Megatest Sapphire RX 6900 XT Toxic LE: AMD’s liquid cooled top-end

Sapphire RX 6900 Toxic LE in detail

The Radeon RX 6900 XT Toxic LE in the company of other graphics cards will not be overlooked. The 360-millimeter liquid GPU cooling is a rare thing that will definitely attract attention. Still, it’s a rather controversial piece of hardware. There are several reasons to opt for this madness (in a good way). But it is also necessary to know about certain flaws that it has. We need to be demanding and strict in this price category.

By supplementing the RX 6900 XT tests, we have tested all Radeons from the RX 6000 series. Although only one version of each, you will still get a good idea of the performance differences. Before we start with the Sapphire RX 6900 XT Toxic LE, we’re pointing out the changes in the structure of graphics card tests, which are discussed below in italics. Anyone who has already noticed them in the last article can feel free to skip this part.

As we announced in the RX 6700 XT review, we will no longer divide a test of one graphics card into two articles, where the results with inactive Resizable BAR were released first and then with active. You’ll get both in one publication from now on. After adding ReBAR support, the current model is impractical. And while results without Resizable BAR might already seem irrelevant, there are three main reasons why we’ll keep them and will continue to expand.

On the one hand, there are situations where ReBAR reduces performance and it’s good to know about them (so you can decide when to turn this feature off), and on the other hand, performance changes rapidly over time (which is true now, but may not be valid next week), the support grows, etc. Performance without ReBAR does not change so dramatically over time. The third thing is that the still significant part of tests (games, applications) simply does not support ReBAR and therefore older GeForce results are still useful.

For better orientation, the bars in the graphs are grouped according to ReBAR on or off, but maintaining descending or ascending sorting by value.

The RX 6900 XT uses 16 GB of GDDR6 memory with a 16.0 GHz effective clock and a connection to a 256-bit bus. These specifications are the same as for the slower RX 6800 XT. There is a difference in the core equipment, but relatively small. Even smaller than between the GeForce RTX 3090 and RTX 3080.

The Navi XTX graphics core (in the RX 6900 XT) has only 8 CUs more compared to the Navi 21 XT (in the RX 6800 XT), and to achieve significantly higher performance, manufacturers are trying to work with more aggressive GPU clocking. Liquid cooling of the Sapphire RX 6900 XT Toxic LE (Limited Edition) is a favorable solution for such a clock boost.

Sapphire RX 6900 Toxic LE: details

In terms of total weight, this graphics card breaks all records. It reads up to 2,175 g (4.8 lb) on the scale. However, it is important to note that the weight is distributed between the radiator and the card itself, more or less equally. This means that the load on the motherboard slot is a little over a kilo.

The used radiator has a 360 mm format with a thickness of 27 mm. This thickness corresponds to the vast majority of radiators you encounter with CPU AIO liquid coolers. A bit disappointing is that it has only aluminum fins, which raises the question of how it is going to be with galvanic corrosion over time, as the block is made of copper. Regardless of the quality of the corrosion-resistant material, a copper radiator would be more suitable for such a graphics card, they shouldn’t be saving money here.

Except for the enclosure with SMD components in place of the GPU, the back of the PCB is covered by the backplate. It is made of aluminum and a thermal pad is inserted in the part behind the power phase design. In addition, it strengthens the card and also has a protective character against possible mechanical damage.

At the front is a single fan (95 mm) that blows air between the fins of a relatively bulky VRM heatsink and the memory. The graphics core is fully taken care of by an “external” radiator. Its pump is directly above the GPU and its operation can be disruptive for users demanding computer silence. We measured up to 43 dBA of its passive noise level. For comparison, this is approximately twice the noise of the RTX 3090 Gaming Trio under full load. And the pump whirring will probably be more annoying for most than the pure aerodynamic noise of the fans.

The hoses are 44 cm long, which is just right. They will be long enough even in larger (and deeper) PC cases when mounted in front, behind the front wall. The decent braiding of textiles also deserves a thumbs up. However, there is no joint on the card side, at least connectors holding an angle of 90° could be used here. The absence of these elements again seems a bit indecent. The space requirements in depth are at least 140 mm (130 mm for the radiator cover + 10 mm needed to bend the hoses) and preferably one centimeter or two more, so that the side panel exerts as little force on the graphics card via the hoses as possible.

Traditionally, there are two BIOSes and a three-position switch. In the left position it is set to the BIOS software selection via the Sapphire TriXX application, on the right is the “performance” mode with which we’re testing the card. The second option is a “silent” BIOS, which ironically does not significantly reduce the card noise. Just like the one on the RX 6700 XT Nitro+ didn’t.

