AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 Comparison

The AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 represent two very different eras of GPU design, yet their average benchmark scores place them in the same performance tier. The RX 7600 XT posts an average benchmark score of 17083, while the GTX 690 trails slightly at 17037, a margin of just 0.3%. Despite this statistical near-tie, the two cards achieve their results through radically different means, making them suited for entirely different workloads and software environments.

Where Each One Wins

The data paints a clear picture: the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT is the definitive winner in modern, API-heavy workloads. In the two head-to-head benchmark comparisons available, the RX 7600 XT dominates both. Its most commanding victory comes in Geekbench OpenCL, where it scores 92426 against the GTX 690's 17399, representing a massive 431.2% advantage. This suggests that for compute-oriented tasks, such as OpenCL-accelerated applications or general-purpose GPU computing, the RX 7600 XT is in a completely different league. The architecture's modern design and driver optimizations for current compute APIs give it an overwhelming edge.

The Vulkan results reinforce this trend. The RX 7600 XT scores 48366 in Geekbench Vulkan, compared to the GTX 690's 16675, a 190.1% lead for AMD. Vulkan is a low-overhead, modern graphics API, and the GTX 690's Kepler architecture, despite receiving a Vulkan 1.2.175 driver, cannot match the efficiency and feature set of AMD's RDNA 3.0 implementation. For gamers or professionals using Vulkan-based engines or applications, the RX 7600 XT is the only viable choice between the two.

Where does the GTX 690 win? Based on the data provided, it does not win anywhere. The head-to-head benchmarks show zero wins for NVIDIA, with winsA at 2 and winsB at 0. The GTX 690's average score is only kept competitive by the fact that its two recorded benchmark results (Geekbench OpenCL and Vulkan) are both low, but the average of those two scores (17037) happens to land near the RX 7600 XT's average, which includes many more diverse tests. The GTX 690 does not have a single benchmark victory to claim, meaning its relevance is purely historical or for legacy software that cannot use modern APIs effectively.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these two GPUs is generational. The AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT is built on the Navi 33 chip using the RDNA 3.0 architecture, manufactured on a 6 nm process at TSMC. This allows for a transistor count of 13,300 million on a die size of 204 mm², resulting in a transistor density of 65.2M per mm². In contrast, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 uses the GK104 chip with the Kepler architecture, fabricated on a much older 28 nm process. Its transistor count is just 3,540 million on a larger 294 mm² die, yielding a density of only 12.0M per mm². This represents a 5.4x improvement in transistor density for the AMD card, which directly translates to its massive performance advantages in modern workloads.

The compute capabilities diverge sharply. The RX 7600 XT features 2048 shading units, 32 dedicated ray tracing cores, and supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), Vulkan 1.4, and OpenGL 4.6. It also delivers 22.57 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. The GTX 690, on the other hand, has 1536 shading units, no ray tracing cores, and is limited to DirectX 12 (11_0) and Vulkan 1.2.175. Its FP32 throughput is just 3.130 TFLOPS. The RX 7600 XT's FP16 performance is also listed at 22.57 TFLOPS with a 1:1 ratio, while the GTX 690 has no FP16 data available, indicating a lack of native support for that precision.

Memory architecture differences are equally stark. The RX 7600 XT comes with 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, delivering 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GTX 690 uses 2 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus, providing 192.3 GB/s. While the GTX 690 has a wider bus, the sheer capacity difference—16 GB versus 2 GB—makes the AMD card vastly more suitable for modern high-resolution textures and large datasets. The AMD card also features a faster boost clock of 2755 MHz compared to the GTX 690's 1019 MHz, and a base clock of 1980 MHz versus 915 MHz.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The head-to-head data is lopsided, showing the RX 7600 XT as the clear victor in both recorded tests. The first test, Geekbench OpenCL, shows the RX 7600 XT scoring 92426 against the GTX 690's 17399. This delta of 431.2% is the single largest performance gap in the comparison. OpenCL is often used for compute tasks like physics simulations, video encoding, and scientific calculations, and the RX 7600 XT's modern architecture with its massive FP32 and FP16 throughput crushes the older Kepler design in these scenarios. The GTX 690's 3.130 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is simply insufficient to keep up with the RX 7600 XT's 22.57 TFLOPS in any compute-heavy workload.

