At the CES 2022 press conference, AMD also announced two entry-level graphics cards, Radeon RX 6500 XT and Radeon RX 6400, aiming at the 1080P gaming performance and also has the advantage of high energy efficiency. We reviewed the Radeon RX 6500 XT at the beginning of its release, and now we have received the Radeon RX 6400 again. Let’s take a look at its actual performance.
Specification parameters
GPU: Navi 24 XL
Streaming processor : 768
Game frequency: 2039MHz (Game mode)
Acceleration frequency: 2321MHz (OC mode)
Video memory type: GDDR6
Video memory bit width: 64-bit
Video memory capacity: 4GB
Size: 201mm×124mm×40.5mm
Output interface: 1×HDMI 2.1, 1×DisplayPort 1.4a
dual-axial flow fan, excellent material workmanship
The product used in this review is the DUAL-RX6400-4G graphics card from Asus . As the series that focuses on cost-effectiveness in the product line, the appearance design of Asus DUAL-RX 6400-4G is relatively low-key. The front of the graphics card is made of oblique stripes and black matte material, and the top on the left is slightly prominent, which is visually layered. The shell part is also equipped with a soft glowing light strip, which can add some personalized style to the player's console. graphics card is compact in size and has a length of only 210mm, and can be installed in most small chassis.
ASUS DUAL-RX6400-4G adopts a dual fan design, and the fan size is not large, but uses the axial fan design, which can effectively increase downward wind pressure, supports intelligent start-stop technology, and takes into account the high performance and low noise of the fan. The radiator is equipped with a large area of 2-slot heat dissipation fins , which can quickly dissipate the heat generated by GPU. The full-size metal armored back panel helps prevent distortion. The graphics card also uses Asus's signature fully automated process technology. Each graphics card has a 144-hour verification solution before leaving the factory, which can maximize the reliability of the graphics card.
specifications, the default frequency of Asus DUAL-RX6400-4G is 2039MHz, the BOOST frequency is 2321MHz, and it is equipped with 4GB GDDR6 video memory, the video memory speed is 16Gbps, and the PCie power supply design is consistent with the public version solution. In the output interface part, it provides 1 DP 1.4a and 1 HDMI 2.1 interface, which can support up to 8K display output, which is enough to meet the needs of beginner users.
Performance test: Medium-quality and free game 1080P games without pressure
Test platform
Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
Memory: Weigang XPG DDR4 3600 8GB×2
Graphics card: Asus DUAL-RX6400-4G
Non-public version GTX 1050Ti 4GB GDDR5
Motherboard: ROG Strix X570-E Gaming WiFi II
Hard disk: WD_BLACK SN850 2TB
Power supply: ROG STRIX Leiying 1000W
Operating System: Windows 11 Professional Edition
In the DMark benchmark test, we can see that the actual performance of Asus DUAL-RX6400-4G graphics cards is stronger than that of the GTX 1050Ti. For 4GB entry-level graphics cards like the Radeon RX 6400, the most meaningful reference for 3DMark theoretical testing is the Fire Strike project. The RX 6400 is 56% ahead of the GTX 1050Ti. In the DX12-based Time Spy series test, the improvement was close to 60%. Since the GTX 1050Ti does not support ray tracing, it only counts the RX 6400's performance, and its performance is too low, so it can only be said that it retains the ray tracing characteristics.
game test part, considering the actual performance of these two graphics cards, except for "CS:GO", we set the game to the "Medium Image Quality" preset, do not turn on ray tracing and FSR, turn off vertical synchronization and VRS, and other options are all default settings. From the chart, we can see that in terms of gaming performance, ASUS DUAL-RX6400-4G exceeds GTX 1050Ti in all respects. For e-sports online games like " Eternal Haunt ", RX 6400 can fully reach a smooth frame rate of 60fps, and the average lead of RX 6400 reaches 40%. However, when facing 3A masterpieces such as " Far Cry 5" and "Cyberpunk 2077", the video memory will be explosive even in medium-quality, and the frame rate performance is barely playable. If the image quality is adjusted carefully, the video memory usage level can still be obtained, and the GTX 1050Ti will be difficult to run smoothly even if the image quality is reduced by another level.
Because AMD opens the FSR technology, N cards also support FSR. This part of the FSR application test will no longer compare the performance of the two cards repeatedly, but will see what kind of experience the RX 6400 can achieve with the support of FSR technology, facing some game screen settings that could not be smooth or barely run smoothly. The picture quality settings of several games tested remain unchanged, and only the FSR highest quality mode is turned on.
Judging from the test performance, the frame rate increase after turning on the FSR function is indeed obvious, and the average frame rate of RX 6400 has increased by 24%. The last three games have relieved the memory pressure after turning on FSR, so the frame rate has increased greatly. " Far Cry 6" has gone from barely smooth to 84fps. "Cyberpunk 2077" can choose to lower the FSR picture quality by one level or lower some light and shadow special effects to ensure an average frame rate of 60fps. When the game provides FSR function, the smoothness is greatly improved.
