AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT: Two minute review
AMD should have been ahead with the AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT.
After a year and a half since AMD released this generation's RDNA 2 graphics cards, and almost two years after Nvidia released its first consumer Ampere cards, AMD has released a card that embodies everything AMD stands for, known and respected. It's a shame this is the last call for this generation of graphics cards, and the RX 6950 XT probably won't get the love it really deserves.
The RX 6950 XT is the first Team Red graphics card to present a serious challenge to the Nvidia RTX 3090's gaming performance, and while some inconsistencies inevitably keep it from making it through a full twelve rounds against Nvidia's best, it's the kind of fighter what you find yourself rooting for. in any case.
What's so compelling about the AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT is that it's simply one of the best, if not the best, graphics cards at the premium level when you compare price to performance. AMD has always been known for offering great cards at a great price, and what's amazing about the RX 6950 XT is that AMD manages to bring that same philosophy to the premium tier of the graphics card market.
Cards at this level are all performance-focused and typically priced accordingly, but the RX 6950 XT shows that even the most exclusive clubs can have an item or two on the value menu.
As such, it's a great option for players who can afford a premium card, but aren't actually giant human-shaped piles of money, at least if RDNA 3 wasn't just around the corner. AMD's next-gen graphics cards are likely to make big strides in ray tracing and hardware-assisted enhancement technology that should blow the current generation of AMD cards out of the water, so buy something premium from this generation right now it is uncertain at best.
It's entirely possible that an AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT could have comparable performance to the RX 6950 XT, and it will likely be cheaper, so the potential value of this card is somewhat wasted with such a late entry. in the market. Una vez más, es una pena, porque esta carta tiene muchas ventajas, al menos en cuanto al juego.
If you're not a gamer, there really isn't much for you here. While the RX 6950 XT is the best AMD graphics card on the market, its creative workload performance still lags considerably behind the best Nvidia GeForce graphics cards, and without the Tensor cores, the RX 6950 XT won't. it's all just not up to the intense task. . machine learning models and similar research that make Nvidia RTX cards so popular.
That said, this was always intended to be a graphics card for gamers, and for the price you pay, the AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT could be that rare premium PC component that manages to offer exceptional value in a market where such an idea is almost completely foreign. . But if you can wait for RDNA 3 to launch, it might be worth seeing what AMD's next-gen cards have to offer before spending big bucks on a card that could quickly be outshone before the end of the year.
AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT: price and availability
- How much is it? MSRP listed at €1,099 (about $880, AU$1,580), €1,299 as reviewed
- When did it come out? is available now
- Where can you get it? You can buy in the US, UK and Australia.
The AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT we reviewed is the Gigabyte RX 6950 XT Gaming OC version, rather than an AMD reference card, so it's a bit more expensive than AMD's €1,099 MSRP (about €880, AU$1,580).
The Gigabyte RX 6950 XT Gaming OC card retails for €1,299 (about $1,039 / AU$1,870), which is still $200 (about $160 / AU$290) cheaper than the RTX 3090 Founders card. Edition from Nvidia, and €300 (about €240 / AUD430). ) cheaper than the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming OC card.
AMD's MSRP for the RX 6950 XT is also $100 (about $80 / AU$145) lower than the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, though the 3080 Ti is a much more comparable card to the RX 6950 XT. in numbers in most cases.
It's also worth noting that AMD cards aren't usually bought for mining or speculators on resale sites, so they've generally had better uptime than RTX 30 series cards, and therefore they may be easier to find in most cases.
AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT: design and chipset
- Built-in dual BIOS switch for OC and silent modes
- 16,7 million RGB color options for the Gigabyte logo on the board
- Faster GPU and memory frequencies
The Gigabyte RX 6950 XT Gaming OC card we reviewed is a pretty good-looking card that you won't be shy about showing off in your build, and it certainly looks more attractive than AMD's reference card design for RDNA 2 cards.
Coming in a silver and dark gray color scheme, the Gigabyte card features an alternating three-fan cooling solution where the center fan rotates in the opposite direction to the two fans on either side. This is designed to reduce turbulent airflow across the card to help keep things cooler, and appears to reduce the maximum temperature by 5-10°C in our tests compared to the RTX 3090, Ti and RTX 3080. But that's not the case. It's such a big difference that other conditions could have played a bigger role than a fan blade turning counterclockwise. If nothing else, it looks great if you stop to notice it at any time.
