"The focus of our development has always been to improve the deliverable performance." (Rico Weber, WATERCOOL CEO, Sep.2020). This quote marked the beginning of the development of the new HEATKILLER V VGA cooler. In addition to an increase of performance, the focus also lay on improvements in handling and durability. The HEATKILLER VGA coolers, known for their outstanding workmanship, have also been visually enhanced. In the latest revision for AMD graphics cards of the RX 6800/6900XT series, the HEATKILLER V has been further optimized.

The inflow to the cooling structure has been completely reworked. It now is placed with a vertical offset above a second level. The inlet and outlet channels cross each other, but are spatially separated from each other. The new design allows a symmetrical arrangement of the cooling channels. The advantage of the symmetrical design is a steady flow through the heat sink. Dead zones and hotspots are thus effectively avoided. At the same time the windage is reduced. The HEATKILLER V for RX 6800/6900XT features a vertical cooling structure, which significantly improves the cooling performance even more. The enlarged cooling surface ensures exceptionally low GPU temperatures. To reduce turbulences, all cooling channels were manufactured in a rounded design.

XFX put out a teaser picture of its upcoming Radeon RX 6900 XT Speedster Zero WB graphics card. Targeted at those with DIY liquid-cooling setups, the card comes with a factory-fitted full-coverage water-block. Sourced from EK Water Blocks, the solution appears to combine nickel-plated copper with an acrylic top that's studded with RGB lighting elements. This is combined with a metal backplate. The card appears to debut a new PCB not found on the air-cooled Speedster Merc 319 series cards. This board comes with three 8-pin PCIe power inputs, and likely a more robust power delivery setup. In all likelihood, the card features the "XTXH" variant of the Navi 21 silicon, designed to sustain 10% higher engine clocks than regular RX 6900 XT cards.

AMD's 7 nm "Navi 21" silicon powers the company's Radeon RX 6800 series and flagship RX 6900 XT graphics cards. It's a big chip, competitive with NVIDIA's fastest GeForce RTX 30-series products, and AMD set 16 GB as the standard memory amount for all products based on this chip, despite its 256-bit wide GDDR6 memory interface. Komachi Ensaka spotted a curious-looking Navi 21 product with 8 GB of memory, on the UserBenchmark database. The card is slower than the desktop RX 6800, but found trading blows with the RX 6700 XT. Speculation is rife as to what it could be.

The most plausible theory is that it could be a prototype, with its user testing out UserBenchmark. The GeForce RTX 3070 Ti has a shaky performance equation with the similarly-priced RX 6800, and any attempt to close the gap between the RX 6700 XT and the RX 6800 would cannibalize the latter, unless that's exactly what AMD wants—a product competitive with the RTX 3070 Ti, but with a leaner bill of materials than the RX 6800 on account of the 8 GB memory.

Sapphire seems to be preparing an air-cooled version of its top-of-the-line RX 6900 XT Toxic graphics card, eschewing the hybrid cooling philosophy from its original release in favour of a more traditional full air cooling solution. In fact, Sapphire seems to be re-purposing the triple-fan cooling solution from its Nitro + graphics cards whist changing the color scheme to the yellow of the Toxic series.

That should me more than sufficient to keep the card cool, however, while other improvements present in the Toxic RX 6900 XT (such as the usage of the Navi 21 XTX chip and improvements to the circuit board and power delivery enabling much higher clocks and overclocking) are still present, justifying the top-tier Toxic naming on this graphics card. Sapphire has announced the RX 6900 XT Toxic reaches a Boost Clock of 2425 MHz and a Game Clock of 2235 MHz - lower than the hybrid-cooled version's 2525 MHz and 2375 MHz, respectively. No word on pricing or availability was available at time of writing.

TechN adds a new cooler and new materials to the portfolio of high-end water cooling components. AMDs Radeon RX 6000 graphics cards with reference design receive a full-cover water block made from POM with a pure copper coldplate. For the best in class CPU cooler for AMD AM4, there is also a new pure copper version available. The TechN GPU Waterblock RX 6800/6900 (XT) marks the start of a totally new product line with the combination of the materials POM / Acetal and a pure copper coldplate. The new precision crafted cooler fits AMDs reference PCBs for Radeon RX 6800, RX 6800 XT and RX 6900 XT. It shares the modern industrial design DNA as well as the striving for uncompromised cooling performance with the rest of the product family.

