AMD is not only doing marketing slides and pulling the VRAM card against NVIDIA ahead of the GeForce RTX 4070 launch, but it is also apparently doing some discounts on its Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards, with the Radeon RX 6800 now selling for as low $469.99. As spotted by Tom's Hardware, both the Radeon RX 6800 XT and the Radeon RX 6800 has seen some discounts from various AIB partners earlier, ranging from $30 to $50, and are now selling at $110 below MSRP, making them a decent buy at $539 and $469. To make things even more interesting, these are pretty good custom versions, including the ASRock Radeon RX 6800 XT Phantom Gaming and the Gigabyte Radeon RX 6800 Gaming OC WindForce 3X graphics cards.

Yesterday, the AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT, which was the RDNA 2 flagship, was spotted discounted down to $609.99 by Kyle Bennet, and it was the Phantom Gaming Radeon RX 6950XT from ASRock. The deal is still available over at Newegg.com, and it is the lowest price for the Radeon RX 6950 XT, which is still a great card. The newly launched NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 is still widely available and there are plenty of SKUs to choose from at the MSRP of $599.99.

GIGABYTE gave its previous-generation Radeon RX 6000 graphics card series an unexpected revision even as the new RX 7000 series is out. The company released the Radeon RX 6800 XT Gaming OC Pro, a new graphics card model in the company's main GIGABYTE Gaming brand, positioned a notch below the AORUS Gaming series. The new Gaming OC Pro features a significantly larger cooler than the original RX 6800 XT Gaming OC, measuring at least 33 cm in length, up from roughly 29 cm for the original RX 6800 XT Gaming OC. It's also significantly taller, by at least 1.5 cm.

It turns out that GIGABYTE is sitting on plenty of cooling solutions it originally ordered from its suppliers for the Radeon RX 6950 XT Gaming OC, and is now reusing them for other SKUs based on the same "Navi 21" GPU, such as the RX 6800 XT. The company is also reusing the same PCB. Selling for around $550-650, the RX 6800 XT remains a formidable 1440p gaming graphics card for classic raster 3D graphics, although its ray tracing performance is closer to those of mid-range GeForce RTX 30-series models, such as the RTX 3060 Ti. A reuse of the RX 6950 XT board design means that the new RX 6800 XT Gaming OC Pro has three 8-pin power inputs instead of two on the original RX 6800 XT Gaming OC.

Cooler Master at the 2023 International CES showed off the Cooling X, a patent-pending unique desktop PC architecture by the company where the liquid cooling of the CPU and GPU isn't confined to a couple of closed loop AIOs, but rather a giant liquid-cooling loop that even involves the side-panels of the case itself, that double up as additional heat-dissipation surfaces. Notice how some compact fanless cases use extruded-aluminium body panels that double up as heatsinks, to cool the hot components? The Cooling X re-imagines this, where instead of dissipating heat from a heatpipe, the extruded-aluminium body panels have coolant channels, so some of the heat from the liquid-cooling loop is dissipated. These panels supplement a conventional liquid-cooling radiator that's located along the rear panel, which has active ventilation. The liquid-cooling loop cools the processor and GPU.

For its compact dimensions of just 266 mm x 149 mm x 371 mm (LxWxH), the Cooling X prebuilt packs some mighty high-end hardware—an AMD Ryzen 9 5950X 16-core processor, and a Radeon RX 6800 XT GPU up to 64 GB of dual-channel DDR4-3200 memory, two 2 TB M.2 NVMe SSDs, and a homebrew 850 W 80 Plus Gold SFX power supply. For now Cooling X is just a codename, and Cooler Master intends to take this concept forward with high-performance gaming/creator prebuilt desktops sold under its own marquee.