Gigabyte AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT Gaming OC Key Specifications
GPU: Navi21
Stream Processors: 5120
Beam Accelerators: 80
Power consumption (TGP): 335W
Base Clock: 1925MHz
Boost Clock: 2324 MHz
VRAM: 16GB GDDR6
Memory speed: 1800MHz
Memory bus: 256 bits
Memory bandwidth: 576,0 GB/s
Card interface: PCIe 4.0
Outputs: 2x HDMI 2.1, 2x DisplayPort 1.4a
Power connector: 3 x 8 pin
Recommended power supply: 850W
Chances are you won't actually see it, but that's okay because Gigabyte's Aorus Fusion 2.0 will allow you to program 16,7 million different color options into the Gigabyte logo along the visible edge, including several different patterns like wave color, color pulse, etc. , which adds an extra RGB touch to your build.
There's also an attractive backplate on the board that not only protects the sensitive connections on the PCB, but the brushed metal design has an almost spacey feel that's a great complement to a Gigabyte Aorus motherboard.
Along the edge of this backplate, you'll also find a dual BIOS switch that can toggle the board between OC and silent mode, the former boosting performance while the latter is designed for quieter operation.
Finally, this card is power hungry, but thankfully it doesn't come with Nvidia's awesome new connectors that require an adapter to convert their standard 8-pin to 12-pin. However, the RX 6950 XT will still require three available 8-pin connectors.
Inside, the Gigabyte RX 6950 XT is powered by the same Navi21 GPU found in the Radeon RX 6900 XT, but with faster GPU clock speeds and 16GB of GDDR6 memory.
The RX 6900 XT, for example, has a base clock of 1825 MHz and a boost of 2250 MHz, compared to 1925 MHz and 2324 MHz for the RX 6950 XT, respectively, which is just over 3% to 5%. faster.
In terms of memory, the RX 6950 XT's VRAM is also slightly faster at 2250 MHz, compared to 2000 MHz on the RX 6900 XT. With the amount of VRAM and the same 256-bit memory bus, that extra speed may not sound like much, but it does mean the card has nearly 13% more memory bandwidth than the RX 6900 XT, 576GB/s. 512GB/s, respectively.
The RX 6950 XT has the same number of stream processors as the RX 6900 XT (5120), as well as the same number of ray accelerators (80). With its faster clocks and an additional 35W of TGP than the RX 6900 XT (325W to 300W, respectively), the RX 6950 XT is simply capable of doing more with the hardware it has.
AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT: Performance
- Excellent RTX 3090 level performance (most of the time)
- Creative workloads fail
The AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT is arguably the best graphics card AMD has ever released, and while it's not exactly the same as the RTX 3090 (or RTX 3080 Ti, in some cases), it's more than enough to play the best games. of PCs. on ultra settings with a bit of ray tracing and get playable and even fun 4K gaming with the help of AMD FSR.
Test system specifications
This is the system we used to test the AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT:
Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D
CPU Cooler: Corsair iCue H150i Elite Capellix 360mm AIO
RAM: Corsair Revenge LED DDR4-3200
Motherboard: Gigabyte Aorus Master X570 (BIOS F36c)
SSD: Samsung 980 Pro 1TB NVMe M.2 SSD
Power supply: Corsair AX1000
Case: Praxis Wetbench
FSR support is still rolling out, so you may still need to adjust your settings to reach the top of the parabolic curve where graphics quality and 60fps align.
But that's the case even with the DLSS-enabled RTX 3090 Ti, which barely hits 60fps (occasionally) on the Cyberpunk 2077 benchmark in 4K with the Ultra Ray Tracing graphics preset. And, even then, that's its maximum frame rate, averaging 40 seconds, while without any scaling the RTX 3090 Ti only hits 24fps at those settings.
The RX 6950 XT, on the other hand, only peaks at 30 seconds with FSR enabled, though it averages around 29fps. Without scaling support, the RX 6950 XT shrieks at 13 fps in this setting.
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In almost all of our benchmarks, the RX 6950 XT fell short of the RTX 3090 or the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, and even the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080, according to the test. But where the RX 6950 XT fails,...