Review: ASUS ROG Radeon RX 6800 XT STRIX OC Liquid Cooled

#5859507

danny69t

2020-11-26 15:05

Those unsleeved cables are such a turn off 🙁

#5859511

Valken

2020-11-26 15:20

Really good performance up to 1440p with RT, and 4K without. For pro - gamers with 144 Hz screens, 6800 series is a good bargain for all the performance. I have no idea why that would happen with RT or 4K falling off like that. It cannot be the number of ROPS, so might be memory controller. Hopefully the 6900XT would make up for 4K performance. But overall the price with the cooler is so scary expensive, before scalping. I wonder how a custom water cooling setup would cost and compare?

#5859518

MaCk0y

2020-11-26 15:34

For an overclock to considered stable and published here in this chapter; it needs to pass four-game tests in Ultra HD at its tweaked settings.

@Hilbert Hagedoorn For how long are the games run?

#5859526

suty455

2020-11-26 15:54

Wow bit much for what it gives extra over a standard XT if you have a loop already then a liquid option is much cheaper and probably better as you wont have the extra stuff to build in just extend some pipes, never seen the attraction of these models from the partners, plus your proper GPU block does the whole card and makes it a much smaller neater package

#5859566

Herem

2020-11-26 17:27

Fox2232:

IC does not have sufficient capacity to hold buffers and some bandwidth/latency sensitive data at 4K. So memory bandwidth comes into play more than on lower resolutions. That's why RDNA2 excels on 1080p, it has superior latency and bandwidth for above as buffers are smaller. That means, unless 6900XT has faster memories, situation will be very similar.

It would be nice if AMD added faster memory to the 6900XT to help justify what is a large price uplift for only a small number of CUs. Looking at the table on page 1 of the review, it seems you'll be paying over 50% more for 11% more cores. Unless AMD are hiding something for release day, at 4K those cores will be starved of memory bandwidth and the performance is unlikely to be very impressive compared to the 6800XT.

#5859578

thesebastian

2020-11-26 18:00

Currently using a 19.2 dB(A) dGPU (modded with a Kraken G10 and a 140mm AIO with fan capped at 1200 RPM in full load and 650 rpm in idle). If these 33 dB(A) from the review are on the same page as my current 19.2 db(A). Then I think it's better choice to go with a Kraken G10 similar approach or just a custom loop. I was looking forward to get this Strix because of the AIO and low noise. But I think I'll just go with a custom loop (or some Kraken mod). I'd also consider an RX6700 or RX6800 with lower TDP.

#5859604

barbacot

2020-11-26 20:03

Kosmoz:

This is nothing, der8auer in his last video (yesterday) showed the RX 6800 XT from Powercolor reaching on air 2.7Ghz (like I said in the other article that Steve from hardware Unboxed said other cards can do) - with benchmarks too. A stable 2.7Ghz on air and also very quiet for air cooling. It also beat his own 3090 in those benchmarks with that OC 🙂 Like I said, these RX 6000s are champion overclockers. nvidia's RTX 3000s are nothing in OC compared to these.

So what??? Go buy one if you can:p

#5859606

Robbo9999

2020-11-26 20:11

Definite waste of money for $999 for this liquid-cooled version, 9% more performance (when overclocked) than a $650 reference card (not overclocked), so you overclock the $650 reference card and narrow the 9% lead of the $999 liquid-cooled card even more. Waste of money! You could buy the liquid cooled card for lower noise, but $999 vs $650....naaaa!

#5859617

rl66

2020-11-26 20:33

But seriously, Asus could have done something cleaner than that for the fan's wire... It look a bit dirty.

#5859625

cucaulay malkin

2020-11-26 21:02

it's a wire not a fancy wedding cake

Robbo9999:

Definite waste of money for $999 for this liquid-cooled version, 9% more performance (when overclocked) than a $650 reference card (not overclocked), so you overclock the $650 reference card and narrow the 9% lead of the $999 liquid-cooled card even more. Waste of money! You could buy the liquid cooled card for lower noise, but $999 vs $650....naaaa!

would take this over 6900xt

#5859640

Astyanax

2020-11-26 21:59

Hilbert Hagedoorn:

ASUS also submitted a Radeon RX 6800 XT graphics card for review, this one is a bit more special though as it has been fitted with hybrid cooling. Yes, you'll see Liquid cooling applied on the primar... Review: ASUS Radeon RX 6800 XT STRIX OC Liquid Cooled

did your sample have pads for all the memory modules? the one tpu received is missing a strip.