AMD today released the Adrenalin 22.9.2 drivers. These drivers add support for the Radeon Graphics iGPU of the new Ryzen 7000 desktop processors that go on sale today. Game optimization is added for "Grounded." A handful of issues have been identified with the release. Radeon Super Resolution failing to trigger after changing resolution in games such as Nioh 2, has been identified. Improper rendering of Oculus dashboard menus with RX 6000-series graphics cards has been identified. GPU utilization being stuck at 100% in Performance Metrics after closing games in some cards such as the RX 570, has been identified. Display briefly showing corruption when switching between video and games in some GPUs such as the RX 6700 XT, has been identified. Vertical Refresh Sync being set to "off" globally causing stuttering or driver timeouts, has been identified. Dropped frames in video playback have been identified.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Software Adreanlin 22.9.2 beta

AMD released the year's first Radeon Software Adrenalin software update. Version 22.1.1 comes with optimization for "Monster Hunter Rise," and "God of War," with up to 7% performance increase measured at 4K Ultra settings with the RX 6900 XT, compared to the previous 21.12.1 drivers. A handful issues were also fixed. To begin with, high idle memory clocks noticed on machines with multiple high-resolution monitors, has been fixed. Power Tuning components of a saved tuning profile not correctly loading following a Radeon Software update, has been fixed. Visual corruption noticed with "Halo Infinite" when zoomed-in, on machines with products such as the RX 5600 XT, has been fixed. Flickering noticed in "Fortnite" with RX 6000 series graphics cards in DirectX 12 mode with Radeon Boost enabled, as been fixed. Grab the drivers from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 22.1.1

Alphacool today presents the Eiswolf 2 All-in-One solution for GeForce RTX 3080 NVIDIA Founders Edition and Radeon RX 6800/6800XT MSI Gaming X Trio 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. 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.

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.

The prices for NVIDIA Ampere and AMD RDNA 2 GPUs have increased 6% - 7% in Germany since August according to the latest report from 3DCenter. The report covers the period from January 2021 to September 2021 where prices reached 304% and 214% of MSRP for NVIDIA RTX 30 and AMD RX 6000 cards earlier this year before coming down to 150% and 153% respectively. We had hoped that this trend might continue downwards but these reductions have started to reverse with prices steadily increasing since early August. The latest period from August 29th to September 19th saw NVIDIA RTX 30 series prices increase from 159% of MSRP to 170% while AMD RX 6000 cards rose from 164% to 174%.

These price trends can be fairly closely attributed to the changes in supply as shown with the addition of an availability trend line to the graph in this latest report. The card which has experienced the largest price increase relative to MSRP is the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT which now sells for double the recommended € 649 price at € 1299. The least affected card is the NVIDIA RTX 3080 Ti retailing for 26% above it's € 1199 MSRP at € 1511.

AMD today released the latest version of Radeon Software Adrenalin. Version 21.8.2 beta comes with optimization for "Myst," with up to 6% performance improvement seen at 4K medium settings on a machine powered by a Radeon RX 6800 XT, compared to the previous 21.8.1 drivers. The drivers also feature optimization for "Aliens: Fireteam Elite."

The drivers also fix a handful of issues. Difficulties ending an OBS recording session with h.265 or HEVC codec on some of the newer Radeon GPUs, such as the RX 6800 XT, have been fixed. An image corruption bug with split-screen multiplayer on "F1 2021," has been fixed. Unresponsive behavior with Radeon Software in rare cases, has been fixed. Lighting corruption noticed in "Control" with DirectX 12 on cards such as the RX 6600 XT, has been fixed. Upgrading to the lastest Radeon Software causing auto-updates in Ryzen Master to stop working, has been fixed. Grab the drivers from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.8.2 beta

The German media outlet, 3D Center, has today published an updated report for July, measuring graphics card pricing in Germany and Austria, showing some pretty interesting results. The report is only measuring the pricing index of these two countries and their retailers, so it does not apply to other regions. An interesting discovery is that GPU prices have now hit the lowest point since February of this year when the sharp price incline started. At the time of reporting, GPU prices are exaggerated by around 53% over the MSRP listed prices. Not only did the prices drop, but the supply of GPUs like AMD Radeon RX 6800, Radeon RX 6800 XT, and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti became much better, as consumers can get their hands on these now.

