Introduction
AMD is on the eve of releasing Big Navi and before we can share with you the full review, performance benchmarks, thermals, overclocking, and so much more -- we've got an unboxing of the two cards for you to check out today.
While we can't show you benchmark charts and all the nitty-gritty stuff you want to check out -- and believe me, you're going to want to read that, we can show you the packaging and both of the cards -- the Radeon RX 6800 XT and Radeon RX 6800 today.
Packaging
AMD isn't a stranger to fantastic retail packaging, which over the years has morphed between the extravagant retail packaging for the Radeon RX Vega 64 Liquid Cooled Edition -- but the retail packaging for the new Big Navi-based Radeon RX 6000 series is a little bit more low key, but it still looks great.
The front of the box gives us a tease of what the card looks like before taking it out of the package, but from the outside it doesn't look like too much... until you open it up:
Pulling back the lid you'll be welcomed by AMD, where AMD welcomes you to the Red Team. AMD explains "You've joined a select community with an uncompromising passion for premium gaming. That shared desire is at the heart of everything we do. It's why we've engineered the fastest AMD Radeon RX graphics card ever - to deliver a powerful gaming experience. Have fun. #AMDRedTeam".
That was the top of the box, this is inside of the box.
AMD has a thin piece of cardboard that details the Radeon RX 6800 XT, the company notes:
- Uncompromised 4K gaming
- AMD FidelityFX optimized
- 16GB memory
- PCIe 4.0 ready
Above we have the packaging for the non-XT version, the Radeon RX 6800.
Radeon RX 6800 XT in the flesh
Out of the package the new AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT is a great-looking card, I truly love it. The leaks were all correct on this one, the triple-fan cooler and 2.5-slot design. It looks great in person, and even better installed into a gaming PC!
Here we have the back of the card with a nice 'R' in the bottom right -- it would've been nice if this lit up like the Radeon VII and its red-lit 'R' in the corner.
From the bottom, you can see this is all heat sink, baby -- it makes the Radeon RX 6800 XT run nice and cool, but we'll have all of the details about that in the full review on November 18.
Another time from the top, where you can see that awesome red border around the card -- the Radeon branding in the middle -- and 2 x 8-pin PCIe power connectors to get it up and running.
A closer look at the dual 8-pin PCIe power connectors.
Another closer look at the heat sink itself keeping the Big Navi GPU and 16GB GDDR6 memory nice and cool.
AMD has included 2 x DP 1.4 and 1 x HDMI 2.1 output on the Radeon RX 6800 XT reference graphics card, with a USB-C connector included.
Powered on
AMD's new Radeon RX 6800 XT turned on, and inside of our test bed -- no results just yet, sorry!
Radeon RX 6800 also in the flesh
AMD's new Radeon RX 6800 doesn't look too much different from the front, with the same mean-looking triple-fan cooler keeping that Big Navi GPU cool.
Once again from the back, where you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the cards.
We also have the same display connectivity: 2 x DP 1.4, 1 x HDMI 2.1 and a single USB-C connector.
Full review on November 18
I have been spending plenty of time with the new Radeon RX 6800 XT and Radeon RX 6800 graphics cards, but I feel like I need even more time with them. I'm getting my final benchmarks done now, playing with some overclocking (just you wait to see how far these cards go) and then some more testing begins.
AMD has an impressive looking card with the best reference design yet -- at least in my opinion. NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 30 series cards look stellar too, but man-oh-man has AMD been playing catch up in all the right ways with Big Navi.
I will have the full reviews on the Radeon RX 6800 XT and Radeon RX 6800 on November 18, with plenty of post-launch content in the pipeline. I'll be taking a separate look at overclocking, which is mighty impressive on Big Navi -- as well as a deeper look into DXR-enabled (ray tracing) games.
These cards are also powerhouses for UltraWide gaming monitors, so I'll also be taking a closer look at 3440 x 1440 performance in an upcoming article, too.
For now, we're just 48 hours from the reveal of Big Navi and all the juicy performance, details, and thoughts on AMD's new RDNA 2 architecture and Radeon RX 6800 XT and Radeon RX 6800 graphics cards. Stay tuned!