Friday, October 30th 2020

Sapphire Unveils Reference-design Radeon RX 6800 XT and RX 6800

Unlike NVIDIA, AMD still relies on its add-in board (AIB) partners to sell reference design (made by AMD) graphics cards, and Sapphire just announced its lineup. The company unveiled its reference-design Radeon RX 6800 XT and RX 6800 cards. The RX 6800 XT is characterized by its triple-slot cooling solution, while the RX 6800 makes do with a slimmer dual-slot one. Both cards are based on the 7 nm "Navi 21" silicon and feature 16 GB of 16 Gbps GDDR6 memory over a 256-bit wide memory interface, cushioned by 128 MB of on-die Infinity Cache.

The RX 6800 XT is configured with 72 out of 80 RDNA2 compute units on the "Navi 21" silicon, working out to 4,608 stream processors, 72 ray accelerators, 288 TMUs, and 128 ROPs. The engine clock of the RX 6800 XT boosts up to 2.25 GHz. The RX 6800, on the other hand, features 60 out of 80 RDNA2 compute units, which make up 3,840 stream processors, 60 ray accelerators, 240 TMUs, the same 128 ROPs, and the same memory subsystem as the RX 6800 XT. Given that these are reference cards, Sapphire could price them at AMD's baseline, with the RX 6800 XT going for $649, and the RX 6800 at $579.
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38 Comments on Sapphire Unveils Reference-design Radeon RX 6800 XT and RX 6800

#26
Ravenas
I'm going to wait for the 6900 XT Nitro to upgrade.
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#27
Lionheart
Looks nice & all but where does this thing exhaust it's heat?
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#28
Dave65
Can't wait for some legit reviews on these.
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#29
ebivan
LionheartLooks nice & all but where does this thing exhaust it's heat?
Same as almost any other (none blower type) card top (where the power connectors are) and bottom (where the PCIe connector is)
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#30
MxPhenom 216
ASIC Engineer
btarunrRX 6800 XT is triple slot, 6800 is double slot.
Aren't they 2.5? At least that is what it says under Specs on website of these reference cards. The bracket is 2 slot.
ratirtI been thinking about reference designs. I think the reference design is better if you want to go liquid. I been planing to go liquid GPU for some time and if I will get one of these, I think I might be tempted to go with water.
Yeah if I got an AMD card it would be reference for water cooling. If I got an Nvidia card it would probably an Evga FTW to also be on water.
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#31
milewski1015
MakaveliWere at least 18 months out for AM5 and DDR5 will be expensive on launch like every new memory standard is.

So ya if you can wait that long I would just keep rocking what you got.
Unless Cyberpunk is like insanely difficult to run or something, I don't foresee my 5700 XT struggling anytime soon. Maybe I'll just do a case swap halfway between now and AM5 to keep the upgrade itch at bay.
BoboOOZWell, you can always buy a higher spec monitor, that will give you a very valid excuse to upgrade your gear :D . Buy a high refresh 4k or a 1600p ultrawide and, voilà, you need a new GPU...
That's what happened before haha. Went to Microcenter, picked up a 1440p 144Hz monitor and said, "Well, I'm gonna need a bump up from an RX 580 to really take advantage of this" and walked out with a 5700 XT as well. My wallet was not happy with me that weekend. I've thought about upgrading a monitor again (wish I had opted for one of the nicer high refresh IPS 1440p monitors at the time instead of a VA - has some backlight bleed and have experienced some light ghosting a couple times), but I don't have $800 to throw at a 4K 144Hz monitor in addition to another $1K+ for new GPU, CPU, motherboard, RAM, etc.
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#32
turbogear
ValantarSapphire has been AMD's closest partner for a decade or more (I don't quite remember, but they may have been the same for ATI), so they're likely to get some sort of early access or higher degree of engineering support, though I doubt it makes that much of a difference. It might just mean that they are able to deliver parts and designs slightly earlier than the would otherwise compared to the size and resources of the company - Sapphire is a fraction of the size of someone like Asus or MSI, after all.
I have the feeling that actually the reference AMD Radeon cards could be designed by Sapphire.
According to AMD website they are partners for embedded reference designs, maybe also Radeon reference cards: :rolleyes:

www.amd.com/en/products/embedded-partners-sapphire-technology
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#33
Valantar
turbogearI have the feeling that actually the reference AMD Radeon cards could be designed by Sapphire.
According to AMD website they are partners for embedded reference designs, maybe also Radeon reference cards: :rolleyes:

www.amd.com/en/products/embedded-partners-sapphire-technology
I believe they have collaborated on reference cooler designs before, so it's entirely possible that that's the case this time too.
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#34
ratirt
MxPhenom 216Yeah if I got an AMD card it would be reference for water cooling. If I got an Nvidia card it would probably an Evga FTW to also be on water.
Totally agree. Either way water is the way to go. I only hope, if I go 6800xt (planning to get that one), to squeeze some more performance out of it with water. The 6800 might be also good option if you could for instance, flash bios from 6800 XT same way like the 5700 could get XT bios. That is something I'm thinking about if it will be possible. If it will, 6800 might be the better option though. Anyway, it all depends.
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#35
tygrus
The 6900XT is awkward. You could make the cooling as big as RTX 3090, 360w and go for 2.45GHz (~9% increase) with slightly faster RAM when it's available next year. Nvidia are starved of GDDR6X RAM and GPU's before they can really deliver. These are mostly for PR headlines not your average gamer so it won't change what I buy for a home PC with no gaming maybe a little media editing.
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#36
ebivan
tygrusThe 6900XT is awkward. You could make the cooling as big as RTX 3090, 360w and go for 2.45GHz (~9% increase) with slightly faster RAM when it's available next year. Nvidia are starved of GDDR6X RAM and GPU's before they can really deliver. These are mostly for PR headlines not your average gamer so it won't change what I buy for a home PC with no gaming maybe a little media editing.
Well, its not really awkward, its a card that matches 3090 in many situtations but cost significantly less. So anything more, like faster memory would just have increased the price.

There is another thread here about the 6900, where the same thing has been proposed if AiBs were to make custom 6900, they could pair it with faster memory and better cooling.
Nobody knows if there may be a 6950xtx in the pipe, to beat future 3090ti or Ampere Titan cards
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#37
INSTG8R
Vanguard Beta Tester
ValantarSapphire has been AMD's closest partner for a decade or more (I don't quite remember, but they may have been the same for ATI), so they're likely to get some sort of early access or higher degree of engineering support, though I doubt it makes that much of a difference. It might just mean that they are able to deliver parts and designs slightly earlier than the would otherwise compared to the size and resources of the company - Sapphire is a fraction of the size of someone like Asus or MSI, after all.
Precisely! Sapphire have been making AMDs branded cards since they were ATI
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#38
turbogear
INSTG8RPrecisely! Sapphire have been making AMDs branded cards since they were ATI
Thanks. That is also what I was thinking.
This is one of the reasons that most of my reference Radeon cards in the past were from Sapphire. :rolleyes:
Buying from the original source. :D

Though it does not make any difference except for sticker on all reference Radeon cards from different brands.

Nevertheless I always play dangerous as my warranty is void always in a few days after buying it, because I have been changing coolers with waterblock since few generations of Radeons since days of Radeon R9 290X. :p

Fury X was only exception, there reference card already had water cooler but my that card was also from Sapphire. :laugh:
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