When looking at the graph below, note that MSRP is listed as 100%, and the percentage shown is the increase over that MSRP. When it comes to complete price reduction to the MSRP, 3D Center expects it to happen in 3-4 weeks possibly. If current data is to be believed, MSRP is slowly decreasing and supply is increasing rapidly. For more details and per-card pricing situation, head over to 3D Center website here. Here is an important statement from 3D Center about the current situation:

3D Center (translated from German)Of course, this means that current street prices for graphics cards are (mostly) still exaggerated - and above all that this is the worst possible time to buy a graphics card. Because the (now clearly verifiable) tendency points to clearly lower graphics card prices in the next few weeks, with a similar pace, street prices at list price level could be in sight in 3-4 weeks. It is possible that there will be a certain braking effect in the downward price movement beforehand - but at least the way up to that point should definitely be taken with you. Apparently the delivery quantities are currently sufficient, maybe the need is a bit lower because of the summer times (and no longer available on the part of the crypto miners)so that retailers receive more cards than they sell. Since the retailers usually bought their cards from the distributors at an exaggerated price, the big game is now about who can get rid of the expensive stock goods in time to make a profit at all in the face of constantly falling sales prices.

EK, the leading computer cooling solutions provider, is launching the new EK-Quantum Vector Nitro+ water block made for the SAPPHIRE NITRO+ version of the AMD Radeon RX 6800XT and RX 6900 XT graphics cards. This 2nd-generation EK-Quantum Vector water block implements an Open Split-Flow cooling engine design, which proved to be a superior solution for GPU water blocks. It is characterized by low hydraulic flow restriction, meaning it can be used with weaker water pumps or pumps running on low-speed settings and still achieve top performance. The jet plate and the fin structure geometry have been optimized to provide even flow distribution with minimal losses and optimal performance when used in any given coolant flow orientation, unlike some currently available products on the market.

The base of the block is CNC-machined out of nickel-plated electrolytic copper, while its top is CNC-machined either out of glass-like cast Acrylic or durable black POM acetal. The watertight sealing is ensured by high-quality EPDM O-rings, while brass standoffs are already pre-installed and allow for a safe and easy installation procedure.

AMD has today updated its Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition version 21.5.1 drivers, bringing many features on board as well as fixing a lot of issues that have appeared in the past. Starting with support for the Resident Evil Village PC game, AMD promises to deliver up to 13% better frame rate at 4K maximum settings, while using the Radeon RX 6800 XT graphics card. The comparison was conducted with a reference to the previous driver, 21.4.1, which didn't allow the card to reach as high FPS as it is now possible with the proper support for the game. Another game that is added to the support list is Metro Exodus PC Enhanced Edition. Some fixes have been implemented, as the incorrect performance metrics that may have incorrectly reported temperatures on Ryzen 5 1600 series processors. For a detailed list of bug fixes, please take a look at the list below.DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition 21.5.1

When AMD introduced RDNA 2 architecture and higher-end Navi 21 GPU SKUs, it was only a matter of time before the company launches these GPUs inside professional-grade graphics cards. Today, thanks to the Chiphell forums, we have pictures and some specifications of AMD's upcoming Radeon Pro workstation graphics card. Pictured below is a new RDNA 2 based design that features AMD's Navi 21 GLXL GPU SKU. The new GLXL GPU SKU is supposed to be rather similar to the Navi 21 XL GPU found inside AMD's Radeon RX 6800 XT graphics card, judging by the number and arrangement of capacitors on the back of the card.

When it comes to memory, the upcoming Radeon Pro workstation card is featuring 16 GB of VRAM, likely a variant of GDDR6 found on gaming-oriented graphics cards from RDNA 2 generation. When it comes to cooler design, the Radeon Pro graphics card has a blower-type cooler helping tame the Navi 21 GLXL GPU. Given that blower-type coolers are suitable for situations with less airflow, the TDP of this card could be around or under 250 Watts. You can take a look at the card below, however, do note that it is an engineering sample and the final product can look a bit different.

