ASRock + MSI + SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 6950 XT: Head-to-Head Overclocking

ASRock's custom Radeon RX 6950 XT OC Formula gets thrown into the OC battle against SAPPHIRE + MSI's custom RX 6950 XT offerings.

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5 minutes & 8 seconds read time

Introduction

AMD released its new Radeon RX 6950 XT graphics card onto the market over a month ago now, where I've had 3 samples fly through the door... and now the last one is getting some OC treatment: ASRock's custom Radeon RX 6950 XT OC Formula graphics card.

ASRock + MSI + SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 6950 XT: Head-to-Head Overclocking 514

I reviewed the custom ASRock Radeon RX 6950 XT OC Formula graphics card not too long ago, where it was a top contender for the best Radeon RX 6950 XT out of the other 2 cards I've got here in the MSI Radeon RX 6950 XT GAMING X TRIO, and the gorgeous SAPPHIRE NITRO+ Radeon RX 6950 XT PURE.

SAPPHIRE beat out MSI in the first Radeon RX 6950 XT overclocking showdown, but now ASRock is here to party on with its RX 6950 XT OC Formula. ASRock's custom Radeon RX 6950 XT OC Formula is a beast... pushing over 2800MHz GPU clocks under gaming and benchmark loads. But before we dive into that, check out the MSI + SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 6950 XT overclocking showdown:

The new ASRock Radeon RX 6950 XT OC Formula is a champion of a card for overclocking, with +20% power limit allowing it to reach and maintain GPU clocks above 2800MHz. Not every card will be the same, but this is the best custom Radeon RX 6950 XT you can buy... and it really shows once it's manually overclocked.

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ASRock AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT

TodayYesterday7 days ago30 days ago
$999.00$999.00$549.00
* Prices last scanned on 3/18/2024 at 8:47 am CDT - prices may not be accurate, click links above for the latest price. We may earn an affiliate commission.

ASRock vs SAPPHIRE vs MSI

ASRock + MSI + SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 6950 XT: Head-to-Head Overclocking 944
ASRock + MSI + SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 6950 XT: Head-to-Head Overclocking 933ASRock + MSI + SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 6950 XT: Head-to-Head Overclocking 922

ASRock's custom Radeon RX 6950 XT OC Formula topples the competition, with my sample seeing its GPU boost clock hitting 2830MHz easily. I did see the lofty heights of 2900MHz+ but it wasn't stable for hours and hours on end, the same can't be said for 2.8GHz -- rock solid on the ASRock RX 6950 XT OC Formula.

We're looking at 400W to 410W of power from the GPU alone when the ASRock Radeon RX 6950 XT OC Formula is pushed to its highest power limit (+20%) compared to +15% on the SAPPHIRE NITRO+ RX 6950 XT PURE which chews through 350W to 360W under load. The additional juice pushes you up and above 2800MHz+ consistently, though.

Test System Specs

ASRock + MSI + SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 6950 XT: Head-to-Head Overclocking 205

Anthony's GPU Test System Specifications

The biggest upgrade to the GPU testbed is the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X processor, offering 12 cores and 24 threads of Zen 3-powered CPU grunt at up to 4.8GHz.

ASRock + MSI + SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 6950 XT: Head-to-Head Overclocking 601
ASRock + MSI + SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 6950 XT: Head-to-Head Overclocking 602

That's plenty of CPU power and offers a great upgrade over the Ryzen 7 3800X that I was using previously.

I will be upgrading this system in a few months, and maybe running it side-by-side with the new Alder Lake-powered Intel Core i9-12900K processor. I'm using one inside of the Allied M.O.A.B.-I gaming PC that I reviewed a few months ago, and man the 12900K is like the Godzilla of CPUs.

ASRock + MSI + SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 6950 XT: Head-to-Head Overclocking 206

Sabrent is the most recent partner of mine to help build out my systems, sending me oodles of the fastest NVMe M.2 SSDs on the planet. I'm using Sabrent's flagship Rocket 4 Plus 4TB M.2 SSDs which offers 7GB/sec+ reads and writes with a huge 4TB of capacity.

ASRock + MSI + SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 6950 XT: Head-to-Head Overclocking 225
ASRock + MSI + SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 6950 XT: Head-to-Head Overclocking 226

ASUS has been a tight partner of mine for a few years now, providing their huge 43-inch 4K 120Hz gaming monitors for my benchmarking and gaming needs. I'm using two of them at the moment, the ROG Strix XG438Q and the ROG Swift PG43UQ gaming monitors.

ASRock + MSI + SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 6950 XT: Head-to-Head Overclocking 201ASRock + MSI + SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 6950 XT: Head-to-Head Overclocking 204
ASRock + MSI + SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 6950 XT: Head-to-Head Overclocking 203ASRock + MSI + SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 6950 XT: Head-to-Head Overclocking 202

Benchmarks - Synthetic

ASRock + MSI + SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 6950 XT: Head-to-Head Overclocking 101ASRock + MSI + SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 6950 XT: Head-to-Head Overclocking 102
ASRock + MSI + SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 6950 XT: Head-to-Head Overclocking 103
ASRock + MSI + SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 6950 XT: Head-to-Head Overclocking 104ASRock + MSI + SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 6950 XT: Head-to-Head Overclocking 105
ASRock + MSI + SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 6950 XT: Head-to-Head Overclocking 106ASRock + MSI + SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 6950 XT: Head-to-Head Overclocking 107
ASRock + MSI + SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 6950 XT: Head-to-Head Overclocking 108

Benchmarks - 1080p

Note: All games run on Ultra/Maxed Out visual settings, motion blur disabled, V-Sync disabled.

