The GPU at the heart of the China-exclusive AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE (Golden Rabbit Edition) sparked much curiosity. It is a physically different GPU from the one found in desktop Radeon RX 7900 XT and RX 7900 XTX graphics cards. AMD wouldn't go through all that effort designing a whole different GPU just for a limited edition graphics card, which means this silicon could find greater use for the company—for example, this could be the package AMD uses for its upcoming mobile RX 7900 series. AMD wouldn't go through all the effort designing a first-party MBA (made by AMD) PCB for the silicon just for the RX 7900 GRE, and so this PCB, with this particular version of the "Navi 31" silicon, could see a wider global launch, probably as the rumored Radeon RX 7800 XT, or something else (although with a different set of specs from the RX 7900 GRE).

We compared the sizes of the new "Navi 31" package found in the RX 7900 GRE, with those of the regular "Navi 31" powering the RX 7900 XT/XTX, the previous-generation "Navi 21" powering the RX 6900 XT, and the NVIDIA AD103 silicon powering the desktop GeForce RTX 4080. There are some interesting findings. The new smaller "Navi 31" package is visibly smaller than the one powering the RX 7900 XT/XTX. It is a square package, compared to the larger rectangular one, and has a significantly thinner metal reinforcement brace. What's interesting is that the 5 nm GCD is still surrounded by six 6 nm MCDs. We don't know if they've disabled two of the six MCDs, or whether they're dummies. AMD uses dummy chiplets as structural reinforcement in some of its EPYC server processors. The dummies spread some of the mounting pressure applied by the IHS or cooling solution, so the logic behind surrounding the GCD with six of these MCDs could be the same.

AMD's upcoming China-exclusive Radeon RX 7900 GRE (Golden Rabbit Edition) graphics card is reportedly configured with 80 compute units (CU), and not the previously thought 84, according to a leaked TechPowerUp GPU-Z screenshot. While GPU-Z 2.54.0 isn't fully aware of the RX 7900 GRE, and can get some hard-coded details (such as release dates) wrong, since it has the ability to detect "Navi 31" and the RX 7900 series, it is able to count the compute units.

The screenshot describes the RX 7900 GRE as featuring 80 CU, or 5,120 stream processors—the same count as the previous-gen RX 6900 XT, but based on the newer RDNA3 graphics architecture. Also detected are a TMU count of 320, ROP count of 80 (a vast reduction from the 192 available on the silicon, if true). We've known from older reports that the RX 7900 GRE is configured with a 256-bit wide GDDR6 memory interface, holding 16 GB of video memory. What's new is that while the RX 7900 XT and RX 7900 XTX use 20 Gbps memory, the RX 7900 GRE is given slower 18 Gbps memory, as detected by GPU-Z. This results in a memory bandwidth of 576 GB/s, a significant reduction from the 960 GB/s enjoyed by the RX 7900 XTX.

AMD updated its game bundle campaign for Radeon graphics cards to include "The Last of Us Part 1." The new bundle went live as the previous one for "The Callisto Protocol" and "Dead Island 2" ended on February 4. The new bundle includes the latest RX 7000 series graphics cards in its list of eligible products. Starting February 5, new purchases of AMD Radeon graphics cards or prebuilt gaming desktops with them, in select markets and through participating retailers, will be eligible to a free copy of "The Last of Us Part 1." Eligible graphics cards include Radeon RX 7900 XTX, RX 7900 XT, RX 6950 XT, RX 6900 XT, RX 6800 XT, RX 6800, RX 6750 XT, RX 6700 XT, RX 6700, RX 6650 XT, RX 6600 XT, RX 6600, RX 6500 XT, and RX 6400, so the full stack of desktop AMD Radeon RX 6000 series and RX 7000 series products, are eligible.

In a bid to clear inventory of its Radeon RX 6000 series RDNA2 graphics cards in the lead up to its next-generation, AMD is bundling two of the latest AAA game titles. Besides this, the company has significantly lowered prices of its RX 6000 series over several months now. The company is bundling "Dead island 2," and "The Callisto Protocol" with new purchases of Radeon RX 6000 graphics cards.

