If a recent rumour is accurate, AMD’s RX 6950 XT, the reportedly upcoming updated RDNA 2 flagship, might operate at some really rapid clock rates.
As of this writing, the RX 6950 XT is expected to achieve boost speeds in excess of 2.5GHz, according to hardware leaker Greymon55 on Twitter, who has been quite active in spreading rumours about this graphics card in recent weeks.
AMD made some significant upgrades to the clock rates of its current Navi 21 XTXH GPU, enabling not just greater and more stable clock frequencies, but also the ability to push overclocked specifications far past the 3 GHz mark. We’ve seen how the latter has enabled overclockers to drive the Radeon RX 6900 XT graphics card equipped with the Navi 21 XTXH GPU into the top ranks in a number of benchmarks.
Although the Navi 21 XTXH seems to be on its way out, it appears that it will be replaced by the more sophisticated RDNA 2 updated GPU form of the same chip.
As you can see in the image, Greymon55 claims that the boost speed will be more than 2.5GHz, and later in the discussion, he also states that the power consumption would most likely be 350W. As VideoCardz, who first reported the leak, points out, this card’s power consumption is more than that of the most powerful 6900 XT cards (using XTXH chips and liquid cooling), which may exceed 330W in total.
As one person in the Twitter thread points out, there are variants of the 6900 XT that already surpass 2.5GHz for boost speeds, however these are liquid-cooled devices — some of which may sneak up to 2.7GHz for default boost rates, as well.
So, theoretically, the 6950 XT may outperform them, since AMD would undoubtedly want this new flagship to outperform current 6900 XT products in order to justify its existence. However, this is dependent on the cooling system that the 6950 XT is equipped with. If it has air cooling and has a boost speed more than 2.5GHz, it outperforms whatever the 6900 XT can provide at the time of writing.
Analysis: Is this laying the groundwork for even greater overclocking and even more record-breaking?
However, if the 6950 is actually coming – and we must maintain a healthy dose of scepticism in the face of mounting evidence – then it will be a powerful performer, although one that consumes a lot of power as well (some 6900 XT boards already demand an 850W power supply at minimum as it is, remember).
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Professional overclockers will also be salivating in anticipation of the arrival of such a new RDNA 2 flagship, as we’ve just observed the RX 6900 XT being overclocked to 3.3GHz and establishing many new 3DMark records, among other things. That is, of course, with unique cooling, but there is the potential of attaining much higher clock speeds with this 6950 XT and breaking even more world records.
Despite the fact that we don’t know whether or not the 6950 XT will be released, we do know that Nvidia has an RTX 3090 Ti ready to go on the market – though it may have been delayed a little – but at any rate, AMD may feel the need to respond to Nvidia’s new flagship, which will undoubtedly be capable of setting new benchmark records of its own.
In the event that both of these GPUs do materialise, though, it’s debatable how much stock will be accessible given the present component shortages, as well as how expensive they’ll be. In recent months, there has certainly been a lot of conjecture about the 3090 Ti’s potential to fetch eye-watering sums.
AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT launch date
The AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT is slated to be on sale sometime around mid-April, according to the company. It was only a few moments ago when coreteks posted the most recent update on his Twitter account. According to his tweet, not all Navi 21 cards will be updated at the same time. He did affirm that the RX 6950 XT graphics card was genuine, but he was not a fan of the notion of an RX 6850 XT graphics card.
AMD is planning to upgrade some of its graphics cards in order to tighten its loosen belt in the face of competition from Nvidia’s RTX 30 series and Intel Arc’s GPUs, just in case. The Radeon RX 6950 XT is notable for its increased memory speed, which has been increased to 18 Gbps, representing a 12.5 percent improvement in specifications.
Furthermore, according to YouTuber Moore’s Law is Dead, the Radeon RX 6950 XT will be constructed on a 7nm node, exactly as its brothers, which is an improvement over the previous generation. Because AMD is not scheduled to release the refresh graphics card until the middle of April, we will have more time to keep you updated as new information becomes available.