An optional aluminum backplate with sophisticated black anodized finish further demonstrates the relationship with the TechN CPU water blocks, which are now also available in a pure copper version. Pre-orders for the TechN GPU water block for AMD 6000 series are starting now with delivery estimated for mid july. The price for the water block is 136.90 Euros, the TechN GPU backplate for AMD 6000, which improves the performance and gives the cooler a full enclosure look, costs 34.90 Euros. All TechN products are available at www.techn.de and selected partners.

AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT Liquid Cooled (LC) edition is not officially available for the DIY market, as the card is exclusive to OEMs and system integrators, who can use the card in any of their selected systems, given the availability of course. In other words, the card is almost impossible to purchase on its own, unless it is from someone who removed it from a PC. However, it seems like a few retailers in India have been able to get their hands on a few of these cards and offer consumers to buy them individually without the need to purchase a whole system. Of course, you can expect this to come with a premium. Currently, retailers are offering the card at the price tag of around 223,020 rupees, which translates to 3,007 USD. We are not sure if any EU or American retailers will get their hands on just the card to compare prices.

A leaked SKU sheet posted to Twitter by VideoCardz confirmed that AMD is indeed positioning the Radeon RX 6900 XT Liquid Cooled (LC) as a SKU separate from the RX 6900 XT. The finalized specs reveal that the card features Game Clocks of 2250 MHz, compared to 2015 MHz of the stock (air-cooled reference) RX 6900 XT; while the memory now operates at 18 Gbps (GDDR6 effective), compared to 16 Gbps on the reference card. This gives the GPU a memory bandwidth of 576 GB/s, compared to 512 GB/s on the reference. To support these, the TBP (total board power) value is increased by 10%, and is now at 330 W, compared to 300 W on the reference RX 6900 XT. The RX 6900 XT LC lugs an all-in-one, closed-loop, liquid cooling solution, while drawing power from the same two 8-pin PCIe power connectors as the original RX 6900 XT.

PowerColor's website has begun showing what is very likely the made-by-AMD (reference design) Radeon RX 6900 XT LC graphics card, as discovered by momomo_us. It bears the PowerColor SKU "AXRX 6900XT 16GBD6-MW2DHC," compared to the air-cooled reference version's SKU of "AXRX 6900XT 16GBD6-M2DHC." The webpage doesn't include any pictures. Some of the oldest leaks of the reference RX 6900 XT LC also pointed to a Sapphire branded card, which means a retail launch through AIB partners cannot be ruled out; as an SI or OEM-only launch would be handled by AMD, without involving AIBs.

The Radeon RX 6900 XT LC features a factory-fitted all-in-one liquid cooling solution, and possibly the new "XTXH" variant of the "Navi 21" silicon, which is able to sustain up to 10% higher engine clocks than the stock RX 6900 XT. AMD has reportedly gone a step further, and also given the LC version 15% faster memory, running at 18.48 Gbps data-rate, and so its performance could be very interesting to see. Some early testing is already out.

PC enthusiasts on the Bili Bili community posted the first performance benchmarks of the Made-by-AMD liquid-cooled Radeon RX 6900 XT graphics card, which has been doing rounds on the rumor mill as an "XTX" part. This card features engine clock speeds in the league of the recent RX 6900 XT "XTXH silicon" factory-overclocked cards, but its more striking specification is the use of 18.48 Gbps-rated GDDR6 memory (15.5% increased memory bandwidth), and liquid cooling. The engine clocks are set at 2250 MHz game, with 2435 MHz boost.

Tested across 3DMark Time Spy, Time Spy Extreme, Fire Stike Extreme, and Port Royal, the card is tested to be anywhere between 5-8 percent faster than an air-cooled reference RX 6900 XT card. This would put it slightly behind the custom RX 6900 XT ("XTXH silicon") cards, though a significant upgrade from the air-cooled card. Coreteks in a recent report stated that the liquid-cooled reference RX 6900 XT is being targeted exclusively at the SI (system integrator) market, and so far, the card has only been spotted in China.

EK, is launching the new EK-Quantum Vector Master water blocks made for the AORUS Master version of the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT and 6900 XT graphics cards. These 2nd-generation EK-Quantum Vector water blocks implement 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.

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.

