AMD Radeon RX 7600 vs Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 vs Intel Arc A750: the 1080p graphics shoot-out

RT/DLSS/FSR2/XeSS benchmarks: Cyberpunk 2077, Dying Light 2, Forza Horizon 5.

Review by Richard Leadbetter Technology Editor, Digital Foundry

Published on June 17, 2023

Raw ray tracing performance is one thing, but the truth is that RT is usually used in combination with image reconstruction technology for a better balance of visual features and performance. This page seeks to show how these GPUs compare with both technologies in play, with the same (or very close) base resolutions engaged. It's not factoring in image quality - where Nvidia enjoys a noticeable advantage against AMD - and neither are we considering overall support, where DLSS enjoys wider uptake amongst game developers. Here, we're just looking at raw performance.

Once again, if you're jumping straight to this page without looking at prior results, we should stress that our benchmarking system offers a number of ways to get to the data you want, the presentation varying according to the device you're using. You'll get a basic overview of our findings on mobile, with metadata from the video capture of each GPU being translated into simple bar charts with average frame-rate and lowest one per cent measurements for easy comparisons.

On a desktop-class browser, you'll get the full-fat DF experience with embedded YouTube videos of each test scene and live performance metrics. Play the video, and you'll see exactly how each card handled the scene as it progresses. Below the real-time metrics is an interactive bar chart, which you can mouse over to see different measurements and click to switch between actual frame-rates and percentage differences. All the data here is derived from video captured directly from each GPU, ensuring an accurate replay of real performance.

Cyberpunk 2077

Like all the games on this page, Cyberpunk 2077 doesn't just support DLSS, it also features XeSS and FSR2 as well, which is the way we like it. It's interesting to note that the performance differential between the Arc cards at native resolution closes up here - A770 is only seven points ahead of A750, so perhaps there are memory constraints in place on the less capable Arc card. A lower native resolution eases up memory consumption, perhaps.

Frame-rates across the board move up into VRR territory for the Nvidia and Intel cards, but it's going to need settings downgrades on the AMD offerings here to deliver a smooth experience on this demanding RT title - even with FSR2 factored into the mix.

Cyberpunk 2077, Ultra RT, DLSS/FSR2/XeSS Quality

Dying Light 2

Techland's support for all upscaling technologies (even DLSS 3) is to the game's credit and what we're seeing here is that the RTX 3060 and both Arc cards are moving into a 50-70fps window that plays out very nicely on a FreeSync or G-Sync display. FSR2 in quality mode even delivers good AMD performance that with a bit of tweaking should bring you nicely into the VRR window.

The new RX 7600 is very comparable to the RTX 3060, which is a reasonable result, but perhaps we should have been expecting something more than parity with an older Nvidia GPU. Meanwhile, RX 6650 XT results are also perhaps too close to the RX 7600, bearing in mind this is supposed to be a new generation product.

Dying Light 2, Ultra RT, DLSS/FSR2 Quality

Forza Horizon 5

Here in Forza Horizon 5, we're set up at extreme settings with RT disabled, delivering a visual feature set in excess of Series X running in its 30fps quality mode - though image reconstruction technologices aren't really a match for native rendering with 4x MSAA, particularly on elements like power lines. To be honest, I'd be sticking to native resolution rendering on this one.

However, there is a problem. In no way should the Arc A750 be this far behind the Arc A770. You'll see simlar results in native resolution rendering later on in this review and I believe that at extreme settings, we're hitting VRAM limitations on the Arc card. What's all the more interesting here is that the other 8GB cards do not seem to be as unduly affected. I also would have expected better results from RX 7600, which can't beat 6650 XT and is slower than RTX 3060. This seems weird as rasterisation is a strong suit for the new AMD card.