XFX Radeon RX 6700 XT Speedster MERC 319 Black Review

Introduction

XFX has had some fantastic custom Big Navi graphics cards with its Radeon RX 6000 series cards in the new Speedster MERC 319 range -- with the XFX Radeon RX 6800 XT Speedster MERC 319 kicking ass -- and now we have the new XFX Radeon RX 6700 XT Speedster MERC 319 BLACK in for review.

What XFX is doing here with the Radeon RX 6700 XT Speedster MERC 319 BLACK is a flagship-style beast in the new Big Navi mid-range segment -- it looks like a higher-end card, and is meant to have an MSRP of $569. We have the usual Big Navi GPU that clocks up to 2622MHz (with room for OC) and 12GB of GDDR6 memory at 16Gbps which is plenty for games of today, tomorrow and at 1080p through to 4K.

XFX uses its kick ass Ghost Thermal design to keep the Radeon RX 6700 XT Speedster MERC 319 BLACK nice and cool, while looking great too. We have HDMI 2.1 connectivity if you wanted to plug it into a new TV or high-end gaming monitor for up to 4K 120Hz through HDMI.

It's not worth discussing price other than the "MSRP" of "$569" that you will never find it for, if you find the card at all -- if you do find the XFX Radeon RX 6700 XT Speedster MERC 319 BLACK at around that price it is a fine card -- but at the $700-$1000+ that some places sell it for... no thanks.

• Read more: XFX Radeon RX 6800 XT Speedster MERC 319 Review
• Read more: AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT Review
• Read more: AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT Review
• Read more: AMD Radeon RX 6800 Review
• Read more: AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT Review

Everything You Need to Know About The RX 6700 XT

AMD's new RDNA 2 architecture has more changes than any previous-gen GPU architecture I can remember from AMD (and even ATi) in the last 10+ years.

There's a lot to go over here, but we're looking at an enhanced compute unit, new visual pipeline featuring Ray Accelerators, and the all-new (and very exciting) Infinity Cache (which I'll go into on the next page. We're looking at a huge 1.54x higher performance-per-watt and 1.3x higher frequency at the same per-CU power -- impressive stuff, AMD.

Ray Accelerators

One of the largest new introductions in the new RDNA 2 architecture is the high-performance ray tracing acceleration architecture known as the Ray Accelerator. AMD doesn't have NVIDIA-beating ray tracing performance, but it's here in RDNA 2.

Each Ray Accelerator is capable of calculating up to 4 ray / box intersections, and 1 ray / triangle intersection every clock. This means the RDNA 2-based Ray Accelerators can efficiently calculate the intersections of the rays with the scene geometry as represented in a Bounding Volume Hierarchy, sorts them, and returns the information to the shaders for further scene traversal or result shading.

HDMI 2.1

This is another big deal -- HDMI 2.1 connectivity.

HDMI 2.1 ushers in the worlds of 4K 120Hz and 8K 60Hz through a single HDMI 2.1 cable to your flashy new TV or gaming monitor. Personally I own a new CX series LG OLED TV with HDMI 2.1 that drives its 4K 120Hz, so plugging my gaming PC into my TV can only be done a single way if I want 4K 120Hz -- which I kinda do.

The introduction of HDMI 2.1 on graphics cards began with NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 30 series, and continues with AMD's new Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards. All 3 of the new Radeon RX 6000 series cards -- the Radeon RX 6900 XT (review here), the Radeon RX 6800 XT (review here) and Radeon RX 6800 all have HDMI 2.1 output.

Now this is where things get really interesting -- Infinity Cache, which provides some kick ass memory bandwidth even with it smaller 256-bit memory bus and slower GDDR6 memory.

