(opens in new tab)It wasn't so long ago that I bought a new motherboard and CPU for my PC, and I promised that would be the last upgrade and bit of tinkering I did for the rest of the year. But once again, despite my resolution not to buy or even look at Black Friday deals (opens in new tab), the graphics card discounts have sunk their claws deep. My RTX 2060 is starting to go grey at the temples. What harm does a little upgrade do?
- We're curating all the best Black Friday PC gaming deals (opens in new tab) right here.
This AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT is looking pretty great right now at $349.99 (opens in new tab). It's a powerful card that offers performance somewhere between Nvidia's RTX 3060 Ti and RTX 3070, with excellent clock speeds and high frame rates. Our AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT review (opens in new tab) claims "The RX 6700 XT delivers a superb 1080p and 1440p gaming experience with the memory capacity to keep you ahead of the curve for likely a few years to come."
In fact, one of the card's primary disadvantages at launch was that it cost more than an RTX 3060 Ti, but since then prices have dropped to the point where it's one of the more affordable graphics cards (opens in new tab). Today, that's especially true because it's cheap as hell right now.
Though a little slower at 4K, the RX 6700 XT is a reliable choice for 1440p and 1080p gaming and should keep things cool and quiet while you're playing thanks to its triple-fan XFX model. It's got plenty of performance and memory for its price point, and right now you can pick it up for a lot less than an RTX 3060 Ti would cost you.
It's a tempting prospect I must say, and one that I'll hopefully be able to resist. But then again, why should I resist? It's all just futureproofing, right? Oh no, the dark side's winning again.
