# ASUS Radeon RX 6800 XT STRIX OC Liquid Cooled



## W1zzard (Nov 26, 2020)

The ASUS Radeon RX 6800 XT STRIX OC LC comes with an integrated 240 mm watercooling unit that achieves outstanding temperatures. We found unbelievable overclocking potential on our sample, much better than all the other RX 6800 XT cards we've tested before.

*Show full review*


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## Xuper (Nov 26, 2020)

Holly moly ! That 2743Mhz?! Was it stable for hours ?


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## Lionheart (Nov 26, 2020)

I call this the overpriced big dick card that no one will buy unless you're a professional benchmarker. I wonder if this could reach 3ghz with LN2....


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## Cheeseball (Nov 26, 2020)

It looks good, cools good, but that price sure makes it not worth purchasing.

$800, I can agree with. $1,000? Hell no. You can get the 6800 XT, the NZXT AIO-to-GPU mount, and a decent 240mm AIO for less than this. Sure it probably wouldn't look as good or fit right, but you would be saving a chunk of cash. And you probably don't need to deal with Aura Sync too.


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## Space Lynx (Nov 26, 2020)

might as well get stock 6900x at that price.  yikes.


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## metalfiber (Nov 26, 2020)

Three memory chips are missing a thermal pad?...you get what you pay for.


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## r.h.p (Nov 26, 2020)

just wondering did you put the 3 thermal pads on for them @W1zzard


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## Outback Bronze (Nov 26, 2020)

Wow!

Haven't seen GPU overclocking like this for some time, if ever.


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## Makaveli (Nov 26, 2020)

The price and the messy cables are the only negatives for me.


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## ModEl4 (Nov 26, 2020)

Hi, please correct in the conclusion the $770 price for the reference AMD model ($649) and the rest  regarding difference etc...


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## bubbleawsome (Nov 26, 2020)

Wow, 2.7Ghz. If we get a reasonably priced LC'd card it might really be the go-to raster card. Kinda wish we could see more real-world performance increases of that OC instead of just Haven.


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## Space Lynx (Nov 26, 2020)

bubbleawsome said:


> Wow, 2.7Ghz. If we get a reasonably priced LC'd card it might really be the go-to raster card. Kinda wish we could see more real-world performance increases of that OC instead of just Haven.



my rx 6800 is stable at 2.4ghz and doesn't break 60 celsius. im not risking pushing it further though, it already beats the XT model so meh im good.


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## pandemonium (Nov 26, 2020)

Lionheart said:


> I call this the overpriced big dick card that no one will buy unless you're a professional benchmarker. I wonder if this could reach 3ghz with LN2....



No.  Asus is just taking their cut instead of the letting the scalpers take it all for themselves.

This card, like all others, is out of stock.

Edit: Newegg in the U.S. has it listed at $899, FYI.


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## wolf (Nov 26, 2020)

$1000!! what are they thinking. Sweet card, wrong price.. if you can even get one.


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## Mussels (Nov 26, 2020)

This is the kind of card i was looking for... but if all you get his higher wattage consumed for no performance gain, ehhhh


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## Space Lynx (Nov 26, 2020)

pandemonium said:


> No.  Asus is just taking their cut instead of the letting the scalpers take it all for themselves.
> 
> This card, like all others, is out of stock.




if people are stupid enough to buy and you can enrich your company exponentially, and then trickle that down to a wider consumer base once stock comes back in more - I think it's just fine.. problem is Asus makes even its lowest tier cards pay the Asus tax with other brands undercutting them always. Asus is ok, but meh my reference design rx 6800 feels very high quality and cost much less.


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## swirl09 (Nov 26, 2020)

Not really, their TUF series is worth the premium on any RTX30 model Ive seen. They do charge extra generally, and for sure on their ROG stuff. But the bigger issue atm is scalper tax being applied in so many places - can be hard to know what any of them are supposed to cost. 

Ive only bought once from Caseking and it was my 3090. Its had 3 price increases since, so I dont know if thats normal for them or what but it sure is crazy.


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## ZeroFM (Nov 26, 2020)

Only 2x 8Pin, no quick disconnect


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## mb194dc (Nov 26, 2020)

Just need to wait 6 to 12 months so prices come down and they're actually available to buy...

Would like to see more benches at max card oc.


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## turbogear (Nov 26, 2020)

It would be interesting to see if this is by purpose or somebody at the factory forgot to put thermal pad on three of the memory modules.  

To me it seem like the later is the case. I don't think ASUS will try to save cost by leaving thermal pad at one location especially not for memory. 

I would not have expected such quality issue from ASUS especially for their premium card.


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## Khonjel (Nov 26, 2020)

Yikes! Big Navi is OC beast but those AIB prices! Big yikes! Nitro+, Red Devil and now this. Eye-wateringly expensive. Buying reference cards from AMD directly at MSRP is looking like the best option. Though even that is a supplt desert. Some people on AMD subreddit are saying their orders were confirmed only yesterday after they ordered on the 18th.


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## N3M3515 (Nov 26, 2020)

It should be $750 max.


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## W1zzard (Nov 26, 2020)

turbogear said:


> It would be interesting to see if this is by purpose or somebody at the factory forgot to put thermal pad on three of the memory modules.


I talked to ASUS, they say it's just my sample, other reviewer cards are fine



pandemonium said:


> Edit: Newegg in the U.S. has it listed at $899, FYI.


Thanks, let me update the review


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## metalkhor (Nov 26, 2020)

Why are you still using 9900K platform for benchmarking? despite having significantly inferior performance relative to 10900K and 5950X, also lacking PCIE Gen4 that could impact modern graphics cards performance!


