Graphics Cards - Page 166

AMD is close to the launch of its new RDNA 2-powered Radeon RX 6800 and Radeon RX 6800 XT graphics cards, and now we're learning about the custom ASUS ROG STRIX model.

Thanks to our friends at Igor's Lab, we know the temperature limits and clock profiles for what will most likely be one of the fastest Radeon RX 6800 XT graphics cards. The new BIOS for the ASUS ROG STRIX Radeon RX 6800 XT teases the 80C Rage Mode and 95C Turbo Mode OC profiles.

Igor has discovered the ASUS ROG STRIX Radeon RX 6800 XT has 4 modes: Quiet, Balanced, Turbo, and Rage Mode. The Quite, Balanced and Rage Mode modes have 80C temperature limits, while the Turbo mode cranks that up to 95C.

AMD have just provided a bunch more benchmark results for its new RDNA 2-based Radeon RX 6900 XT, Radeon RX 6800 XT, and Radeon RX 6800 graphics cards.

The new Big Navi cards were benched against NVIDIA's new Ampere-based GeForce RTX 3090 and GeForce RTX 3080 graphics cards, with AMD running a suite of games at both 1440p and 4K. I've got the 4K benchmark results below -- if you want the 1440p results, check out AMD's official page on the Big Navi benchmarks.

If you can find an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 or GeForce RTX 3080 graphics card in the world somewhere, you'll get a free copy of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War.

NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX Call of Duty Bundle gives you Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Standard Edition, the Woods Operator Pack and Confrontation Weapons Pack. You will need to purchase the GeForce RTX 3080 or GeForce RTX 3090 through a specific retailer, which you can read up on here.

As for the promotion, it kicks off now and runs through to December 10, 2020 while the redemption period ends on January 11, 2021. The redemption instructions can be found here.

AMD revealed its new RDNA 2 architecture a few days ago, with the new Radeon RX 6900 XT leading up the Big Navi GPU charge on December 8 for $999. You can read everything you need to know about the Radeon RX 6900 XT right here.

But, will there be custom Radeon RX 6900 XT cards on offer -- that hasn't been confirmed, but new leaks suggest it could be happening. The custom designs of Radeon RX 6800 and Radeon RX 6800 XT graphics cards has been teased by ASUS and MSI so far... but nothing on the Radeon RX 6900 XT.

AMD is reportedly in talks with AIB partners on the possibility of custom Radeon RX 6900 XT designs, but from what I've heard the RX 6900 XT is an AMD exclusive with no custom designs. Think of it like the TITAN series cards from NVIDIA -- versus the TITAN-class GeForce RTX 3090, that dropped the TITAN name -- retained the huge 24GB framebuffer, and once it was a GeForce card then custom cards were unleashed.

NVIDIA has just released its new GeForce Game Ready 457.09 WHQL drivers, which support the new GeForce RTX 3070 (our review on that here) and Ubisoft's just-released Watch Dogs: Legion.

The new GeForce Game Ready 457.09 WHQL drivers have Game Ready support for Watch Dogs: Legion, but also have optimal day one support for DiRT 5, Ghostrunner, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered, and Xuan-Yuan Sword VII.

NVIDIA also add in support for 4 new G-SYNC compatible monitors, with the Acer XB323U GX, ASUS VG279QL1A, Dell AW2521HFLA, and GIGABYTE AORUS FI25F monitors.

AMD's big exciting reveal of their next-gen RDNA 2 graphics architecture is here, with one of the shining stars of the reveal being the new Infinity Cache. But what is it?

The new revolutionary Infinity Cache technology allows AMD to use a smaller 256-bit memory bus and slower GDDR6 memory on its Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards, but it will offer some tremendous memory bandwidth with even more impressive power savings with Infinity Cache.

There's not much known about it so far -- but we know that ALL of the Radeon RX 6000 series cards -- Radeon RX 6800, Radeon RX 6800 XT and the flagship beast Radeon RX 6900 XT all have 128MB of Infinity Cache, 16GB of GDDR6, and a 256-bit memory bus.

If you are about to build a new gaming PC then you would be crazy to not be buying a new Zen 3-powered AMD Ryzen 5000 series CPU.

AMD's Smart Memory Access gives the new Zen 3-based Ryzen 5000 series processors get full access to GPU memory if you have the Zen 3 chip on an X570 chipset with the new RNDA 2-powered Radeon RX 6000 series graphics card.

Before that, there's "RAGE" mode -- a throwback to the old ATi days for the old school gamers in our audience. RAGE mode is AMD's new one-click overclocking for the Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards -- something I will be experimenting heavily with when my samples arrive.

