AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT vs AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT Comparison

FAQ

Q: Which GPU wins the majority of head-to-head benchmark comparisons?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT wins 9 of the 10 recorded head-to-head benchmarks against the AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT. The only exception is Geekbench Vulkan, where the RX 6650 XT scores 81,306 versus 46,443 for the RX 7700 XT, a 42.9% advantage for the older card.

Q: How large is the performance gap in the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test?

A: The RX 7700 XT scores 3,316 while the RX 6650 XT scores 1,859. That is a 78.4% delta in favor of the RX 7700 XT, the largest margin across all tests except for the OpenCL compute result.

Q: What explains the extreme OpenCL score difference?

A: In Geekbench OpenCL, the RX 7700 XT records 138,383 points versus 10,111 for the RX 6650 XT, a 1,268.6% delta. The data suggests this test heavily favors the newer RDNA 3.0 architecture’s FP32 throughput, which is listed at 35.17 TFLOPS versus 10.79 TFLOPS.

Q: Does the RX 6650 XT have any redeeming benchmark result?

A: Yes, in Geekbench Vulkan the RX 6650 XT outperforms the RX 7700 XT by 42.9%. Beyond that, the RX 7700 XT leads in every other recorded test, including PassMark G3D (22,547 vs. 17,166) and PassMark GPU Compute (12,912 vs. 7,532).

Q: What is the average benchmark score difference between the two cards?

A: The RX 7700 XT has an average benchmark score of 22,549, while the RX 6650 XT averages 19,765. That places the RX 7700 XT about 14.1% higher on average, though individual tests vary widely.

Q: How do the two cards compare in percentile ranking among all GPUs?

A: The RX 7700 XT sits at the 67th percentile of all GPUs, while the RX 6650 XT is at the 65th percentile. Despite the large performance gap in many tests, both cards rank relatively close in overall percentile terms.

Architecture Differences

The two cards belong to different Radeon generations. The RX 7700 XT is part of the Radeon RX 7000 series, built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture with the Navi 32 chip (codename "Wheat Nas"). The RX 6650 XT comes from the Radeon RX 6000 series, using the RDNA 2.0 architecture with the Navi 23 chip. This generational split drives most of the measurable differences.

The manufacturing process differs significantly. The RX 7700 XT is fabricated on a 5 nm process at TSMC, while the RX 6650 XT uses a 7 nm process, also from TSMC. The newer node allows the RX 7700 XT to pack 28,100 million transistors into a 346 mm² die, resulting in a transistor density of 81.2 million per square millimeter. The RX 6650 XT contains 11,060 million transistors on a 237 mm² die, with a density of 46.7 million per square millimeter. That means the RX 7700 XT has roughly 2.5 times the transistor count on a die that is only about 46% larger.

Compute resources differ across every major unit. The RX 7700 XT has 3,456 shading units, 216 texture mapping units, and 96 render output units. The RX 6650 XT has 2,048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. Ray tracing cores also differ: 54 on the RX 7700 XT versus 32 on the RX 6650 XT. Neither card has tensor cores listed in the database.

The FP32 throughput tells a similar story. The RX 7700 XT delivers 35.17 TFLOPS of FP32 compute, while the RX 6650 XT manages 10.79 TFLOPS. Interestingly, the FP16 ratios differ: the RX 7700 XT lists FP16 at 35.17 TFLOPS (1:1 ratio), while the RX 6650 XT lists FP16 at 21.59 TFLOPS (2:1 ratio). This indicates a different handling of half-precision workloads between the two architectures.

Memory subsystems are also distinct. The RX 7700 XT uses 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering 432.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The RX 6650 XT has 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, providing 280.3 GB/s. The memory clock rates are listed at 2250 MHz (18 Gbps effective) for the RX 7700 XT and 2190 MHz (17.5 Gbps effective) for the RX 6650 XT.

The PCIe interface differs as well. The RX 7700 XT uses PCIe 4.0 x16, while the RX 6650 XT uses PCIe 4.0 x8. This could matter for bandwidth-sensitive workloads, though the database does not include a direct test of PCIe scaling.

Production status and release dates are also different. The RX 7700 XT is marked as "Active" and was released on 2023-09-05. The RX 6650 XT is marked as "End-of-life" and was released on 2022-05-09. The RX 7700 XT lists its predecessor as Navi II and successor as Navi IV, while the RX 6650 XT lists its predecessor as Navi and successor as Navi III.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The RX 7700 XT dominates most recorded tests, but the margins vary considerably. Starting with the flagship synthetic test, 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, the RX 7700 XT scores 3,316 against the RX 6650 XT’s 1,859, a 78.4% lead. This is the second largest delta in the entire comparison.

The largest delta appears in Geekbench OpenCL, where the RX 7700 XT records 138,383 points versus 10,111 for the RX 6650 XT. That translates to a 1,268.6% difference, an outlier driven by the compute-heavy nature of OpenCL and the RX 7700 XT’s much higher FP32 throughput.

