MSI RX 6750 XT Gaming X Trio 12G Video Card Review

Today, we get a chance to share a new budget video card from AMD, the RX 6750 XT. Based on the Navi 22 XT die, the new RX 6750 XT is nearly identical to the RX 6700 XT, aside from being equipped with 18 Gb/s GDDR6. The RX 6750 XT slips into the product stack between the RX 6700 XT and RX 6800 and judging by where it sits, it should be more than adequate for WQHD (2560 x 1440) gaming.

The MSI Gaming X Trio version of this card brings a robust VRM design, a large silver and black triple-fan shroud with MSI’s TORX 4.0 fans, and an overclock out of the box. The 2.5-slot Twin Frozr 2 cooling solution from MSI is top-notch and includes an RGB LED light bar on the edge of the card’s backplate and a large MSI logo accompanied by the Gaming Dragon. A full-length aluminum backplate with the Gaming Dragon logo cleans up the card’s backside while adding some rigidity. Overall, it’s a beautiful card and fits in well with most build themes.

Performance-wise, this overclocked card performed well in our testing and ended up right where it belongs between the 6700 XT and the RX 6800 and ahead of the RTX 3060 Ti. The MSI RX 6750 XT GXT did this while using a very reasonable amount of power, staying at 230 W (GPU only) while running stock. This card shines at FHD (1920 x 1080) and WQHD reaching well over 60 FPS in most gaming benchmarks. 4K UHD is a bit of a stretch for the RX 6750 XT with all the details turned up but possible with a slight quality reduction.

The MSRP for the MSI RX 6750 XT Gaming X Trio is unknown at this time but will be a premium over the 6750 XT reference model’s MSRP of $549. This premium has benefits bringing a factory overclock, improved power delivery, a solid aluminum backplate, a premium Tri Frozr 2.0 cooling solution, and a three-year warranty.  Let’s get this card to the test bench and see how well it does.

Specifications and Features

The difference from the reference cards is the cooler, power delivery, and clock speeds. In this case, the MSI RX 6750 XT GXT is spec’d at 2554 MHz Game Clock and 2623 MHz Boost Clock, a marginal increase over the reference design. The game clock is where the card runs most of the time and should fare well in testing. The MSI RX 6750 XT uses the Navi 22 XT core measuring 335 mm² with 17.2 billion transistors and offers 2,560 stream processors, 64 ROPs, and 160 TMUs, exactly half of the RX 6900 XT. The 6750 XT shares the exact specifications as the RX 6700 XT, including the infinity cache of 96 MB and 12 GB of GDDR6. The only thing that separates the 6750 XT from its twin is faster memory which has a base speed of 2250 MHz compared to the 2000 MHz of the 6700 XT. For more information on AMD’s High-Speed design, Infinity Cache, and RDNA2 features, check our launch day review for the RX 6800 and 6800 XT.

MSI’s RX 6750 XT lineup is still shrouded in secrecy, so we don’t have a lot of details. We know that the Gaming X trio is sitting near the top of the product stack within the Gaming line of GPUs. On top, we have the Gaming Trio Plus, followed by the “X” version and a “Z” version. Bringing up the rear is the Gaming Trio. Compared to the RX 6700 XT models, which all come with dual-fan Twin Frozr 8 coolers, the 6750 XT gets the triple fan Tri Frozr 2.0 that never disappoints.

Our MSI RX 6750 XT is the Gaming X Trio which uses the Tri Frozr 2.0 thermal design. The Torx 4.0 fan blades have a linked outer ring. This configuration is said to focus airflow significantly better than traditional designs delivering high airflow and low noise. Sitting below these fans, we have a premium 2.5-slot airflow control heatsink. The heatsink consists of air deflectors providing additional surface area and guiding air where it’s needed most over the Wave-curved 2.0 fin edges that disrupt unwanted airflow harmonics reducing noise.

The Tri Frozr design also includes MSI’s core-pipe technology. The six heat pipes that snake through the heat sink are precision machined for maximum contact over the GPU spreading the heat throughout the entire heatsink. Additionally, the RX 6750 XT GXT uses a lot of high-quality thermal tape, aiding in thermal transfer from the memory, VRM, and chokes. In our cooling tests, the MSI RX 6750 XT peaked at 66°C under load at stock speeds and was extremely quiet.

MSI includes their MSI AfterBurner software for overclocking, the core, and memory speeds. We also have the MSI Center with various available software for download and installation, most notably the Mystic Light application. Mystic Light gives you complete control over the RGB LED on the RX 6750 XT GXT, MSI motherboards, coolers, and compatible third-party devices.

