AMD RX 6700 XT review: ray-tracing performance

We have the results of testing in three ray tracing enabled titles to share with you today: Control, Metro Exodus and Battlefield 5. AMD's first-generation RT hardware couldn't compete against Nvidia's second-generation tech in our previous Big Navi reviews, but how does the RX 6700 XT fare? We're testing each game at 1440p, as this normally offers the best combination between image quality and high frame-rates for mainstream GPUs. Note that while all three games feature DLSS on Nvidia cards, this has been left disabled to give our AMD Radeon cards a fair fight.

Control

Control is the perfect showcase for ray tracing features on PC, so we suggest you take a look at Alex Battaglia's video deep dive to see how much RT can make a difference when it's done right. The game includes individual settings for ray traced global illumination, reflections and shadows - pretty much all of the RT features available - and each has a significant cost. Of course, we've ticked all the boxes here for a truly challenging workload. Given the challenge AMD hardware has with Control even with the RT effects disabled, it's perhaps not a surprise to see the RX 6700 XT turn in the worst result of all the cards in our comparison, including the last-gen RTX 2070 and mainstream RTX 3060. In fact, the 3060 holds a 14 per cent advantage; the 3060 Ti's is 54 per cent and the 3070's is a whopping 73 per cent. Broadly speaking, the 25fps average here is not really playable; you'd have to turn down effects elsewhere to even get a solid 30fps, and there's no DLSS alternative to provide a much-needed boost. We'll have to see if AMD's next-gen RT implementation is any better, but for now Nvidia is the clear winner if you're interested in playing games with ray tracing enabled.

Metro Exodus

We return to the fire and flames to the Metro Exodus standalone benchmark, this time with RT global illumination and emissives enabled. The RX 6700 XT is able to beat out the RTX 3060 and RTX 2070 here, but the 3060 Ti and 3070 retain a healthy advantage (roughly 33 per cent and 50 per cent, respectively). Compared to the RX 6800, the 6700 XT manages 80 per cent of the frame-rate in this test.

Battlefield 5

Battlefield 5 only uses RT reflections, making it a relatively light RT workload, but it still proves a stern test for AMD's latest graphics hardware. To wit, the RX 6700 XT is nominally the worst-performing graphics card we've tested in our run through the opening seconds of Battlefield 5's Tirailleur war story, averaging just 52fps at 1440p - and there's no option for DLSS to boost this average higher, something that is possible on Nvidia hardware. That puts the RX 6700 XT just behind the RTX 3060 and the RTX 2070, the two lowest-scoring RTX cards in our comparison. The RTX 3060 Ti provides nearly 1.4 times the RT performance, while the RTX 3070 delivers more than 1.5 times. Compared to the RX 6800, the 6700 XT does manage a decent 83 per cent of its performance, meaning the two cards offer equivalent value in this RT workload.

So: the RX 6700 XT's RT abilities are there, but AMD's first-gen design is definitely behind Nvidia's second-gen efforts, at least in the selection of titles we tested. It's worth noting that AMD's review materials do show an advantage for the RX 6700 XT against the 3070 in World of WarCraft Shadowlands, but that's the only example they can find an advantage in. For now then, RT remains a distinct advantage for Nvidia, especially as AMD's answer to DLSS hasn't yet been cleared for launch.

AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT Analysis

• Introduction, Hardware and Power Analysis
• Doom Eternal, Control, Borderlands 3, Shadow of the Tomb Raider - Game Benchmarks Part 1
• Death Stranding, Far Cry 5, Hitman 2, Assassin's Creed Odyssey - Game Benchmarks Part 2
• Metro Exodus, Dirt Rally 2, Assassin's Creed Unity, Assassin's Creed Valhalla - Game Benchmarks Part 3
• RT Game Benchmarks - Control, Metro Exodus, Battlefield 5 [This Page]
• Resizeable BAR Testing - Watch Dogs Legion, Battlefield 5, Metro Exodus
• AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT - the Digital Foundry verdict