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## W1zzard (Nov 26, 2020)

metalkhor said:


> Why are you still using 9900K platform for benchmarking? despite having significantly inferior performance relative to 10900K and 5950X, also lacking PCIE Gen4 that could impact modern graphics cards performance!


My OC'd 9900K is actually doing really well against the 10900K: https://www.techpowerup.com/review/nvidia-geforce-rtx-3080-amd-3900-xt-vs-intel-10900k/27.html

Updating the test bench is something I'll do as soon as I have a bit of time. I test many more games than most reviewers, a full retest takes around two weeks of non-stop work. Right now there is simply no time to stop for two weeks, each week there's a new launch, I just reviewed 3 cards in 1 day for AMD, for NVIDIA's next launch I have 6 or 7 reviews, then there's the next AMD launch, and then the next NVIDIA launch. I also have Palit 3070, MSI 3090 in the pipe, and around a dozen SSD reviews. Oh and I'm testing Cyberpunk, too.


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## Space Lynx (Nov 26, 2020)

W1zzard said:


> My OC'd 9900K is actually doing really well against the 10900K: https://www.techpowerup.com/review/nvidia-geforce-rtx-3080-amd-3900-xt-vs-intel-10900k/27.html
> 
> Updating the test bench is something I'll do as soon as I have a bit of time. I test many more games than most reviewers, a full retest takes around two weeks of non-stop work. Right now there is simply no time to stop for two weeks, each week there's a new launch, I just reviewed 3 cards in 1 day for AMD, for NVIDIA's next launch I have 6 or 7 reviews, then there's the next AMD launch, and then the next NVIDIA launch. I also have Palit 3070, MSI 3090 in the pipe, and around a dozen SSD reviews. Oh and I'm testing Cyberpunk, too.



Not to mention he takes out time to help members of the community here, like me the other day with thermal pad measurements.


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## Vya Domus (Nov 26, 2020)

I bet one of these at 2.7 Ghz is as fast as a stock 6900XT. But what that means is that a water cooled 6900XT is going to be crazy fast.


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## Outback Bronze (Nov 26, 2020)

lynx29 said:


> Not to mention he takes out time to help members of the community here, like me the other day with thermal pad measurements.



And while he's shifting house. God knows how he does it. Great job Wiz!


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## W1zzard (Nov 26, 2020)

Outback Bronze said:


> And while he's shifting house. God knows how he does it. Great job Wiz!


The move is complete, my lab is running at full speed. Got a few nice improvements, and have photography/lighting mostly figured out, too


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## jesdals (Nov 26, 2020)

In Denmark the value of this card is actually reasonably compared with the other custom AIB, but hopeing for 6900XT version and 3x Displayport


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## ZoneDymo (Nov 26, 2020)

those cables are completely unacceptable


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## robertmi (Nov 26, 2020)

@W1zzard,
in review conclusion you missed :



> Pricing is not pretty. ASUS is pricing this card at $900, which really is a lot of money—$250 higher than the AMD reference which retails for $650. If you are a hardcore overclocker and want to play with OCs all day then this card could still be worth it for its massive overclocking headroom. For gamers I'm not so convinced.* $350* for 4% out of the box performance really isn't worth it.


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## claster17 (Nov 26, 2020)

criss2984 said:


> why don't I buy 6900XT, when I have $1000.......


Assuming you are one of the 10 people to find a 6900XT at MSRP.


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## W1zzard (Nov 26, 2020)

robertmi said:


> in review conclusion you missed :


fixed, thanks!


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## frozen_methane (Nov 26, 2020)

W1zzard said:


> My OC'd 9900K is actually doing really well against the 10900K: https://www.techpowerup.com/review/nvidia-geforce-rtx-3080-amd-3900-xt-vs-intel-10900k/27.html
> 
> Updating the test bench is something I'll do as soon as I have a bit of time. I test many more games than most reviewers, a full retest takes around two weeks of non-stop work. Right now there is simply no time to stop for two weeks, each week there's a new launch, I just reviewed 3 cards in 1 day for AMD, for NVIDIA's next launch I have 6 or 7 reviews, then there's the next AMD launch, and then the next NVIDIA launch. I also have Palit 3070, MSI 3090 in the pipe, and around a dozen SSD reviews. Oh and I'm testing Cyberpunk, too.



Hey W1zzard,

First wanted to say Long time lurker, long time fan. Since the ATI soft mod unlocks you created.

10900k shows much improved performance with high speed ram. I recently upgraded from a 5ghz 9900k w/4x8GB of CL14 3200mhz to a 10900k 5.2ghz and 4700mhz CL18 2x16GB on z490 dark.

This was true plug in play, and >4500mhz CL18 ram on 10900 is mind boggling fast. Is there any way you could 1) test this yourself 2) update your 10900k to use faster dual rank ram with lower timings?

Zen has always been limited by IF clocks, which is <2000mhz, but intel really opens up in perf beyond that and doesn’t have this hard stop. There is still a lot of performance being left on the table for intel. luumi had a good post about this on his YT channel, and kingpin created specific OC profiles for this ram on the z490 dark. 

https://www.newegg.com/g-skill-32gb-288-pin-ddr4-sdram/p/N82E16820374050?Item=N82E16820374050


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## W1zzard (Nov 26, 2020)

frozen_methane said:


> 4500mhz


don't have such fast memory, and not sure if it makes sense financially to pay that much. if i can find a zen 3 cpu i might go that route anyway, would save me a ton of trouble with "why aren't you testing on amd?"


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## ShurikN (Nov 26, 2020)

Three memory chips are missing a thermal pad

Yep, it's an ASUS card alright.


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## Vya Domus (Nov 26, 2020)

ShurikN said:


> Yep, it's an ASUS card alright.



