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The Radeon RX 6900/6950 XT Owners Thread.

@LtMatt - Going to return my MSI and get a Sapphire Radeon RX 6900 XT 16GB NITRO+ OC SE. Is that a reasonable replacement? I had a Sapphire 6800 XT NITRO+ which was a great card, couldn't fault it.

Or is the XFX Radeon RX 6900 XT Speedster MERC 319 Black a better choice? (Scrap that, too long by 1 cm to fit in my case)

I'm not really looking for an overclocking monster as I'm running a SFF PC. Just something that runs cool/quiet.
 
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DocJekl said:
Yeah, my first Saphire nitro+ 6900 XT would have GPU temps at 70-75° with a hotspot running 105 to 110°. This was at +15 in the Radeon software without touching the power limit, so it was hitting 303 W and it was running fine, except that it was replaced because an RGB header pin broke off. I got my replacement card last week, before leaving for a trip, so I should be able to install it tomorrow.
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I just installed my replacement Sapphire Nitro+ 6900XT, after I ran DDU in safe mode to remove all AMD and Nvidia drivers and installed the latest Radeon 21.11.3 software. I was using a 3070Ti while my 6900XT was being repaired/replaced, but also had Radeon 21.11.1 on the PC when I left for my trip last week, so I wanted to clear out all drivers.

On my 1st attempt to OC the card I set GPU clock set to 2330 minimum (the default was 500) and maximum GPU clock 2564 (this max was the setting that it picked for me and I left it). I have a mild UV at 1165, based on what my previous card could run. I have VRAM set for fast and 2112, and power +15. I had fans ramp up from zero to 35% at 50C and climbing to 80% at 89C or above, and I will tweak the curve some. I will be tweaking my front, bottom, and rear case fans to respond the GPU temp, so my AIO radiator exhaust fans in the top will be the only ones tied to CPU temp.

This card is better than my last one. My Time Spy GPU score jumped to best ever at 21,900. Previously I was getting as high as 21,600 with this 5800X system, and in my 5950X rig I never saw better than 21,800 a couple of months ago). My GPU core clock on the previous card was averaging 2330 Mhz in Time Spy in this rig, and this time around my average GPU clock jumped to 2393 Mhz. I am seeing average GPU temps in Time Spy slightly higher at 75C average vs 72C average before, but my hotspot temps have dropped to between 98-102 degrees instead of the previous 101-110 degrees while drawing 303 watts. My temperature delta is usually staying under 30 degrees, and very often it is under 25 degrees while watching the Radeon overlay. Strangely, my CPU score dropped 5% so I need to check my bios settings.

I'm report back later with updates and I adjust the settings.
 
My CPU overclock got removed somehow during my change back to 6900XT and removing and installing drivers. I fixed that and my CPU score is back up. I bumped my VRAM setting from 2112 to 2124 MHz and got an average of 2112 Mhz in a new Time Spy run, which is up from 2100 average when I had it set for 2112. My previous card VRAM would not go past 2088 or 2100 MHz after the first couple of weeks of ownership.

Didn't touch anything else or fans, and my Time Spy GPU SCORE PASSED 22K FOR THE FIRST TIME at 22,036 (19,362 total with a 5800X at 11,473). Average core clock was slightly less at 2379 MHz but the faster VRAM clock brought the score up anyway.

---------------------- EDIT --------------

I went back and increased my GPU fans and case fans a tiny bit (like 5% more above 65C), and I bumped VRAM clock settings to 2136 MHz. My new Sapphire averaged an actual 2124 Mhz VRAM clock during it's best Time Spy GPU score so far of 22,096. The GPU core clock average was back up to 2394 MHz average, and average GPU temperature came down to 74 degrees C. I didn't run the overlay to look at hot spot temps this time. CPU score was good at 11,643 = 19,468 overall Time Spy.

On this same 5800X based PC, my previous Sapphire 6900XT was averaging 21,500-21,600 GPU score at best with core clocks around 2325-2330 Mhz. I was mistaken and my last card did not run slightly higher on the 5950X rig. But the last cards VRAM didn't want to clock at much over 2100 MHz.

I could keep bumping up the VRAM clock, but my understanding is that this is about as fast as it will usually run, and going faster may result in either too much heat or errors leading to lower scores. The only reason I wanted to OC the card this fast was for either bragging rights or to improve RT performance, and I'm not using RT much. And with my 5800X and 1440p @ 165Hz monitor, it's as fast as it ever needs to be - the OC was just to see what it could do.

I was happy to break into the 22K Time Spy scores with an air cooled card, and I believe that my old card would have never broken that milestone. So, my fears of Sapphire sending me a slower card were unfounded, and I think I got lucky in the silicone lottery without going to an XTX or XTXH based card. My ASUS ROG 3080Ti has barely broken in to the very low 21,000 GPU score range, which runs slightly better than my son's MSI X 3090.
 
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DocJekl said:
My CPU overclock got removed somehow during my change back to 6900XT and removing and installing drivers. I fixed that and my CPU score is back up. I bumped my VRAM setting from 2112 to 2124 MHz and got an average of 2112 Mhz in a new Time Spy run, which is up from 2100 average when I had it set for 2112. My previous card VRAM would not go past 2088 or 2100 MHz after the first couple of weeks of ownership.