ASRock + MSI + SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 6950 XT: Head-to-Head Overclocking 109ASRock + MSI + SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 6950 XT: Head-to-Head Overclocking 112
ASRock + MSI + SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 6950 XT: Head-to-Head Overclocking 115ASRock + MSI + SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 6950 XT: Head-to-Head Overclocking 118
ASRock + MSI + SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 6950 XT: Head-to-Head Overclocking 121ASRock + MSI + SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 6950 XT: Head-to-Head Overclocking 124

Performance Thoughts

The overclocked ASRock Radeon RX 6950 XT OC Formula graphics card is the new AMD Radeon GPU champion, where at 1080p it sits on top of the MSI RX 6950 XT GAMING X TRIO and SAPPHIRE NITRO+ RX 6950 XT PURE in all games. It's not by much, but 1FPS here and there is enough.

You wouldn't be buying any Radeon RX 6950 XT for gaming unless it was at 1080p 240FPS or something crazy, so let's move right onto 1440p and 4K gaming.

Benchmarks - 1440p

Note: All games run on Ultra/Maxed Out visual settings, motion blur disabled, V-Sync disabled.

ASRock + MSI + SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 6950 XT: Head-to-Head Overclocking 110ASRock + MSI + SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 6950 XT: Head-to-Head Overclocking 113
ASRock + MSI + SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 6950 XT: Head-to-Head Overclocking 116ASRock + MSI + SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 6950 XT: Head-to-Head Overclocking 119
ASRock + MSI + SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 6950 XT: Head-to-Head Overclocking 122ASRock + MSI + SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 6950 XT: Head-to-Head Overclocking 125

Performance Thoughts

ASRock's overclocked Radeon RX 6950 XT OC Formula actually hits the heights of 99FPS in Cyberpunk 2077, above the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti by 2FPS (97FPS average) at 1440p. Not bad at all, and it continues across the board for the most part -- Assassin's Creed: Valhalla pumps along at 122FPS average.

230FPS in Shadow of the Tomb Raider is bloody good to see.

Benchmarks - 4K

Note: All games run on Ultra/Maxed Out visual settings, motion blur disabled, V-Sync disabled.

ASRock + MSI + SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 6950 XT: Head-to-Head Overclocking 111ASRock + MSI + SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 6950 XT: Head-to-Head Overclocking 114
ASRock + MSI + SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 6950 XT: Head-to-Head Overclocking 117ASRock + MSI + SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 6950 XT: Head-to-Head Overclocking 120
ASRock + MSI + SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 6950 XT: Head-to-Head Overclocking 123ASRock + MSI + SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 6950 XT: Head-to-Head Overclocking 126

Performance Thoughts

This is where AMD's new Radeon RX 6950 XT stands out: 4K gaming. If you want the best 4K gaming performance out of an AMD Radeon GPU, the ASRock Radeon RX 6950 XT OC Formula is it.

If you are chasing frames at 4K then the ASRock has your back, while if you're playing games with AMD FSR (1.0 but especially 2.0) esports titles and wanting to hit 4K 120FPS the same applies: ASRock's beast Radeon RX 6950 XT OC Formula is the shiz.

Final Thoughts

I was already impressed with what SAPPHIRE was able to bring to the table with its gorgeous-but-light NITRO+ Radeon RX 6950 XT PURE, but now ASRock has toppled that with its beasty Radeon RX 6950 XT OC Formula graphics card. It has topped the charts for Navi 21, without a doubt.

ASRock + MSI + SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 6950 XT: Head-to-Head Overclocking 512

ASRock's custom Radeon RX 6950 XT OC Formula allows +20% power limit, with the Navi 21 KXTX GPU inside using up to 400W spiking at around 410W of power. SAPPHIRE and MSI are no match for keeping 2800MHz+ consistent GPU clocks, but the ASRock RX 6950 XT OC Formula can... allowing it to squeeze past the other custom Radeon RX 6950 XT solutions.

ASRock has the very fastest custom Radeon RX 6950 XT that money can buy, so it's perfect timing that GPU prices are finally dropping back down to reality. If you can get the ASRock Radeon RX 6950 XT OC Formula graphics card in your country, and you don't mind the style: then this is the ultimate performance from an AMD Radeon GPU. Period.

ASRock beats both MSI and SAPPHIRE with its Radeon RX 6950 XT OC Formula with overclocking, pretty much across the board. It uses a bit more power, but the grunt that ASRock deploys here on its RX 6950 XT OC Formula is a potent mix for performance. It pumps out the performance, but chews a bit more power (400W+ versus 360W or so on the MSI + SAPPHIRE RX 6950 XT cards).

ASRock + MSI + SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 6950 XT: Head-to-Head Overclocking 510

That isn't an issue, because we're purely looking at what Radeon RX 6950 XT graphics card overclocks the best, and that award goes to ASRock. ASRock's custom Radeon RX 6950 XT OC Formula graphics card is a bloody beast, pumping 2800MHz+ boost GPU clocks all long with up to 20% more power limit ready for hungry overclockers.

Buy at Amazon

ASRock AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT

TodayYesterday7 days ago30 days ago
$999.00$999.00$549.00
* Prices last scanned on 3/18/2024 at 8:47 am CDT - prices may not be accurate, click links above for the latest price. We may earn an affiliate commission.

Anthony joined the TweakTown team in 2010 and has since reviewed 100s of graphics cards. Anthony is a long time PC enthusiast with a passion of hate for games built around consoles. FPS gaming since the pre-Quake days, where you were insulted if you used a mouse to aim, he has been addicted to gaming and hardware ever since. Working in IT retail for 10 years gave him great experience with custom-built PCs. His addiction to GPU tech is unwavering and has recently taken a keen interest in artificial intelligence (AI) hardware.

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