I've come to accept that no matter how much you pay you'll still get non existent QA. That's what happens when people accept this sort of stuff.


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## ARF (Nov 26, 2020)

W1zzard said:


> My OC'd 9900K is actually doing really well against the 10900K: https://www.techpowerup.com/review/nvidia-geforce-rtx-3080-amd-3900-xt-vs-intel-10900k/27.html
> 
> Updating the test bench is something I'll do as soon as I have a bit of time. I test many more games than most reviewers, a full retest takes around two weeks of non-stop work. Right now there is simply no time to stop for two weeks, each week there's a new launch, I just reviewed 3 cards in 1 day for AMD, for NVIDIA's next launch I have 6 or 7 reviews, then there's the next AMD launch, and then the next NVIDIA launch. I also have Palit 3070, MSI 3090 in the pipe, and around a dozen SSD reviews. Oh and I'm testing Cyberpunk, too.



@W1zzard Hi, are you doing everything alone?
I think the best is to get some helpful buddies who will bench with Ryzen 9 5900X/5950X | X570, and do the older cards testing, too.


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## W1zzard (Nov 26, 2020)

ARF said:


> @W1zzard Hi, are you doing everything alone?
> I think the best is to get some helpful buddies who will bench with Ryzen 9 5900X/5950X and do the older cards testing, too.


Unfortunately it's not so easy, or there would be a lot more people making reviews as detailed as mine


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## owen10578 (Nov 26, 2020)

Holy shit that's an insane overclock. 11% over an ALREADY factory overclocked card is impressive in today's GPU overclocking.


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## Vayra86 (Nov 26, 2020)

Mussels said:


> This is the kind of card i was looking for... but if all you get his higher wattage consumed for no performance gain, ehhhh



1.8% more than the others! I mean... insta buy right


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## RedelZaVedno (Nov 26, 2020)

What's the point in reviewing these GPUs if you can't buy them? Whole Europe is 'out of stock'. Just a free marketing I suppose.


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## ARF (Nov 26, 2020)

RedelZaVedno said:


> What's the point in reviewing these GPUs if you can't buy them? Whole Europe is 'out of stock'. Just a free marketing I suppose.




For some weird reason, anti-logically, Navi 21 is not in production - despite that it's 100% faster than the old fastest and should be considered as the single most important Radeon for the company.
It should be the top priority, while Navi 10 should be stopped and taken out of the market.
This is the product that will return the faith of the gamers in AMD and its graphics division.


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## laszlo (Nov 26, 2020)

i don't know if those few frame differences worth almost 40% price over reference but for sure there will be buyers for it


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## spnidel (Nov 26, 2020)

I guess this card is fine if you want a watercooled card but don't want to get into modding it, but anyone with any PC hardware experience should just get the reference design and watercool it
better temps (therefore potentially higher OC), lower noise for less money


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## RedelZaVedno (Nov 26, 2020)

The problem is that most of these new GPUs are non existent and the ones you can buy are selling at high price premiums. Most basic AIB's RTX 3070 are selling for €650 ($770) and 3080 for €850 ($1,000) in EU. German Mindfactory and Caseking have zero stocks, with exception of 3090 costing €1,749 ($2,060) and up.  2015 mining craze, then Turing and now this...  DIY GPU market has become a total shit show


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## ARF (Nov 26, 2020)

RedelZaVedno said:


> The problem is that most of these new GPUs are non existent and the ones you can buy are selling at high price premiums. Most basic AIB's RTX 3070 are selling for €650 ($770) and 3080 for €850 ($1,000) in EU. German Mindfactory and Caseking have zero stocks, with exception of 3090 costing €1,749 ($2,060) and up.  2015 mining craze, then Turing and now this...  DIY GPU market has become a total shit show




True, the evil force doesn't want you to upgrade to proper Ultra HD experience. Everything that is Ultra HD capable is either non available or prohibitively expensive.


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## asuya (Nov 26, 2020)

i wish to see AMD GPU RDNA 3 use more than 256 bit bus width..


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## Chrispy_ (Nov 26, 2020)

This is an impressive card for sure, but it serves to remind us how little headroom there actually is these days. I love how excited W1zzard is to see a 16% overclock because that's so unusually high. Back in the old days you'd change a 66MHz bus speed to 100MHz and get 50% more without even changing the cooling 

One thing I'm curious about is the way this is cooled. Sure, I get that it's easier to use a generic pump/block combo but then they had to spend extra costs tooling and designing a blower shroud and investment casting a custom coldplate that lines up with all the board components. Given this is a relatively low-volume part and it has an almost ridiculous 38% price premium, I'd be expecting a full-coverage waterblock to be a cost-competitive option to manufacture. It would certainly look nicer and lets face it, looks are a big part of why people buy these, given that the actual performance increase from your 38% price premium is just 10%!



metalkhor said:


> Why are you still using 9900K platform for benchmarking? despite having significantly inferior performance relative to 10900K and 5950X, also lacking PCIE Gen4 that could impact modern graphics cards performance!


@W1zzard has already answered this but another valuable point is because then the results are comparable to all the other GPUs in the charts. Any reviewer worth their salt will keep the base platform the same to provide us readers with (much appreciated) context data for as long as possible, and they generally only update their platform when the new platform is found to be holding back the review product by any significant margin.


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## Arcdar (Nov 26, 2020)

W1zzard said:


> The move is complete, my lab is running at full speed. Got a few nice improvements, and have photography/lighting mostly figured out, too



you didn't build up the new lap around Munich and allow guests?   (Damn, I should be too old for that but damn, I'd love to see your lab Setup including camera/etc. . Also treat you to a beer for your amazing work, I love reading your Reviews, etc.  ).