Didn't touch anything else or fans, and my Time Spy GPU SCORE PASSED 22K FOR THE FIRST TIME at 22,036 (19,362 total with a 5800X at 11,473). Average core clock was slightly less at 2379 MHz but the faster RAM clock brought the score up anyway.

---------------------- EDIT --------------

I went back and increased my GPU fans and case fans a tiny bit (like 5% more above 65C), and I bumped VRAM clock settings to 2136 MHz. My new Sapphire averaged an actual 2124 Mhz VRAM clock during it's best Time Spy GPU score so far of 22,096. The GPU core clock average was back up to 2394 MHz average, and average GPU temperature came down to 74 degrees C. I didn't run the overlay to look at hot spot temps this time.

On this same 5800X based PC, my previous Sapphire 6900XT was averaging 21,500-21,600 GPU score at best with core clocks around 2325-2330 Mhz, while it scored slightly higher on the 5950X rig at 21,800. But the last cards VRAM didn't want to clock at much over 2100 MHz.

I could keep bumping up the VRAM clock, but my understanding is that this is about as fast as it will usually run, and going faster may result in either too much heat or errors leading to lower scores. The only reason I wanted to OC the card this fast was for either bragging rights or to improve RT performance, and I'm not using RT much. And with my 5800X and 1440p @ 165Hz monitor, it's as fast as it ever needs to be - the OC was just to see what it could do.

I was happy to break into the 22K Time Spy scores with an air cooled card, and I believe that my old card would have never broken that milestone. So, my fears of Sapphire sending me a slower card were unfounded, and I think I got lucky in the silicone lottery without going to an XTX or XTXH based card.
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You are using an XTX card. :D

Glad you got a better sample, to be fair I called it a while back if you remember. :p
 
uksoldierboy said:
Cheers guys and thanks Matt,

Think I'll go with the Sapphire then.
Now to decide on AlderLake or Ryzen, further reading required.
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Solid choice.

The Merc is up there with the best air cooled 6900 XTs money can buy, alongside the Red Devil. I'd say the Merc has the slightly better cooler though.

I actually miss the Merc, went to a nice bloke on Ebay though at least who I kept in touch with after the sale and helped him tune it using my settings. :)
 
LtMatt said:
You are using an XTX card. :D

Glad you got a better sample, to be fair I called it a while back if you remember. :p
Click to expand...

Oh, I thought XTX cards came out later in the summer and were faster, but I googled it. https://www.tomshardware.com/news/r...tedly-in-the-works-to-crush-ge-force-rtx-3090 from August 30, 2021 says the 6900 XT uses the Navi 21 XTX chip, and the 6900 XTX will use the Navi 21 XTXH chip.

I do remember your reassurance though, and you were right. BTW, I just tried increasing max GPU clock settings in Radeon software to 2596, up from 2564 which had resulted in average clock speeds in the benchmark at 2394 Mhz. Time Spy got a lot slower despite clock speeds climbing to an average of 2429 MHz. VRAM stayed at an average of 2124 Mhz, and temps stayed at 75 degrees. The GPU score dropped to 21,417 so I went back to my previous saved settings.
 
DocJekl said:
Oh, I thought XTX cards came out later in the summer and were faster, but I googled it. https://www.tomshardware.com/news/r...tedly-in-the-works-to-crush-ge-force-rtx-3090 from August 30, 2021 says the 6900 XT uses the Navi 21 XTX chip, and the 6900 XTX will use the Navi 21 XTXH chip.

I do remember your reassurance though, and you were right. BTW, I just tried increasing max GPU clock settings in Radeon software to 2596, up from 2564 which had resulted in average clock speeds in the benchmark at 2394 Mhz. Time Spy got a lot slower despite clock speeds climbing to an average of 2429 MHz. VRAM stayed at an average of 2124 Mhz, and temps stayed at 75 degrees. The GPU score dropped to 21,417 so I went back to my previous saved settings.
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Yes, that's because you've hit the power limit of the GPU (303W, so increases in clock speed will hurt more than help. You'd need MPT to increase the power limit to see gains from hereon in.
 
Returning my MSI, it was hitting 100c last night and thats with an undervolt. Have ordered the Powercolor Red Devil. Was worried about it fitting in my case as it looked chunky but saw someone else had it fitted so went ahead.

Would have loved to have bought the Merc but it's just a tad too long :(
 
sparkymark75 said:
Returning my MSI, it was hitting 100c last night and thats with an undervolt. Have ordered the Powercolor Red Devil. Was worried about it fitting in my case as it looked chunky but saw someone else had it fitted so went ahead.

Would have loved to have bought the Merc but it's just a tad too long :(
Click to expand...
Cryfreeman said:
2 Gaming Z ‘Ex display’ on sale there all ready..

3 when mine arrives :p
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It's a shame, as I think it's a nice looking GPU and the RGB is nice too.
 
Had a moment of madness and ordered the MSI card but after reading more reports about the thermal issues I'm just going to setup a return and not even open the box. Shame as it seemed decent value given the current market.
 
jwilliamson47 said:
Had a moment of madness and ordered the MSI card but after reading more reports about the thermal issues I'm just going to setup a return and not even open the box. Shame as it seemed decent value given the current market.
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You should at least give it a try to be honest.

That place is great with returns, even if you open it and use it as long as you don't damage it and return it in the same condition as to which it arrived, you'll get a full refund minus the £5 postage. :)
 
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