Nobody saw this one coming—or going. AMD last night released the Radeon RX 6800 XT Midnight Black, a limited edition variant of the RX 6800 XT reference "Made by AMD" graphics card, sold-out directly through the company website. This card appears to be an aesthetic update, as it replaces all the matte silver bits on the cooler shroud with black. That's it...that's the product. The clock speeds are the same—2015 MHz game clocks—and so are is the core configuration, with 72 RDNA2 compute units. The card briefly appeared on the AMD store, allegedly, and disappeared before the first legitimate graphics card buyer could lift a finger.

Lenovo and AMD seem to be developing an exclusive partnership with client/workstation products. Following exclusivity for Lenovo to sell workstations powered by the Ryzen Threadripper PRO processors, the two appear to be collaborating on graphics cards. Pictures surfaced on Chinese social media of the new Lenovo Radeon RX 6800 XT and RX 6900 XT LEGION Edition graphics cards. At this point it's unclear whether Lenovo designed these cards, or if the designers of AMD's reference MBA (made by AMD) graphics cards lent a hand.

Looking at the red-illuminated "R" cornerstone design element, the possibility of the card being designed and made by the same OEM as reference-design MBA cards, cannot be ruled out. Use of the "R" cornerstone dates back to the Radeon RX Vega series. The typeface of the "R" has since been updated to match with the latest Radeon logo. Elsewhere across the card, we see a large "Radeon RX 6x00 XT" logo along the top of the card, which is RGB illuminated. The butch triple-slot card appears to be slightly larger than the RX 6800 XT / RX 6900 XT reference-design, pulling power from a pair of 8-pin PCIe power connectors. Along the metal back-plate we see a large, illuminated logo of LEGION, Lenovo's gaming PC marquee. Below are screengrabs from the animation, watch the animated GIF in the source link below. At this point we don't know if this card is China-exclusive, and exactly how it's marketed, whether it's sold standalone like any AIB retail card, or whether it's pre-installed on LEGION PCs, such as the 2021 LEGION 7000P desktops.

NVIDIA GeForce GPUs feature hotspot temperature measurement akin to AMD Radeon ones, according to an investigative report by Igor's Lab. A beta version of HWInfo already supports hotspot measurement. As its name suggests, the hotspot is the hottest spot on the GPU, measured from a network of thermal sensors across the GPU die, unlike conventional "GPU Temperature" sensors, which reads off a single physical location of the GPU die. AMD refers to this static sensor as "Edge temperature." In some cases, the reported temperature of this sensor could differ from the hotspot by as much as 20°C, which underscores the importance of hotspot. The sensor with the highest temperature measurement becomes the hotspot.

GPU manufacturers rarely disclose the physical locations of on-die thermal sensors, but during the AMD Radeon VII, we got a rare glimpse at this, in a company slide, with the sensors being located near components that can get the hottest, such as the compute units (pictured below). Igor's Lab put out measurements of the deviation between the hotspot and "GPU temperature" sensors on a GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition card. There's a much narrower deviation between the two (between 11-14°C), and than the one between hotspot and Edge temperature on an MSI Radeon RX 6800 XT Gaming X Trio (which posts a 12-20°C difference).

If anyone was looking to buy a new GPU in the past few months, the person is likely familiar with the situation we are in. It is now a fact that the latest generation of GPUs from AMD and NVIDIA are extremely hard to find, and when you come across one it is listed at some mind-blowing price. However, the makers of those GPUs, AMD and NVIDIA, are claiming that we are near the end of this situation and the things are going to be better shortly. And companies such as these two must reach out to consumers and try to satisfy their needs, even in the difficult situation that is going on now with the GPUs.

In the interview with The Verge, AMD has confirmed that it will be selling more Radeon RX 6800, Radeon RX 6800 XT, and Radeon RX 6900 XT graphics cards using its website, throughout Q1 of this year. The company claims that it will try to supply as many customers as possible, without any exact figures. When it comes to NVIDIA, the company has commented that the situation will likely resolve sometime at the end of Q1, meaning that in March things should return to normal. The company has also added that in the meantime consumers shouldn't expect to buy any of the GeForce RTX 3000 series graphics cards at their original MSRP. NVIDIA also continues emphasizing that the reason for such high prices is the high demand they are seeing, exceeding production capacity by far.