NVIDIA might have a superior 320-bit memory bus, faster GDDR6X -- but it has less VRAM (10GB versus 16GB) and the Radeon RX 6800 XT still kicks ass against the GeForce RTX 3080 in all resolutions and situations. But in the right situation -- like when paired with a Zen 3 processor, like I've done preliminary with the Ryzen 9 5900X -- you can get in excess of 10% more performance when you add SAM (Smart Access Memory) into the equation.

The SAM results are as good as you see in these charts, and in some cases better -- it's an impressive thing to see, and I truly can't wait to see more from Smart Access Memory technology.

XFX + AMD marketing

Detailed Look

XFX doesn't do anything by halves when it comes to retail packaging, with the box for the Radeon RX 6700 XT Speedster MERC 319 BLACK standing out from the crowd.

I love the look of the MERC 319 cards with the triple-fan cooler, I didn't think I'd be a fan but I love it. It looks even better in the system, with RGB lighting reflecting off of the card making your entire gaming PC pop.

I'm also a big fan of the backplate on the card, which is one of my favorites out of the custom Radeon RX 6700 XT graphics cards that I've tested so far.

It's not the thickest card, but it's a chunky one -- you want it for that great thermal performance and style, though.

You'll need dual 8-pin PCIe power connectors for the XFX Radeon RX 6700 XT Speedster MERC 319 BLACK graphics card.

Test System Specs

Latest upgrade:

ASUS provided a rather large upgrade to my GPU testing lab -- or rather, I kept the ASUS ROG Swift PG43UQ gaming monitor after my review on it. The 43-inch 4K 144Hz panel is just glorious to look at -- it's huge, the DPI for Windows 10 when set perfect for your viewing distance is kiss-fingers-emoji good. It's just amazing -- for work, and gaming.

Sabrent sent over their huge Rocket Q 8TB NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 SSD, which will be my new Games install SSD inside of my main test bed.

I'll be making some changes over the coming months to the GPU test bed here for TweakTown, to both the Ryzen 9 5900X and then Intel's new Core i9-11900K to do some proper PCIe 4.0 testing between the chipsets for GPUs + super-fast load times into games on these new super-fast Sabrent SSDs.

Sabrent helped out with some new storage for my GPU test beds, sending over a slew of crazy-fast Rocket NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 SSDs. I've got this installed into my GPU test bed as the new Games Storage drive, since games are so damn big now. Thanks to Sabrent, I've got 2TB of super-fast M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 SSD storage now.

Anthony's GPU Test System Specifications

I've recently upgraded my GPU test bed -- at least for now, until AMD's new Ryzen 9 5950X processor is unleashed then the final update for 2020 will happen and we'll be all good for RDNA 2 and future Ampere GPU releases. You can read my article here: TweakTown GPU Test Bed Upgrade for 2021, But Then Zen 3 Was Announced.

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3800X (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 2TB 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 10 Professional x64 (buy from Amazon)
• Monitor: ASUS ROG Swift PG43UQ (buy from Amazon)

Benchmarks - Synthetic

3DMark Fire Strike

3DMark has been a staple benchmark for years now, all the way back to when The Matrix was released and Futuremark had bullet time inspired benchmarks. 3DMark is the perfect tool to see if your system - most important, your CPU and GPU - is performing as it should. You can search results for your GPU, to see if it falls in line with other systems based on similar hardware.

3DMark TimeSpy

Heaven - 1080p

Heaven is an intensive GPU benchmark that really pushes your silicon to its limits. It's another favorite of ours as it has some great scaling for multi-GPU testing, and it's great for getting your GPU to 100% for power and noise testing.

Benchmarks - 1080p

Assassin's Creed: Valhalla is the latest game to be inserted into our benchmark suite, with Ubisoft Montreal using its AnvilNext engine to power the game. It scales really well across the cards, and has some surprising performance benefits with AMD's new Big Navi GPUs.

You can buy Assassins Creed: Valhalla at Amazon.

Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a sequel to the popular Shadow of Mordor, which was powered by the Lithtech engine. When cranked up to maximum detail, it will chew through your GPU and its VRAM like it's nothing.

