 3D gaming accelerators. Cards that are only used for 2D video can still get away with being only passively-cooled.

The only significant differences between a 2-fan and a 3-fan model are that the 3 fans can cool while spinning more slowly so it does make them a bit quieter. They also have a greater cooling upside because of the 3 fans so they're better for overclocking. At stock settings though, they perform about the same as a 2-fan card.

Many people actively seek 2-fan cards over 3-fan cards because 3-fan cards are BIG and don't fit in a lot of PC cases. You have a full tower case which means that you can fit a triple-fan card easily but it's not a requirement. Full Tower Cases have a lot of air in them and a lot of space for unrestricted airflow. You'd be perfectly fine with either a 2-fan or a 3-fan card. If the Powercolor Fighter offers you the best price by a good amount, just get that.

Just remember that the brand-name is irrelevant because they all offer a warranty and stand behind their products.

 

[ProPlayerGR]

I'm glad to help where I can.

That means the RX 6750 XT is 17% more expensive than the RX 6700 XT but only 8% faster and with the same 12GB of VRAM.

If I were you, I'd choose the RX 6700 XT because while 8% isn't nothing, it's small enough that the biggest difference that it could make would be at the end of the card's life. You wouldn't notice an 8% difference during most of the card's lifetime, especially if your monitor is only 60Hz (like most monitors are).

Take it from someone who has owned cards by Albatron, XFX, Sapphire, Palit, Powercolor and Gigabyte... They're all more or less the same. They all know how to make video cards and they've been doing it for years. Just get whichever brand offers you the best price. If you can get a 3-fan model for like $10 more, I would get the 3-fan model because it makes much better use of your Full Tower case. However, if they want like $25 or $30 more, I would stick with the 2-fan card because that's getting too steep.

After having the card for a month or two, you'd become accustomed to any noise it makes and you wouldn't even notice anymore. As for temps, as long as they're within spec, it won't matter.

I'm sure that it's fine. You have to remember that base model cards like the Powercolor Fighter, the Gigabyte Eagle and the ASRock Challenger are rarely reviewed because these manufacturers want the reviewers to review their flagship-level models so that's what reviewers get sent. They want people to see the flashy Red Devil, AORUS and Phantom Gaming D cards.

The Powercolor Fighter model has been around for years and I've never heard anything bad about it. I know that it's a pretty plain-looking card:

but who cares if it's inside your case anyway? Powercolor has made Radeons for close to 20 years and they know what they're doing. I actually chose to get a Powercolor RX 6500 XT ITX card which looks like a single-fan version of the Powercolor Fighter:

When cards have simple and plain designs like this, they're able to make them more cheaply while still maintaining full functionality. When you buy a fancy card, some of the money you're spending on it is for those fancy shrouds and RGB lighting while a simple card only charges you for what it can do. That RX 6500 XT that I bought is for my mother's HTPC. Since she doesn't game but just browses and watches videos, even a single-fan card is ideal for her because 90%+ of the heat and power consumption in a video card these days come from their 3D gaming accelerators. Cards that are only used for 2D video can still get away with being only passively-cooled.

The only significant differences between a 2-fan and a 3-fan model are that the 3 fans can cool while spinning more slowly so it does make them a bit quieter. They also have a greater cooling upside because of the 3 fans so they're better for overclocking. At stock settings though, they perform about the same as a 2-fan card.

Many people actively seek 2-fan cards over 3-fan cards because 3-fan cards are BIG and don't fit in a lot of PC cases. You have a full tower case which means that you can fit a triple-fan card easily but it's not a requirement. Full Tower Cases have a lot of air in them and a lot of space for unrestricted airflow. You'd be perfectly fine with either a 2-fan or a 3-fan card. If the Powercolor Fighter offers you the best price by a good amount, just get that.

Just remember that the brand-name is irrelevant because they all offer a warranty and stand behind their products.

