Conclusion
In this review we had the opportunity to evaluate the GIGABYTE Radeon RX 7600 GAMING OC in raster and Ray Tracing performance. We compared the performance to the ASUS Dual GeForce RTX 4060 OC Edition, which is the direct price/performance competition. So how did it go?
Performance
Well, on the raster side of things we saw the ASUS Dual GeForce RTX 4060 OC Edition dominate the results in every game except for one. This is distinctly remarkable as all through our reviews of the latest generation of video cards, AMD branded cards have generally shined in raster performance. In Cyberpunk 2077 was the GIGABYTE Radeon RX 7600 GAMING OC the faster card. There was one draw as well in Returnal. In Dying Light the overclocked GIGABYTE Radeon RX 7600 GAMING OC was the fastest, however, the default card was slower than the competition.
Still, all but one game was playable in either default or upscaled format for the GIGABYTE Radeon RX 7600 GAMING OC. Overall the performance deficit was an average of 22% in default and upscaled rasterized performance.
Moving on to Ray Tracing performance, we saw about the same performance or lack thereof. Our GIGABYTE Radeon RX 7600 GAMING OC was never the fastest card with ray tracing enabled, but given the prior reviews of RX 7000 AMD cards, we don’t expect that. The card was playable with upscaling in 3 of 6 games. Unfortunately, the performance in the other 3 games was dismal. Conversely, the ASUS Dual GeForce RTX 4060 OC Edition was playable in all 6 games with upscaling and in 2 without. The deficit margin was quite large in this category at 36%.
All in all the GIGABYTE Radeon RX 7600 GAMING OC was slower than the GeForce RTX 4060. However, keep in mind that though it was technically slower, the games were still at playable performance levels on the GIGABYTE Radeon RX 7600 GAMING OC video card. In some games, the performance was close. It really is very game-dependent. There is also a big difference in pricing and that matters.
Overclocking
Putting aside the fact that there are hard limits to what you can adjust on the GIGABYTE Radeon RX 7600 GAMING OC, it overclocked fairly well. In gaming performance, we saw an average of nearly 3% and at times in the select game over 6% better performance. Unfortunately, many times that boost didn’t help the performance much. All the while staying cool thanks to the heatsink/cooler on the card. The downside of this cooling performance unfortunately is the choice of 80mm fans. The noise from this cooler is pretty annoying once you approach 50% fan cycle. In some instances, the fans hit 70% and they were very loud and whined at a sharp pitch.
Final points
GIGABYTE has produced a very well-built video card with excellent cooling. The performance of this video card is unfortunately lacking compared to the competition, from a technical perspective. This does not imply that the GIGABYTE Radeon RX 7600 GAMING OC can’t run games at all, many of the games were playable at performance that was still enjoyable with all that said. It is game-dependent, of course.
In addition, pricing does matter at the lower price points, and the GIGABYTE Radeon RX 7600 GAMING OC will save you cash at this price segment, and one can argue that the money savings is worth it. It is currently available for $259.99 at Amazon, which is a great price, and lower than the MSRP of $269 for a factory overclocked custom video card, so there is not a price premium. Alternatively, for about $40 dollars more, you can purchase a video card that will give you better performance, and DLSS3 in a wide variety of games. GIGABYTE also has GeForce RTX 4060-based video cards available that you may want to check out.
Ultimately, it does come down to pricing, and the GIGABYTE Radeon RX 7600 GAMING OC for under MSRP is a great price for this video card. It offers great cooling, a robust build, and a factory overclock. It could be worth it for you as a video card well under $300 if you need to save the most amount of money, but still want a playable experience in games at 1080p. Make sure to check out our pricing widget for the latest online prices.