You can buy Middle-earth: Shadow of War at Amazon.

Metro Exodus is one of the hardest tests that our graphics cards have to go through, with 4A Games' latest creation being one of the best looking games on the market. It is a serious test that pushes GPUs to their limits, and also features RTX technologies like DLSS.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is one of the latest games to join our graphics card benchmark lineup, with the game built using the Foundation engine as a base, the same engine in Rise of the Tomb Raider. Eidos Montreal R&D department made lots of changes to the engine during the development of Shadow of the Tomb Raider to make it one of the best-looking games out right now.

1080p Benchmark Performance Thoughts

We all know how performance is going to be on the ASUS ROG Strix Radeon RX 6700 XT -- and as you can see, it's identical to the Radeon RX 6700 XT for the most part @ stock -- and a few FPS faster in virtually everything at 1080p when manually overclocked. It's the fastest custom Radeon RX 6700 XT that I've tested so far.

Benchmarks - 1440p

Assassin's Creed: Valhalla is the latest game to be inserted into our benchmark suite, with Ubisoft Montreal using its AnvilNext engine to power the game. It scales really well across the cards, and has some surprising performance benefits with AMD's new Big Navi GPUs.

You can buy Assassins Creed: Valhalla at Amazon.

Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a sequel to the popular Shadow of Mordor, which was powered by the Lithtech engine. When cranked up to maximum detail, it will chew through your GPU and its VRAM like it's nothing.

You can buy Middle-earth: Shadow of War at Amazon.

Metro Exodus is one of the hardest tests that our graphics cards have to go through, with 4A Games' latest creation being one of the best looking games on the market. It is a serious test that pushes GPUs to their limits, and also features RTX technologies like DLSS.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is one of the latest games to join our graphics card benchmark lineup, with the game built using the Foundation engine as a base, the same engine in Rise of the Tomb Raider. Eidos Montreal R&D department made lots of changes to the engine during the development of Shadow of the Tomb Raider to make it one of the best-looking games out right now.

1440p Benchmark Performance Thoughts

The same goes for 1440p gaming, which the ASUS ROG Strix Radeon RX 6700 XT also dominates in -- probably the key resolution to buying this card (if you can buy it, that is). You've got stellar 1440p performance that only improves by 5-10% with the manual OC that I applied to the card. It's the best custom RX 6700 XT at 1440p, too.

Benchmarks - 4K

Assassin's Creed: Valhalla is the latest game to be inserted into our benchmark suite, with Ubisoft Montreal using its AnvilNext engine to power the game. It scales really well across the cards, and has some surprising performance benefits with AMD's new Big Navi GPUs.

You can buy Assassins Creed: Valhalla at Amazon.

Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a sequel to the popular Shadow of Mordor, which was powered by the Lithtech engine. When cranked up to maximum detail, it will chew through your GPU and its VRAM like it's nothing.

You can buy Middle-earth: Shadow of War at Amazon.

Metro Exodus is one of the hardest tests that our graphics cards have to go through, with 4A Games' latest creation being one of the best looking games on the market. It is a serious test that pushes GPUs to their limits, and also features RTX technologies like DLSS.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is one of the latest games to join our graphics card benchmark lineup, with the game built using the Foundation engine as a base, the same engine in Rise of the Tomb Raider. Eidos Montreal R&D department made lots of changes to the engine during the development of Shadow of the Tomb Raider to make it one of the best-looking games out right now.

4K Benchmark Performance Thoughts

I do NOT recommend the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT for 4K gaming, as that is the job of the Radeon RX 6800 XT and Radeon RX 6900 XT graphics cards... but if you wanted to do some light 4K gaming at 30-60FPS that would be alright. Once again, the ASUS ROG Strix Radeon RX 6700 XT is still a fine 4K gaming graphics card just like the reference Radeon RX 6700 XT.