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## ARF (Nov 26, 2020)

Chrispy_ said:


> This is an impressive card for sure, but it serves to remind us how little headroom there actually is these days. I love how excited W1zzard is to see a 16% overclock because that's so unusually high. Back in the old days you'd change a 66MHz bus speed to 100MHz and get 50% more without even changing the cooling



Back then, the CPUs TDP were much lower, overclocking from 25 watt up to 45 watt will still sit comfortably in the coolers design capacities.


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## Chrispy_ (Nov 26, 2020)

ARF said:


> Back then, the CPUs TDP were much lower, overclocking from 25 watt up to 45 watt will still sit comfortably in the coolers design capacities.


for what it's worth, my Celeron 300A to 564MHz required only a 75W peltier and single 60mm fan (though it was a 7000rpm fan)


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## ARF (Nov 26, 2020)

Chrispy_ said:


> @W1zzard has already answered this but another valuable point is because then the results are comparable to all the other GPUs in the charts. Any reviewer worth their salt will keep the base platform the same to provide us readers with (much appreciated) context data for as long as possible, and they generally only update their platform when the new platform is found to be holding back the review product by any significant margin.



They did change the baseline methodology and the performance comparisons are not compatible anymore.


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## Arcdar (Nov 26, 2020)

ARF said:


> Back then, the CPUs TDP were much lower, overclocking from 25 watt up to 45 watt will still sit comfortably in the coolers design capacities.



jup. and only if you exceeded that "by a lot" you had to improve cooling. But then drastically. Also, the cooling wasn't by far as efficient or quiet as it is today  (still remember my cyrix and later the Intel Pentium MMX which could easily run at 23x instead of his 133 base…. or my Celeron266 ôO …. god, times ^^ so Long ago but fun).

On the other Hand you could also fry them. Quite easily compared to today with all the temp-sensors, voltage readouts, etc etc. *lol*


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## Jism (Nov 26, 2020)

It just shows how much that chip is capable when running water. No need to buy a premium model like this one, if your handy enough and slap a AIO yourself.

Very amazing results, 2.7Ghz GPU core. Who would have thought that.


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## Sovsefanden (Nov 26, 2020)

I will never understand these AIO cards, I doubt they sell well !!



metalkhor said:


> Why are you still using 9900K platform for benchmarking? despite having significantly inferior performance relative to 10900K and 5950X, also lacking PCIE Gen4 that could impact modern graphics cards performance!



9900K is like a i7-10700K, which performs pretty much identical to 10900K in games, so nah. Besides, this a GPU test, so you're GPU bound lol... Or atleast you should aim to be

PCIe 4.0 brings nothing to the table for now, because all these new cards, does not max PCIe 3.0 out anyway.

By the time PCIe 4.0 will matter, 5.0 or 6.0 will be standard


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## Jism (Nov 26, 2020)

Sovsefanden said:


> I will never understand these AIO cards, I doubt they sell well !!



It's for those who dont want to mess around with a watercooling in general onto a GPU. This sollution is simply plug and play, and you have warranty.


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## Sovsefanden (Nov 26, 2020)

Jism said:


> It's for those who dont want to mess around with a watercooling in general onto a GPU. This sollution is simply plug and play, and you have warranty.



It's far less plug and play than aircooled cards

More problems can occour (dead pump = no gaming for example).

Pumps in cheaper AIO's like this often leads to strange noises, like whining, dripping noises etc.

And the benefit over Aircooling is pretty much none. You pay more for the same performance pretty much (with more stuff that can break and higher risk of weird noises over time, or even water spilling out). No point in my book. Just more ugly cables/tubes to hide away and you also need room for radiator.

MSRP is 900 dollars... For a 649 MSRP CARD. Yeah no thanks man! It's pretty much what 6900XT is going to be. Insanely bad performance per dollar here.


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## SN2716057 (Nov 26, 2020)

@W1zzard


> Installation requires three slots in your system.







It sure looks like just 2.


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## Lomskij (Nov 26, 2020)

A bit off-topic perhaps, but I'm curious if recent bitcoin spikes haven't contributed to the "unavailability" of all these new cards.


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## Xuper (Nov 26, 2020)

allright , Price is $899


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## Makaveli (Nov 26, 2020)

Xuper said:


> allright , Price is $899



its $1299 CAD









						ASUS ROG STRIX Radeon RX 6800 XT Video Card ROG-STRIX-LC-RX6800XT-O16G-GAMING - Newegg.com
					

Buy ASUS ROG STRIX Radeon RX 6800 XT 16GB GDDR6 PCI Express 4.0 CrossFireX Support Video Card ROG-STRIX-LC-RX6800XT-O16G-GAMING with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!




					www.newegg.ca
				




Which is a no buy for me until that price gets more reasonable, I won't be looking at the card again until maybe March 2021.



Sovsefanden said:


> It's far less plug and play than aircooled cards
> 
> More problems can occour (dead pump = no gaming for example).
> 
> ...



For someone like me who is going to Vertically mount the GPU an AIO version is perferred to Air cooling which won't have much room for air that close to the side panel.

Dead pump is no different than a dead cooling solution on a Air both will rendering you unable to play games.

Apples vs orange comparing pumps from other AIO to the custom one on this card.

Already have the space for a the rad wouldn't even be looking at it if there was no room.

I agree with you on cables would have been nice if they could have cleaned that up abit but its fixable.

Also believe its over priced.


