Power and Temperature
To test the power and temperature we perform a manual run-through in Cyberpunk 2077 at “Ultra” settings for real-world in-game data. We use GPUz sensor data to record the results. We report on the GPUz sensor data for “Board Power” and “GPU Chip Power” when available for our Wattage data.
Total Board Power is not a reading that is available in GPUz on AMD video cards. The sensor data that is available on both to compare here is GPU Chip Power Draw, but just now this is just the GPU, not the whole board.
The AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT GPU seems to consume the most power, as much as the Radeon RX 5700 XT. Of course, we saw performance improvements of 20-30%, so we are getting more performance for the same power demand. This actually lines up with the quoted TDP of the video cards. The Radeon RX 5700 XT has a quoted TDP of 225W, and the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT is quoted at 230W. Therefore we are getting more performance than power increase, which means the Radeon RX 6700 XT is much more power-efficient when compared to the Radeon RX 5700 XT. That shows improvement from the last generation.
Compared to the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti though, it is clear that the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is more efficient than the Radeon RX 6700 XT. In our review, the two video cards were neck and neck, sometimes the Radeon RX 6700 XT was on top. However, the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti’s GPU is using 11% less power. Therefore it’s providing similar performance or experience, but at less of a power demand. The same is also true for the GeForce RTX 3070. It was faster in every game but uses 7% less power. Therefore the GeForce RTX 3070 is also more efficient than the Radeon RX 6700 XT.
Temperature-wise, the new AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT is running cooler than the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT. The Radeon RX 5700 XT ran real hot, as you can see, but the new design on the Radeon RX 6700 XT is paying off big time. Its temperature is only a couple degrees over the RTX 3070. The design is sound, but it is clear that power and temperature are both higher on Radeon RX 6700 XT compared to the competition. Naturally, custom add-in-board manufacturer custom cards will behave differently with custom PCBs, power delivery, and cooling.