New purchases of the Radeon RX 6600, RX 6600 XT, RX 6650 XT, RX 6700, RX 6700 XT, RX 6750 XT, RX 6800, RX 6800 XT, RX 6900 XT, and RX 6950 XT, will receive both games. New purchases of the RX 6500 XT and RX 6400 will receive just "Dead Island 2." The bundle is only available in select markets, and through participating retailers. Find where you can grab it, from the source link below.

In the run up to the November 3 reveal of the next-generation RDNA3 architecture, and with the 43% faster RTX 4090 mauling away its appeal to the enthusiast crowd, the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT got another round of price-cuts, and can be had for as low as $669. Prices are down on both sides of the big pond, with European retailers listing it for as low as 699€. Although not technically AMD's flagship graphics card, with the RX 6950 XT (starts at $869); the RX 6900 XT is a formidable 4K gaming graphics card with a high performance-per-Dollar at its new price (roughly 35% higher than the RTX 4090). AMD's latest round of official price-cuts happened around mid-September as the company was bracing for the RTX 4090 "Ada."

AMD has come up with new MSRPs for its Radeon RX 6000 series RDNA2 graphics cards, in a bid to better compete against NVIDIA's RTX 30-series high-end cards, as the product lifecycles of both companies draw to a close. The new price list was finalized on September 15, and is beginning to take effect in popular online retailers. The latest prices see the top Radeon RX 6950 XT at $949, and the RX 6900 XT $699. The latter offers better value, as it's within 5% of the RX 6950 XT, while being $250 cheaper. The RX 6800 XT drops to $599, which makes it $100 cheaper still than the RX 6900 XT, while being within 5% relative performance. If you can find an RX 6800 (non-XT), its MSRP is set at $549.

MSRP cuts also take effect on performance-segment and mid-range SKUs. The RX 6750 XT is now a $419 SKU, and the RX 6700 XT is just $379. Both cards perform in the league of the RTX 3060 Ti and RTX 3070, making them interesting SKUs to consider. The RX 6650 XT, which replaces the RX 6600 XT from the product stack, is priced at $299. If you can find an RX 6600 XT, it should start around the $239-mark. The entry-level RX 6500 XT and RX 6400 are finally under the $200-mark where they belong, with the RX 6500 XT going for $169, and the RX 6400 at $149. NVIDIA already debuted its RTX 40-series "Ada" graphics cards, but only at the very high-end, with the RTX 4090 expected to go on sale mid-October, at $1,600. AMD's next generation will be unveiled on November 3.

In a sign that NVIDIA board partners are getting desperate to clear inventory of their high-end GeForce RTX 30-series "Ampere" graphics cards to make way for the next-generation, EVGA momentarily offered its premium custom-design GeForce RTX 3090 Ti FTW3 graphics card at nearly half its original price. The company listed the RTX 3090 Ti FTW3 at $1,149, a $1,000 "instant discount" from its $2,149 original list price, which is nearly $1,500 down from the card's street price before the crypto-mining crash of Q2-2022.

This could have been a one-off discount, as the other RTX 3090 Ti cards from the company's lineup are priced slightly higher, with the faster FTW3 Ultra priced at $1,199; and the FTW3 Black at $1,399. Prices of high-end graphics cards have been in free-fall for the past couple of months, with the Radeon RX 6900 XT frequently spotted under $1,000; and the RX 6950 XT oscillating around the $1,000-mark. The likes of the RTX 3080 Ti can also be had around this price; while the RTX 3080 is now firmly under $1,000, sometimes spotted near its launch price of $699.

AMD's current-gen flagship graphics card, the Radeon RX 6900 XT, can be had for as low as $949, with US retailer Newegg listing a GIGABYTE RX 6900 XT Gaming OC graphics card at that price. This can be further lowered to $899 by availing Newegg's mail-in rebate. The GIGABYTE RX 6900 XT Gaming OC is the company's value-ended custom-design RX 6900 XT product positioned a notch below the company's AORUS Master card, but is still factory-overclocked, with its cooler posting lower temperatures than the reference-design. Catch our review of this card.

A drop in the pricing of the RX 6900 XT means that AMD's new RX 6950 XT could be right around the corner, with some sources claiming the card to match up to the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti, NVIDIA's fastest graphics card from this generation. The RX 6900 XT is still a mighty fast graphics card, trading blows with the RTX 3080 Ti.Update May 5th: The price is up slightly to $999 ($949 with MIR), our assessment still holds.