Wow what an extensive and in depth answer, I really appreciate the effort you put in to try and help me with my decision. As far as the 6700XT is concerned, the next in stock card (with 3 fans) other than the Powercolor in my country is again a GIGABYTE but it's overpriced, about the same as the GIGABYTE 6750XT so it's definitely not worth it. So my options are either the Powercolor 6700XT or the GIGABYTE 6750XT. There's a 66 euro difference between the two, so I definitely will go for the Powercolor 6700XT. Also a little detail you probably missed in my original post is that I have a 1080p 144hz monitor, but it's alright the extra FPS won't be very noticeable with ADAPTIVE SYNC and stuff like that, so I'm gonna take your advice and go for the 6700XT. Thanks for everything, I hope you have a nice day/night!

 

[Avro Arrow]

Wow what an extensive and in depth answer, I really appreciate the effort you put in to try and help me with my decision.

I'm glad to help. I'm of the opinion that if I'm going to make a post to help someone, I'm going to go all the way and give a strong explanation of why I'm making the recommendation that I am. Having someone say "Get this card" and not say why is pretty useless IMO so I make sure to give a good explanation.

I think that a strong explanation also helps to educate the person I'm trying to help. My explanation shows how I came to the result that I did and sometimes the person I'm trying to help picks it up as a sound way to make the decision for themselves going forward. I think that's sometimes even more valuable than the recommendation that I make. It's the old "Teach a man to fish" adage in action.

As far as the 6700XT is concerned, the next in stock card (with 3 fans) other than the Powercolor in my country is again a GIGABYTE but it's overpriced, about the same as the GIGABYTE 6750XT so it's definitely not worth it.

I agree. It doesn't sound even remotely worth it.

So my options are either the Powercolor 6700XT or the GIGABYTE 6750XT. There's a 66 euro difference between the two, so I definitely will go for the Powercolor 6700XT.

I think that would be your best bet.

Also a little detail you probably missed in my original post is that I have a 1080p 144hz monitor, but it's alright the extra FPS won't be very noticeable with ADAPTIVE SYNC and stuff like that, so I'm gonna take your advice and go for the 6700XT. Thanks for everything, I hope you have a nice day/night!

You're right, I did miss your monitor's refresh rate but it wouldn't have mattered because those extra few FPS wouldn't be worth the extra Euros and as you say, you have adaptive sync.

Just in case you don't already know to do this, be sure to use DDU before you install your Adrenalin driver package to avoid any problems from remnant GeForce driver files. I would also recommend using DDU each time you update your Adrenalin drivers. I always do that and I have no stability issues with my RX 6800 XT.

It's been a pleasure and I'm glad that you're getting the most for your money. I hate it when good people get fleeced. Cheers!

 

[ProPlayerGR]

I'm glad to help. I'm of the opinion that if I'm going to make a post to help someone, I'm going to go all the way and give a strong explanation of why I'm making the recommendation that I am. Having someone say "Get this card" and not say why is pretty useless IMO so I make sure to give a good explanation.

I think that a strong explanation also helps to educate the person I'm trying to help. My explanation shows how I came to the result that I did and sometimes the person I'm trying to help picks it up as a sound way to make the decision for themselves going forward. I think that's sometimes even more valuable than the recommendation that I make. It's the old "Teach a man to fish" adage in action.

I agree. It doesn't sound even remotely worth it.

I think that would be your best bet.

You're right, I did miss your monitor's refresh rate but it wouldn't have mattered because those extra few FPS wouldn't be worth the extra Euros and as you say, you have adaptive sync.

Just in case you don't already know to do this, be sure to use DDU before you install your Adrenalin driver package to avoid any problems from remnant GeForce driver files. I would also recommend using DDU each time you update your Adrenalin drivers. I always do that and I have no stability issues with my RX 6800 XT.

It's been a pleasure and I'm glad that you're getting the most for your money. I hate it when good people get fleeced. Cheers!

Yeah I've known about DDU for a while but I've never actually used it, so I guess that will be a bit stressful haha. Should I use NVIDIA's own tool first to uninstall the drivers or go straight to DDU? As you can probably tell I'm a bit insecure about this stuff. Also last thing I can't seem to pick your answer as the best I don't know where the option is, I've been losing my head for 10 minutes trying to find it. I haven't used the forum for a long time, it used to be below a person's answer but I can't seem to find it, if you could help me with that I'd be grateful!

 

[Avro Arrow]

Yeah I've known about DDU for a while but I've never actually used it, so I guess that will be a bit stressful haha. Should I use NVIDIA's own tool first to uninstall the drivers or go straight to DDU?

