AMD Radeon RX 6700S

The AMD Radeon RX 6700S is a mobile graphics solution built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture, utilizing the Navi 23 chip fabricated on TSMC's 7 nm process. It is part of the Radeon RX 6000 series, specifically the Navi Mobile (RX 6000M) generation, and has been designated end-of-life. The GPU packs 11,060 million transistors on a 237 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 46.7M per mm². This page analyzes the benchmark data and specifications for this part, focusing on its power characteristics, memory subsystem, feature set, and comparative performance against its nearest rivals.

Power and Cooling

The Radeon RX 6700S carries a Thermal Design Power (TDP) of 80 W, a figure that defines its cooling and power delivery requirements within a portable chassis. This TDP class positions it as a relatively efficient part for mobile gaming, allowing for thinner designs compared to higher-wattage discrete GPUs. The hardware is classified as an IGP (Integrated Graphics Processor) in terms of slot width, meaning it is designed to be mounted directly onto a motherboard rather than occupying a standard expansion slot.

Power delivery is notable for its simplicity: the card requires no external power connectors. All power is drawn through the motherboard slot, which is a PCIe 4.0 x8 interface. This bus interface provides a sufficient data pathway for the GPU's workload, though the x8 configuration is a point of distinction from desktop parts that typically use x16. The absence of a suggested PSU rating in the specifications indicates that system power is handled by the laptop's internal power supply and battery, with no user-serviceable power supply unit to select. For thermal management, the 80 W TDP necessitates a capable cooling solution, but the exact cooler specifications are portable-device dependent, meaning the implementation varies by laptop manufacturer.

Memory Subsystem

The memory configuration consists of 8 GB of GDDR6 memory connected via a 128-bit bus. The memory clock runs at 1750 MHz, which translates to 14 Gbps effective data rate. This combination yields a total memory bandwidth of 224.0 GB/s. This bandwidth figure is a critical metric for performance, particularly at higher resolutions where the GPU must fetch larger amounts of texture and geometry data.

For a mobile GPU in this class, 8 GB of VRAM is a substantial allocation, sufficient for modern game assets at 1080p and often 1440p with adjusted settings. The 224.0 GB/s bandwidth, while not class-leading, is balanced for the 80 W power envelope. At high resolutions, the 128-bit bus can become a limiting factor compared to GPUs with wider interfaces, potentially causing performance to scale less efficiently when the resolution increases and the demand for memory throughput grows. However, the data indicates that the bandwidth is adequate for the GPU's compute capabilities, allowing the shading units to remain reasonably fed during typical gaming workloads.

Ray Tracing and Feature Set

The Radeon RX 6700S includes dedicated hardware for ray tracing, featuring 28 ray accelerators (RT cores). These cores are designed to handle the BVH traversal and ray-intersection calculations required for real-time ray-traced lighting effects. The presence of these cores allows the GPU to support hardware-accelerated ray tracing, a key feature for modern AAA titles.

On the API front, the GPU supports DirectX 12 Ultimate with the 12_2 feature level, which is the baseline for advanced gaming features including ray tracing and variable rate shading. It also supports Vulkan 1.4 and OpenGL 4.6, ensuring broad compatibility with modern and legacy graphics APIs. The shading infrastructure consists of 1792 shading units, 112 texture mapping units (TMUs), and 64 render output units (ROPs). These units drive a pixel rate of 128.0 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 224.0 GTexel/s. Compute performance is rated at 7.168 TFLOPS for FP32 operations and 14.34 TFLOPS for FP16 operations, the latter leveraging a 2:1 ratio. The GPU does not have dedicated tensor cores, as listed in the specifications, meaning AI-accelerated features rely on standard compute shaders.

How It Compares

The benchmark data places the RX 6700S in a specific performance tier, with an average benchmark score of 20811. This places it at the 64th percentile of all GPUs, indicating it outperforms a majority of the database's tracked graphics cards. The nearest rivals, based on average score, are closely matched, with performance deltas of only a few percentage points.

AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT: The RX 6700S is a direct match for this desktop predecessor, with a delta of -0.5%. The RX 5600 XT holds an average score of 20925, making the mobile RX 6700S nearly identical in overall performance. This is a strong result for a laptop part, matching a popular desktop GPU from the previous generation.

Intel Arc A750: The RX 6700S leads the Intel Arc A750 by 1.1%. The Arc A750's average score is 20582. This margin is slim, but it indicates that the RX 6700S generally edges out Intel's competing offering in the aggregate benchmark suite.

AMD Radeon Pro 5700 XT: The RX 6700S trails the Radeon Pro 5700 XT by 1.2%. The Pro card's average score of 21054 is slightly higher. This positions the RX 6700S just below a professional-grade workstation variant of the same architecture.

NVIDIA Quadro M4000M: The RX 6700S outperforms the Quadro M4000M by 1.2%. The NVIDIA mobile workstation GPU scores 20561 on average. This shows the RX 6700S has a slight edge over this older professional mobile part.

Benchmark Performance

The benchmark results provide a granular view of the RX 6700S's performance across various APIs and workloads. In synthetic 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 testing, the GPU scores 1451 points. This is a modern, demanding test, and the score reflects the GPU's capability in DirectX 12 workloads.

Compute and API-specific tests show varying strengths. In Geekbench tests, the GPU achieves 71162 in Vulkan, 69814 in Metal, and 64226 in OpenCL. The Vulkan score being the highest among these suggests strong driver optimization for that API. The PassMark suite reveals a broader spectrum of performance. The G3D score is 15066, which is a general gaming performance metric. The G2D score is 739, indicating adequate 2D desktop performance. Compute performance in PassMark is 5990.

Older DirectX tests show interesting results. The DirectX 9 score is 195, DirectX 11 is 134, and DirectX 10 is 87. The DirectX 12 score is notably lower at 58. These legacy tests often stress different parts of the pipeline. The high DirectX 9 score relative to DirectX 12 suggests that the architecture handles older, more draw-call-bound workloads efficiently, while the lower DirectX 12 score in PassMark might be an anomaly or indicative of specific driver overhead in that particular benchmark version.

Comparing the aggregate scores, the RX 6700S and its rivals are separated by razor-thin margins. The delta of -0.5% against the RX 5600 XT means that in a head-to-head comparison, the two GPUs are effectively interchangeable in overall performance. The 1.1% lead over the Intel Arc A750 is similarly negligible in real-world terms, though it does indicate a consistent, if small, advantage in the tested benchmarks. The 1.2% deficit against the Radeon Pro 5700 XT and the 1.2% lead over the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M confirm that the RX 6700S sits in a tightly contested performance band. Data indicates that the RX 6700S delivers performance within 2% of all its nearest rivals, making it a competitive mid-range mobile solution, though it does not decisively beat any of them.