Chinese graphics card company Vastarmor has recently launched two new custom Radeon RX 6900 XT graphics cards with the Radeon RX 6900 XT Super Alloy and Radeon RX 6900 XT Alloy. The release of these high-end cards comes after the company expanded its existing lineup with RX 6700 XT, RX 6500 XT, and RX 6400 offerings in recent weeks. These new RX 6900 XT cards appear to share an identical PCB and clock speeds at 1950 MHz base, 2135 MHz game, and 2365 MHz boost. The cards both feature a triple-fan and triple-slot design with the Super Alloy advertised as having a "breathing light effect" and water cooling retrofit support. The two cards are now available to purchase in China with the Super Alloy listed at 9999 RMB (1525 USD) and the Alloy listed at 7999 RMB (1220 USD).

A Steam Deck enthusiast has done what Steam would not (at least not in the first rendition of its popular Steam Deck handheld console): he went and added an external GPU to the mix. The owner of the ETA Prime YouTube channel managed to increase the Steam Deck's APU-powered graphical oomph with a much more powerful AMD RX 6900 XT graphics card. To do so required sacrifices however: since the SteamDeck doesn't feature a proper Thunderbolt 3/4 connector, ETA Prime had to remove the Steam Deck's SSD from its M.2 port, instead mounting a special M.2 to PCIe adapter in the SSD slot itself.

This, of course, required that installed games be run off memory cards, which generally offer lower speeds (a less than stellar experience) than the onboard SSD. It also required butchering the Steam Deck's OS by replacing it with Windows 11. But it did allow the Steam Deck's APU to tap onto power otherwise unavailable to it, unlocking playable framerates with maxed out detail settings on games such as God of War, Cyberpunk 2077, Elden Ring, and others.

Encoding video is one of the significant tasks that modern hardware performs. Today, we have some data of AMD and NVIDIA solutions for the problem that shows how good GPU hardware encoders are. Thanks to Chips and Cheese tech media, we have information about AMD's Video Core Next (VCN) encoder found in RDNA2 GPUs and NVIDIA's NVENC (short for NVIDIA Encoder). The site managed to benchmark AMD's Radeon RX 6900 XT and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 GPUs. The AMD card features VCN 3.0, while the NVIDIA Turing card features a 6th generation NVENC design. Team red is represented by the latest work, while there exists a 7th generation of NVENC. C&C tested this because it means all that the reviewer possesses.

The metric used for video encoding was Netflix's Video Multimethod Assessment Fusion (VMAF) metric composed by the media giant. In addition to hardware acceleration, the site also tested software acceleration done by libx264, a software library used for encoding video streams into the H.264/MPEG-4 AVC compression format. The libx264 software acceleration was running on AMD Ryzen 9 3950X. Benchmark runs included streaming, recording, and transcoding in Overwatch and Elder Scrolls Online.Below, you can find benchmarks of streaming, recording, transcoding, and transcoding speed.

EK, has partnered up with XFX to bring you a factory water-cooled Radeon RX 6900 XT GPU. The XFX Speedster ZERO Radeon RX 6900XT RGB EKWB is one of the fastest AMD Radeon-based graphics cards on the market. This new Speedster series GPU is equipped with a 14-phase VRM power delivery system, consisting of DrMOS and high polymer capacitors. To make sure these lightning-fast graphics processors manage to hit their maximum clocks, a unique EK water block is pre-installed which also brings a prolonged lifespan due to the superior thermals that the liquid cooling provides. This also makes sure that no precious gaming time is spent on the water block mounting, and there are no questions regarding the warranty.

A powerful 14+2 Phase Power Design allows more stable performance by better distributing power across more power phases in the VRM which results in more overclocking and boosting headroom. Couple that with the incredibly cool components due to the full cover EK water block and you get a recipe for high performance, stability, and a long lifespan.

