AMD Radeon RX 570 vs AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The data paints a decisive picture: the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT wins all four head-to-head benchmark comparisons, with no tests favoring the RX 570. The largest gap appears in Geekbench Metal, where the RX 6700 XT scores 130,896 against the RX 570's 39,349 — a delta of -69.9% from the RX 570's perspective, meaning the newer card is roughly 3.3 times faster in that API. This is the widest margin in the entire comparison, and it reflects not just raw compute but also the efficiency of the RDNA 2.0 architecture in Apple's Metal framework.

The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test shows a similar story, with the RX 6700 XT posting 2,435 points versus 880 for the RX 570. That -63.9% delta translates to the RX 6700 XT delivering about 2.8 times the performance of the older card in this modern DirectX 12 workload. For a benchmark that stresses contemporary rendering features, this gap underscores how far the RX 570 has fallen behind in demanding, current-generation titles.

Geekbench Vulkan narrows the margin somewhat, with the RX 6700 XT scoring 93,500 against 42,752 for the RX 570 — a -54.3% delta. While still a commanding win, this closer gap suggests that Vulkan's lower-level overhead may partially compensate for architectural differences, though the RX 6700 XT still delivers over twice the performance. The smallest relative difference appears in Geekbench OpenCL, where the RX 6700 XT's 44,152 beats the RX 570's 32,084 by a -27.3% delta. That is still a substantial lead, but notably less dramatic than the other tests, indicating that compute-heavy OpenCL workloads may not fully exploit the newer card's advantages.

Overall, the RX 6700 XT's win count is 4-0, with no benchmark category where the RX 570 even comes close. The average benchmark score for the RX 6700 XT is 27,425, while the RX 570 sits at 28,766 — an interesting inversion where the older card's average is actually higher, despite losing every head-to-head test. This discrepancy likely stems from different benchmark suites included in each card's average, with the RX 570's average being boosted by its Geekbench scores relative to its other results.

The Verdict

For any user prioritizing raw performance in modern workloads, the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT is the clear choice from the data. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad score is 2.8 times higher, its Geekbench Vulkan result is over double, and its Metal score is more than triple that of the RX 570. The RX 6700 XT also ranks at the 72nd percentile among all GPUs, while the RX 570 sits at the 74th percentile — a paradoxical situation where the older card appears slightly better positioned in the overall distribution, despite losing decisively in direct comparisons.

That said, the RX 570's average benchmark score of 28,766 is actually higher than the RX 6700 XT's 27,425, and its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 6800M (28,874, -0.4% delta) and AMD Radeon RX 470 (28,996, -0.8% delta). This suggests the RX 570 remains competitive within its own performance class, particularly against other Polaris-era cards. The RX 6700 XT, meanwhile, sits near the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 (27,565, -0.5% delta) and GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile (27,435, 0% delta) — placing it in far more elite company.

Pick the RX 570 if you are constrained by older system compatibility, such as PCIe 3.0 motherboards, or if your workloads are primarily OpenCL-based where the gap narrows. Pick the RX 6700 XT for virtually everything else: modern DX12 games, Vulkan applications, Metal environments, and any task where raw throughput matters. The RX 6700 XT also offers hardware ray tracing via 40 RT cores, a feature entirely absent from the RX 570, making it the only viable option for ray-traced content.

Architecture Differences

The architectural divide between these two GPUs is generational. The RX 570 uses the Polaris 20 chip built on GCN 4.0, a 14 nm design fabricated by GlobalFoundries. The RX 6700 XT uses the Navi 22 chip on RDNA 2.0, manufactured by TSMC on a 7 nm process. This node shrink allows the RX 6700 XT to pack 17,200 million transistors into a 335 mm² die, versus 5,700 million on the RX 570's 232 mm² die. Transistor density jumps from 24.6 million per mm² on the older card to 51.3 million per mm² on the newer one — a direct result of the process improvement.

