Radeon RX 6700 XT vs HD 6790

Place in the ranking	683	50
Place by popularity	not in top-100	78
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	0.85	57.68
Power efficiency	1.94	15.59
Architecture	TeraScale 2 (2009−2015)	RDNA 2.0 (2020−2024)
GPU code name	Barts	Navi 22
Market segment	Desktop	Desktop
Release date	4 April 2011 (13 years ago)	3 March 2021 (3 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$149	$479

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

RX 6700 XT has 6686% better value for money than HD 6790.

Detailed specifications

General parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores	800	2560
Core clock speed	840 MHz	2321 MHz
Boost clock speed	no data	2581 MHz
Number of transistors	1,700 million	17,200 million
Manufacturing process technology	40 nm	7 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	150 Watt	230 Watt
Texture fill rate	33.60	413.0
Floating-point processing power	1.344 TFLOPS	13.21 TFLOPS
ROPs	16	64
TMUs	40	160
Ray Tracing Cores	no data	40

Form factor & compatibility

Information on compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility).

Interface	PCIe 2.0 x16	PCIe 4.0 x16
Length	198 mm	267 mm
Width	2-slot	2-slot
Supplementary power connectors	2x 6-pin	1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin

VRAM capacity and type

Parameters of VRAM installed: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Integrated GPUs have no dedicated video RAM and use a shared part of system RAM.

Memory type	GDDR5	GDDR6
Maximum RAM amount	1 GB	12 GB
Memory bus width	256 Bit	192 Bit
Memory clock speed	1050 MHz	2000 MHz
Memory bandwidth	134.4 GB/s	384.0 GB/s

Connectivity and outputs

Types and number of video connectors present on the reviewed GPUs. As a rule, data in this section is precise only for desktop reference ones (so-called Founders Edition for NVIDIA chips). OEM manufacturers may change the number and type of output ports, while for notebook cards availability of certain video outputs ports depends on the laptop model rather than on the card itself.

Display Connectors	2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort	1x HDMI, 3x DisplayPort
HDMI	+	+

API compatibility

List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.

DirectX	11.2 (11_0)	12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model	5.0	6.5
OpenGL	4.4	4.6
OpenCL	1.2	2.1
Vulkan	N/A	1.2

Synthetic benchmark performance

Non-gaming benchmark results comparison. The combined score is measured on a 0-100 point scale.

Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark score. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.

HD 6790 4.19

RX 6700 XT 51.51
+1129%

Passmark

This is the most ubiquitous GPU benchmark. It gives the graphics card a thorough evaluation under various types of load, providing four separate benchmarks for Direct3D versions 9, 10, 11 and 12 (the last being done in 4K resolution if possible), and few more tests engaging DirectCompute capabilities.

HD 6790 1618

RX 6700 XT 19873
+1128%

3DMark 11 Performance GPU

3DMark 11 is an obsolete DirectX 11 benchmark by Futuremark. It used four tests based on two scenes, one being few submarines exploring the submerged wreck of a sunken ship, the other is an abandoned temple deep in the jungle. All the tests are heavy with volumetric lighting and tessellation, and despite being done in 1280x720 resolution, are relatively taxing. Discontinued in January 2020, 3DMark 11 is now superseded by Time Spy.

HD 6790 2887

RX 6700 XT 45676
+1482%

3DMark Vantage Performance

3DMark Vantage is an outdated DirectX 10 benchmark using 1280x1024 screen resolution. It taxes the graphics card with two scenes, one depicting a girl escaping some militarized base located within a sea cave, the other displaying a space fleet attack on a defenseless planet. It was discontinued in April 2017, and Time Spy benchmark is now recommended to be used instead.

HD 6790 13637

RX 6700 XT 109039
+700%

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics

Fire Strike is a DirectX 11 benchmark for gaming PCs. It features two separate tests displaying a fight between a humanoid and a fiery creature made of lava. Using 1920x1080 resolution, Fire Strike shows off some realistic graphics and is quite taxing on hardware.

HD 6790 2150

RX 6700 XT 35504
+1551%

Gaming performance

Let's see how good the compared graphics cards are for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in FPS.