Prices of graphics cards on eBay (where you're most likely to find them), dropped by 10% on average, according to prices tracked and aggregated by Tom's hardware. This still means overpriced high-end graphics cards, but price adjustments in the mid-range and performance-segment bring some respite to gamers. In the high-end, you'll now find the GeForce RTX 3090 go down from roughly $2,609 to $2,341. The RTX 3080 Ti, which almost as fast at gaming, can be had for $1,721, compared to $1,874 earlier. The popular RTX 3080 (10 GB original) sees its price slip from $1,613 to $1,440.

Prices of AMD Radeon RX 6000 series RDNA2 graphics cards are relatively lower, even though they perform in the same league. The RX 6900 XT can be had for as low as $1,421, which is lower than even the RTX 3080 (significantly slower). The RTX 6800 XT is a revelation here, with February prices seeing it average $1,176. This card more than trades blows with the RTX 3080. Over in the performance segment, we see The RTX 3060 (12 GB) average $850 compared to $930 earlier; while the RX 6600 XT does $570 compared to $610 earlier (similar performance). It must be noted here that there are far fewer Radeon RX 6000 series cards than GeForce RTX 30-series, in circulation. With the chip-supply crisis showing no signs of going away in 2022, MSRP will continue to elude gamers.

3DMark Fire Strike Hall of Fame is where overclockers submit their best hardware benchmark trials and try to beat the very best. For years, one record managed to hold, and today it just got defeated. According to an extreme overclocker called "biso biso" from South Korea and a part of the EVGA OC team, the top spot now belongs to the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT graphics card. The previous 3DMark Fire Strike world record was set on April 22nd in 2020, when Vince Lucido, also known as K|NGP|N, set a record with four-way SLI of NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti GPUs. However, that record is old news since January 27th, when biso biso set the history with AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT GPU.

The overclocker scored 62389 points, just 1,183 more from the previous record. He pushed the Navi 21 XTX silicon that powers the Radeon RX 6900 XT card to an impressive 3,147 MHz. Paired with a GPU memory clock of 2370 MHz, the GPU was probably LN2 cooled to achieve these results. The overclocker used EVGA's Z690 DARK KINGPIN motherboard with Intel Core i9-12900K processor as a platform of choice to achieve this record. You can check it out on the 3DMark Fire Strike Hall of Fame website to see yourself.

AMD is preparing a round of updates to its desktop Radeon RX 6000 series in the wake of RTX 30-series models by NVIDIA, according to Greymon55, a reliable source with GPU rumors. The company could be leveraging faster 18 Gbps GDDR6 memory chips for the task. This wouldn't be the first RX 6000 series products with 18 Gbps memory, as the liquid-cooled MBA (made-by-AMD) RX 6900 XT that's exclusive to OEMs, already comes with 18 Gbps memory clocks.

Mass-production of JEDEC-standard GDDR6 memory chips with data-rates as high as 20 Gbps and 24 Gbps by Samsung is expected to get underway later this year. The company is already sampling these chips, and it's likely that they may feature in the next round of product-stack updates by AMD and NVIDIA. In the run up to its next-gen RDNA3 graphics architecture, AMD is rumored to be working on a refresh of RDNA2 on the new TSMC N6 (6 nm) foundry node that it already leverages for the entry-level "Navi 24" ASIC. This is expected to open up headroom to dial up engine clocks, and possibly support faster memory. As for this latest refresh with 18 Gbps memory, if AMD's naming convention for its mobile RX 6850M is anything to go by, the new SKUs could feature a similar "xx50" model numbering.

AMD today released Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.12.1. These drivers add optimization for "Halo Infinite," with up to 17% increase in frame-rates measured on the RX 6900 XT, at 4K Ultra settings over the previous driver version; up to 19% increase measured with the RX 6800 XT, and up to 16% measured with the RX 6700 XT. Optimization is also added for "Icarus" and Blender 3.0 on RX 6000 series graphics cards. Among the fixes include a SteamVR Home noticed on the Radeon VII; driver time-outs noticed with the RX 5500 XT in "Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy;" Radeon Software becoming unresponsive with PUBG on multi-display mode with extended display; and artifacting noticed in "Forza Horizon 5" with the car models on cards such as the RX 500 series.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.12.1

AMD first announced the Radeon RX 6900 XT LC featuring a pre-binned Navi 21 XTXH GPU in June with the product only available to select system integrators and OEMs. These reference design cards were not expected to be available in the DIY market but listings for the cards appeared on some Indian retailers after the announcement. The card appears to be receiving a limited release with PowerColor's model (16GBD6-MW2DHC) now available to purchase from German retailer Mindfactory for 1749 EUR. The AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT LC features an increased boost clock speed of 2435 MHz from the 2250 MHz on the RX 6900 XT along with a memory speed boost from 16 Gbps to 18 Gbps.