To preempt NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 3080 Ti launch, AMD had worked with its partners to release a refreshed Radeon RX 6900 XT based on a swanky new ASIC internally dubbed "XTXH." This is essentially the highest bin of the "Navi 21" silicon that allows 10% higher clock speeds over the standard RX 6900 XT. Our testing of one such card, the ASRock RX 6900 XT OC Formula, showed that the XTXH is able to trade blows with the RTX 3090, making it competitive with the RTX 3080 Ti. Interestingly, there seemed to lack a reference design "made by AMD" card based on this silicon. Turns out, AMD had other plans. This card was earlier believed to be the "Radeon RX 6900 XTX," when it was first leaked in April, but turns out, that AMD is allowing partners to simply call this the RX 6900 XT.

The reference design card uses a liquid-cooled design. The card itself is two slots thick, and about the size of the reference Radeon RX 6800, but two coolant tubes emerge from its top, which head to a 120 mm x 120 mm radiator. This is a purely liquid-cooled card, with no secondary air-based cooling, like the ASUS ROG Strix LC RX 6900 XT. The only sources of noise are the AIO pump-block, and the single included 120 mm fan. Besides 10% higher GPU clocks, the reference design card has an ace in the hole that custom-design XTXH cards lack—faster memory.

GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd, a leading manufacturer of premium gaming hardware, today announced the GIGABYTE WATERFORCE graphics card - AORUS Radeon RX 6900 XT XTREME WATERFORCE WB 16G. AORUS WATERFORCE graphics card combines the latest premium Radeon RX 6900 XT GPU and AORUS patent-pending "Leak detection" technology. This is the best choice for high-end water-cooling systems.

AORUS Radeon RX 6900 XT XTREME WATERFORCE WB 16G is designed with the patent-pending "Leak detection" technology. The built-in leak detection circuit covers the entire fitting and water block and can promptly alert users by flashing light at the first sign of leak, so users can deal with the leakage early and prevent any further damage to the system.

NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 30-series "Ampere" graphics card family is on course to a refresh, with at least four new Ti SKUs reportedly planned. These include the RTX 3050 TI, RTX 3070 Ti, RTX 3080 Ti, and the RTX 3090 Ti. From these, possible availability dates of the RTX 3070 Ti and RTX 3080 Ti surfaced in a Wccftech report. The RTX 3080 Ti is expected to be available on June 3, 2021, with reviews going live on June 2. The RTX 3070 Ti, on the other hand, is expected to be available a week later, on June 10, with reviews going live on June 9. There's no word on availability of the other rumored Ti SKUs, such as the RTX 3050 Ti (desktop) or the RTX 3090 Ti. The RTX 3070 Ti is being designed to better compete against the Radeon RX 6800 under the $600-mark, while the RTX 3080 Ti is designed to check the Radeon RX 6900 XT.

ZOTAC may have inadvertently leaked the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti. The latest version of its FireStorm utility mentions support for the RTX 3090 Ti. This would indicate that NVIDIA has been working on a new top-of-the-line graphics card that replaces the RTX 3090 as its most premium consumer graphics offering. Until now, it was expected that NVIDIA would hold onto the RTX 3090 as its top client product, with the gap between it and the RTX 3080 being filled up by the RTX 3080 Ti, to help it better compete with the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT. AMD's introduction of the new RX 6900 XT (XTXH silicon), and more surprisingly, the introduction yielding a 10% clock-speed increase, has changed the competitive outlook of the very top of NVIDIA's product-stack.

There are no specifications out there, but in all likelihood, the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti maxes out the 8 nm "GA102" silicon. The RTX 3090 enables all but one of the 42 TPCs physically present on the silicon, and it's likely that this disabled TPC, amounting to an additional 256 CUDA cores, could be unlocked. This would put its CUDA core count at 10,752, compared to 10.496 on the RTX 3090. The only other area NVIDIA could squeeze out performance is GPU clock speeds—an approach similar to AMD's to come up with the RX 6900 XT (XTXH). The highest bins of GA102 could go into building the RTX 3090 Ti. The RTX 3090 already maxes out the 384-bit GDDR6X memory interface, uses the fastest 19.5 Gbps memory chips available, and offers a massive 24 GB of video memory, so it remains to be seen what other specs NVIDIA could tinker with to create the RTX 3090 Ti.

A PowerColor Radeon RX 6900 XT (Liquid Devil or Red Devil) graphics card was overclocked to a staggering 3321 MHz by professional overclocker OGS, which went on to bag the 3DMark FireStrike world record, with a score of 37618 points on the HWBot leaderboard. It's important to note here, that the benchmark run was done with tessellation disabled—something that UL Benchmarks doesn't consider valid for its own leaderboard, but HWBot allows such benchmark runs, and so here we are. The FireStrike leaderboard has been dominated by the RX 6900 XT, as the card beats even the GeForce RTX 3090 in this test.

