Sapphire Unveils Reference-design Radeon RX 6800 XT and RX 6800

[BoboOOZ]

You and me both...2600 and Nitro+ 5700 XT here. The issue is I don't do any 3d modeling/rendering, and my video editing is just trimming down game highlight clips, which I do maybe once a month, if that. Also feel like I should wait for AM5 to come around and let DDR5 mature a little bit, especially as my 5700 XT is handling most everything I play just fine. But the allure of a 5600X + B550/X570 board + and a 6800 XT Nitro+ is super tempting. Definitely shouldn't be dropping hundreds of dollars on new hardware when everything I have works fine

Well, you can always buy a higher spec monitor, that will give you a very valid excuse to upgrade your gear . Buy a high refresh 4k or a 1600p ultrawide and, voilà, you need a new GPU...

 

[Ravenas]

I'm going to wait for the 6900 XT Nitro to upgrade.

 

[Lionheart]

Looks nice & all but where does this thing exhaust it's heat?

 

[Dave65]

Can't wait for some legit reviews on these.

 

[ebivan]

Looks nice & all but where does this thing exhaust it's heat?

Same as almost any other (none blower type) card top (where the power connectors are) and bottom (where the PCIe connector is)

 

[MxPhenom 216]

RX 6800 XT is triple slot, 6800 is double slot.

Aren't they 2.5? At least that is what it says under Specs on website of these reference cards. The bracket is 2 slot.

I been thinking about reference designs. I think the reference design is better if you want to go liquid. I been planing to go liquid GPU for some time and if I will get one of these, I think I might be tempted to go with water.

Yeah if I got an AMD card it would be reference for water cooling. If I got an Nvidia card it would probably an Evga FTW to also be on water.

 

[milewski1015]

Were at least 18 months out for AM5 and DDR5 will be expensive on launch like every new memory standard is.

So ya if you can wait that long I would just keep rocking what you got.

Unless Cyberpunk is like insanely difficult to run or something, I don't foresee my 5700 XT struggling anytime soon. Maybe I'll just do a case swap halfway between now and AM5 to keep the upgrade itch at bay.

Well, you can always buy a higher spec monitor, that will give you a very valid excuse to upgrade your gear . Buy a high refresh 4k or a 1600p ultrawide and, voilà, you need a new GPU...

That's what happened before haha. Went to Microcenter, picked up a 1440p 144Hz monitor and said, "Well, I'm gonna need a bump up from an RX 580 to really take advantage of this" and walked out with a 5700 XT as well. My wallet was not happy with me that weekend. I've thought about upgrading a monitor again (wish I had opted for one of the nicer high refresh IPS 1440p monitors at the time instead of a VA - has some backlight bleed and have experienced some light ghosting a couple times), but I don't have $800 to throw at a 4K 144Hz monitor in addition to another $1K+ for new GPU, CPU, motherboard, RAM, etc.

 

[turbogear]

Sapphire has been AMD's closest partner for a decade or more (I don't quite remember, but they may have been the same for ATI), so they're likely to get some sort of early access or higher degree of engineering support, though I doubt it makes that much of a difference. It might just mean that they are able to deliver parts and designs slightly earlier than the would otherwise compared to the size and resources of the company - Sapphire is a fraction of the size of someone like Asus or MSI, after all.

I have the feeling that actually the reference AMD Radeon cards could be designed by Sapphire.
According to AMD website they are partners for embedded reference designs, maybe also Radeon reference cards:

https://www.amd.com/en/products/embedded-partners-sapphire-technology

 

[Valantar]

I have the feeling that actually the reference AMD Radeon cards could be designed by Sapphire.
According to AMD website they are partners for embedded reference designs, maybe also Radeon reference cards:

https://www.amd.com/en/products/embedded-partners-sapphire-technology

I believe they have collaborated on reference cooler designs before, so it's entirely possible that that's the case this time too.

 

[ratirt]

Yeah if I got an AMD card it would be reference for water cooling. If I got an Nvidia card it would probably an Evga FTW to also be on water.

Totally agree. Either way water is the way to go. I only hope, if I go 6800xt (planning to get that one), to squeeze some more performance out of it with water. The 6800 might be also good option if you could for instance, flash bios from 6800 XT same way like the 5700 could get XT bios. That is something I'm thinking about if it will be possible. If it will, 6800 might be the better option though. Anyway, it all depends.

 

[tygrus]

The 6900XT is awkward. You could make the cooling as big as RTX 3090, 360w and go for 2.45GHz (~9% increase) with slightly faster RAM when it's available next year. Nvidia are starved of GDDR6X RAM and GPU's before they can really deliver. These are mostly for PR headlines not your average gamer so it won't change what I buy for a home PC with no gaming maybe a little media editing.

 

[ebivan]

The 6900XT is awkward. You could make the cooling as big as RTX 3090, 360w and go for 2.45GHz (~9% increase) with slightly faster RAM when it's available next year. Nvidia are starved of GDDR6X RAM and GPU's before they can really deliver. These are mostly for PR headlines not your average gamer so it won't change what I buy for a home PC with no gaming maybe a little media editing.

Well, its not really awkward, its a card that matches 3090 in many situtations but cost significantly less. So anything more, like faster memory would just have increased the price.

There is another thread here about the 6900, where the same thing has been proposed if AiBs were to make custom 6900, they could pair it with faster memory and better cooling.
Nobody knows if there may be a 6950xtx in the pipe, to beat future 3090ti or Ampere Titan cards

 

[INSTG8R]

Sapphire has been AMD's closest partner for a decade or more (I don't quite remember, but they may have been the same for ATI), so they're likely to get some sort of early access or higher degree of engineering support, though I doubt it makes that much of a difference. It might just mean that they are able to deliver parts and designs slightly earlier than the would otherwise compared to the size and resources of the company - Sapphire is a fraction of the size of someone like Asus or MSI, after all.

Precisely! Sapphire have been making AMDs branded cards since they were ATI

 

[turbogear]

Precisely! Sapphire have been making AMDs branded cards since they were ATI

Thanks. That is also what I was thinking.
This is one of the reasons that most of my reference Radeon cards in the past were from Sapphire.
Buying from the original source.

Though it does not make any difference except for sticker on all reference Radeon cards from different brands.

Nevertheless I always play dangerous as my warranty is void always in a few days after buying it, because I have been changing coolers with waterblock since few generations of Radeons since days of Radeon R9 290X.

Fury X was only exception, there reference card already had water cooler but my that card was also from Sapphire.