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## W1zzard (Nov 26, 2020)

ARF said:


> It sure looks like just 2.


it's hard to see in the photo. the front is two slots, but it bulges up near the fan


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## cueman (Nov 26, 2020)

nice looking amd gpu,but still loose nvidia gpus, cant helpet that,so nvidia is still leader.

it might be think that rx 6900xt cant put much performance more....hmm i say not much,same as rtx 3080/3090,let see.

there is coming rtx 3080 ti also, so thouse 2 fight king crown,if... but,what i heard nvidia make same as amd, and  i mean incoming rtx 3070 x2 gpu...i say..hmmm..nope.

efficiency looks also same level from nvidia,when 6800 series performance getting closer nvidia rtx performance ..

hmm, even rx 6000 series ocäd well, rtx 3000 series have so much rare power....too much to amd rx 6000 series.

middle king are between rtx 3070 ti vs rx 6800

great competitions!

but, where is intel Xe gpu... i mean do we get third gpu for battle line....i say...nope, but who know. i hope.

last.. rtx 3080 and ti and 3090 and rx 6800 and rx 6800 xt and also  rx 6900 xt gpu only reason is buy, if you play games 4K resolution, another way, absolutly no reason.


so i think moust popular gpus are rx 6700 and rtx 3060 ti and rtx 3070 and rtx 3070 ti, depence price.

but,if rtx 30t0 ti price go under 500$, its top 2 gpu.


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## ARF (Nov 26, 2020)

W1zzard said:


> it's hard to see in the photo. the front is two slots, but it bulges up near the fan



This was @SN2716057 post, not mine


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## RH92 (Nov 26, 2020)

pandemonium said:


> No.  Asus is just taking their cut instead of the letting the scalpers take it all for themselves.



Sure ASUS are taking their cut BUT the reason most 6800XTs are overpriced is beacause AMD just lied about MSRP ....... so if you wan't to blame someone at least blame the right person .


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## spnidel (Nov 26, 2020)

Lomskij said:


> A bit off-topic perhaps, but I'm curious if recent bitcoin spikes haven't contributed to the "unavailability" of all these new cards.


they shouldn't, given that ampere is far better at mining than the new radeons


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## okbuddy (Nov 26, 2020)

3080 beats all 6800xt no matter how oc you are


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## GreiverBlade (Nov 26, 2020)

i don't get the complaining about the pricing ... that thing MSRP (yeah the fabled unicorn) is lower than the custom RX 6800 XT for me ...

a plain custom:
low price : 1099chf (about the same in $)
high price: 1277chf (about the yaddah yaddah )
there are even non XT model around 859 lowest price and 1054 highest price ...

yeahhhh i love my country ...





okbuddy said:


> 3080 beats all 6800xt no matter how oc you are


ok, buddy (pun intended)... whatever you say ...

 


the only thing worth being snappy at, is the pricing variation, but putting "green tinted glass" and not see a fact that is in the review is no good


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## AusWolf (Nov 26, 2020)

If only my 5700 XT had a similar cooler on it!


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## WeeRab (Nov 26, 2020)

Really weird reading all the comments about overpricing, when just 6 months ago a lot of the same were rushing out and paying $300 more for a 2080ti saying it was absolutely necessary
 for top class gaming.
Go figure...


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## Makaveli (Nov 26, 2020)

WeeRab said:


> Really weird reading all the comments about overpricing, when just 6 months ago a lot of the same were rushing out and paying $300 more for a 2080ti saying it was absolutely necessary
> for top class gaming.
> Go figure...



Very good point gladly I was not one of those people.

Nv really gave the finger to anyone on the 2xxx series when it came to pricing.


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## Fluffmeister (Nov 26, 2020)

WeeRab said:


> Really weird reading all the comments about overpricing, when just 6 months ago a lot of the same were rushing out and paying $300 more for a 2080ti saying it was absolutely necessary
> for top class gaming.
> Go figure...



Agreed, but at least you could buy a 2080 Ti.


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## Mysteoa (Nov 27, 2020)

RH92 said:


> Sure ASUS are taking their cut BUT the reason most 6800XTs are overpriced is beacause AMD just lied about MSRP ....... so if you wan't to blame someone at least blame the right person .


At this point you don't know who to trust. Of course AIB don't want to look bad and will blame it on AMD, but they just know that in the current market people will buy it no matter the price, so why not charge more. Also, AMD can't force AIB as much as Nvidia can.



asuya said:


> i wish to see AMD GPU RDNA 3 use more than 256 bit bus width..


And why would they make the card pricer when it is doing fine on 256bit?


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## bubbleawsome (Nov 27, 2020)

Mysteoa said:


> And why would they make the card pricer when it is doing fine on 256bit?


While it's doing ok it's also clear that _something_ is holding it back at 4k, and I'd be willing to bet memory bandwidth would help there. For a high end part aimed at 4k gaming it's a little shy.


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## Mussels (Nov 27, 2020)

Looks like a kickass card for 1440p tho... and all these 4K reviews are at ultra, simply turning a single setting down or off could suddenly kick those numbers up


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## btk2k2 (Nov 27, 2020)

bubbleawsome said:


> While it's doing ok it's also clear that _something_ is holding it back at 4k, and I'd be willing to bet memory bandwidth would help there. For a high end part aimed at 4k gaming it's a little shy.



ComputerBase Memory OC testing says otherwise. They saw a 1% performance gain from a 7.5% memory OC @ 4k.

The 6800XT pulls further away from the 2080Ti as resolution increases. The difference is that Ampere does so at a faster rate (lower performance loss for a resolution bump). This is similar to the Radeon 7 vs the 5700XT where the 5700XT is ahead at 1080p, they match at 1440p and the Radeon 7 is ahead at 4K.

The most likely explanation is that the extra shader performance starts to make a difference at 4k.


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## Colddecked (Nov 27, 2020)

For a 250 dollar markup you think they'd clean up that wiring... 