A regulatory filing by Palit with the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) for several of its upcoming custom-design graphics cards, points to the possibility that NVIDIA is preparing to announcing three GeForce RTX 30-series Ti desktop graphics card SKUs in one go. These include the much talked about GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, the RTX 3070 Ti, and the RTX 3050 Ti.

From these, the RTX 3080 Ti is positioned between the RTX 3080 and RTX 3090, possibly helping NVIDIA better compete against the Radeon RX 6900 XT. The RTX 3070 Ti improves the company's competitiveness against the RX 6800. The new RTX 3050 Ti could carve out a performance class for itself, and as yet AMD lacks any desktop SKUs below the RX 6700 XT from the current generation, at least in the retail channel. The three cards could be launched in Q2-2021.

ASUS today updated its flagship AMD Radeon RX 6000 series graphics card lineup with the new ROG Strix LC Radeon RX 6900 XT TOP T16G. This card is visually identical to the ROG Strix LC RX 6900 XT O16G the company launched last December, but with a handful updates. The biggest of these is the new "Navi 21 XTXH" silicon, the highest bin of AMD's top RDNA2 chip, which enables at least 10% higher clock-speeds than the standard RX 6900 XT. ASUS has tuned this up further, with a max boost frequency of a stunning 2525 MHz, compared to 2365 MHz on the original (O16G). The game clocks have been increased to 2375 MHz, compared to 2135 MHz on the O16G. Notice how the game clocks of the new T16G are higher than the max boost clocks of the original O16G? That's the magic of the new XTXH silicon.

These apart, the company hasn't made any changes to the visual design. A liquid+air hybrid cooling solution dominates the product. The AIO liquid closed-loop cooling solution pulls heat from the GPU and surrounding memory chips, while a base-plate and a chunky back-plate pull heat from the other components, which is ventilated by a lateral blower. The AIO is cooled by a 240 mm x 120 mm radiator. The card continues to pull power from a combination of three 8-pin PCIe power connectors. The company didn't reveal pricing, but it's very likely to be close to 2 grand.

AMD's RDNA 2 architecture provided a significant performance increase for the company and allowed them to re-enter the high-end GPU market. AMD hopes to keep this momentum up with the launch of its RX 7900 XT card featuring the RDNA 3 architecture which will reportedly bring a further performance increase of at least 40% over the RX 6900 XT with internal projections as high as 60% - 80%. The RDNA 3 architecture is expected to feature a chiplet-based design with discrete I/O and compute dies similar to Ryzen processors. AMD has officially said they are targetting a 50% performance/watt increase over RDNA 2 with the new architecture which lends weight to this rumor. The RX 7900 XT is not expected to launch in the foreseeable future so take these rumors with a healthy dose of skepticism but if these performance improvements are anything close to accurate AMD could have a winner with RDNA 3.

GIGABYTE is joining the new wave of enthusiast-segment custom-design AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT graphics cards that leverage the updated "Navi 21-XTXH" silicon that supports 10% higher clock-speeds. The company is ready with the RX 6900 XT AORUS Xtreme WaterForce WB, its first AMD Radeon graphics card to get its AORUS Xtreme brand-extension (it capped out at AORUS Master for RX 6000 series cards until now). As its name might suggest, the card comes with a factory-fitted full-coverage water-block, and is targeted at those with DIY liquid cooling setups.

The water block uses nickel-plated copper as its primary material, with an acrylic top that's further capped off with poly-vinyl film. The top is studded with addressable RGB LEDs that you control with RGB Fusion 2.0 software. As an AORUS Xtreme product, the card is also likely to receive GIGABYTE's innovative coolant leak detection feature. The company didn't reveal clock speeds, but it's likely to be in the same league as other XTXH cards, such as the Toxic Extreme Edition, OC Formula, Liquid Devil Ultimate, etc. There's no word on when this launches.

Aqua Computer today introduced its Kryographics NEXT full-cover waterblocks, which are compatible with RX 6800, RX 6800 XT and RX 6900 XT graphics cards that use AMD's reference layout. The blocks, which are produced in Germany and weigh 880 grams, are available in bare or nickel-plated copper. The GPU and RAM modules are connected via thermal paste, while thermal pads are used for the voltage regulators.