	TORX FAN4.0 TORX FAN 4.0 is a masterpiece built on teamwork, with pairs of fan blades linked together with a revolutionary ring design to focus airflow and air pressure into the heatsink.
	COOL CORE PIPES Core Pipes are precision-machined for maximum contact over the GPU and spread the heat along the full length of the heatsink for optimal cooling.
	AIRFLOW CONTROL Don’t sweat it. Airflow Control improves airflow dynamics through the heatsink for improved thermals and quieter acoustics. Deflectors provide additional surface area and guide air to where it’s needed for maximum cooling. Wave-curved 2.0 fin edges disrupt unwanted airflow.
	UTTERLY UNSTOPPABLE Extremely durable double-ball bearings spin your TORX FANs for years of intense and lengthy gaming sessions in zero noise.
	Strong & Cool A sturdy Aluminum backplate reinforces the full length of the graphics card while also providing passive cooling.
	Anti Bending Defying Gravity An enclosed, rigid metal anti-bending plate provides additional strength to ensure structural rigidity with the enlarged heatsink.

Retail Packaging and Accessories

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Retail packaging for the MSI RX 6750 XT GXT is typical of Radeon graphics cards. It includes the MSI Gaming Dragon and Gamin X Trio model on the front with some features (1440p QHD support, 12 GB VRAM, PCIe 4.0). Turning the package around offers a picture of the card, a more extensive list of features, and a minimum system requirements list.

Inside the box, the card sits snug in form-fitting foam to secure it during shipping. The card has an anti-static bag, and we get some warranty, installation, and driver information. MSI also includes an optional brace to install alongside the card for additional support.

Meet the MSI RX 6750 XT Gaming X Trio

The MSI RX 6750 XT Gaming X Trio has a clean and neat appearance. The majority of the card is black, with some silver-grey accents around the edges at the four corners. The three fans are black with the Gaming Dragon, in black on the reflective hubs. As mentioned, the Gaming X Trio has an RGB LED strip on the outer edge of the backplate. The white “MSI” and Dragon logo on the outer edge light up from behind with RGB LEDs and some strips running kitty-corner on the center fan. MSI has also included an Aluminum backplate bearing the Gaming Dragon logo, offering excellent heat dissipation, PCB protection, and rigidity. The Gaming X Trio shouldn’t have any issues fitting in with most build themes.

A Closer Look at the MSI RX 6750 XT Gaming X Trio

Zooming in on the I/O layout, we see the standard format of three DisplayPorts (v1.4 with DSC) and a single HDMI (v2.1) port—the latter supporting up to 4K@120Hz. The card’s maximum resolution is 8K (7680 x 4320). While the card does not exhaust air directly out of the I/O plate, there are holes in it to let a bit of the warmed air out. Power is sent to the GPU through two 8-pin PCIe connectors and combined with the PCIe slot, the card provides up to 375 W of in-spec power, more than enough for this 250 W (TBP) card even while overclocked.

MSI uses their premium Twin Frozr 2.0 heatsink on this RX 6750 XT Gaming X Trio. The 2.5-slot solution uses six 6 mm heat pipes incorporating the Core Pipe design on the heat spreader, which contacts the GPU die and memory ICs. We also have three Torx 4.0 dual ball-bearing fans to push plenty of air through the heatsink. This premium cooling solution pushes the card’s dimensions to 13.2 x 5 x 2.2-inches (324 x 123 x 55 mm).

Below you can see the additional heat sinks and thermal tape that MSI has added to help cool the MOSFETs and chokes.

After removing the heatsink, we’re finally able to see the PCB. We see an unmarked Navi 22 XT silicon and its 335 mm² die area. Surrounding the GPU are six Samsung memory ICs (K4ZAF325BM-HC18) specified to run at 18 Gbps. The memory uses a 2-phase design with an OnSemiconductor NCP81022N controller feeding OnSemi NCP302045 45A MOSFETs. The GPU core power control comes from an 8-phase International Rectifier IR32517 and seven NCP302155 55A MOSFETs.

​Below are closeups of the power bits, Samsung 18 Gb/s GDDR6, and the control ICs.

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Below is a screenshot of GPU-Z showing the clocks we achieved at stock speeds. The MSI RX 6750 XT Gaming X Trio has a listed game clock of 2554 MHz, with the boost clocks to 2623 MHz. The card ran fairly consistently at 2710 MHz and higher. You can also see the 18 Gbps memory at 2244 MHz.

MSI RX 6750 XT Gaming X Trio on the test bench…

Test System and Benchmark Methods

Our test system is based on the latest mainstream Intel z690 platform and uses the i9-12900K 8P,8E/24t CPU. The CPU runs stock. The DRAM is in a 2×16 GB configuration at 5200 MHz with CL40 timings, a middle-of-the-road option balancing performance and cost.

Since the last update, we have made some changes and updated titles. More details can be found in the GPU Testing Procedure article, which we have updated with our latest benchmarks. Below is a quick summary for easy reference.

