Gameplay Performance 1440p
Though the Radeon RX 7600 XT is geared for 1080p gaming, with its 16GB of onboard VRAM, we want to test some gaming performance at 1440p and see how the cards compare. Remember, the RTX 4060 is an 8GB graphics card, while the 7600 XT is a 16GB graphics card. We want to see if the Radeon RX 7600 XT can be playable at 1440p. On this page, we are going to focus on the 1440p gameplay performance with the SAPPHIRE PULSE Radeon RX 7600 XT 16GB video card. We will include DLSS and FSR performance on the same graph in the games that are supported shown in the Upscaling Bar, DLSS for NVIDIA, and FSR for AMD.
Horizon Forbidden West
Horizon Forbidden West was released to the PC on March 21st, 2024, and uses the Decima game engine. The game supports the full suite of Upscaling technologies, including DLSS, FSR, and XeSS. It also supports DLAA and DLSS 3 Frame Generation. For testing, we use the Preset of “Very High” and then manually enable the highest 16X Anisotropic filtering, this provides the highest possible graphics settings for testing. We use a manual run-through about two hours into the game, in the open world traveling from point to point, with machines along the way, through a desert scene, forest, and village.
In Horizon Forbidden West we are testing at 1440p with the highest possible graphics settings. The SAPPHIRE PULSE Radeon RX 7600 XT provides about 50FPS average FPS at 1440p. Now, your gut instinct may be to say this is not playable, but when you play on this video card the performance was actually smooth, without hitching or odd slowdowns. This cannot be said for the GeForce RTX 4060 OC, which despite the 44FPS framerate, it suffered from bad hitching, pausing, and slowdowns while playing the game at 1440p with these highest settings. It also continued to suffer using DLSS upscaling, though the framerate increased, the greater demand on the 8GB framebuffer meant a choppy experience.
The SAPPHIRE PULSE Radeon RX 7600 XT on the other hand, did not suffer from a choppy experience with or without FSR upscaling. Turning on FSR upscaling got us to that 60FPS framerate, and the game continued to play smoothly with no odd slowdowns while playing. That 16GB of VRAM was coming through. Overall this meant, by the numbers, the SAPPHIRE PULSE Radeon RX 7600 XT is 14% faster than the RTX 4060 OC, but really the experience cannot be quantified, it was miles ahead on the SAPPHIRE PULSE Radeon RX 7600 XT at 1440p, and in playable territory. FSR helped to improve performance by 24% and overclocking improved performance by 6%.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora was released in December of 2023 and is based on an updated Snowdrop engine. This engine supports real-time ray tracing, and Avatar Frontiers of Pandora is unique in that it supports hardware ray tracing turned on by default, with no options to disable it. If a video card doesn’t support ray tracing, it falls back to a software ray tracing mode. With ray tracing baked in, all the results shown reflect the use of ray-traced global illumination, ray-traced reflections, and ray-traced shadows, these are always on. We utilize the graphics quality preset option of “Ultra.” We use the built-in benchmark.
In Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora 1440p killed performance on every video card here. Technically the RTX 4060 OC is faster, but not really. This game was unplayable even with upscaling, on each one. We would need to apply a more aggressive upscaling, such as Balanced or Performance to get playable performance at 1440p.
Alan Wake 2
Alan Wake 2 was launched on the PC in October of 2023 and is based on the Northlight Engine. The game supports detailed graphics and ray tracing with path tracing support. This game defaults to DLSS or FSR but does allow Native AA resolution settings with DLSS or FSR respectively. We utilize the graphics presets to set High quality, as well as the Ray Tracing presets to set Low or High quality. We use a manual run-through in the Initiation 5: Room 665 chapter.
In Alan Wake 2 at 1440p, this game was also challenging for performance. Clearly, though, the SAPPHIRE PULSE Radeon RX 7600 XT has a performance advantage over the GeForce RTX 4060 OC by 11%. This game is another example where the game felt smoother on the SAPPHIRE PULSE Radeon RX 7600 XT due to the 16GB of VRAM, especially with upscaling enabled. With FSR upscaling enabled the SAPPHIRE PULSE Radeon RX 7600 XT was very playable at 64FPS average, and had no slowdowns or hitching.
Assassin’s Creed Mirage
Assassin’s Creed Mirage was released in October of 2023 and is based on the Ubisoft Anvil game engine. We are using the “Ultra High” graphics quality preset, and all adaptive framerate measures are disabled. We use the built-in benchmark.
Assassins’s Creed Mirage actually ran well at 1440p on both video cards. The SAPPHIRE PULSE Radeon RX 7600 XT and RTX 4060 OC seem to be evenly matched, even with upscaling.
Starfield
Starfield was released on the PC in September of 2023 and is based on the Creation Engine 2. We are using the highest Ultra settings in the game for all testing, and upscaling is disabled for standard testing, with no dynamic resolution. We use a manual run-through in the New Atlantis area encompassing all areas.
Yep, Starfield is unplayable really on both video cards here. Technically the SAPPHIRE PULSE Radeon RX 7600 XT ran better at 13% faster, and it was smoother. However even with FSR upscaling it barely managed to hit 50FPS. You would need to drop the FSR upscaling quality level here to maybe 50% to get it to perform above 60FPS, which is doable. The game did run a little smoother on the SAPPHIRE PULSE Radeon RX 7600 XT, with less hitching.
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 unlocked framerate, and everything is enabled except ray tracing, we have screen-space reflections on. We use the built-in benchmark.
In Returnal performance wasn’t too bad, the SAPPHIRE PULSE Radeon RX 7600 XT and RTX 4060 OC seem to be evenly matched. We do see FSR upscaling performance take a greater lead, however.
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 use the built-in benchmark.
As we mentioned on both previous pages, in Forspoken this game is very VRAM sensitive. The SAPPHIRE PULSE Radeon RX 7600 XT is 35% faster than the RTX 4060 OC and runs a lot smoother. You will still need FSR Upscaling to be playable, but that does provide a 36% performance increase. Overclocking the SAPPHIRE PULSE Radeon RX 7600 XT improves performance by 6%.
Chernobylite Enhanced Edition
Chernobylite, based on Unreal Engine 4, was released on the PC in 2021, but the 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. It supports upscaling, and we use the highest quality. We use the built-in benchmark.
In Chernobylite Enhanced Edition the video cards perform well at 1440p. The GeForce RTX 4060 OC is the winner here at 16% advantage. Overclocking the SAPPHIRE PULSE Radeon RX 7600 XT improves performance by 4%.
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. We use the built-in preset to set “HIGH QUALITY” which sets the highest game graphics, without Ray Tracing. We manually enable DX12 and ASYNC Compute. We use the built-in benchmark.
In Dying Light 2 the video cards are actually very playable. The SAPPHIRE PULSE Radeon RX 7600 XT is 6% faster than the RTX 4060 OC at 1440p. Upscaling improves performance by 39%. Overclocking improves performance by 6%.
Cyberpunk 2077
Cyberpunk 2077 was released in December 2020 and uses the REDengine 4. We have the game patched to version 2.0 and utilize the built-in benchmark. We test using the Graphics Preset option to set graphics settings to “Ultra”. We utilize the highest quality upscaling.
Cyberpunk 2077 is demanding at 1440p, and the GeForce RTX 4060 OC suffers the most. The SAPPHIRE PULSE Radeon RX 7600 XT is 16% faster and almost completely playable. With FSR Upscaling performance increases by 32%. Overclocking improves performance by 5%.