Average FPS across all PC games

Here are the average frames per second in a large set of popular games across different resolutions:

900p	52 −1054%	600−650 +1054%
Full HD	60 −163%	158 +163%
1440p	6−7 −1333%	86 +1333%
4K	4−5 −1175%	51 +1175%

Cost per frame, $

1080p	2.48	3.03
1440p	24.83	5.57
4K	37.25	9.39

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

7−8

−1600%

119
+1600%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	12−14 −800%	100−110 +800%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	3−4 −5533%	169 +5533%
Battlefield 5	10−11 −1540%	160−170 +1540%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	9−10 −1011%	100−105 +1011%
Cyberpunk 2077	7−8 −1314%	99 +1314%
Far Cry 5	9−10 −1044%	100−110 +1044%
Far Cry New Dawn	12−14 −942%	120−130 +942%
Forza Horizon 4	24−27 −760%	210−220 +760%
Hitman 3	10−11 −1280%	138 +1280%
Horizon Zero Dawn	27−30 −618%	200−210 +618%
Metro Exodus	8−9 −1738%	140−150 +1738%
Red Dead Redemption 2	10−12 −882%	100−110 +882%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	16−18 −1156%	200−210 +1156%
Watch Dogs: Legion	40−45 −233%	140−150 +233%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	12−14 −800%	100−110 +800%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	3−4 −4700%	144 +4700%
Battlefield 5	10−11 −1540%	160−170 +1540%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	9−10 −1011%	100−105 +1011%
Cyberpunk 2077	7−8 −1186%	90 +1186%
Far Cry 5	9−10 −1044%	100−110 +1044%
Far Cry New Dawn	12−14 −942%	120−130 +942%
Forza Horizon 4	24−27 −760%	210−220 +760%
Hitman 3	10−11 −1260%	136 +1260%
Horizon Zero Dawn	27−30 −618%	200−210 +618%
Metro Exodus	8−9 −1738%	140−150 +1738%
Red Dead Redemption 2	10−12 −882%	100−110 +882%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	16−18 −1656%	281 +1656%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	16−18 −569%	100−110 +569%
Watch Dogs: Legion	40−45 −233%	140−150 +233%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	12−14 −800%	100−110 +800%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	3−4 −4067%	125 +4067%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	9−10 −1011%	100−105 +1011%
Cyberpunk 2077	7−8 −1114%	85 +1114%
Far Cry 5	9−10 −1044%	100−110 +1044%
Forza Horizon 4	24−27 −760%	210−220 +760%
Hitman 3	10−11 −1250%	135 +1250%
Horizon Zero Dawn	27−30 −589%	193 +589%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	16−18 −1400%	240 +1400%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	16−18 −694%	127 +694%
Watch Dogs: Legion	40−45 −95.3%	84 +95.3%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

10−12

−882%

100−110
+882%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	8−9 −1225%	100−110 +1225%
Far Cry New Dawn	6−7 −1233%	80−85 +1233%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	4−5 −1350%	55−60 +1350%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	3−4 −1933%	60−65 +1933%
Cyberpunk 2077	2−3 −2700%	56 +2700%
Far Cry 5	5−6 −1100%	60−65 +1100%
Forza Horizon 4	6−7 −4250%	260−270 +4250%
Hitman 3	9−10 −822%	83 +822%
Horizon Zero Dawn	10−11 −1350%	145 +1350%
Metro Exodus	0−1	123
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	3−4 −2667%	80−85 +2667%
Watch Dogs: Legion	24−27 −746%	220−230 +746%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

8−9

−1013%

85−90
+1013%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	3−4 −1733%	55−60 +1733%
Far Cry New Dawn	3−4 −1467%	45−50 +1467%
Hitman 3	0−1	48
Horizon Zero Dawn	1−2 −20900%	210−220 +20900%
Metro Exodus	1−2 −7100%	70−75 +7100%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	3−4 −1167%	35−40 +1167%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	2−3 −2300%	48 +2300%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	2−3 −1650%	35−40 +1650%
Cyberpunk 2077	0−1	25
Far Cry 5	2−3 −1550%	30−35 +1550%
Forza Horizon 4	3−4 −2433%	75−80 +2433%
Watch Dogs: Legion	1−2 −3400%	35 +3400%

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

5−6

−880%

45−50
+880%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla	109 +0%	109 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	173 +0%	173 +0%

4K
High Preset

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

+0%

4K
Ultra Preset

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

+0%

This is how HD 6790 and RX 6700 XT compete in popular games:

RX 6700 XT is 1054% faster in 900p
RX 6700 XT is 163% faster in 1080p
RX 6700 XT is 1333% faster in 1440p
RX 6700 XT is 1175% faster in 4K

Here's the range of performance differences observed across popular games:

in Horizon Zero Dawn, with 4K resolution and the High Preset, the RX 6700 XT is 20900% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

RX 6700 XT is ahead in 65 tests (94%)
there's a draw in 4 tests (6%)

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	4.19	51.51
Recency	4 April 2011	3 March 2021
Maximum RAM amount	1 GB	12 GB
Chip lithography	40 nm	7 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	150 Watt	230 Watt

HD 6790 has 53.3% lower power consumption.

RX 6700 XT, on the other hand, has a 1129.4% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 9 years, a 1100% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 471.4% more advanced lithography process.

The Radeon RX 6700 XT is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon HD 6790 in performance tests.

Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.