The second benchmark, Geekbench Vulkan, further confirms the AMD advantage. The RX 7600 XT scores 48366, while the GTX 690 manages only 16675, resulting in a 190.1% lead for AMD. Vulkan is a cross-platform graphics and compute API, and the RX 7600 XT's support for Vulkan 1.4, combined with its modern hardware features, enables it to leverage the API's low-overhead design far more effectively. The GTX 690's Kepler architecture, with its Vulkan 1.2.175 support, is functional but cannot extract the same level of performance from the API, leaving it at a significant disadvantage.

These results indicate that any application that heavily utilizes OpenCL or Vulkan will see multi-fold performance increases on the RX 7600 XT. The GTX 690's only path to relevance is in legacy DirectX 9, 10, or 11 applications, where its raw specifications might still be sufficient. However, even in those scenarios, the RX 7600 XT's PassMark DirectX 9 score of 228 and DirectX 10 score of 85 suggest it remains competitive, though the GTX 690's performance in these older APIs is not documented in the provided data.

Specification Differences

The specification sheets reveal the fundamental changes between these two cards. The RX 7600 XT uses a PCIe 4.0 x8 interface, while the GTX 690 uses the older PCIe 3.0 x16. The AMD card requires a single 8-pin power connector with a suggested PSU of 450 W and a TDP of 190 W. The NVIDIA card is more power-hungry, with a 300 W TDP, requiring two 8-pin connectors and a suggested PSU of 700 W. Both cards are dual-slot, but the GTX 690 is longer at 279 mm (11 inches) compared to the RX 7600 XT's 204 mm (8 inches).

Display outputs differ significantly. The RX 7600 XT offers modern connectivity with 1x HDMI 2.1a and 3x DisplayPort 2.1. The GTX 690 is limited to legacy outputs with 3x DVI and 1x mini-DisplayPort 1.2. This makes the AMD card the obvious choice for modern high-refresh-rate monitors and VR headsets, while the GTX 690 would struggle to connect to contemporary displays without adapters. The GTX 690 also has a wider memory bus at 256-bit versus the RX 7600 XT's 128-bit, but the AMD card compensates with higher memory clocks (2250 MHz versus 1502 MHz) and double the effective data rate (18 Gbps versus 6 Gbps).

Other key differences include the RX 7600 XT's 64 ROPs versus the GTX 690's 32, and its 128 TMUs versus the GTX 690's 128 TMUs. The pixel rate of the RX 7600 XT is 176.3 GPixel/s, far exceeding the GTX 690's 32.61 GPixel/s. Similarly, the texture rate is 352.6 GTexel/s for AMD versus 130.4 GTexel/s for NVIDIA. The production status also differs, with the RX 7600 XT listed as "Active" and the GTX 690 as "End-of-life." The RX 7600 XT was released on 2024-01-23, while the GTX 690 was released on 2012-05-02, a gap of nearly 12 years.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT has a slightly higher average benchmark score of 17083, compared to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690's 17037, a difference of just 0.3%.

Q: How much faster is the RX 7600 XT in Geekbench OpenCL?

A: The RX 7600 XT scores 92426 in Geekbench OpenCL, which is 431.2% higher than the GTX 690's score of 17399.

Q: Does the GTX 690 support ray tracing?

A: No, the GTX 690 has no ray tracing cores listed in its specifications, while the RX 7600 XT features 32 dedicated ray tracing cores.

Q: What is the difference in memory capacity?

A: The RX 7600 XT has 16 GB of GDDR6 memory, while the GTX 690 has only 2 GB of GDDR5 memory.

Q: Which card has a higher power consumption?

A: The GTX 690 has a higher TDP of 300 W, compared to the RX 7600 XT's 190 W. The GTX 690 also requires a 700 W suggested PSU versus 450 W for the AMD card.

Q: Can the GTX 690 use DisplayPort 2.1?

A: No, the GTX 690 features 3x DVI and 1x mini-DisplayPort 1.2 outputs, while the RX 7600 XT offers 3x DisplayPort 2.1 and 1x HDMI 2.1a.