Overclocking

Out of the box the XFX Radeon RX 6700 XT Speedster MERC 319 BLACK was ticking along at 2565MHz, with the GPU sitting at 65C or so -- GPU hotspot at 81C, and the fans @ 32% (1100 RPM or so). Better temps than the MSI Radeon RX 6700 XT GAMING X (GPU @ 70C, hotspot @ 89C).

The maximum overclock that I was able to achieve out of my sample was 2736MHz or so -- nowhere near as much as the custom MSI RX 6700 XT GAMING X but there's not that much of a performance difference between them either. The GPU runs nice and cool at sub 50C with the fans at 100% while the GPU hotspot drops to 68C (MSI's card sits at GPU temps of 55C and hotspot @ 74C).

Power Consumption & Temps

I don't think I need to say anymore here -- the data in the charts speaks for itself: 65C at stock and sub 50C under load. Incredible stuff.

Power consumption between the reference and custom Radeon RX 6700 XT graphics cards doesn't differ all that much, it is within 10-20W depending on the model but we have full system power consumption of 330-340W with the XFX Radeon RX 6700 XT Speedster MERC 319 BLACK graphics card.

What's Hot, What's Not

What's Hot

• Great design by the XFX team: I seriously love the style of the XFX Radeon RX 6700 XT Speedster MERC 319 BLACK, it looks great on both the front and back. But the backplate really stands out from teh crowd, and is unique in its own XFX way. It looks incredible inside of a gaming PC with RGB lighting reflecting off of the backplate and fans.
• Another great custom Radeon RX 6700 XT: I don't think you can go wrong here, XFX has your back with looks, performance, and AMD has your back with that Big Navi GPU + 12GB of GDDR6 memory and enough grunt to handle most games without an issue @ 60FPS and beyond.
• Great thermal performance: It's not the coolest running custom Radeon RX 6700 XT on the market, but when the fans are @ 100% it is definitely the coolest. ASUS beats the XFX card here with out of the box GPU temps of 65C for XFX and 56C for ASUS.

What's Not

• Who knows what the price will be: The custom Radeon RX 6700 XT graphics cards have been listed for $1250 in Chechia, and with a "starting price" of $479 and the "MSRP" of the XFX Radeon RX 6700 XT Speedster MERC 319 BLACK being $589 -- I wouldn't be surprised to see it online for $700+ at this point.
• Nowhere to be found: You are going to find it near impossible to buy these, although AMD is promising more stock this time around. We should hopefully see this situation improve over the coming months, hopefully.

Final Thoughts

XFX has a mighty fine offering here with the Radeon RX 6700 XT Speedster MERC 319 BLACK, which stands up against some of the very best brands selling custom Big Navi graphics cards.

We don't have an overload of RGB lighting or some super-funky design, XFX keeps it mostly in line with a unique style that instantly jumps out at you. AMD provides plenty of performance with the RDNA 2 architecture inside of the Radeon RX 6700 XT to handle esports games at 1080p and 1440p at 120FPS, and plenty of games in 4K at 60FPS.

The out-of-the-box performance is fantastic, with some wiggle room for overclocking on both the GPU and GDDR6 memory. I doubt you're going to be able to find it at its $569 MSRP, but if you can -- and need a GPU right now, then the XFX Radeon RX 6700 XT Speedster MERC 319 BLACK is a great choice.

XFX has a great graphics card on its hands, but like with all Radeon RX 6700 XT graphics cards -- and virtually every other RDNA 2 and Ampere GPU -- it's overpriced right now. The goal posts are being moved quickly, with the mid-range going from $300 to $500 and beyond an the GPU shortage driving that $500 into more like $800 to $1000 and beyond for a "mid-range" GPU.

It's going to come down to YOU finding the XFX Radeon RX 6700 XT Speedster MERC 319 BLACK wherever you live, and YOU deciding that whatever price it is at the time is worth it. The card itself is great, and you'll have no regrets at all.