• UL 3DMark Time Spy – Default settings
• UL 3DMark Fire Strike (Extreme) – Default settings
• UL 3DMark Port Royal – Default Settings (Ray Tracing capable cards only)
• Unigine Superposition – 1080p High, 1080p Extreme
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider – DX12, “Highest” preset
• The Division 2 – DX12, Ultra preset, VSync Off
• Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey – Ultra High preset, VSync Off
• Far Cry 6 – Ultra defaults, HD Textures enabled
• F1 2021 – DX12, Very High defaults, TAA, and x16 AF, Bahrain track, show FPS counter.
• Metro: Exodus – DX12, Ultra defaults

Synthetic Benchmarks

Our first set of benchmarks hails from Underwriters Laboratories, which acquired Futuremark in 2014. Earlier in 2018, a rebrand occurred, and since that time, Futuremark is now UL. The benchmarks have not changed, just the name. We chose to stick with 3DMark Fire Strike (Extreme) and 3DMark Time Spy as these tests give users a good idea of performance on modern titles.

3DMark Fire Strike (Extreme) is a DX11-based test that runs at 1080p resolution. UL says the graphics render with detail and complexity far beyond other DX11 benchmarks and games. 3DMark Time Spy is a DX12 benchmark designed for Windows 10 PCs. It supports new API features such as asynchronous compute, explicit multi-adapter, and multi-threading and runs at 2560 x 1440. 3DMark Port Royal is the first Ray Tracing benchmark designed for Windows PCs and graphics cards with Microsoft DirectX Raytracing capabilities.

Looking at the charts above, we see the MSI RX 6750 XT is a bit faster than the RX 6700 XT in most of our synthetic benchmarks. Even overclocked, there is still a significant gap between the Gaming X Trio and its bigger sibling, the RX 6800.

Gaming Benchmarks

We have updated our testing suite for gaming benchmarks to bring more modern titles into the mix. Gone are F1 2020 and Far Cry New Dawn which were replaced by F1 2021 and Far Cry 6. We kept The Division 2, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, and Metro: Exodus. The games should provide a good view of the card’s overall performance. Many of these are DX12 games.

1920 x 1080 (1080p) Results

The gaming benchmarks are pretty much the same. We can see that the 18 Gbps GDDR6 does give the Navi 22 XT core a boost, but the silicon itself appears to have an advantage, consistently running 100 MHz faster than the RX 6700 XT we reviewed. The higher clock speed is most likely from the maturity of the process and some selective binning at the foundry.

2560 x 1440 and 4K UHD Results

Below are the higher resolution results starting with 2560 x 1440 and the “gaining in popularity” 3840 x 2160 (4K UHD). The 4K resolution proves to be a bit of a stretch for the GXT, but the MSI RX 6750 XT is very capable at 2560 x 1440 WQHD with the quality cranked to the max making this a solid choice for gaming at WQHD.

Ray Tracing and FSR Testing

Below, we tested Far Cry 6 with Ray-Tracing at 1440p and 4K and recorded the results in the left column below. The RX 6750 XT managed to get over 60 FPS at 1440p, but it could not render Ray-Tracing at 4K with the quality set to maximum and maintain that magic frame rate.

We then retested the MSI RX 6750 XT GXT with AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution. Much like Nvidia’s DLSS, it significantly boosted the results pushing the frames per second up to 85 during the 4K test.

Folding@Home

For those unfamiliar with Folding@Home, it is a project initially started by Stanford University but has moved to Washington University in St. Louis. Their goal is to help create treatments and cures for various diseases by understanding how human proteins “fold” or misfold, which is where the name originates. This understanding comes from simulating the folding of human proteins requiring enormous computational horsepower. Every day, people like you and I come in by donating our PC resources to fold at home during our spare time.

Currently, the folding@home team is working on various proteins adding processing power to the development of treatments. There’s a whole list of diseases that they work on, such as Cancer, Huntington’s, and Parkinson’s, to name a few, with the option to select which you would like to donate your time to.

We have team 32 here at Overclockers.com with members who can answer questions and help you optimize your folding if you’re interested in this.

We have a couple of screenshots of the MSI RX 6750 XT GXT folding project 18039, a Cancer-related protein. As you can see, it folds approximately 800,000 PPD and uses 130 W doing so. We have also included a visual example of the types of proteins they fold.

F@H Control Panel

F@H Protein Viewer

Cryptocurrency Mining

Mining for Cryptocurrency isn’t my thing, but we felt it might interest our readers with the market today. The following example is using NiceHash, which has a built-in benchmark. The MSI RX 6750 XT is running stock without any type of optimization. With GPU alone, it could earn you about USD 1.60 per day at current prices using 174 W.