Mysteoa said:


> At this point you don't know who to trust. Of course AIB don't want to look bad and will blame it on AMD, but they just know that in the current market people will buy it no matter the price, so why not charge more. Also, AMD can't force AIB as much as Nvidia can.
> 
> 
> And why would they make the card pricer when it is doing fine on 256bit?



AIBs are full of crap.  They're the ones marking it up and laughing all the way to the bank when the resellers buy the stock now anyways.


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## Jism (Nov 27, 2020)

bubbleawsome said:


> While it's doing ok it's also clear that _something_ is holding it back at 4k, and I'd be willing to bet memory bandwidth would help there. For a high end part aimed at 4k gaming it's a little shy.



In every review and / or OC, memory bandwidth is just a little portion in comparison to the core OC alone. So it's not really bandwidth limited here. This is no polaris or so.

If the 6900XT would be released with a 384 bits memory bus shit will be amazing if there's extra CU's available. Other then that the 128MB ondie cache pretty much offers lots of benefit already. If you go wider with bus and more chips your raising the costs in chips, pcb, tdp and cooling sort of say.

It's simply more efficient then Nvidia at this moment. Lets keep it that way.


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## FinneousPJ (Nov 27, 2020)

The gains in RTRT are mad!


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## lexluthermiester (Nov 28, 2020)

Chrispy_ said:


> @W1zzard has already answered this but another valuable point is because then the results are comparable to all the other GPUs in the charts. Any reviewer worth their salt will keep the base platform the same to provide us readers with (much appreciated) context data for as long as possible, and they generally only update their platform when the new platform is found to be holding back the review product by any significant margin.


This! Being able to offer consistently reliable information is far more important than keeping the base platform up to date, especially considering that an OC'd 9900k is still considered a top-tier testing platform. 

What I like about these reviews W1zard does is the fact that not only do they show an expansive level of testing for users to make very informed decisions, but it also shows the consistency of the performance on offer. I am still completely taken a-back by how well they kicked it into high gear but also by how well they do on AMD's first RTRT go. This new generation GPU's from both camps have been exceptional!


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## cueman (Nov 29, 2020)

hmm,well looks and its true, even rx 6800 xt with water cooled oc'd 6800 xt cant beat rtx 3080 FE gpu, i repeat FE gpu,i mean compare is FE rtx 3080.
yes, rtx 3080/90 AIB versions not have much more performance more but something anyway, 2-5%,example evga model.


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## sweet (Nov 30, 2020)

cueman said:


> hmm,well looks and its true, even rx 6800 xt with water cooled oc'd 6800 xt cant beat rtx 3080 FE gpu, i repeat FE gpu,i mean compare is FE rtx 3080.
> yes, rtx 3080/90 AIB versions not have much more performance more but something anyway, 2-5%,example evga model.


They can even beat 3090 in games optimized for AMD, such as Strange Brigade or Hitman 2. Given AMD history with drivers, this card can comfortable compete with 3080 and eventually pull ahead in the near future.

The main grudge with Nvidia is that those cards are at the edge of the silicon node. There is still doubt that this would be Fermi all over again. In long run AMD seems to be better for this generation.


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## purecain (Dec 1, 2020)

If we can actually see some stock in the shops that would be something. Lets hope we can all access the silicon we want by April next yr.
Ive got a funny feeling most of us will be waiting that long the way things are going.
I'll be looking for a 6900xt @ launch. Great review of the 6800xt!


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## Shatun_Bear (Dec 2, 2020)

bubbleawsome said:


> Wow, 2.7Ghz. If we get a reasonably priced LC'd card it might really be the go-to raster card. Kinda wish we could see more real-world performance increases of that OC instead of just Haven.



6900XT has a clock limit of 3Ghz.

That one, liquid cooled, is going to break all records and still probably draw less power than a 3090


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## medi01 (Dec 2, 2020)

RedelZaVedno said:


> What's the point in reviewing these GPUs if you can't buy them? Whole Europe is 'out of stock'. Just a free marketing I suppose.



We have never had an exciting GPU launch when cards were not in acute shortage for the first couple of months.


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## Colddecked (Dec 2, 2020)

Shatun_Bear said:


> 6900XT has a clock limit of 3Ghz.
> 
> That one, liquid cooled, is going to break all records and still probably draw less power than a 3090



Hopefully my future 6800xt will have the same clock limit once I flash the 6900xt bios on it


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## medi01 (Dec 2, 2020)

asuya said:


> i wish to see AMD GPU RDNA 3 use more than 256 bit bus width..



So insightful, was worth registering just to post that. 
Thank you, stranger!



lexluthermiester said:


> This! Being able to offer consistently reliable information is far more important than keeping the base platform up to date, especially considering that an OC'd 9900k is still considered a top-tier testing platform.


SAM alone can boost framerates to up to 13% and it is very relevant to the readers (most I know are going to buy Zen3). 
9900k makes it impossible.

Situation isn't really different from the times when 9900k was introduced (which is what, 2 years ago?), it's not like there was no other CPU before it or that one didn't have to re-test stuff with new CPU.


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## jesdals (Dec 2, 2020)

I had hope for building with this card but I fear, that Its going to be to thight a fit compared with my r7 card and the aio


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## FinneousPJ (Dec 2, 2020)

Those tiny fans look cute


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## Makaveli (Dec 2, 2020)

jesdals said:


> I had hope for building with this card but I fear, that Its going to be to thight a fit compared with my r7 card and the aio
> View attachment 177900



That looks like a Fractal Design Meshify C case.

If it is you will probably have issues fitting the newer cards and why are those fans mounted behind the Rad instead of in front of the rad?


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## Caring1 (Dec 2, 2020)

medi01 said:


> So insightful, was worth registering just to post that.
> Thank you, stranger!


