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.
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.
ASRock vs SAPPHIRE vs MSI
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
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.
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.
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.
- Read more: ASUS ROG Strix XG438Q Review: It's So Good, ASUS Will Hate This Review
- Read more: ASUS ROG Swift PG43UQ Review: Perfect For The GeForce RTX 3080
- Read more: ASUS ROG Strix XG43UQ Review - The Best HDMI 2.1 Gaming Monitor
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.
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X (buy from Amazon)
- Motherboard: ASUS ROG X570 Crosshair VIII HERO (buy from Amazon)
- Cooler: CoolerMaster MasterLiquid ML360R RGB (buy from Amazon)
- RAM: G.SKILL Trident Z NEO RGB 32GB (4x8GB) (F4-3600C18Q-32GTZN) (buy from Amazon)
- SSD: Sabrent 4TB Rocket NVMe PCIe 4.0 M.2 2280 (buy from Amazon)
- PSU: be quiet! Dark Power Pro 11 1200W (buy from Amazon)
- Case: InWin X-Frame 2.0
- OS: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro x64 (buy from Amazon)
- Display: ASUS ROG Swift PG43UQ (4K 120Hz) (buy from Amazon)
Benchmarks - Synthetic
Benchmarks - 1080p
Note: All games run on Ultra/Maxed Out visual settings, motion blur disabled, V-Sync disabled.
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.
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.
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'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).
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.