AMD Radeon RX 7600 Video Card Review

Gameplay Performance – 1080p Ray Tracing

We are going to focus on the 1080p gameplay performance with Ray Tracing with the Radeon RX 7600 on this page. We will include DLSS and FSR performance on the same graph in the games that are supported.  We will use DLSS on NVIDIA GPUs and FSR on AMD GPUs.  For video card comparisons we are using a GeForce RTX 3060 12GB and Radeon RX 6600.

Returnal

Returnal was launched on the PC in February of 2023 and is based on Unreal Engine 4. The game supports real-time ray tracing effects, particle systems, and volumetric rendering. We utilize the graphics preset to set EPIC graphics settings with an unlocked framerate, and everything is enabled. For ray tracing tests we have enabled Ray Traced Shadows and Reflections at EPIC settings. We use the built-in benchmark.

Now we are pushing Ray Tracing on the new Radeon RX 7600 at 1080p, to really test it out. In Returnal at 1080p with EPIC Ray Tracing the Radeon RX 7600 doesn’t really seem to offer a great playable experience, the RTX 3060 is better. However, we find there to be a generational increase in Ray Tracing performance. The new Radeon RX 7600 offers a 28% performance upgrade over the previous generation Radeon RX 6600. Therefore Ray Tracing performance has improved in this game, but we do find that the RTX 3060 12GB outperforms it at Ray Tracing by 12% in performance. FSR can add performance and make the game playable though with Ray Tracing, FSR improves performance by 51% and takes it to average 77FPS and is very playable.

Forspoken

Forspoken was released on January 24th, 2023, on the PC and uses the Luminous Engine. The game supports all upscaling methods and Ray Tracing. We are going to customize the settings and enable the highest graphics settings, including Ultra High Texture Memory. We are going to enable both Ray Tracing options, Shadows, and Ambient Occlusion. We use the built-in benchmark.

In Forspoken, turning on Ray Tracing at 1080p is definitely not playable on the new Radeon RX 7600, just as it was on the Radeon RX 6600. Even turning on FSR won’t save performance here, even with FSR it is still not playable. We do see that the Radeon RX 7600 has improved in performance by 46% over the Radeon RX 6600, which is pretty large. However, the GeForce RTX 3060 12GB clearly has the performance advantage with Ray Tracing by outperforming the Radeon RX 7600 by 40%. You still need to utilize DLSS on the RTX 3060 12GB to make it playable, however, but at least you can with that card, and you just cannot on the Radeon RX 7600 in this game without lowering game settings.

The Callisto Protocol

The Callisto Protocol was released in December of 2022 on the PC and is based on Unreal Engine 4. We run the game in DX12 mode with unlimited framerate, and all graphics settings enabled and at the highest graphics settings. This game supports ray tracing, and FSR upscaling only, we use FSR2 for testing. For Ray Tracing we enable Ray Traced Shadows, Ray Traced Transmission, and Ray Traced Reflections to High. We use the built-in benchmark.

In The Callisto Protocol, we have all the Ray Tracing options enabled at the highest values. The AMD Radeon RX 7600 is remarkably playable at 1080p with these highest Ray Tracing settings without needing upscaling. We find that it performs 36% faster than the previous generation Radeon RX 6600, which is a nice upgrade in performance. In fact, it even beats the GeForce RTX 3060 12GB by 23% and outperforms it with playable performance. FSR adds 45% more performance and allows the game to be playable at 80FPS with Ray Tracing.

Chernobylite Enhanced Edition

Chernobylite was released on the PC in 2021, but the free Enhanced Edition update for the game was released in April 2022. The Enhanced Edition provides a visual overhaul of the game with better textures, plus introduces tessellation and ray tracing features. It features raytraced reflections, raytraced translucency, raytraced caustics, and raytraced dynamic diffuse global illumination. The game is based on Unreal Engine 4. For our Ray Tracing test, we have enabled the Ultra Ray Tracing option.

In Chernobylite Enhanced Edition, turning on Ray Tracing, especially on “Ultra” includes Global Illumination, and it is very graphically intense. This is a game, and setting, that greatly pushes Ray Tracing hard and tests the capabilities of Ray Tracing very well. This is where we see the Radeon RX 7600 fail pretty hard in Ray Tracing performance. In fact, even the GeForce RTX 3060 12GB is unplayable and requires DLSS to have playable performance.

The fact is, the Radeon RX 7600 is incredibly bottlenecked in Ray Tracing performance given all the features Ray Tracing enables in this particular game. It’s about 3% faster than the Radeon RX 6600 when using Ray Traced Global Illumination. Even FSR cannot save performance here. The GeForce RTX 3060 Ti 12GB is 147% faster, and this could be a combination of better Tay Tracing performance, and a higher capacity framebuffer. That said, you still need DLSS on the RTX 3060 to actually play the game with it enabled.

Dying Light 2

Dying Light 2 was released in February 2022 on the PC and uses Techland’s C-Engine. The game supports Ray Tracing, DLSS, and FSR2.  This game supports Ray Tracing environmental effects including Ray Traced Soft Shadows, Ray Traced Ambient Occlusion, Ray Traced Global Illumination, and Ray Traced Reflections.  We utilize the built-in preset option to set “HIGH-QUALITY RAYTRACING” which enables the game’s highest graphics settings plus the environmental effects explained above at the highest values.  The game is run in DX12 Ultimate mode with ASYNC Compute turned on.  We use the built-in benchmark.

In Dying Light 2 the Radeon RX 7600 is not playable with High Quality Ray Tracing at 1080p, though it does provide 29% performance over the previous generation. The GeForce RTX 3060 12GB ends up being 15% faster than the Radeon RX 7600. Using upscaling, we can actually get playable performance on the Radeon RX 7600 with FSR which brings it up to 60FPS with Ray Tracing, so the game is smooth and playable at that point.

Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk 2077 was released in December 2020 and uses the REDengine 4. We have the game patched to version 1.62 and use the built-in benchmark. We test using the Graphics Preset option to set graphics settings.  We use the Ray Tracing Graphics Preset of either: “Ray Tracing: Low”, or “Ray Tracing: Medium” or “Ray Tracing: Ultra” as indicated. This game supports DLSS and FSR2.

Cyberpunk 2077 is naturally incredibly graphically intense with “Ultra” Ray Tracing, even at 1080p. None of the video cards here are playable, and only the GeForce RTX 3060 12GB with DLSS comes the closest to playable. The Radeon RX 7600 is 20% faster than the Radeon RX 6600, and the RTX 3060 12GB is 66% faster than the RX 7600.

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