Conclusion
This past May 2022, AMD refreshed the Radeon RX 6000 line with some new Radeon RX xx50 series GPUs. AMD launched the Radeon RX 6650 XT, the Radeon RX 6750 XT, and the RX 6950 XT. None of these video cards actually bring any Compute Unit differences or VRAM capacity differences. They all only provide higher GPU clock frequencies and memory clock frequencies compared to their previous xx00 counterparts.
The Radeon RX 6650 XT is unique, as it replaced the Radeon RX 6600 XT completely. However, that is not so for the Radeon RX 6750 XT. The Radeon RX 6750 XT will sit alongside the Radeon RX 6700 XT in the product stack, and that is how it will remain, AMD will provide both options. Therefore the only difference is that the Radeon RX 6750 XT runs faster and has a higher MSRP, $549 versus $479 on the RX 6700 XT.
The Radeon RX 6750 XT has a Game Clock of 2495MHz, and a GPU Boost clock of 2600MHz, versus the Radeon RX 6700 XT at 2424MHz and Boost of 2581MHz. That is not a very large difference in GPU Clock. The other difference is the memory, the new Radeon RX 6750 XT has a memory clock speed of 18GHz while the memory runs at 16GHz on the Radeon RX 6700 XT.
In today’s review, we took our first look at the Radeon RX 6750 XT with the custom retail SAPPHIRE NITRO+ AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT GAMING OC 12GB video card. This video card features a very robust design, with a custom PCB and SAPPHIRE TRI-X Cooling Solution. It also has a factory overclock, bringing the Game Clock to 2554MHz and the GPU Boost Clock up to 2623MHz, pushing the RX 6750 XT. The video card is an enthusiast video card, with overclocking in mind geared for the 1440p gameplay experience. The NITRO+ variant is SAPPHIRE’s top-of-the-line model sporting the RX 6750 XT.
Performance
In our review today, our goal was to look at what kind of 1440p gameplay experience the SAPPHIRE NITRO+ Radeon RX 6750 XT offered, and how it differs from the Radeon RX 6700 XT in performance. We also cranked it up to the max with overclocking to see what that allows and what we could squeeze out of it. There are other GPUs that we know you want to see it compared against, so stay tuned, we have further “vs” type of articles planned for the future, so stay tuned to the website.
Starting with Dying Light 2, we found that the SAPPHIRE NITRO+ Radeon RX 6750 XT allowed us to play the game extremely well at 1440p with the highest graphics settings, sans Ray Tracing. We could crank the game up to the highest settings, use DX12 and Async, and achieved 72FPS average performance which was super smooth. You can actually max this game out at 1440p on this video card, without Ray Tracing, at 1440p. That is very impressive and gets well above 60FPS. With the video card overclocked it can reach even higher, to 76FPS average. In addition, if you use FSR that jumps to 100FPS! This card is great for this game at 1440p.
In Rainbow Six Extraction the SAPPHIRE NITRO+ Radeon RX 6750 XT allowed us to play at the highest possible in-game settings at 1440p at a whopping 132FPS. If you want fast performance and low latency for this game, that framerare should certainly please. If you overclock the video card that goes up to 136FPS, there is no problem maxing this game out at 1440p on the RX 6750 XT. Forza Horizon 5 also performed at 1440p at the maximum game settings on the SAPPHIRE NITRO+. We were able to play at a whopping 91FPS with the highest possible settings, plus the new TAA option introduced in the latest patch. The game was super smooth.
Far Cry 6 was also able to be played at 1440p with the highest in-game settings enabled, plus HD Textures installed. The game ran at 100FPS with all this turned on, and the gameplay was just super smooth. It’s really a high level of gameplay. Cyberpunk 2077 was naturally burdened, and at “Ultra” the game was borderline playable with the card overclocked. You’ll probably still want to enable FSR at 1440p on the RX 6750 XT, but doing so will get you over 70FPS and the game will be smooth at the highest settings.
MS Flight Sim 2020 was very playable at the highest settings at 1440p, providing 47FPS average. Watch Dogs Legion was also playable at the highest settings on the SAPPHIRE NITRO+ at 1440p and “Ultra” settings at 77FPS, which was super smooth. Overclocking brought us to over 80FPS.
Ray Tracing Performance
On its Ray Tracing performance, most games do need to be dropped down to 1080p, and even then the Ray Tracing setting also needs to be dropped down to a “Medium” level, to be playable. In Dying Light 2 dropping to 1080p and “Medium,” Ray Tracing was not really playable until we overclocked the card and or used FSR. Unfortunately, FSR at 1080p does not look very good. Cyberpunk 2077 was also very demanding, and even at 1080p and “Medium” Ray Tracing the game was not playable unless we used FSR, and then it did not look very good with FSR.