Were you born an asshole, or did you learn that from your parents?


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## jesdals (Dec 2, 2020)

Makaveli said:


> That looks like a Fractal Design Meshify C case.
> 
> If it is you will probably have issues fitting the newer cards and why are those fans mounted behind the Rad instead of in front of the rad?


I decided to try push and negative pressure, but it does not seems to do any good. I have modifyed the sides with intakes behind motherboard tray with opening behind cpu and on the side of my very hot R7 and a fan blowing in at side at the cpu. I have som spare vacation time from tomorrow and decided to test the difference plus the effect of new Noctua paste the NT-NH2.



FinneousPJ said:


> Those tiny fans look cute


Believe me you could fry and egg on that backplate of the R7


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## Mussels (Dec 3, 2020)

jesdals said:


> I had hope for building with this card but I fear, that Its going to be to thight a fit compared with my r7 card and the aio
> View attachment 177900



Whats going on here? Every fan is exhausting (terrible idea) the GPU is in an 8x slot, and you've wedged in MORE exhaust fans making it even worse?


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## Fluffmeister (Dec 3, 2020)

I just miss the days when HBM was apparently required.

Suckers.


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## lexluthermiester (Dec 3, 2020)

Mussels said:


> Whats going on here? Every fan is exhausting (terrible idea) the GPU is in an 8x slot, and you've wedged in MORE exhaust fans making it even worse?


That's what I was thinking. That Radeon is in the wrong slot!


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## Taraquin (Dec 3, 2020)

It seems like almost every other major reviewer crowns the 3080 at 4k, about ties the 3080 and 6800XT at 1440p and crowns the 6800XT at 1080p. I wonder why TPU get better results at lower res than viritually every other site. Game selection? Something with the setup that either improves Ampere performance at low res or lowers Big Navi perf at low res?


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## jesdals (Dec 3, 2020)

Mussels said:


> Whats going on here? Every fan is exhausting (terrible idea) the GPU is in an 8x slot, and you've wedged in MORE exhaust fans making it even worse?





lexluthermiester said:


> That's what I was thinking. That Radeon is in the wrong slot!


The R7 is sending som much hot air into the chipset cooler that I moved it down, performance loss is not noticble. I have intake fans in the sides 2 80mm on pair with gpu and one 120mm in position over/ in line with the cpu slot

But I am going to change the radiator mount to an intake, the GPU is heating it to much this way


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## Mussels (Dec 4, 2020)

front and bottom intake, top and rear exhaust

everythings designed that way (side intake helpful, no doubt)


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## lexluthermiester (Dec 4, 2020)

jesdals said:


> But I am going to change the radiator mount to an intake


That will greatly improve your cooling. Enough that you can move that GPU to the proper slot!


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## Dryad (Jan 12, 2021)

Anybody who owns/owned this card or its 6900 XT sibling?

I was lucky enough to get my hands on an 6800 XT LC, but I returned it because one of the fans was making a constant rattling noise and also the pump was clearly audible at all times (particularly at idle, since other sound levels are lower then). I figured I got a Monday specimen...
Now I just received a 6900XT LC and to my utter frustration it too has one noisy fan (QC department on covid leave or what's going on?) and this one also has a pump that is clearly audible.

Wondering if anybody else has similar experiences? The pump perhaps simply isn't any better than this, but the fans are a joke since both specimens had one more or less completely silent fan. Meaning they can do it, but apparently they don't think at these prices there's any need for a QC check to make sure that the supplied fans actually are ok.

I'm tempted to return this card also; yes I could replace the fan(s) but it's a matter of principle - at these prices, one shouldn't have to.
That said there's the pump... running as Asus 360 RGB AIO on the CPU also, I don't hear that one at all (plus all three fans are silent).

I tried to login to the ROG forums to write there but got stuck in some extremely annoying loop where I'm logged in yet apparently not and can't get any further. Getting fed up with Asus rapidly this way


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## Makaveli (Jan 12, 2021)

Dryad said:


> Anybody who owns/owned this card or its 6900 XT sibling?
> 
> I was lucky enough to get my hands on an 6800 XT LC, but I returned it because one of the fans was making a constant rattling noise and also the pump was clearly audible at all times (particularly at idle, since other sound levels are lower then). I figured I got a Monday specimen...
> Now I just received a 6900XT LC and to my utter frustration it too has one noisy fan (QC department on covid leave or what's going on?) and this one also has a pump that is clearly audible.
> ...



Thank you for this review i've been keeping an eye on this card myself but the wiring on it does seem excessive and now that you are getting issues with one of the fans and pump noise. I may go the other route which was to get a reference card instead and slap a Alphacool Eiswolf 2 when they release a version that is compatible with the 6800 series.


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## Dryad (Jan 12, 2021)

Makaveli said:


> Thank you for this review i've been keeping an eye on this card myself but the wiring on it does seem excessive and now that you are getting issues with one of the fans and pump noise. I may go the other route which was to get a reference card instead and slap a Alphacool Eiswolf 2 when they release a version that is compatible with the 6800 series.



Well these are just my findings, but I posted in the GPU section hoping for some feedback from fellow owners; you can keep an eye on that thread.


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## Lionheart (Jan 13, 2021)

Dryad said:


> Anybody who owns/owned this card or its 6900 XT sibling?
> 
> I was lucky enough to get my hands on an 6800 XT LC, but I returned it because one of the fans was making a constant rattling noise and also the pump was clearly audible at all times (particularly at idle, since other sound levels are lower then). I figured I got a Monday specimen...
> Now I just received a 6900XT LC and to my utter frustration it too has one noisy fan (QC department on covid leave or what's going on?) and this one also has a pump that is clearly audible.
> ...