Alienware, the gaming division of Dell Technologies, has today announced a lineup refresh, meaning that all of the existing products will get upgraded to versions with the latest hardware. And to start off, the company has equipped their thin and powerful Alienware m15 R4 and m17 R4 laptops with the latest hardware we saw announced just yesterday. The laptops are equipped with 12-phase voltage regulation modules to power the newest NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3000 series of mobile GPUs. To pair with a strong GPU, Alienware decided to use 10th generation Intel Comet Lake-H designs. These new laptops can be equipped with up to 4 TB of PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSD storage and up to 32 GB of 2933 MHz RAM. For display, options range from FHD LCD to a 4K OLED panel and 360 Hz refresh rate for the m17 R4 model.

PowerColor Tuesday teased its upcoming Radeon RX 6800 XT and RX 6900 XT Liquid Devil series graphics cards. These cards are targeted at those with DIY liquid cooling setups, and come with factory-fitted full-coverage water blocks. The blocks are custom-made for PowerColor by EK Water Blocks. It's likely that PowerColor is reusing the PCBs from its Red Devil line of flagship air-cooled cards. The blocks feature nickel-plated copper as their primary material, with clear acrylic tops that are studded with addressable RGB LEDs that plug into the PCB's LED header.

AMD has recently launched its Radeon "Big Navi" 6000 series of graphics cards, making entry to the high-end market and positioning itself well against the competition. The "Big Navi" graphics cards are based on Navi 21 XL (Radeon RX 6800), Navi 21 XT (Radeon RX 6800 XT), and Navi 21 XTX (Radeon RX 6900 XT) GPU revision, each of which features a different number of Shaders/TMUs/ROPs. The highest-end Navi 21 XTX is the highest performance revision featuring 80 Compute Units with 5120 cores. However, it seems like AMD is preparing another similar silicon called Navi 21 XTXH. Currently, it is unknown what the additional "H" means. It could indicate an upgraded version with more CUs, or perhaps a bit cut down configuration. It is unclear where such a GPU would fit in the lineup or is it just an engineering sample that is never making it to the market. It could represent a potential response from AMD to NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce RTX 3080 Ti graphics card, however, that is just speculation. Other options suggest that such a GPU would be a part of mainstream notebook lineup, just like Renoir comes in the "H" variant. We have to wait and see what AMD does to find out more.

Alphacool presents the Eisblock Aurora Acryl GPX-N block for the PowerColor Red Devil graphics cards. The blocks offer outstanding cooling performance thanks to the full cover design. The new backplate, which is included with the coolers, also contributes to this. This stabilizes the graphics card and ensures an even contact pressure of the cooler. The cold plates are made of solid nickel-plated copper. The coolers cover all relevant components such as voltage converters and the graphics memory.

Yesterday, Cowocotland, a technology website, has published information that AMD's reference design cards like the latest Radeon RX 6900 XT, RX 6800 XT, and RX 6800 GPUs are getting discontinued. That means that AMD will stop the production of the reference designs and rely completely on the supply of GPUs coming from add-in board partners to satisfy the market needs. This does not mean that the availability of these GPUs is not going to exist. Rather, there will not be AMD reference designs available for purchase from the company. Only cards that are custom made by AIBs, that AMD provides GPU+VRAM for, will offer customers cards with these GPUs.

VideoCardz claims that they have been able to confirm some pieces of the information, so it is a done deal. From now on, it seems that only graphics cards with Radeon RX 6900 XT, RX 6800 XT, and RX 6800 GPUs inside them will be the ones offered by AIBs. The reference design cards will only be produced until early 2021, giving it a month or two for consumers to purchase cards from AMD. After that period the market will rely completely on AMD's partners.

Update 4:30 pm UTC: Scott Herkelman, CVP & GM of AMD Radeon Tweeted that they have "extended the reference design builds indefinitely due to popular demand." Meaning that the reference cards will remain in production. Mr. Herkelman also thanked for feedback, where community was loud and clear that they want to see reference boards for a while longer.