The Radeon RX 6900/6950 XT Owners Thread.

CrazyGreggy · 20 Jun 2021 at 13:15

Complete noob with the terminology here. Is coil whine a function of the fans? If that's the case would the AIO cooled cards be the way to avoid that or are the fans on the AIO subject to whine as well?

Chud_Jenny · 20 Jun 2021 at 13:20

CrazyGreggy said:
Complete noob with the terminology here. Is coil whine a function of the fans? If that's the case would the AIO cooled cards be the way to avoid that or are the fans on the AIO subject to whine as well?

That will tell you everything you need to know.

varkanoid · 20 Jun 2021 at 16:10

CrazyGreggy said:
Complete noob with the terminology here. Is coil whine a function of the fans? If that's the case would the AIO cooled cards be the way to avoid that or are the fans on the AIO subject to whine as well?

Short answer no its nothing to do with the fans. Its caused by electronic components vibrating at a frequency the human ear can hear. This is what people refer to as coil whine but it happens to all components and a lot of the time we cant hear it. Therefore its considered bad luck if you get a GPU which has coil whine audible to the human ear. Its not really a fault.

CrazyGreggy · 20 Jun 2021 at 18:29

The linked video started off with a rundown of some coils and what causes them to whine, so it almost seemed like certain cards will/won't whine due to manufacturing design choices. If that's the case, are there certain brands that are more/less prone to whine? Once prices drop a bit more I might go for an AMD rather than NVidia but would hate to plump for the "wrong" brand.

PhoenixSP · 20 Jun 2021 at 19:19

I think it's pretty much random chance, and based on a number of factors such as psu brand and how power is set up. I read in another thread of another re devil owner having coil whine but im still hopeful as the cards are meant to be overengineered and may be pure chance. I tried a bitfenix and corsair psu with no real change so i have to cross my fingers the replacement is quieter or can be resolved before the return period ends. My friends 3080fe that i tried for the rebar support had a worse whine though, so I guess no winning anywhere.

varkanoid · 20 Jun 2021 at 20:10

CrazyGreggy said:
The linked video started off with a rundown of some coils and what causes them to whine, so it almost seemed like certain cards will/won't whine due to manufacturing design choices. If that's the case, are there certain brands that are more/less prone to whine? Once prices drop a bit more I might go for an AMD rather than NVidia but would hate to plump for the "wrong" brand.

There isnt really a "wrong brand" its a complete lottery. Two people might buy the exact same Sapphire 6900xt and one can have coil whine and the other doesnt. What we are trying to say is there is no cast iron guarantee whether the card you buy has it and there is no specific brand that is better than another.

PhoenixSP said:
I think it's pretty much random chance, and based on a number of factors such as psu brand and how power is set up. I read in another thread of another re devil owner having coil whine but im still hopeful as the cards are meant to be overengineered and may be pure chance. I tried a bitfenix and corsair psu with no real change so i have to cross my fingers the replacement is quieter or can be resolved before the return period ends. My friends 3080fe that i tried for the rebar support had a worse whine though, so I guess no winning anywhere.

Yeah I forgot to mention the power supply can have a bearing on Coil Whine too. eg buy a GPU card hear coil whine, buy a better PSU, same GPU card no coil whine.

FredFlint · 22 Jun 2021 at 20:04

Just ordered a Powercolor 6900XT, not had a Powercolor since 1800XT 256MB. I also got a RM1000x PSU, normally get EVGA PSU'S but the G5's don't have good reviews for this gen GPU's. Am a little nevus about having to re- wire the full PC but did not want to risk my current 650W G2.

FredFlint · 23 Jun 2021 at 12:56

Just installed new GPU+ PSU, 2 hours to install the PSU and wire everything up, 1 minute to install GPU. Going by HWiNFO64 it uses less power at idle than my 5700XT, also the VRAM is not locked at full speed all the time.

LtMatt · 23 Jun 2021 at 12:58

FredFlint said:
Just ordered a Powercolor 6900XT, not had a Powercolor since 1800XT 256MB. I also got a RM1000x PSU, normally get EVGA PSU'S but the G5's don't have good reviews for this gen GPU's. Am a little nevus about having to re- wire the full PC but did not want to risk my current 650W G2.

FredFlint said:
Just installed new GPU+ PSU, 2 hours to install the PSU and wire everything up, 1 minute to install GPU. Going by HWiNFO64 it uses less power at idle than my 5700XT, also the VRAM is not locked at full speed all the time.

Congrats, pic for the OP please.

Curious to know if you have the XTX or XTXH version and what your default core clock is in Radeon Software > GPU Tuning?

Josh Racey · 23 Jun 2021 at 13:30

FredFlint said:
Just ordered a Powercolor 6900XT, not had a Powercolor since 1800XT 256MB. I also got a RM1000x PSU, normally get EVGA PSU'S but the G5's don't have good reviews for this gen GPU's. Am a little nevus about having to re- wire the full PC but did not want to risk my current 650W G2.