Compute performance in PassMark shows a similar trend. The RX 7700 XT scores 12,912 in PassMark GPU Compute, while the RX 6650 XT scores 7,532, a 71.4% advantage. The 3DMark result and the compute result are the two largest wins for the RX 7700 XT outside of the OpenCL anomaly.

DirectX tests all favor the RX 7700 XT. In PassMark DirectX 11, the RX 7700 XT scores 232 versus 169, a 37.3% lead. PassMark DirectX 12 shows 79 versus 62, a 27.4% margin. PassMark DirectX 9 shows 294 versus 215, a 36.7% lead. Even PassMark DirectX 10, the smallest margin among DirectX tests, shows 119 versus 109, a 9.2% advantage.

The rasterization-focused tests also favor the newer card. PassMark G3D scores 22,547 for the RX 7700 XT versus 17,166 for the RX 6650 XT, a 31.3% lead. PassMark G2D shows 1,161 versus 918, a 26.5% margin.

The RX 6650 XT’s lone win comes in Geekbench Vulkan, where it scores 81,306 against the RX 7700 XT’s 46,443. That is a 42.9% delta in favor of the older card. This result stands out because Vulkan is typically a low-overhead API that can behave differently across architectures, and the data clearly shows the RX 6650 XT has a substantial edge in this specific test.

Looking at the rival context, the RX 7700 XT’s average score of 22,549 places it slightly above the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Mobile (22,435, +0.5%) and the AMD Radeon RX 5700 (22,170, +1.7%), while slightly below the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile (22,729, -0.8%) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 (22,895, -1.5%). The RX 6650 XT’s average of 19,765 sits close to the NVIDIA Tesla K40m (19,885, -0.6%), AMD FirePro D300 (19,637, +0.7%), AMD FirePro W7000 (19,905, -0.7%), and NVIDIA Quadro K5200 (19,602, +0.8%).

Specification Differences

The two cards differ across nearly every specification category. Process node: 5 nm for the RX 7700 XT, 7 nm for the RX 6650 XT. Transistors: 28,100 million versus 11,060 million. Die size: 346 mm² versus 237 mm². Transistor density: 81.2M per mm² versus 46.7M per mm².

Clock speeds are interesting because the RX 6650 XT actually has higher listed clocks. Base clock is 1435 MHz for the RX 7700 XT versus 2055 MHz for the RX 6650 XT. Boost clock is 2544 MHz versus 2635 MHz. Game clock is 2171 MHz versus 2410 MHz. Despite lower clocks, the RX 7700 XT wins nearly all benchmarks due to its larger compute configuration.

Memory: 12 GB versus 8 GB, 192-bit versus 128-bit bus, 432.0 GB/s versus 280.3 GB/s bandwidth. Shading units: 3,456 versus 2,048. TMUs: 216 versus 128. ROPs: 96 versus 64. Ray tracing cores: 54 versus 32.

Pixel rate: 244.2 GPixel/s versus 168.6 GPixel/s. Texture rate: 549.5 GTexel/s versus 337.3 GTexel/s. FP32: 35.17 TFLOPS versus 10.79 TFLOPS. FP16: 35.17 TFLOPS (1:1) versus 21.59 TFLOPS (2:1).

TDP: 245 W versus 176 W. Power connectors: 2x 8-pin versus 1x 8-pin. Suggested PSU: 550 W versus 450 W. Bus interface: PCIe 4.0 x16 versus PCIe 4.0 x8.

Display outputs: the RX 7700 XT has 1x HDMI 2.1a, 2x DisplayPort 2.1, and 1x USB Type-C. The RX 6650 XT has 1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a. The RX 7700 XT measures 267 mm in length, 135 mm in height, and 50 mm in width; the RX 6650 XT has no recorded dimensions. The RX 7700 XT is dual-slot, and the RX 6650 XT is also dual-slot.

The Verdict

The data points to a clear choice for most users. The RX 7700 XT wins 9 of 10 head-to-head benchmarks, with margins ranging from 9.2% in PassMark DirectX 10 to 78.4% in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 and 1,268.6% in Geekbench OpenCL. The average benchmark score of 22,549 versus 19,765 reinforces this dominance.

The RX 6650 XT is the better pick only if Vulkan performance is the primary concern, given its 42.9% lead in Geekbench Vulkan. That single result, however, is insufficient to recommend the older card for general use, especially since the RX 7700 XT leads in every DirectX test and both compute-oriented tests.

The RX 7700 XT also offers more memory (12 GB versus 8 GB), higher memory bandwidth (432.0 GB/s versus 280.3 GB/s), and double the FP32 throughput. Its higher TDP of 245 W versus 176 W and dual 8-pin connectors indicate a larger power footprint, so system builders should account for that with a suggested 550 W PSU versus 450 W.

For users focused on modern DirectX 12 titles, synthetic benchmarks, or compute workloads, the RX 7700 XT is the stronger choice. The RX 6650 XT remains relevant only for specific Vulkan scenarios or for builds where lower power draw and a single 8-pin connector are priorities. The production status also favors the RX 7700 XT, which is listed as "Active" while the RX 6650 XT is "End-of-life."