Take that shit back & get a red devil or Sapphire Nitro+


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## Dryad (Jan 13, 2021)

Lionheart said:


> Take that shit back & get a red devil or Sapphire Nitro+



The Red Devil... it hurts my eyes, sorry. Would have to be the Nitro+ then


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## Lionheart (Jan 13, 2021)

Dryad said:


> The Red Devil... it hurts my eyes, sorry. Would have to be the Nitro+ then



The lighting/RGB too much? I feel ya. Sapphire is my go to AMD brand.


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## Dryad (Jan 13, 2021)

Lionheart said:


> The lighting/RGB too much? I feel ya. Sapphire is my go to AMD brand.



Honestly I think it's plain ugly


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## sieger (May 7, 2021)

Hello I have this card and wondering what is the thickness of these vrm pads. Ill order some and change tham and repaste the thermal paste.


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## Mussels (May 7, 2021)

sieger said:


> Hello I have this card and wondering what is the thickness of these vrm pads. Ill order some and change tham and repaste the thermal paste.


no one here would know sorry, this is just a marketing release


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## sieger (May 7, 2021)

Mussels said:


> no one here would know sorry, this is just a marketing release


I can try  some, but for example lets say the gap is 2mm, and i used 3mm and pushed it, will it the temps? If this is fine then there wont be any problem.


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## Mussels (May 7, 2021)

sieger said:


> I can try  some, but for example lets say the gap is 2mm, and i used 3mm and pushed it, will it the temps? If this is fine then there wont be any problem.


woops this thread was a review so @W1zzard might actually know (confused this with another thread)

Having tried that myself recently, with 3mm pads where i needed 1.5mm pads it simply didnt fit, and the heatsink couldnt be screwed on. If its close (2mm where you need 1.5) then it'll just squish down.

I recommend carefully measuring your stock ones to find out before ordering, i wasted a lot of money (over $100Au) on wrong sized pads, on my first attempt at replacing them.


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## W1zzard (May 7, 2021)

Don't remember the thermal pad thickness, but I see this question quite often in the last weeks, so I'll start measuring pad thickness in my future graphics card reviews


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## turbogear (May 7, 2021)

sieger said:


> I can try  some, but for example lets say the gap is 2mm, and i used 3mm and pushed it, will it the temps? If this is fine then there wont be any problem.


If you use wrong thickness for VRAM and VRM pads then it could happen that the GPU ASIC could have problems to get proper contact with the heatsink as the heatsink will be lifted by too high pads.
Your hot spot and gpu temperatures will go up in that case.

Maybe you need to try to measure stock pads height to determine which ones you need or buy 1mm, 2mm, and 3mm and test them. 

On my EK waterblock for VRAM and VRM they are using 1mm pads.

There are pads with different hardness.
The softer ones are less problematic when the thickness is not proper. These are very flexible and allow to be pushed down more easily.

For example EC360 Silver has only 20 Shore hardness and are more flexible in compared to other pads that have 60-70 Shore hardness.






						Extreme Cool 360 [360 Silver 0.5 mm Thermal Conductive Pad 50 x 50 mm/14 W/mk: Amazon.de: Computer & Accessories
					

Extreme Cool 360 [360 Silver 0.5 mm Thermal Conductive Pad 50 x 50 mm/14 W/mk: Amazon.de: Computer & Accessories



					www.amazon.de
				




Here in German thread at Igor's lab, there is member who made some comparisons:





						Reviews - PowerColor RX 6900XT Liquid Devil im Test – Gut gekühlt ist halb gewonnen
					

Ich habe das Zeug direkt aus der Fabrik, der Import ist aber bald durch und ich hoffe mal, dass es auch die guten Oads dann mal im Einzelhandel zu kaufen geben wird. Bissl Geduld noch. :)  Die Frage ist Igor wie gut sind die im Vergleich zum :unsure:  Beispiel Thermal Grizzly Minus (8 W/m·K)...




					www.igorslab.de
				




Shore hardness explanation:








						What is 'Shore' hardness?
					

The Guide to Shore Hardness Anybody that has used a seal or o-ring for any type of use knows that selecting the right fit, the right size and the right material are crucial in keeping your equipment functioning perfectly. While finding the right size and material for any seal is relatively...




					www.totallyseals.com


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## sieger (May 7, 2021)

Thank you @Mussels. Il lcheck it

Also about harness @turbogear thank you for the information, ive checked some local ones, and they are 30, so it is kind of nice for now, after i find out about the thickness ill look into it.


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## Colddecked (May 7, 2021)

sieger said:


> Hello I have this card and wondering what is the thickness of these vrm pads. Ill order some and change tham and repaste the thermal paste.



I think 2mm ones should be ok, but I don't think the pads need to be changed on that card, as its just running gddr6, not 6x like 3080/90.


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## Chrispy_ (May 7, 2021)

Taraquin said:


> It seems like almost every other major reviewer crowns the 3080 at 4k, about ties the 3080 and 6800XT at 1440p and crowns the 6800XT at 1080p. I wonder why TPU get better results at lower res than viritually every other site. Game selection? Something with the setup that either improves Ampere performance at low res or lowers Big Navi perf at low res?


Probably the 9th Gen Intel test platform. You want a rich dataset of older comparison points? You need to compromise by not updating your test platform every time Intel sneezes out a label with a new number on it.

Combine that with a few sites saying that the CPU overhead on the Nvidia driver is much higher than the CPU overhead on the Radeon driver and we're probably seeing Nvidia's extremely high CPU overhead holding it back at the very high framerates you're going to get with a 5GHz octa-core CPU and 3080 GPU running at an academic 720p.


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