Far Cry 6 did better with Ray Tracing, in fact very well. We were actually able to play at 1440p, Ray Tracing, HD Textures very smoothly at 83FPS, so this is one game where Ray Tracing does really well on AMD Radeon GPUs, it is playable and useable. In Watch Dogs Legion at 1080p and “Ultra” Ray Tracing the game was on the border of playability with the card overclocked. You’d probably want to drop the Ray Tracing quality down a notch though. Finally, Metro Exodus Enhanced, even at 1080p wasn’t playable at the highest Ray Tracing setting, you’d need to lower it quite a bit in this game on the RX 6750 XT even at 1080p.
Overall Performance Summary
Overall, without Ray Tracing, every game here was playable at the highest in-game settings at 1440p, except for Cyberpunk 2077 which needed FSR to be playable. Not only that but also every game, except Cyberpunk, performed at the highest settings at 1440p also with very high framerates. It wasn’t like we were on the edge of being playable here with this card, it actually provided over 60FPS performance at these highest settings in these games at 1440p. That is just a phenomenal gaming experience out of the SAPPHIRE NITRO+ Radeon RX 6750 XT.
When it comes to Ray Tracing though, that is going to be a mixed bag. In games that take advantage of Ray Tracing well on AMD Radeon hardware, it may not be that bad. Far Cry 6 is an example where it was very playable at 1440p and the highest settings. There may be other games like Dirt 5, and Godfall. But with most games, you are probably going to find yourself having to lower to 1080p resolution, and then also lower the Ray Tracing quality to at least Medium or even a Low setting, to be playable. FSR at 1080p is not really an option, it looks very bad, FSR at 1440p is much more preferred if you are going to use FSR.
Overclocking
Overclocking the SAPPHIRE NITRO+ Radeon RX 6750 XT video card was very easy. Though SAPPHIRE TriXX does not support overclocking, we could easily turn to AMD Radeon Software built into the drivers and we were able to control the video card just fine from there. We were delighted to see such a high Power Target allowance, up to 15% which gave us some good headroom on power. However, we were locked to a very low memory overclock, it locked us to a maximum of 18.5GHz memory overclock, versus 18GHz. We are confident the memory could physically overclock higher, if only we were allowed to push it more. It could have provided a higher performance gain.
At any rate, we did have plenty of headroom in the GPU overclocking, as we were not able to max out the slider. We found it sitting pretty at 2900MHz max frequency. In our testing, this brought the GPU frequency up to 2870MHz on average from the default 2730MHz. Already this video card gave us a very high GPU frequency averaging 2730MHz, even though the GPU Boost is set at 2623MHz. This is a good sign, it shows that SAPPHIRE’s custom PCB, power delivery, and thermal solution is allowing the GPU to boost up as far as possible, beyond the GPU Boost clock. The overclocking headroom wasn’t too bad then, considering. Though we do think we could have squeezed more performance if we were able to push that RAM harder.
Final Points
The SAPPHIRE NITRO+ AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT GAMING OC 12GB video card is a very robust, and fast out-of-box RX 6750 XT video card. In our review, it allowed the highest in-game settings at 1440p allowing for a high-level 1440p gameplay experience. It did this with very high framerates. It struggled with Ray Tracing, though some compromise can be found at 1080p, or in games that utilize Ray Tracing well on AMD Radeon GPUs.
When looking at the performance difference compared to the Radeon RX 6700 XT, we find that it performed between 6-8% faster on average than the Radeon RX 6700 XT depending on the game. That is the difference between the RX 6700 XT and RX 6750 XT in the best-case scenario with a factory overclocked card. When we overclocked the SAPPHIRE NITRO+ we received another 6% performance boost on average, making the difference between the Radeon RX 6700 XT grow to over 11% consistently.
Overall, the Radeon RX 6750 XT doesn’t seem to offer as much as we had hoped in terms of performance advantage versus the Radeon RX 6700 XT. It’s a rather small bump in performance and creates a very narrow segmentation in this range of video cards. A higher GPU clock and memory clock can only do so much, and AMD gave it a rather conservative bump in GPU Clock speed. If AMD was replacing the RX 6700 XT, it would make more sense in the market, but the fact that it will sit alongside the RX 6700 XT and both will be offered, muddies up the waters. It is what it is, but the higher MSRP is a hard pill to swallow.
At the end of the day, SAPPHIRE has built a very enthusiast-friendly video card, that has appeal. SAPPHIRE’s configuration is able to push the GPU frequency out-of-box well past the GPU Boost, so you are getting a very fast out-of-box RX 6750 XT-based GPU and performance for an RX 6750 XT. It also has headroom left for overclocking, and overclocking does yield benefits to performance. The SAPPHIRE NITRO+ cooling solution keeps the video card well cooled, and quiet. If you are in the market for a Radeon RX 6750 XT and want a little bit more in the 1440p gaming space, this video card should do it, but be prepared to pay the premium, it isn’t cheap at $679.99.