AMD will be making a limited number of Radeon RX 6900 XT liquid cooled reference design graphics cards available to select system integrators. System integrators are a critical part of the gaming ecosystem and offering this this model through their channels helps ensure that as many of these products as possible get into gamers hands.

AMD today released the latest version of Radeon Software. Version 21.11.3 beta comes with optimization for Microsoft Flight Simulator: GOTY Edition, and Farming Simulator 22. Additional extensions of the Vulkan API are added. The drivers also fix driver-timeouts or game crashes noticed with "Battlefield 2042" on graphics cards such as the RX 6900 XT. Stuttering or poor performance with "DayZ" on RX 5700 XT was fixed. Also fixed is elevated disk usage by the Multimedia Athena dumps folder. Grab the driver from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.11.3

AMD today released Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.11.2 drivers, which come just in time for the Early Access release of "Battlefield 2042" later today. The game's general release is slated for November 19. Tested at 4K UHD with Ultra settings, the new drivers up to 14% higher performance over previous drivers for the RX 6900 XT, up to 15% higher performance for the RX 6800 XT, and up to 11% higher for the RX 6700 XT. The company did not put out any bug-fixes with this release. Grab it from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.11.2 beta

Alphacool today presents the Eiswolf 2 "All-in-One" solution for Geforce RTX 3080/3090 Gigabyte Aorus Master/Xtreme and Radeon RX 6800XT/6900XT Sapphire Nitro+graphics cards. The Eiswolf 2 uses the Alphacool 360 mm NexXxoS ST30 full copper radiator. For the fans, we use the 120 mm Alphacool Aurora Rise. This impressive fan with a max. static pressure of 3.17 mm/H2O, offers a max. air flow of 119.8m³/h. The speed range of the fan, from 0-2500rpm, is adjustable via PWM. The AIO is completed by the Eisblock Aurora water cooler. This not only cools the GPU chip, but actively cools all relevant components such as the memory and VRAM. It also has brilliant aRGB lighting.

All components used (radiator, fan, cooler, DC-LT 2 pump) including fittings and tubing are part of the Alphacool DIY range and are therefore available separately. The combination of all components results in a solution that is as easy to install as an AIO, but offers the performance of a pre-assembled and pre-filled custom loop. Only the pump housing for the DC-LT 2 pump is a custom-made item that is only part of the scope of delivery of the AIO solution and is therefore not available separately.

Here it is: Microsoft and AMD have collaborated in a special, limited-edition Halo-themed graphics card. Putting the Halo in a halo product, the new release features a collaborative design between AMD and Microsoft, and deepens the link between both companies. The design takes its cues specifically from Halo's most recognizable character, The Master Chief - Spartan John-117. The custom card features a triple-fan cooling solution, customized with the military green and faceplate gold from the iconic Halo character. The backplate too screams the connections to Halo, with a 117 embossing and a LED-illuminated blue AI logo.

Microsoft also used the limited edition RX 6900 XT graphics card announcement to indicate that it is working closely with AMD to bring ray tracing to Halo infinite, saying that "Ray tracing is one our top development priorities post-launch and look forward to sharing more soon." Smartly, and perhaps learning from what happened with the retail release of the Halo infinite custom Xbox Series X console (which fell to scalpers in a matter of minutes), the new, limited edition graphics card won't be available for sale; instead, " AMD, Halo, and other partners will be offering players multiple opportunities over the coming weeks to get their hands on one." Look after the break for the teaser video of the product.

Sonnet Technologies today announced the availability of product bundles including the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT graphics card — the flagship model in AMD's Radeon RX 6000 series of GPU cards — and select models from Sonnet's DuoModo and eGPU Breakaway Box lines of Thunderbolt expansion systems for the desktop and for rack installation. Offering flexible configuration and straightforward setup while saving space, Sonnet's DuoModo line of professional, modular expansion systems makes it easy to connect a GPU card to the Intel -based Apple Mac mini computer, as well as to Mac and Windows laptops and other computers without expansion card slots, using a single Thunderbolt cable. Sonnet's eGPU Breakaway Box 750 and 750ex are self-contained Thunderbolt to eGPU card systems.

