Why it matters: AMD is expected to announce the RX 6950 XT, RX 6750 XT, and RX 6650 XT graphics cards on May 10. That hasn't stopped enthusiasts and leakers from fanning the hype flame with performance figures and MSRPs ahead of time. If the leaks are any indication, the RDNA 2 lineup refresh has a chance to grab some mindshare — provided AMD can ensure it won't be another paper launch.
We're now only days away from the planned release date for AMD's refreshed RDNA 2 graphics cards, and there's no shortage of leaks about the gaming performance and recommended pricing of the new models.
According to a report from Videocardz, the MSRPs of the RX 6x50 XT cards won't be as exaggerated as previously expected. For instance, the flagship RX 6950 XT will have a manufacturer suggested price of $1,099, only $100 more than the RX 6900 XT. It seems fair for a graphics card that is said to be faster than Nvidia's RTX 3090 and RTX 3090 Ti, which have MSRPs of $1,499 and $1,999, respectively.
The mid-range RX 6750 XT will supposedly retail for $549, which is just a $70 premium over the RX 6700 XT. AMD will be selling both the reference versions of the RX 6950 XT and RX 6750 XT on its web store, so there's a chance for early birds to grab them at a relatively sane price for the current GPU market.
Interestingly, the RX 6650 XT will have an MSRP of $399, a mere $20 more than the regular RX 6600 XT. AMD likely won't be selling a reference design of this card so prospective gamers will have to hunt for custom models from companies like Sapphire and PowerColor.
Official AMD performance numbers have also been leaked online, and they offer a bird's eye view of what to expect from the new cards. Of course, we'll have to wait for independent reviews to get a clear picture, but it does look promising at first glance.
The RX 6950 XT is, on average, four percent faster than the RX 6900 XT it will replace, and 11 percent faster than Nvidia's RTX 3090. It looks like AMD didn't use the RTX 3090 Ti in its comparison, but given the significant price difference between the RX 6950 XT and the RTX 3090, people who don't care about ray tracing performance and DLSS will be even less inclined to look at the ridiculously expensive and power-hungry RTX 3090 Ti.
Moving on to the RX 6750 XT, it should offer around seven percent better rasterization performance than the RX 6700 XT, and two percent better than the RTX 3070 (non-Ti). If true, it will be the most significant upgrade in the RDNA 2 lineup, and gamers will undoubtedly have a harder time picking between it and the Nvidia counterpart.
Last but not least, the mainstream RX 6650 XT model is only two percent faster than the RX 6600 XT, which is a bit odd considering it has a higher power budget and faster memory. However, official figures do paint it in a more positive light when compared to Nvidia's RTX 3060 (non-Ti), with a performance advantage of 23 percent.
It's worth pointing out the leaked AMD figures were obtained using mostly AMD-friendly games like Battlefield 5, Far Cry 6, Deathloop, Resident Evil Village, The Riftbreaker, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, and Borderlands 3. The tests were conducted on a system equipped with a Ryzen 7 5800X3D CPU and pre-release AMD graphics drivers.
