AMD Radeon RX 6400 On Linux

[gukin]

I know it's easy to hate on this little GPU but there are some positive things about it:

• Low power, I added one of these to my TP01-2066 (I bought it because I could get a 5700g processor in early may 2021 for $550 and almost a computer around it) and the net increase in wattage, according to my Kill-o-watt, is about 15 watts running something like Gravity Mark vs the integrated 5700g.
• Quiet, I got the full height Power Color card for $159 (which is a lot of money but it was MSRP) and the measly 53 watt maximum power usage doesn't need much cooling and crazy fans.
• Huge increase in performance, well compared to the integrated 5700g on my pathetic HP prebuilt, it runs everything about three times faster than the 5700g (see the Xonotic results above).
• No additional power, my miserable HP only came with a 180 watt power supply and no PCI cabling. I could have bought a 300 watt HP power supply but they are stupid expensive and wasting money on a cheesy, proprietary prebuilt is indeed a waste.

All in all, I'm delighted with my RX 6400, I got it before Amazon started gouging (they want an extra $10 now), it plays nicely with the vega 8 on the 5700g so I can still use the GPU on the 5700g if I want to play something light like Wolfenstein 2009 or Singularity by setting an environment variable. It truly is a huge increase in performance over my 5700g and so far it's faster than my RX 570 in my Raven Ridge rig, it beats the RX 570 in Gravitymark, Unigine Valley, Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Unigine Superposition.

So for $160, I got a video card that uses 1/3 the power of my RX 570, fits in my crappy prebuilt, is quiet and uses very little power and will probably see boosts in performance as improvements come. It's a big win in my book.

[M@GOid]

I'm mostly interested in how this compares to the Vega graphics of my 5700G. I'm moderately happy with my integrated graphics, but am I getting an upgrade if I buy one of these?

The addiction to only reading the name of the article is affecting you big time. is time to stop...

[otoomet]

Michael , what was your experience with the fan noise?

For two 4k screens you need a 4GB card, even for just desktop usage. Right now it seems like this is one of the cheapest such cards (there is exactly one gt730 and one rx550 listed as cheaper on pcpartpicker). So right now it is perhaps the best option if you need a card for high-end desktop usage, and you do not have igpu that is up to the task. The additional 3D punch, compared to rx550, is just a bonus.

[SWY1985]

I'm mostly interested in how this compares to the Vega graphics of my 5700G. I'm moderately happy with my integrated graphics, but am I getting an upgrade if I buy one of these?

Well, sorry, I overlooked that the comparison with 5700G is included. My bad.
I'm better off waiting for the 6600 to reach a reasonable price.

[darkbasic]

If it had AV1 decode and half the price tag it would have been an awesome card.

[M@GOid]

Right when I thought this GPU couldn't get any worse, I didn't realize that they disabled AV1. The limited PCIe lanes in combination with the low amount of VRAM makes this GPU is useless for modern gaming, and it's way too expensive for older games. It's overkill for office purposes. AV1 decode would have been the one redeeming quality, and they disabled it? Anyone who has an HTPC that doesn't have an iGPU [capable of AV1 decode] would be looking for a dGPU to pick up the slack, especially since you're going to want an efficient CPU for the sake of noise, size, and power consumption. I wouldn't think you'd need anything more powerful than a 6400 to play videos, but, apparently you're going to have to if you want full decoding capabilities.

Is nitpicking, but I think they didn't disabled it, but didn't built it in. Since this is a laptop chip, the encoding and decoding stuff is built in the APU itself, for power efficiency. The h264/5 decoder it have is probably only for in game video decoding.

[schmidtbag]

Right when I thought this GPU couldn't get any worse, I didn't realize that they disabled AV1. The limited PCIe lanes in combination with the low amount of VRAM makes this GPU is useless for modern gaming, and it's way too expensive for older games. It's overkill for office purposes. AV1 decode would have been the one redeeming quality, and they disabled it? Anyone who has an HTPC that doesn't have an iGPU [capable of AV1 decode] would be looking for a dGPU to pick up the slack, especially since you're going to want an efficient CPU for the sake of noise, size, and power consumption. I wouldn't think you'd need anything more powerful than a 6400 to play videos, but, apparently you're going to have to if you want full decoding capabilities.

[M@GOid]

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I saw an RX 6700 for like $519 the other day and thought "that's not a bad price" when comparing it to the $450-500 6600XTs for sale.

I caught myself doing the same thing, when I saw a slightly drop in price on some RX 6600. Gladly I slapped myself out of it.

[skeevy420]

Yeah, I'm still using my 580 and try to run settings that keep the temps at 75C or lower. It likes to get a little wonky once it hits the mid 80s. Mangohud is a blessing in disguise for that task.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I saw an RX 6700 for like $519 the other day and thought "that's not a bad price" when comparing it to the $450-500 6600XTs for sale. My only real requirements are "at least 8GB" and "better than RX 590". I surprised that's still a $450 solution.

[M@GOid]

I have one of those HD5450 in low profile, passive cooling form. In games it is weaker than the iGPU of my Ivy Bridge i7.

Since my RX570 died at the start of the pandemic, I grabbed a RX550 just at the start of the prices crazy and am stuck with it for 2 years now. I'm torn in expending money while the prices are still double to triple what they should be, in my neck of the woods, in one of those lower end Radeon offerings, because they would be a sideways move on GPU power over what I had a couple years ago. The one I eyeing now is the RX 6600, but it is still double of what I would consider a reasonable price here. So I stuck with indie games and waiting for the day I can finally finish a couple AAA games I bought years ago, before I decided to no more spend money to be beta tester for those things.