We made some small gains with a small amount of tweaking, such as reducing the GPU core speed and voltage while upping the speed of the 12 GB of GDDR6. The hash rate is now up to ~ 41 MH/s while only using 130 W of power, and you’ll also notice the temperature is relatively low at 44°C. I’m sure someone with a bit of experience could do better.

Overclocking the MSI RX 6750 XT Gaming X Trio

MSI Afterburner is working well with AMD 6000 graphics cards. Anyone familiar with the software knows it’s a tremendous overclocking tool for any graphics card, not just MSI branded ones. We still have all the knobs for tuning, such as GPU Core speed, Memory, and the power target. In recent years, it has been so disappointing that, although we do have a voltage tuning option, the manufacturers just don’t allow us to increase the stock voltage anymore. We do have the opportunity to lower it, but only with the Radeon Software.

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We also have Radeon Software for overclocking, which has a “balanced” preset and a “quiet” setting with a slightly lower power limit and a higher fan target temperature junction keeping the fan rotation to a minimum even though the balanced setting was still super quiet. Next is the manual tuning button; once selected, it will give you all the overclocking options needed.

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For overclocking, we used MSI’s AfterBurner. The interface is very intuitive and easy to use. Once set, your overclocked settings will initiate when Windows starts. One issue we had here was the power target that would remain unchanged although our core and memory OC had been set. This required opening MSI AB and setting it manually after any reboot.

After some testing, we settled on a slight memory bump from 2250 MHz to 2280 MHz since the 18 Gbps GDDR6 doesn’t have a lot of headroom left. At these settings, the MSI RX 6750 XT ran consistently around the 2900 MHz mark, which is quite impressive using stock cooling settings. HOWEVER, the RX 6750 XT core gave us quite a bit more, and we were able to add about 200 MHz to the factory boost.

The MSI card peaked at 2933 MHz and consistently ran at that speed through some of our benchmarks but settled around 2910 MHz during more demanding benchmarks. This boosted our 3DMark Fire Strike Extreme score from 17,855 marks by nearly 800 marks, giving us 18,603, showing a 4-5% increase consistent throughout most of our benchmarks.

Temperatures and Power Use

We test power consumption by running through the game benchmarks of Shadow of the Tomb Raider and F1 2021 at stock speeds and while overclocked. We monitor temperatures throughout this testing, with the peak temperature listed in the data below. The benchmarks are extended (time) to allow the card to settle to simulate actual gaming conditions more accurately.

Temperatures on the MSI RX 6750 XT Gaming X Trio peaked at 62°C in F1 2020 and 64°C SOTR at stock settings. After overclocking the card, temperatures increased slightly in each game, peaking at 66°C in F1 2020 and SOTR. These are excellent results and demonstrate just how well MSI’s Tri Frozr 2.0 cooling solution works. The fans ramped up slowly, then settled at 50% when overclocked, and were inaudible over the rest of the system.

The MSI RX 6750 XT power use peaked at 482 W (total system power) at stock, reaching 509 W while overclocked (both in SOTR). For most systems, a quality 650 W power supply will be adequate for your needs, even while overclocking both the card and CPU.

Conclusion

MSI’s RX 6750 XT Gaming X Trio takes AMD’s reference design and improves it in every way. The GXT version comes equipped with a 7+3+2-phase power delivery system and 375 W of available power from the two 8-PCIe connectors and PCIe slot. The Tri Frozr 2.0 heatsink is effective and quiet with an appealing appearance overall. The MSI RX 6750 XT is 324 mm (13.2″) long, fitting most mid-tower cases. Always check your dimensions before purchasing. The drawback to having these features is a meager price increase. The reference model AMD RX 6750 XT’s MSRP is $549. MSI’s Gaming X Trio will definitely bring a premium over the reference MSRP. As mentioned earlier, at this time we don’t have an MSRP for the MSI RX 6750 XT Gaming X Trio but we’ll update this article when we do.

Looking at the RX 6750 XT as a refresh, it does slip nicely between the RX 6800 and RX 6700 XT, although it is much closer to the RX 6700 XT performance-wise. I can see why AMD would have an RDNA2 refresh at this time. Not only does it fill a significant performance gap, but their next-generation graphics card based on RDNA3 is also still several months away. A bit of publicity never hurts, right? If we compare the reference pricing, the RX 6750 XT at $549.00 is only $30 less than the MSRP for the Radeon RX 6800 of $579. At that point, we have to ask ourselves, why not get the notably faster card?

AMD’s decision in launching the RX 6750 XT may be questionable and on its own isn’t overly exciting leaving us feeling a bit underwhelmed. To be fair to MSI, they did a bang-up job once again, with their implementation of the RX 6750 XT Gaming X Trio and we have no qualms giving it our seal of approval!

– Shawn Jennings (Johan45)

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