ASRock Radeon RX 7600 XT Steel Legend 16GB OC Graphics Card

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Reviewing the Radeon RX 7600 XT is like returning to the original Radeon RX 7600 I covered last year, to the point that most of what I said back then still applies here too. The RX 7600 was a great entry-level 1080p GPU that ticked the essential boxes for most 1080p / 1440p needs but struggled when it came to maxing out graphically intense games.

AMD addresses some of those complaints with a minor clock speed boost and doubling the GDDR6 VRAM memory from 8GB to 16GB, both nice improvements but not necessarily game-changers. Still, will they be enough to convince you to spend the extra money for them?

Again, it’s not the most powerful option within the RDNA3 lineup, or even the cheapest, but there are small improvements worth considering. For reference, we’ll be looking at the ASRock RX 7600 XT Steel Legend 16GB OC, a medium-sized unit that would love to be your go-to budget option.

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Styling and Specifications

This Radeon RX 7600 XT comes in at a length of 11.97in (304mm), 5.16in (131mm) height and a relatively lightweight of just 2.08lbs (945g). Instead of metal and aluminum materials making up the outer body, there’s an extensive use of plastic for the front shroud and metal backplate featuring both a industrial and mecha-camouflage motif. The all-white exterior is complimented with ARGB lighting that showcases the triple fan design. This is really an attractive GPU, if that matters.

Like other AIB brands, ASRock has their own uniquely branded suite of physical and software features. The exterior features striped Axial Fans that offer enhanced airflow for each blade, and 0dB Silent Cooling where the fans stop spinning and remain quiet when operating temperatures don’t require active cooling.

There are more ways to keep this GPU cool under pressure underneath the shell, with machined core piping engineered to better spread heat away from the GPU, and strategical placement of thermal on internal board components that requires 190W to operate, a relatively power-hungry unit with two 8-pin PCI-E connectors.

All variants of the Radeon RX 7600 XT will meet base specifications, so expect 32 computing units, 32 ray accelerators, 64 AI accelerators, and 2048 stream processors along with the same bandwidth of 288 GB/s with 32MB of AMD Infinity Cache. Nearly all specs carried over from current RX 7600, except for the already mentioned 16GB/128-bit GDDR6 VRAM count, doubled from 8GB, along with effective bandwidth of 477GB/s (versus 476.8GB/s).

Core clocks are at 2470MHz for game frequency and up to 2755MHz for boost. However, ASRock turns things up a notch on their AIB with a typical (dubbed Game) clock of 2539MHz and maximum 2810MHz boost respectively.

You won’t be hurting for connectivity with one HDMI 2.1a and three DisplayPort 2.1 ports with HDCP 2.3 (some non-AMD reference models may be equipped with DisplayPort 1.4a), which are theoretically capable of achieving VRR and maximum pixel resolutions of 4K@120Hz (4096 x 2160) and 8K@60Hz with DSC enabled (7860 x 4320).

Of course, other AMD enhancements such as AV1 encoding which brings direct streaming capabilities, FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR 2.0/2.1), Radeon Anti-Lag, FreeSync and Radeon Super Resolution which grants universal and/or virtual FSR upscaling to any game that doesn’t support it natively. All these features are accessible through AMD’s Adrenalin software suite and allows for extensive customization, rivaling NVIDIA if you’re a content creator and need a streamlined way of recording material for YouTube, Twitch or Kick platforms.

Test Build

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 8700G processor
• RAM: G.SKILL Trident Z5 Neo RGB DDR5-6400 32GB (16GBx2)
• Motherboard: Gigabyte AORUS B650 ELITE AX ICE ATX
• PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 G+, 80Plus Gold 1000W
• HDD/SSD: 1TB Samsung 980 Pro MVne PCIe 4×4
• CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U12A 120MM Cooler

*Example build is intended to match relevant PC configurations. Components may be independently sourced or provided by manufacturers for evaluation purposes.

Gaming Performance

AMD has said that this RDNA3 GPU is meant to achieve a few things: be affordable and offer at the very least a smooth and unhindered 1080p gaming experience. Ultimately, it’s their second cheapest entry-level choice upgrading from GeForce GTX Pascal or Radeon 400 Polaris GPUs – quite a jump even by budgeted standards.

But the 7600 XT was also made to address a certain type of desktop user: those worried about buying an ill-equipped GPU for more demanding VRAM requirements and future titles, yet forced to work within a tighter budget. Basically, AMD took a move from NVIDIA’s playbook and delivered a stopgap product like the 16GB GeForce RTX 4060 Ti.

Like the vanilla RX 7600 before it, I decided to focus and update my testing with WQHD (1440p) resolutions in mind. For nearly all intents and purposes the RX 7600 XT does perform better and thrives outputting 1080p at 60fps for titles like Street Fighter 6 and TEKKEN 8, while Fortnite, Overwatch 2 and Rocket League can easily reach 200fps on ultra settings and over 300fps on high presets. For single-player games in 1080p, most played perfectly fine between 75-100fps between a mix from High to Ultra setting, except for Cyberpunk 2077 that often dipped below 60fps before enabling FSR.

In my review for the Radeon RX 7600 I talked about FSR performance in detail and all of that applies here with the RX 7600 XT. Again, I’m seeing the same results with supersampling being mildly effective for lower-end GPUs. In my opinion, the benefits of enabling FSR upscaling outweigh the disadvantages while in 1440p/QWHD for a 5-10% fps gain.

As a reminder, supersampling – regardless what it’s called (i.e. NVIDIA DLSS or Intel XeSS) – tends to work wonders and results are noticeably better, so getting 4K-like quality from a 1440p/QWHD image while obtaining those extra frames yield moderately good results.

8GB VRAM vs. 16GB VRAM

But the real benefit of the RX 7600 XT is the added bump of 16GB GDDR6, with AMD touting an overall 9.8% GPU clock advantage over the 8GB RX 7600. For optimization, the additional VRAM does make a difference up to 24% improvement in speed. That’s a decent jump but the results seem to benefit just a handful of games that are poised to take proper advantage of it across the board. Cyberpunk 2077, Forza Motorsport (2023), Resident Evil 4 Remake (2023) and Hogwarts Legacy are some titles that showed at least moderate gains in standard 1080p high/ultra settings or 1440p with FSR enabled.

But is 16GB GDDR6 a radical improvement across the board? From my testing and type of usage, it’s a stretch to expect anything more than a slight uptick when pitted against the cheapest of the cheap. The main issue is that memory bandwidth/interface and clock speeds aren’t set up like they are in other higher end 16GB (RX 7800 XT), 12GB (RX 7700 XT), and even a couple of 10GB GDDR6X GPU variants (GeForce RTX 3080) from a generation ago. Those either have 256-bit or 384-bit interfaces and run faster outright better performance.

Conclusion: Tentatively Better For the Future?

Is the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT, or more specifically the ASRock RX 7600 XT Steel Legend 16GB OC, worth your time and money? Overall “yes”, if you’re upgrading from an much older GPU from few generations past. AMD is trying to convince people that the additional VRAM will help make some tangible difference in graphically-intensive AAA games—or (more likely) a quick response to the lackluster criticisms from the vanilla RX 7600 with acceptable results. That said, the RX 7600 XT is a good GPU, albeit one geared towards budget gamers riddled with FOMO.