#5859674

Mpampis

2020-11-27 00:14

So, here's the thing, we did expect the RX 6800 XT to be a bit behind the RTX 3080 in rendering performance (and a bit more in RT) but we all said "This is ok, it's also cheaper". But an AIB card is more expensive than a reference 3080, without being a better performer. I strongly believe AMD priced the GPUs too high, too soon. They should have taken lessons from the CPU department, where the new generation is expensive but has the -absolute and relative- performance to back the price.

#5859675

DannyD

2020-11-27 00:17

Mpampis:

So, here's the thing, we did expect the RX 6800 XT to be a bit behind the RTX 3080 in rendering performance (and a bit more in RT) but we all said "This is ok, it's also cheaper". But an AIB card is more expensive than a reference 3080, without being a better performer. I strongly believe AMD priced the GPUs too high, too soon. They should have taken lessons from the CPU department, where the new generation is expensive but has the -absolute and relative- performance to back the price.

In these insane times we can't really judge yet imo, wait until at least January to let the dust settle, demand is unprecedented for most electronics right now especially the ones used to aid sitting about the house. Lets see how pricing /availability is in January.

#5859691

DannyD

2020-11-27 01:37

If the 6900xt destroys 1440p like this one does 1080p i may be tempted.

#5859745

rl66

2020-11-27 08:01

cucaulay malkin:

it's a wire not a fancy wedding cake

Yes but it look as dirty as the 1st gen of AIO... I already have seen better.

Mpampis:

So, here's the thing, we did expect the RX 6800 XT to be a bit behind the RTX 3080 in rendering performance (and a bit more in RT) but we all said "This is ok, it's also cheaper". But an AIB card is more expensive than a reference 3080, without being a better performer. I strongly believe AMD priced the GPUs too high, too soon. They should have taken lessons from the CPU department, where the new generation is expensive but has the -absolute and relative- performance to back the price.

AMD is cheaper, ASUS is not (they are over 2000 Euro for their custom 3090 !!!!!) For the price of this ASUS you have custom from other brand that are less expensive (and can work the same or even better despite not having a cooler like this one). I think that i will go, for myself, for a Sapphire, that cost really less than a 3080 (and obviously than this 6800XT one).

#5859751

cucaulay malkin

2020-11-27 08:52

DannyD:

If the 6900xt destroys 1440p like this one does 1080p i may be tempted.

I would really like to see ampere and rdna2 compared at 1080 and 1440 on a 3600 or similar performance looks very good but they're all done on a 10900K. ain't nobody got money for that. I'm all for buying high end gpus,drives,cases and stuff,I do own them now and did own them before but I will never,never,pay $400 or more for a gaming processor.I'm already uncomfortable with 350.

#5859767

thesebastian

2020-11-27 10:26

Fox2232:

23dBA is super quiet for PC. Even 33dBA is quiet. Question is, if your noise meter is really dBA and not just dB as it has different weighting, where 80dB is around 100dBA. (Can't remember exactly. But that should be around where each is considered damaging to ears.) For example, my air humidifier is louder on dBA scale than may PC. But on dB scale, PC is louder. So, different measurement methods profile different properties of sound.

Hi Fox I might be wrong here. I'm just saying "19.2 dB (A)" (i edited from 23 later on) because that's what I can see in Noctua web site when running NF-A14 PWM with low noise adaptor. https://noctua.at/en/nf-a14-pwm/specification However, I must confess, this fan at 1200 RPM in the night, still let you hear the airflow. So maybe this is much more than 19.2 dB (A)

#5859775

OnnA

2020-11-27 10:43

Valken:

But overall the price with the cooler is so scary expensive, before scalping. I wonder how a custom water cooling setup would cost and compare?

Add ~90-140USD to the MSRP and ASUS tax on top of that 😉

#5859780

fantaskarsef

2020-11-27 10:55

Is it just me, or is overclocking this card under water... barely worth the price? It runs slower than other GPUs under air? The Nitro+ generally being ahead a frame or equal to a waterclocked card?

#5859788

ScreamerRSA

2020-11-27 11:45

fantaskarsef:

Is it just me, or is overclocking this card under water... barely worth the price? It runs slower than other GPUs under air? The Nitro+ generally being ahead a frame or equal to a waterclocked card?

Apparently board partners use lower binned GPUs for these factory water cooled cards. A card originally meant for air and then put under water later will always perform better. Also $900...LOL