Did you get the normal or the ultimate?

I have the ultimate version. I was wondering if anyone has heared anything with regards to the AMD imposed power limits. Bit annoying really considering the ultimate has the capacity to handly over 500w

FredFlint · 23 Jun 2021 at 13:37

LtMatt said:
Congrats, pic for the OP please.

Curious to know if you have the XTX or XTXH version and what your default core clock is in Radeon Software > GPU Tuning?

I have this one:
PowerColor Radeon RX 6900 XT Red Devil 16GB GDDR6 Ray-Tracing Graphics Card, RDNA2, 5120 Streams, 2015MHz, 2250MHz Boost
I have only run Days Gone for a few mins just to test that it was working, I have installed 3dmark to give it a full high load test but so far it seem fine. I did not get the Ultimate one as I only have a 1440p 60hz display so this should do fine for a long time and it was over £250 cheaper.

Max temp 66C[84C hot spot], max power 282W. I am on an old X370 mombo so its running pcie gen 3 and 64GB of relatively slow RAM (3000 cl16)

HWiNFO64-> Max GPU clocks = 2390Mhz, Max VRAM clocks 1992Mhz

Too Tall · 23 Jun 2021 at 13:58

I currently have a 6900 XT Red Devil Ultimate in my possession but i'm unsure whether to put the waterblock on it or just stick with my Limited Edition Red Devil.

human_error · 23 Jun 2021 at 15:00

Recently got a PowerColor rx 6900 xt red devil Ultimate (XTXH). Pretty pleased with it and more importantly the OC I got out of it!

Max stable OC for games of ~2750, 2690 being stable for time spy benches. Running at 1160mv core and 2150 memory. Seeing sustained speeds over 2600 at all times which is nice.

LtMatt · 23 Jun 2021 at 15:02

Too Tall said:
I currently have a 6900 XT Red Devil Ultimate in my possession but i'm unsure whether to put the waterblock on it or just stick with my Limited Edition Red Devil.

Block it, you know you want to.

I wish there was an XTXH Merc, I'd definitely consider one.

human_error said:
Recently got a PowerColor rx 6900 xt red devil Ultimate (XTXH). Pretty pleased with it and more importantly the OC I got out of it!

Nice, what overclocks did you get and what is the stock core clock in Radeon Software?

human_error · 23 Jun 2021 at 15:06

Max stable OC for games of ~2750, 2690 being stable for time spy benches. Running at 1160mv core and 2150 memory. Seeing sustained speeds over 2600 at almost all times which is nice. Not seen it dip under 2400 even when pushing the OC and heat hard.

Stock speed in Radeon was 2425 boost speed (oc bios setting). Any other speeds you were interested in?

Chud_Jenny · 23 Jun 2021 at 15:14

Time for another Buildzoid video link:
Voltage behaviour.

LtMatt · 23 Jun 2021 at 15:40

human_error said:
Max stable OC for games of ~2750, 2690 being stable for time spy benches. Running at 1160mv core and 2150 memory. Seeing sustained speeds over 2600 at almost all times which is nice. Not seen it dip under 2400 even when pushing the OC and heat hard.

Stock speed in Radeon was 2425 boost speed (oc bios setting). Any other speeds you were interested in?

I mean the default clock speed as shown in Radeon Software > GPU Tuning Max Frequency before you change anything, not the advertised boost speeds on the specs.

Too Tall · 23 Jun 2021 at 15:57

LtMatt said:
Block it, you know you want to.

I absolutely do, thats the problem

Josh Racey · 23 Jun 2021 at 16:02

human_error said:
Max stable OC for games of ~2750, 2690 being stable for time spy benches. Running at 1160mv core and 2150 memory. Seeing sustained speeds over 2600 at almost all times which is nice. Not seen it dip under 2400 even when pushing the OC and heat hard.

Stock speed in Radeon was 2425 boost speed (oc bios setting). Any other speeds you were interested in?

Is that with your max or min frequency set to 2690?

human_error · 23 Jun 2021 at 16:12

LtMatt said:
I mean the default clock speed as shown in Radeon Software > GPU Tuning Max Frequency before you change anything, not the advertised boost speeds on the specs.

2519 is the default max if I set everything back to stock and go to freshly edit the settings.

Josh Racey said:
Is that with your max or min frequency set to 2690?

Max - I've not changed the min frequency yet. I'm out of date when it comes to Radeon overclocking (last time I was serious about it was on 1950XTX crossfire) so have some more work to do on it. I get the feeling I should be able to get a higher stable clock if I increase to 1200mv but need to figure out how to keep her cool enough when running those speeds and voltage - I currently hit the 100-110C heat limit on hotspot when over 2750 max core. Will changing min frequency mess with power consumption outside of games?