Sapphire Radeon RX 6700 XT

Ende 2020 präsentierte AMD die neue Radeon RX 6000 Serie auf Basis der RDNA-2-Architektur. Die ursprüngliche Familie umfasste die Modelle Radeon RX 6900 XT, RX 6800 XT und RX 6800 und wurde in 2021 kontinuierlich erweitert. Erst vor kurzem kamen mit der Radeon RX 6950 XT, der RX 6750 XT und der RX 6650 XT drei weitere Varianten der Navi-GPU hinzu, so dass die gesamte Familie mittlerweile aus elf Mitgliedern für unterschiedliche Einsatzgebiete und Geldbeutel besteht.

Nachdem wir uns gestern die Referenzversion der Radeon RX 6700 XT angeschaut haben, werfen wir heute einen ersten Blick auf ein Custom-Design. Dabei handelt es sich um die Sapphire Radeon RX 6700 XT Nitro+. Sapphire verspricht in der Nitro+-Version eine höhere Leistung, gepaart mit einer effizienteren Kühlung. Leise und vor allem kühler soll das Modell von Sapphire sein. Welche dieser Ziele man letztendlich erreicht hat, schauen wir uns im folgenden Test an.

When it comes to AMD video cards, Sapphire has always been known for their quality and great performance. Sadly I missed out on seeing any of Sapphire's cards for the 5000 series, the last Sapphire card we have had a look at was the RX580 but that changes today. I’ve had the Sapphire Nitro+ RX 6700XT in the office and I’ve been doing some testing on it. Today we (you and I) are going to check out what Sapphire is doing differently from the last time I saw them and what they are doing differently from the competition, then we will see how the Nitro+ RX6700 XT performs in our test suite. I can’t wait any longer, lets dive in!

The Sapphire Radeon RX 6700 XT Nitro+ hopes to attract buyers with its extra features and bling. Right now, it doesn't really matter as every GPU that's produced gets sold at elevated prices. It's as good as any other 6700 XT — and as expensive.

Sapphire did it right with the NITRO+ from a hardware and configuration point of view. It's not a Christmas tree with blinking lights. It runs under temperature in the 65 up-to maybe 70 Degrees C domain yet remains totally silent. The aesthetics are very pleasing; I would, however, like to see a more dark version. That ingredient creates a product that comes factory tweaked; however, that means it's maybe 2% faster than reference. You'll retrieve an admirable performing product in that WQHD range at very satisfactory temperatures and acoustic levels. Overall it's a lovely Full HD, and Quad HD card with abilities at Ultra HD as well. Raytracing performance on this generation RDNA2 cards are mediocre, and of course, AMD could really use something DLSS. the 12 GB memory is nice. The 192-bit wide memory bus, however narrow. The added L3 cache is bypassing the bulk of that challenge, and that works up-to 2560x1440 indeed; however, the L3 cache will always be a bypass, a limitation even as with future more GPU bound games, you're prone to run out of that cache and get a full penalty of that 192-bit wide memory bus. For this willing to shell out such an amount of money for this product range, recommended. Sapphire did it right; the big conundrum, however, remains pricing and the current state of availability.

RX 6700 XT is a solid but not spectacular addition to the RDNA 2 line-up, and few partner cards will be as robustly built as Sapphire's Nitro+.

AMD’s last couple of GPU launches have been very well received aside from stock allocation. While not all of the shortage blame should go on AMD, it would be nice to actually be able to buy one of these new GPU’s. However, there are a lot of factors involved in all of this, so much so that Andy has made a video addressing some of the more pressing issues in the shortage. TLDR – It has a lot more to do with than just Bots, Scalpers and Mining, if you want you can check it out HERE. Shortages aside, it will be amazing when all of these cards can make it into the Gaming systems of everyone who has been waiting and not wanting to pay silly prices. One day gamers will rejoice and be able to enjoy more games than ever and I for one, hope that day comes sooner rather than later.

Sapphire Radeon RX 6700 XT Nitro+ is the company's most premium take on AMD's new RX 6700 XT graphics card that's debuting today. Positioned bang in the middle of the performance segment, with a starting price under $500, the RX 6700 XT launches AMD's second, smaller silicon based on the RDNA2 architecture, and brings the full DirectX 12 Ultimate experience from the AMD stable to this segment, including real-time raytracing. Although targeting the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti in performance, AMD claims that the card can trade blows with even the pricier RTX 3070.