The wait for RDNA 2 is nearly over, with AMD detailing its new Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards and a couple of teases of what is growling underneath the hood of Big Navi.

RDNA 2 has an incredible performance uplift that is 2x over the previous RDNA-based flagship Radeon RX 5700 XT graphics card. Not only that, but we have 50% generational performance-per-watt improvement goals being hit by AMD, too.

AMD explains that during the development of RDNA 2 it wanted to build a high-performance architecture that could scale into many products. Not just the flagship Radeon RX 6900 XT, but up and down the stack with high performance.

AMD has just unveiled its new Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards based on the new RDNA 2 architecture, but more excitedly -- AMD is projecting forward with the new RDNA 3 architecture.

RDNA 2 is not even here yet, but AMD has said that they have RDNA 3 teams in execution and that the next-next-gen GPU architecture is doing "very well". AMD adds that it is "really excited" on the trajectory of the new RDNA 3 architecture.

We should begin to hear more from AMD on the RDNA 3 architecture sometime in 2021, after it begins to knock things around considerably with the release of the RDNA 2-based Radeon RX 6800 XT and Radeon RX 6900 XT graphics cards.

NVIDIA has reigned supreme so far without any competition from Team Red, but AMD has come out swinging with the new RDNA 2 architecture and the mainstream 4K gaming card with the Radeon RX 6800 XT graphics card.

AMD is cramming 72 compute units into the Radeon RX 6800 XT, a drop down from the 80 compute units on the flagship Radeon RX 6900 XT. The GPU will reach up to 2015MHz game clock, while GPU boost clocks will see the RX 6800 XT (at least in reference form) reaching 2250MHz for $649 -- $50 cheaper than the $699 for the GeForce RTX 3080.

It retains its large 16GB of GDDR6 with the same 128MB of Infinity Cache that delivers some far-above-its-class memory bandwidth on its 256-bit memory bus.

AMD has a serious ace up its sleeve with the Radeon RX 6900 XT graphics card, which is the very best SKU of the entire Big Navi family of RDNA 2-powered graphics cards and it'll cost $999.

We have 80 compute units, a GPU game clock of 2015MHz while the GPU will boost up to around 2250MHz. AMD uses 16GB of GDDR6 on the Radeon RX 6900 XT, which falls in between the GeForce RTX 3080 (10GB) and GeForce RTX 3090 (24GB).

AMD is really going for the throat with the Radeon RX 6900 XT, with it competing and even beating NVIDIA's very best -- and $1499 in price -- GeForce RTX 3090. We have better performance at 4K with games like Battlefield V, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Gears of War 5, and more. I want to do my own testing, but these results from AMD are beyond promising.

We've heard rumors of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti before, but it disappeared pretty quick -- but now a leaker it putting it back out into the world.

The purported GeForce RTX 3080 Ti would have 9984 CUDA cores, up from the 8704 CUDA cores on the GeForce RTX 3080, and less than the 10496 CUDA cores on the GeForce RTX 3090. The big difference here is the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti would have 12GB of GDDR6X on a wider 384-bit memory bus (compared to the 320-bit bus on the RTX 3080).

We've previously heard a new GeForce RTX 3080 with 20GB was expected for December 2020, but then a few days ago those plans were reportedly canceled. Remember that AMD is right around the corner with Big Navi and the new RDNA 2-powered Radeon RX 6000 series being unveiled on October 28,.

We're very, very close to the release of NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 3070 and now we have some juicy leaks on the slightly lower-end GeForce RTX 3060 Ti graphics card.

The new leaks are coming from a public GPU-Z validation, where we have some specs on the purported GeForce RTX 3060 Ti. We're looking at 4864 CUDA cores, a GPU base clock of 1410MHz and GPU boost clock of 1665MHz (at least as reported by GPU-Z).

NVIDIA is expected to slap 8GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit memory bus that will have 448GB/sec of memory bandwidth on the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti. We will have more information on this card as it comes.

Palit has just revealed its GeForce RTX 3070 JetStream ahead of its release on October 29 when NVIDIA will unleash the GeForce RTX 3070 and hopefully -- there will be lots of cards for gamers to buy.

The new Palit GeForce RTX 3070 JetStream has a super-short PCB, which ends at the point when the dual 8-pin PCIe power connectors are placed. It seems Palit has dropped most (if not nearly all) RGB lighting from the RTX 3070 JetStream graphics card, with the JetStream logo on the front looking like it will light up.

On the back we have a backplate that extends past the PCB itself, with dual fans keeping the Ampere GPU and GDDR6 memory nice and cool. We will have more details on the card when it's made official on October 29.

