ASRock Radeon RX 6950 XT OC Formula Review

Name: ASRock Radeon RX 6950 XT OC Formula
Brand: ASRock
Price: 1100 USD

W1zzard

on Jun 9th, 2022,

in Graphics Cards.

Manufacturer: ASRock / Product Page

(26 Comments) »

Introduction

The ASRock Radeon RX 6950 XT OC Formula is the company's fastest RX 6950 XT, and it not only targets gamers who want one of the fastest graphics solutions for 4K gaming, but also professional overclockers chasing down benchmark records, which is where the company draws its "OC Formula" branding from. The RX 6950 XT OC Formula succeeds the RX 6900 XT OC Formula, which we also reviewed. That card was unique in that it was based on the special "XTXH" variant of the "Navi 21" silicon the RX 6900 XT is based on; paired with factory-overclocking, it allowed ASRock to extract a near 10% performance gain over the reference RX 6900 XT. While very similar, the RX 6950 XT is a different SKU.

AMD released the Radeon RX 6950 XT as part of a 3-SKU refresh of its product stack for Summer 2022, with the other two being the RX 6750 XT and RX 6650 XT. The RX 6950 XT, AMD states, is a reimagining of the RX 6900 XT. Imagine if AMD were to release it in 2022, what it would be like. Under the hood, the RX 6950 XT is based on the same RDNA 2 graphics architecture, and the "Navi 21" silicon that it's based on is fabricated on the same 7 nm process.

Compared to the RX 6900 XT, AMD has increased engine clocks, with the game clocks (de facto GPU clocks) now 2100 MHz reference instead of 2015 MHz as on the RX 6900 XT. ASRock factory-overclocked this to 2279 MHz (game clocks). AMD has also improved the memory sub-system by employing 18 Gbps-rated GDDR6 memory chips, bringing about a 12.5 percent increase in memory bandwidth, which is now 576 GB/s, compared to 512 GB/s on the RX 6900 XT. The third area is a collection of firmware and driver-level tweaks to improve performance even further.

The core configuration of the RX 6950 XT is identical to the RX 6900 XT, with 80 RDNA 2 compute units that work out to 5,120 stream processors, 80 Ray Accelerators, 320 TMUs, 128 ROPs, and 16 GB of video memory across a 256-bit wide memory interface. The memory bus may seem rather narrow in comparison to NVIDIA's offerings in this segment, such as the RTX 3080 Ti with 384-bit wide interfaces; however, AMD has sought to overcome this bandwidth shortfall with an innovative piece of technology it calls Infinity Cache—a 128 MB on-die cache operating at 1.5 TB/s, it cushions data-transfers between the GPU and video memory.

The ASRock RX 6950 XT OC Formula visually resembles the RX 6900 XT OC Formula that left us mighty impressed. A large triple-fan cooler is optimized to pull heat from the overclocked GPU. The PCB features a massive 21-phase VRM that draws power from a trio of 8-pin PCIe connectors. ASRock has given the RX 6950 XT a neat 179 MHz game clock overclock over the 2100 MHz reference game clocks. The PCB features several overclocker-friendly features suitable for record-chasing benches, such as dual-BIOS, consolidated voltage measurement points, PCB surface-treatment for extreme cooling, and more. ASRock is pricing the card at $1100, so at no premium over the $1100 AMD reference MSRP.

AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT Market Segment Analysis
	Price	Cores	ROPs	Core Clock	Boost Clock	Memory Clock	GPU	Transistors	Memory
RTX 2080	$500	2944	64	1515 MHz	1710 MHz	1750 MHz	TU104	13600M	8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 2080 Super	$600	3072	64	1650 MHz	1815 MHz	1940 MHz	TU104	13600M	8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 3060 Ti	$570	4864	80	1410 MHz	1665 MHz	1750 MHz	GA104	17400M	8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RX 6700 XT	$540	2560	64	2424 MHz	2581 MHz	2000 MHz	Navi 22	17200M	12 GB, GDDR6, 192-bit
RX 6750 XT	$600 MSRP: $550	2560	64	2495 MHz	2600 MHz	2250 MHz	Navi 22	17200M	12 GB, GDDR6, 192-bit
RTX 2080 Ti	$720	4352	88	1350 MHz	1545 MHz	1750 MHz	TU102	18600M	11 GB, GDDR6, 352-bit
RTX 3070	$650	5888	96	1500 MHz	1725 MHz	1750 MHz	GA104	17400M	8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 3070 Ti	$700	6144	96	1575 MHz	1770 MHz	1188 MHz	GA104	17400M	8 GB, GDDR6X, 256-bit
RX 6800	$750	3840	96	1815 MHz	2105 MHz	2000 MHz	Navi 21	26800M	16 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RX 6800 XT	$800	4608	128	2015 MHz	2250 MHz	2000 MHz	Navi 21	26800M	16 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 3080	$900	8704	96	1440 MHz	1710 MHz	1188 MHz	GA102	28000M	10 GB, GDDR6X, 320-bit
RTX 3080 Ti	$1,200	10240	112	1365 MHz	1665 MHz	1188 MHz	GA102	28000M	12 GB, GDDR6X, 384-bit
RX 6900 XT	$1,000	5120	128	2015 MHz	2250 MHz	2000 MHz	Navi 21	26800M	16 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RX 6950 XT	$1,100	5120	128	2100 MHz	2310 MHz	2250 MHz	Navi 21	26800M	16 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
ASRock RX 6950 XT OC Formula	$1,100	5120	128	2279 MHz	2495 MHz	2250 MHz	Navi 21	26800M	16 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 3090	$1,500	10496	112	1395 MHz	1695 MHz	1219 MHz	GA102	28000M	24 GB, GDDR6X, 384-bit
RTX 3090 Ti	$2,000	10752	112	1560 MHz	1950 MHz	1313 MHz	GA102	28000M	24 GB, GDDR6X, 384-bit

Packaging

The Card

ASRock's card uses the same design as the RX 6900 XT OC Formula, which combines green with a mostly black color theme. On the back, you'll find a high-quality metal backplate in matching colors, with an "OC Formula" Gold accent.

Dimensions of the card are 33 x 13.5 cm, and it weighs 1868 g.

Installation requires three slots in your system.

Display connectivity includes three standard DisplayPort 1.4 and one HDMI 2.1.

The card has three 8-pin power inputs. This configuration is rated for up to 525 W of power draw.

The AMD Radeon RX 6000 series doesn't support multi-GPU. There are two switches: one for the RGB illumination and the other for the dual BIOS feature. Want to turn off all RGB lighting quickly? On ASRock, you can do that via a physical switch—no software necessary. The dual BIOS switch lets you toggle between the performance BIOS (default) and "quiet" BIOS, which runs the card at lower clock and voltage with a more relaxed fan curve.

Teardown

ASRock's card design makes it easy to remove the cooler shroud from the card. The fan assembly is made from thick metal that feels extremely solid. It's probably the most massive shroud I ever reviewed.

Under the fan assembly is a large heatsink with eight heatpipes; it cools not only the GPU, but also the memory chips and VRM circuitry. This cooler is identical to the one on the RX 6900 XT OC Formula.

The backplate is made out of metal and protects the card against damage during installation and handling. Note the thermal pads, which help soak up a little bit of extra heat from the GPU area on the other side of the PCB.

High-resolution PCB Pictures

These pictures are for the convenience of volt modders and people who would like to see all the finer details on the PCB. Feel free to link back to us and use these in your articles, videos or forum posts.