Entry-level AMD RDNA 2 - is the Radeon RX 6400 any good?

The AMD Radeon RX 6400 GPU was quietly launched in end-April 2022, and rounds off AMD's RX 6000 series of GPUs as its most entry-level offering. For today's article, ALKtech unboxes and tests the ASUS Dual Radeon RX 6400 4GB (DUAL-RX6400-4G).

Sporting dual axial-tech fans which improve cooling performance and a protective backplate to increase card rigidity, the Dual Radeon RX 6400 4GB is targeted at the low-end gaming market.

Summary of Specifications

• GPU: AMD Radeon RX 6400 (Navi 24 XL)
  • 12 Compute Units, 768 Stream Processors
• Memory: 4GB GDDR6 RAM (64-bit)
• Game Clock: up to 2039 MHz
• Boost Clock: up to 2321 MHz
• Bus Type: PCIe 4.0 x4
• Outputs: 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x DisplayPort 1.4a
• External Power Required: No
• Recommended PSU Wattage: 500W and above

GPU-Z Screenshot

Testing Methodology

To get a quick sensing of the card's performance, the following synthetic benchmarks and games were run:

• 3DMark Basic Edition 2.22.7359
• Unigine Heaven Benchmark 4.0 (Basic Edition)
• Far Cry 5 Benchmark
• Fortnite
• Forza Horizon 4 Benchmark

Test Bench Details:

• Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 3600
• RAM: 16GB (2x8GB) Kingston HyperX Predator DDR4 3200
• Motherboard: ASRock X570M Pro4
• Storage: ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 512GB
• Graphics: ASUS Dual Radeon RX 6400 4GB GDDR6 with AMD Adrenalin 22.5.1 drivers
• Power Supply: SilverStone Strider Essential 500W
• Case: Generic open-air test bench
• Monitor: Acer SA230 Abi 23” (1080p 75Hz)
• OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro

MSI Afterburner was used to record the card's performance metrics, and the tests were run at 1080p resolution.

Synthetic Benchmarks

3DMark Basic Edition 2.22.7359

With 3DMark Basic Edition, the RX 6400 achieved a graphics score of 3544.

Unigine Heaven Benchmark 4.0 (Basic Edition)

The card achieved a score of 1172 with Unigine's Heaven Benchmark 4.0 Basic Edition, with an average FPS of 46.5, a minimum FPS of 24.0 and a maximum FPS of 102.9. The test was setup to use DirectX 11 rendering on Ultra Quality, with extreme tessellation, stereo 3D disabled, multi-monitor disabled, and anti-aliasing set at x8.

Gaming Performance

Far Cry 5

Far Cry 5's built-in benchmark test saw the RX 6400 put out a very playable average FPS of 60, with a minimum FPS of 53, and maximum FPS of 74. The Ultra graphics preset was used for the test - do note that V-sync was switched on during this test, which would cap the FPS at 75 as the monitor used with this test supports a maximum refresh rate of 75Hz.

Forza Horizon 4

With Forza Horizon 4's benchmark test, an average FPS of 70.9 was attained by the RX 6400, with a minimum FPS of 55.1, and a maximum FPS of 93.9. The Ultra graphics preset was used for this test - again, do note that V-sync was switched on during this test, which would cap the on-screen FPS at 75 as the monitor used with this test supports a maximum refresh rate of 75Hz.

Fortnite

The RX 6400 is definitely capable of running Fortnite at decent framerates, with an average FPS of 80, a minimum FPS of 60, and a maximum FPS of 109. These results were achieved with the High graphics preset, with the game set to use DirectX 12 rendering, viewing distance set to Far, AA set to High, and Ray Tracing set to Off. V-sync was switched off during gameplay.

Power Consumption & Thermals

These measurements were obtained with an open-air test bench, with an ambient temperature of ~31°C, using the readouts derived from MSI Afterburner.

Idle State:

• Average GPU Temperature: 42°C
• Minimum GPU Temperature: 41°C
• Maximum GPU Temperature: 43°C
• Average Power Draw: 2.6W
• Minimum Power Draw: 1W
• Maximum Power Draw: 4W

Playing a Round of Fortnite (1080p, High preset, no Ray Tracing):

• Average GPU Temperature: 61°C
• Minimum GPU Temperature: 58°C
• Maximum GPU Temperature: 62°C
• Average Power Draw: 42W
• Minimum Power Draw: 32W
• Maximum Power Draw: 43W

Conclusion

While the RX 6400 may be the bottom rung of the Radeon RX 6000 series of GPUs by AMD, it still presents an interesting value proposition as an entry-level card with low power draw, and yet is still capable of getting some 1080p gaming done, especially on older titles.

That said, for potential buyers who are on older PC platforms utilising the PCIe 3.0 or even PCIe 2.0 standard, the fact that the RX 6400 uses the PCIe 4.0 x4 bus instead of x16 could mean that this card would not be able to reach its maximum potential in such systems, due to a reduction in graphics bandwidth which could result in bottlenecking.

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The graphics card featured in this article was a review unit provided on loan from ASUS Singapore.