COLORFUL has just launched its custom iGame GeForce RTX 3090 Vulcan X OC graphics card, which rocks a glorious LCD display and unique style.

The new iGame RTX 3090 Vulcan X OC graphics card is a hefty triple-slot, triple-fan beast that requires 3 x 8-pin PCIe power connectors, and a full custom PCB with 14+8+4 power stage design. COLORFUL ramps things up with a TGP of 390W, which is 40W more than the GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition.

COLORFUL has a factory overclock up to 1785MHz, with a physical Turbo button on the back of the graphics card for some easy one-touch OC. We don't know what price to expect just yet with availability starting this week. I've got the COLORFUL iGame RTX 3080 Vulcan X OC graphics card up in the review table, and it's one of the most unique cards I've tested so far -- with the special star being that LCD display.

We're getting awfully close to Big Navi's huge release with the next-gen Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards, with some leaked 3DMark results showing it easily beating the GeForce RTX 3080.

The new benchmarks are for 3DMark FireStrike Ultra and FireStrike Extreme, as well as the TimeSpy Extreme and TimeSpy benchmarks. AMD's new Radeon RX 6800 XT crushes NVIDIA's new Ampere-based GeForce RTX 3080 in FireStrike Ultra and FireStrike Extreme, while losing to the RTX 3080 in TimeSpy Expreme and TimeSpy.

This would mean the new Radeon RX 6800 XT is around 56% faster than the RTX 2080 Ti and 22% faster than the RTX 3080 -- but this is only 3DMark. This isn't a blanket "OMG the Radeon RX 6800 XT is way faster than the RTX 3080" but more so "these are the very latest leaked numbers on the RX 6800 XT" and they're specifically in a synthetic benchmark, which is not indicative of real-world gaming.

We all know how hard NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 3090 and GeForce RTX 3080 graphics cards are virtually impossible to buy worldwide right now, but news is surfacing claiming it'll be much easier to find a GeForce RTX 3070 that launches in just a few days time.

NVIDIA is about to unleash its new GeForce RTX 3070 which will offer GeForce RTX 2080 Ti levels of performance starting from $449, with a new report from PC Watch saying that various retailers in Tokyo, Japan suggest with much more RTX 3070s available for gamers than the RTX 3090 and RTX 3080 graphics cards.

In the Akihabara tech market-based in Tokyo, Japan one of the main retailers (Dospara) said that it will begin sales of the GeForce RTX 3070 at around 8PM JST, which is when the first tickets will be given out. PC Watch also talked to other retailers in the Akihabara market, who all said they will have much more RTX 3070s than they did RTX 3080s and RTX 3090s.

The hype train for AMD's upcoming Big Navi GPUs is getting pretty high, with new leaks teasing some monster GPU clocks on the Navi 21 XT that will power the Radeon RX 6800 XT graphics card.

ASUS has its ROG Strix Radeon RX 6800 XT in the oven right now, with GPU boost clocks that will hit 2.5GHz and higher. The new information is coming from Patrick Schur, who reports that the custom ASUS ROG Strix Radeon RX 6800 XT has been tested in 3DMark 11 with GPU clocks breaching 2.5GHz.

The testing has the ROG Strix Radeon RX 6800 XT hitting an average of around 2.3GHz, while the max was up to 2.55GHz. I'm sure that with some custom tweaks to fan speeds we'll see a stable 2.4 - 2.5GHz without a problem.

Intel has announced that its new DG1 GPU is now shipping, and that it's (hopefully exciting) gaming-focused Intel Xe-HPG DG2 is currently being tested in Intel's own labs.

The new Intel DG1 -- or Iris Xe Max, is Intel's first discrete GPU in over 20 years. If you're an older geek like me you might remember the also much-hyped Intel i740 from the 1990s, well -- now DG1 is the first discrete GPU since then. Intel has also announced its next GPU will be called DG2.

The bigger news here is the new Intel DG2 discrete graphics, which is in alpha silicon form -- but Intel has said they've powered the new DG2 GPU up in their labs. Exciting times going into the end of the year.

It looks like we're getting our first look at AMD's upcoming Radeon RX 6800 XT graphics card and its PCB for a custom variant.

We can see this is a prototype board with its GDDR6 modules missing, and the VRMs covered with a ridiculously huge heat sink -- this is far from retail, far from a consumer-focused graphics card. We should expect this to be a custom Radeon RX 6800 XT graphics card (powered by the Navi 21 XT GPU) or the lower-end Navi 21 XL-powered card.

We can see that it requires dual 8-pin PCIe power connectors, with more details arriving in less than a week when AMD reveals its new Radeon RX 6000 series in detail on October 28.