Of course, if you rely solely on FSR, the RX 6400 is still very stressful when running some 3A masterpieces. After all, there are not many games that support FSR, and it is unlikely that they will specifically adapt to FSR for old games. At this time, you need to use another AMD frame rate enhancement tool, RSR (Radeon Super Resolution). Judging from our previous actual tests, although the effect of RSR is not as good as native FSR, the frame rate improvement is still very obvious. In theory, it can "take all" of all games, which is of great significance to entry-level graphics cards like RX 6400.
Players can choose to enable RSR function in the RX 6400 driver interface
power consumption and temperature test: cool and energy-saving
Compared with other RX 6000 series graphics cards, RX 6500 XT/RX 6400 adopts a more advanced 6nm process. With the support of advanced processes, the RX 6500 XT not only has a maximum frequency of 3 GHz, but also has a good performance in temperature and power consumption control. The RX 6400 not only has lower specifications, but also has a conservative frequency setting, so we are naturally looking forward to its power consumption performance.
We use FurMark to let the Asus DUAL-RX6400-4G graphics card run for about 15 minutes at full load. In an environment with room temperature of 26℃, the maximum temperature is 58°. However, this is under the default fan setting. At this time, the fan speed is only 1722RPM, and the noise level is very low, and it is not even obvious that the CPU fan is not as loud as that. Then the fan speed was manually pulled to the maximum. Thanks to the large area of DUAL-RX 6400-4G heat dissipation fins and axial flow fan, the temperature of the test machine further dropped to 52°. As a small card with a fan diameter of less than 9cm, this heat dissipation performance is very excellent, and the default fan setting for daily use is completely sufficient. In terms of power consumption, although the typical board power consumption of the RX 6400 is designed to be 53W, the power consumption of the Asus DUAL-RX6400-4G FurMark test machine is less than 50W, while the power consumption of the GTX 1050Ti participating in this test project is 69W. While the performance of the RX 6400 is 40% ahead of the GTX 1050Ti, its power consumption level is only 62% of the latter. It can be said to be quite energy-saving and environmentally friendly. It has well played the energy efficiency advantage of the RDNA 2 architecture and lowered the power threshold for upgrading the old platform.
special test: Supports 4K H.265 video decoding
According to the official specifications, the video encoder of the Navi 24 used by RX 6500 XT and RX 6400 is not complete. In addition to not supporting the AV1 format encoding and decoding , it also simplifies the encoding capability of H.264/H.265 videos, and only supports the decoding of H.264/H.265 videos. The AV1 video codec actually has no impact on domestic users. Although video websites such as iQiyi and Bilibili provide AV1 video, users can still choose the encoding format by themselves. Future online 8K videos may force AV1 encoding with lower bandwidth usage, but it is unlikely to be implemented within of this graphics card's life cycle.
removes the encoding function relatively large, which means that the entry-level graphics card cannot be used to accelerate video editing/decoding. It depends entirely on CPU software encoding. In other words, the efficiency of using core graphics to edit videos is higher, which is a positioning of "only gameplay, no productivity".Some users also think that the RX 6500 XT and RX 6400 have completely cut the video encoding and decoding function. In fact, the decoding capability is retained. However, the official decoding support format is relatively vague. It only mentions that it supports H.265/HEVC decoding, and there is no specific list of whether the supported H.265 encoding resolution is 1080P or 4K.
For this situation, we simply tested the video decoding capabilities of RX 6400. We chose the encoding format of the test video to be 4K H.265 10bit, which is the most mainstream video specifications in streaming media such as Netflix, Disney+ and 4K REMUX Blu-ray resources. You can see that when playing videos using PotPlayer, it supports turning on the graphics card hard decoding. At this time, the load of CPU is very low, and the viewing is normal, not to mention playing videos from most domestic websites mainly based on H.264 videos.
Summary: Create a light game console, the new choice for mainstream players
As the latest member of the RDNA 2 family, the Radeon RX 6400 has the advantages of RDNA 2 architecture and the new 6nm process, and has relatively good gaming performance. Judging from the actual test results, when facing mainstream popular games, RX 6400 can obtain smooth frame rates at 1080P resolution and medium image quality. With the support of FSR and RSR, it is not a problem to play the latest 3A masterpieces. This card is also very impressive in terms of power consumption. The Asus DUAL-RX6400-4G test machine consumes less than 50W, and the temperature control is also excellent. The design does not require external power supply, suitable for use in small hosts for HTPCh dedicated to watching videos or introductory configuration users and graphics users with low power supply, to create a light game console. If you have higher requirements for graphics card performance, it is recommended to wait and see for a while. If players who are in need of introductory gaming graphics cards recently, they can consider the Asus DUAL-RX6400-4G.