XFX formally launched the Radeon RX 6900 XT Speedster ZERO WB, a graphics card it teased last month. The company's new flagship product, the Speedster ZERO WB is a graphics card with a factory-fitted full-coverage water-block, for those with DIY liquid-cooling setups. It appears to be based on an all new PCB with a more tuned-up 14+2 phase VRM setup than that of the air-cooled RX 6900 XT Speedster MERC 319, which pulls power from a trio of 8-pin PCIe power connectors.

Under the hood is a 7 nm "Navi 21" XTXH silicon, which is able to sustain 10% higher engine clocks than the standard "Navi 21," and XFX claims that it has unlocked overdrive slider limit (the de facto maximum overclock), beyond 3 GHz. Out of the box, the card comes with a maximum boost frequency of 2525 MHz, compared to 2250 MHz AMD-reference. The water block came about from a collaboration with EK Water Blocks, and combines a nickel-plated copper primary material with a slightly frosted acrylic top that's studded with addressable RGB LEDs. XFX didn't reveal pricing.

Watercool today released the HEATKILLER V watercooling block, now made compatible with the latest and greatest from AMD - the RX 6800, RX 6800 XT, and RX 6900 XT graphics cards. Due to the increased performance profile (and heat output) on AMD's latest-gen RDNA 2 graphics cards, the company has redesigned the base plate's channel routing, and improved the cooling structure along the Z axis - higher heat dissipation area means that watercooling now has more ways to transfer heat from the card to your radiator of choice, The company has also redesigned the backplate, adding a curved design that helps in hiding all the electronic bits and pieces that are usually visible in AMD's cards, further streamlining users' builds.

The baseplate is built out of nickel-plated electrolytic copper, while the cover is made of the generally abundant plexiglas. The cover itself is built out of annealed stainless steel, improving rigidity and resistance of the overall block, while the connection terminal is built out of the also usual Acetal. The block makes use of the standard 4x G ¼ inch sockets. Dimensions of the block stand at 270 mm length, 128 mm width (including the connection terminal) and 28.5 mm height (including the backplate). The HEATKILLER V is available in black and light metal gray for €164,95.

Graphics cards may be on their way to becoming unicorns that you can only pay for after finding the proverbial pot of gold from under a rainbow, but that doesn't mean AMD and NVIDIA will slow down their competition any time soon - especially in this market, there's a huge profit to be made. And AMD may just be finally readying their true halo product - a graphics card that aims to beat NVIDIA's RTX 3090 across the board. Twitter user CyberPunkCat shared an alleged AMD slide showcasing a new, overpowered RX 6900 XTX graphics card. AMD's naming scheme for their RX 6900 series may be slightly confusing nowadays: the original RX 6900 XT carries the Navi 21 XTX die, and AMD has recently released a higher-performance version of that Navi 21 chip in the form of the Navi 21 XTXH - which power the liquid-cooled versions of the RX 6900 XT, with higher overall clocks than the original GPU release. However, there hasn't been a change in the RX 6900 XT nomenclature - but this new slide suggests otherwise.

If the leaked slide is real (keep your NaCl ready, as always), it appears that the RX 6900 XTX might pair both the higher-performance Navi 21 XTXH chip with higher memory speeds. While both Navi 21 XT and Navi 21 XTXH both make use of 16 Gbps GDDR6 memory, the slide indicates that the RX 6900 XTX will feature 18 Gbps memory speeds, exploring another avenue for increased performance. This decision would bring an increase in maximum theoretical memory subsystem bandwidth from the 512 Gbps in the RX 6900 XT up to 576 Gbps - a 13% increase, which would not translate into a proportional increase in final performance. However, considering how our own reviews show that AMD's RX 6900 XT with the Navi 21 XTXH silicon is already between one and three percent faster than NVIDIA's RTX 3090, even a slight, 5% performance increase over that cards' performance means that AMD might be able to claim the performance crown for the mainstream market. It's been a while since that happened, hasn't it?