No, DDU is all that you need. It has detailed instructions on how to use it. Personally, I couldn't be bothered using "safe mode" so I just run it twice. It's pretty simple:

1. Download the Radeon drivers for your card.
2. Disable/unplug your internet.
3. Run DDU
4. Select "Graphics" and choose GeForce
5. Select "Clean and Restart"
6. When your PC boots up, repeat steps 3-5
7. When your PC boots up a second time, install Radeon drivers
8. Restart your PC after the Radeon driver installation
9. When your PC boots up again, re-enable your internet.

Not too hard, eh? You will want to use DDU again when updating your Radeon drivers and the method is the same except you would select "Radeon" instead of "GeForce"

As you can probably tell I'm a bit insecure about this stuff. Also last thing I can't seem to pick your answer as the best I don't know where the option is, I've been losing my head for 10 minutes trying to find it. I haven't used the forum for a long time, it used to be below a person's answer but I can't seem to find it, if you could help me with that I'd be grateful!

I appreciate you asking this. From what I understand, each answer given will have a little trophy next to it. To choose a best answer, click the trophy next to the answer that you want to select.

 

[ProPlayerGR]

No, DDU is all that you need. It has detailed instructions on how to use it. Personally, I couldn't be bothered using "safe mode" so I just run it twice. It's pretty simple:

1. Download the Radeon drivers for your card.
2. Disable/unplug your internet.
3. Run DDU
4. Select "Graphics" and choose GeForce
5. Select "Clean and Restart"
6. When your PC boots up, repeat steps 3-5
7. When your PC boots up a second time, install Radeon drivers
8. Restart your PC after the Radeon driver installation
9. When your PC boots up again, re-enable your internet.

Not too hard, eh? You will want to use DDU again when updating your Radeon drivers and the method is the same except you would select "Radeon" instead of "GeForce"

I appreciate you asking this. From what I understand, each answer given will have a little trophy next to it. To choose a best answer, click the trophy next to the answer that you want to select.

All these steps that you listed, should I do them before or after installing the 6700XT? That's for steps 1-6.

 

[ohio_buckeye]

6700xt is a decent card. I’ve got one that I use at 1440p on a 165hz monitor and it’s even a decent 1440p gpu. I don’t know if it will last you 4 years but if it’s competing with the 4060ti which is just out, and if you are sticking to 1080p you should be good at least 2 years if not longer. And the price is good.

Powercolor is a decent card. The fighter is their entry level model but should be decent. I’ve got a 6700xt red devil. Mainly because I got it used and it was one of the cheaper options at the time. No complaints really.

 

[Avro Arrow]

All these steps that you listed, should I do them before or after installing the 6700XT? That's for steps 1-6.

I would say after. If you have a Radeon installed with GeForce drivers, the driver package won't recognise it and the Microsoft Basic Display Driver will be enabled by Windows automatically. You could theoretically wipe the drivers with the GeForce in and switch to the Radeon for the driver installation but there wouldn't be any advantage to that so I would just put the Radeon in to begin with.

 

[ProPlayerGR]

I would say after. If you have a Radeon installed with GeForce drivers, the driver package won't recognise it and the Microsoft Basic Display Driver will be enabled by Windows automatically. You could theoretically wipe the drivers with the GeForce in and switch to the Radeon for the driver installation but there wouldn't be any advantage to that so I would just put the Radeon in to begin with.

Okay then, thank you very much you have covered everything. I would select your answer as the solution but I can't find that option anywhere no matter how much I look for it, must be a bug or something. Anyway, you have greatly helped me I'll order the card tomorrow thanks for everything 😄.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Okay then, thank you very much you have covered everything. I would select your answer as the solution but I can't find that option anywhere no matter how much I look for it, must be a bug or something. Anyway, you have greatly helped me I'll order the card tomorrow thanks for everything 😄.

Hey, don't sweat it. Sure, getting a best answer is always a nice thing but I just enjoy helping people and knowing that I made a positive difference is more than enough for me. I'm glad I could help and I know that you're going to love it.

Looking up and comparing all of these tech products is actually a lot of fun for me so I figure that I may as well put this little hobby of mine to good use.