The RX 570's GCN 4.0 architecture implements DirectX 12 (12_0) and Vulkan 1.3, while the RX 6700 XT's RDNA 2.0 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4. The newer architecture also adds 40 ray tracing cores, a feature completely missing from the RX 570. This makes the RX 6700 XT capable of hardware-accelerated ray tracing, a significant feature differentiator for modern games. The RX 570's FP16 performance matches its FP32 at 5.095 TFLOPS (1:1 ratio), while the RX 6700 XT doubles its FP16 to 26.43 TFLOPS (2:1 ratio) against 13.21 TFLOPS FP32 — indicating better support for mixed-precision workloads.

The generation gap is further reflected in the predecessor/successor chain: the RX 570 follows Arctic Islands and precedes Vega, while the RX 6700 XT follows Navi and precedes Navi III. This places the RX 6700 XT in a much later product lineage, with the architectural advancements one would expect from a multi-generational leap.

Specification Differences

The memory subsystems differ substantially. The RX 570 features 4 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus, yielding 224.0 GB/s bandwidth. The RX 6700 XT offers 12 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus, delivering 384.0 GB/s — 71% more bandwidth despite a narrower bus, thanks to faster memory at 16 Gbps effective versus 7 Gbps effective. Clock speeds also diverge: the RX 570 runs at 1168 MHz base and 1244 MHz boost, while the RX 6700 XT operates at 2321 MHz base and 2581 MHz boost, with a game clock of 2424 MHz. The newer card's boost clock is more than double the older card's.

Compute resources scale accordingly. The RX 6700 XT has 2,560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs, versus the RX 570's 2,048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. Pixel rate jumps from 39.81 GPixel/s to 165.2 GPixel/s, and texture rate from 159.2 GTexel/s to 413.0 GTexel/s. FP32 performance rises from 5.095 TFLOPS to 13.21 TFLOPS. Power requirements increase from 150 W TDP with a single 6-pin connector and 450 W suggested PSU, to 230 W TDP with 6-pin plus 8-pin connectors and a 550 W suggested PSU. The RX 6700 XT also supports PCIe 4.0 x16 versus PCIe 3.0 x16 on the RX 570, and offers a newer HDMI 2.1 output alongside three DisplayPort 1.4a, while the RX 570 provides one DVI, one HDMI 2.0b, and three DisplayPort 1.4a.

Physical dimensions differ: the RX 570 measures 241 mm (9.5 inches) in length, while the RX 6700 XT is 267 mm (10.5 inches) long, 110 mm (4.3 inches) tall, and 40 mm (1.6 inches) wide. Both are dual-slot cards. The RX 6700 XT's launch MSRP was 479 USD, while the RX 570's launch MSRP was 169 USD.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU wins in DirectX 12 performance?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT wins decisively, scoring 2,435 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 versus 880 for the RX 570, a -63.9% delta favoring the newer card.

Q: How much faster is the RX 6700 XT in Vulkan workloads?

A: The RX 6700 XT scores 93,500 in Geekbench Vulkan against 42,752 for the RX 570, representing a -54.3% delta — meaning the RX 6700 XT delivers roughly 2.2 times the performance.

Q: Is there any benchmark where the RX 570 wins?

A: No. The head-to-head data shows the RX 6700 XT winning all four tests: 3DMark Steel Nomad, Geekbench Metal, Geekbench OpenCL, and Geekbench Vulkan, with winsA at 0 and winsB at 4.

Q: Why does the RX 570 have a higher average benchmark score than the RX 6700 XT?

A: The RX 570's average benchmark score is 28,766 versus 27,425 for the RX 6700 XT, despite losing every head-to-head test. This likely reflects different benchmark suites contributing to each average, with the RX 570's Geekbench scores being relatively strong compared to its other results.

Q: Does the RX 6700 XT support ray tracing?

A: Yes, the RX 6700 XT includes 40 ray tracing cores, a feature entirely absent from the RX 570. This is a key architectural differentiator between the two cards.

Q: What are the memory size and type differences?

A: The RX 570 has 4 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus with 224.0 GB/s bandwidth, while the RX 6700 XT has 12 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus with 384.0 GB/s bandwidth — offering more capacity and higher bandwidth despite a narrower bus.