SAPPHIRE TOXIC Radeon RX 6900 XT Limited Edition graphics card review: alternative flagship

Just recently AMD updated the top model of the Radeon 6000 line, as a result Radeon RX 6900 XT dropped one step lower.
Nevertheless, the recipe for the Radeon RX 6950 XT comes down to increased GPU clock speeds and GDDR6 memory, which means that the space between the new and old flagship has already been filled by overclocked versions of the RX 6900 XT.
One of the brightest representatives of this category is on the agenda today.
SAPPHIRE has revitalized the TOXIC brand to release the RX 6900 XT equipped with the most powerful liquid cooling system.
⇡#Technical specifications, pricingThe SAPPHIRE TOXIC Radeon RX 6900 XT Limited Edition graphics cards come with a Navi 21 GPU labeled XTX.
This is the original version of the chip with a full set of processing units, which debuted in the reference model Radeon RX 6900 XT, but thanks to the selection of promising crystals SAPPHIRE increased clock speeds.
Compared to AMD specifications, the estimated frequency under game load (Game Clock) increased from 2 015 to 2 135, and the opportunistic frequency (Boost Clock) increased from 2 250 to 2 365 MHz.
For comparison, the Radeon RX 6950 XT specs are 2,100 and 2,310 MHz respectively.
What, unfortunately, is not able to compensate for the GPU crystal sorting is the RAM bandwidth.
In the new flagship model AMD has replaced 16Gbps GDDR6 chips with 18Gbps, and this is not an unnecessary upgrade for RDNA 2 architecture products which rely on a narrow 256-bit VRAM bus combined with a third-level cache of 128 Mbytes.However, SAPPHIRE has not limited its overclocking to such, already quite substantial.
TOXIC Radeon RX 6900 XT LE provides additional overclocking with SAPPHIRE TRIXX software, boosting GPU Boost Clock to 2600 or 2660 MHz.
The specific value depends on the model number of the video card: products numbered 11308-13-20G overclock less, and numbers 11308-14-20G and 11308-06-20G - more.
By the way, Radeon RX 6950 XT in the same TOXIC series is designed for a lower clock speed - 2 556 MHz, but it is saved in the video card BIOS, and the maximum overclocking promises SAPPHIRE TOXIC Radeon RX 6900 XT Extreme Edition up to 2 730 MHz.
Not surprising, since this is one of the rare devices based on the Navi 21 version XTHX chip.
Let's see if we can beat SAPPHIRE's record by manually overclocking the TOXIC Radeon RX 6900 XT LE.
ManufacturerAMDSAPPHIREModelRadeon RX 6900 XTRadeon RX 6950 XTSAPPHIRE TOXIC Radeon RX 6900 XT Limited EditionGraphic processorNavi 21 XTXNavi 21 KXTXNavi 21 XTXMicroarchitectureRDNA 2RDNA 2RDNA 2Techprocess, nm7 nm FinFET7 nm FinFETNumber of transistors, billion26,826,826.8Tactor frequency, MHz Base Clock / Game Clock / Boost Clock1825 /2 015/2 2501925 /2 100/2 3101950 /2 135/2 365Shader ALUs FP325 1205 1205 1205 120 Texture Mapping Units (TMU)320320320Rasterization Operation Units (ROP)128128128 RAMBus Size, bits256256256256Chip typeGDDR6 SGRAMGDDR6 SGRAMTaktual frequency, MHz (throughput per contact, Mbps)2 000 (16 000)2 250 (18 000)2 000 (16 000)Volume, Mbytes16 19216 19216 19216 Infinity Cache, Mbytes128128128I/Output busPCI Express 4.
0 x16PCI Express 4.0 x16PCI Express 4.
0 x16PerformancePeak FP32 performance, GFLOPS (based on maximum specified frequency)23 04023 65424 218Performance FP64/FP321/161/161/16Performance FP16/FP322/12/12/1RAM bandwidth, Gbytes/s512576512Picture outputPerformance interfacesDisplayPort 1.4, HDMI 2.1DisplayPort 1.
4, HDMI 2.1DisplayPort 1.4, HDMI 2.1TBP/TDP, W300335\u003C400Retail price (U.S., not tax), $999 (recommended at release date)1099 (recommended at release date)From 1,099 (newegg.com)Retail price (Russia), rubles From 190 646 (market.yandex.ru)As for the price of overclocking ambitions, of course, such graphics cards, especially nowadays, are worth a lot of money.
However, the SAPPHIRE product has noticeably dropped in price since its release at the end of last year.
At the moment the TOXIC Radeon RX 6900 XT LE currency prices went down to $1,099, and the ruble prices start from 190,646 rubles.
Thus, on the western market the device is in the same price category as the conditionally affordable versions of GeForce RTX 3080 Ti and Radeon RX 6950 XT.
But in Russia it is not the most favorable offer in terms of price to performance ratio, when GeForce RTX 3080 Ti you can buy for 158,805 rubles, and Radeon RX 6900 XT - for 129,280.
Radeon RX 6950 XT we have not yet been able to find in local retail, which is not surprising, because even on U.S.
retail sites, the new flagship is only available on order.⇡#DesignSince care of the graphics processor TOXIC Radeon RX 6900 XT LE took over the liquid cooling system, the graphics card is surprisingly compact compared to typical examples of modern higher