We weren’t expecting to hear much about AMD’s graphics cards in January, but a new rumor suggests we’ll see a new GPU in just a few weeks. AMD is prepping the RX 7600 XT, according to Benchlife’s sources (via VideoCardz). It’s apparently an updated version of AMD’s budget-focused RX 7600, sporting more VRAM and perhaps a better die.
To understand the rumored card, we have to look at the RX 7600 we already have. It’s an 8GB graphics card based on the Navi 33 GPU. The card already maxes out the capabilities of the GPU with 32 Compute Units (CUs), equaling 2,048 cores. If AMD is preparing an RX 7600 XT, there are two possibilities. Either it will use the same maxed-out Navi 33 GPU or a stripped-down version of the Navi 32 GPU we see in cards like the RX 7800 XT and RX 7700 XT. Hopefully, the latter is true. Although the RX 7600 is a solid 1080p graphics card, it remains about 30% slower than the next step up in AMD’s lineup.
The rumors strongly suggest an upgrade to the memory spec. The RX 7600 uses 8GB of memory on a 128-bit bus, while the XT version is rumored to come either with 10GB on a 160-bit bus or 12GB on a 192-bit bus. That extra VRAM could make a big difference in demanding titles like The Last of Us Part One, where the base RX 7600 performs poorly due to its memory interface.
Although the RX 7600 XT is rumored to launch next month, we might not see it at CES. Current speculation says AMD will announce the card on January 22 and release it on January 24. This aligns with what we’ve heard about Nvidia’s RTX 40-series Super refresh, rumored to release throughout January.
If the RX 7600 XT is real, it’s an interesting counter to Nvidia’s rumored Super refresh. Based on reports we’ve seen so far, Nvidia is prepping an RTX 4080, RTX 4070 Ti, and RTX 4070 for its Super refresh, all of which are cards above the $500 mark. The RX 7600 XT will likely sit around $300 with far lower performance. It might be a case of AMD competing in a space where Nvidia doesn’t have strong answers, as the existing RTX 4060 was a rather disappointing release for Team Green.
There’s a lot we still don’t know about the RX 7600 XT, however. Leakers are only pinning down a January announcement and the memory configuration for now, so we’ll have to wait to see what else AMD has to share about the card. AMD has confirmed it will be at CES this year, but it hasn’t announced a formal event or keynote. It may hold the announcement of the RX 7600 XT, if the card is real at all, until after the CES rush is over.
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