The cover is made of acrylic glass and is surrounded by a black anodized aluminium frame. An integrated strip with 13 addressable LEDs allows the illumination of the block. The accessory includes a suitable connection cable for RGBpx enabled Aqua Computer devices and an adapter plug which also allows the connection to most modern mainboards that feature a port for addressable RGB LEDs.

SAPPHIRE Technology announces the newest addition to the RDNA 2 family with the SAPPHIRE NITRO+ AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT Special Edition. With increased performance and an innovative spin on the award winning Tri-X Cooling Technology, this model is a powerhouse product for the ultra-aficionado 4K gamer. Designed with the classic NITRO+ minimalist aesthetic, additional fresh customizable RGB on the peripherals, and striking ARGB fans, the NITRO+ AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT Special Edition is sure to be a photogenic part to complete the theme of any PC.

Overclocked straight out of the box to hit every frame, the NITRO+ AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT Special Edition leads with 5120 stream processors and boasts a maximized Boost Clock of up to 2365 MHz and a Game Clock of up to 2135 MHz. It comes decked with 80 ray accelerators and 80 compute units to facilitate raytracing. The latest 16 GB of GDDR6 high-speed memory is clocked at 16 Gbps Effective with 128 MB of Infinity Cache, which dramatically reduces latency and power consumption, delivering higher overall gaming performance than traditional architectural designs.

NVIDIA is likely to launch its upcoming GeForce RTX 3080 Ti high-end graphics card on May 18, 2021, according to a Wccftech report citing a reliable source on Chinese tech forums. May 18 is when the product could be announced, with reviews going live on May 25, followed by market availability on May 26, according to this source.

NVIDIA is likely designing the RTX 3080 Ti to better compete against the Radeon RX 6900 XT. Based on the same 8 nm GA102 silicon as its RTX 3080 and RTX 3090, this SKU will be armed with 10,240 CUDA cores, 320 Tensor cores, 80 RT cores, 320 TMUs, 112 ROPs, and the chip's full 384-bit wide GDDR6X memory interface, holding 12 GB of memory running around 19 Gbps, according to VideoCardz. NVIDIA is expected to price the card competitively against the RX 6900 XT. AMD, meanwhile, has refreshed the RX 6900 XT with higher clock-speeds, released as special SKUs through its AIB partners.

AMD's recently released Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.4.1 WHQL drivers lower non-gaming power consumption, our testing finds. AMD did not mention these reductions in the changelog of its new driver release. We did a round of testing, comparing the previous 21.3.2 drivers, with 21.4.1, using Radeon RX 6000 series SKUs, namely the RX 6700 XT, RX 6800, RX 6800 XT, and RX 6900 XT. Our results show significant power-consumption improvements in certain non-gaming scenarios, such as system idle and media playback.

The Radeon RX 6700 XT shows no idle power draw reduction; but the RX 6800, RX 6800 XT, and RX 6900 XT posted big drops in idle power consumption, at 1440p, going down from 25 W to 5 W (down by about 72%). There are no changes with multi-monitor. Media playback power draw sees up to 30% lower power consumption for the RX 6800, RX 6800 XT, and RX 6900 XT. This is a huge improvement for builders of media PC systems, as not only power is affected, but heat and noise, too.

Recently, Apple has updated its macOS operating system to support the next generation of GPUs for Mac devices, coming from AMD. The upcoming RDNA 2 GPU lineup in Macs will bring all the enhancements AMD made to the architecture, and pack it inside Apple's signature designs. Today, we have received information that Apple could refresh its Mac Pro lineup with AMD's Radeon Pro GPU based on RDNA 2 architecture. On Geekbench 5, there was a test run that was conducted on Apple Mac Pro "7.1" revision, that features not only Intel Cascade Lake-X processor but AMD's unreleased Radeon Pro W6900X graphics card designed for professional users.

While we don't know much about the exact specifications, we know that it features a Navi 21 GPU SKU. Judging by the naming scheme, the Radeon Pro W6900X is representing an Apple-exclusive GPU variant designed only for Mac Pro devices. A Chiphell leak has given us a sneak peek at the alleged card look, which you can see below. When it comes to performance, the Geekbench result measures Metal API performance and the Radeon Pro W6900X has managed to score 171448 points, which is even higher than the Radeon RX 6900 XT GPU, which tops out at 164294 points. Of course, this is representing a professional SKU, so there could be some tuning present as well.