   

There are three 120-millimeter fans on the radiator. The depth is traditional (25 mm) and overall the radiator together with the fans and screw heads is 55 mm thick. The manufacturer does not further specify the fans, the type of bearings used is not specified either. However, the fan designation is FirstD FD1225H12D. In any case, the frame has rubber pads in the corners and does not rattle in any way, even at high speed.

The outputs are as in the reference version, which means that you will also find USB-C among them. This is complemented by two DisplayPorts (1.4a) and HDMI (2.1).

The graphics card is relatively low and exceeds the height of the dual-slot blanking plate by only a mere two millimeters. This means that the third slot can be fitted with an expansion card. Preferably, however, a shorter one (up to 150 mm) so as not to interfere with the space above the VRM cooler fan. The front of the card is closed and has no cooling vents that would be an obstacle for typically a sound or network card.

The card cover is also characterized by light guides for RGB LEDs. The Sapphire logo can shine on you in all colors and the Toxic inscription with various patterns around it on the front. The fans are also illuminated in such a way that the LEDs are concentrated only at their center, where the brightness intensity is more notable than on the rest of the blades, although they are clear and transfer light.

If the built-in LEDs would not be enough, there is also a standard ARGB connector at the back for connecting an external lighting, which you can synchronize with the motherboard, unlike that on the graphics card.

   

The Radeon RX 6900 XT Toxic LE in the company of other graphics cards will not be overlooked. The 360-millimeter liquid GPU cooling is a rare thing that will definitely attract attention. Still, it’s a rather controversial piece of hardware. There are several reasons to opt for this madness (in a good way). But it is also necessary to know about certain flaws that it has. We need to be demanding and strict in this price category.

The Radeon RX 6900 XT Toxic LE in the company of other graphics cards will not be overlooked. The 360-millimeter liquid GPU cooling is a rare thing that will definitely attract attention. Still, it’s a rather controversial piece of hardware. There are several reasons to opt for this madness (in a good way). But it is also necessary to know about certain flaws that it has. We need to be demanding and strict in this price category.

Gaming tests

The largest sample of tests is from games. This is quite natural given that GeForce and Radeons, i.e. cards primarily intended for gaming use, will mostly be tested.

We chose the test games primarily to ensure the balance between the titles better optimized for the GPU of one manufacturer (AMD) or the other one (Nvidia). But we also took into account the popularity of the titles so that you could find your own results in the charts. Emphasis was also placed on genre diversity. Games such as RTS, FPS, TPS, car racing as well as a flight simulator, traditional RPG and sports games are represented by the most played football game. You can find a list of test games in the library of chapters (9–32), with each game having its own chapter, sometimes even two (chapters) for the best possible clarity, but this has its good reason, which we will share with you in the following text.

Before we start the gaming tests, each graphics card will pass the tests in 3D Mark to warm up to operating temperature. That’s good synthetics to start with.

We’re testing performance in games across three resolutions with an aspect ratio of 16:9 – FHD (1920 × 1080 px), QHD (2560 × 1440 px) and UHD (3840 × 2160 px) and always with the highest graphic settings, which can be set the same on all current GeForce and Radeon graphics cards. We turned off proprietary settings for the objectivity of the conclusions, and the settings with ray-tracing graphics are tested separately, as lower class GPUs do not support them. You will find their results in the complementary chapters. In addition to native ray-tracing, also after deploying Nvidia DLSS (2.0) and AMD FidelityFX CAS.

If the game has a built-in benchmark, we use that one (the only exception is Forza Horizon 4, where due to its instability – it used to crash here and there – we drive on our track), in other cases the measurements take place on the games’ own scenes. From those we capture the times of consecutive frames in tables (CSV) via OCAT, which FLAT interprets into intelligible fps speech. Both of these applications are from the workshop of colleagues from the gpureport.cz magazine. In addition to the average frame rate, we also write the minimum in the graphs. That contributes significantly to the overall gaming experience. For the highest possible accuracy, all measurements are repeated three times and the final results form their average value.

Computational tests

Testing the graphics card comprehensively, even in terms of computing power, is more difficult than drawing conclusions from the gaming environment. Just because such tests are usually associated with expensive software that you don’t just buy for the editorial office. On the other hand, we’ve found ways to bring the available computing performance to you. On the one hand, thanks to well-built benchmarks, on the other hand, there are also some freely available and at the same time relevant applications, and thirdly, we have invested something in the paid ones.

The tests begin with ComputeBench, which computes various simulations (including game graphics). Then we move on to the popular SPECviewperf benchmark (2020), which integrates partial operations from popular 2D and 3D applications, including 3Ds max and SolidWorks. Details on this test package can be found at spec.org. From the same team also comes SPECworkstation 3, where GPU acceleration is in the Caffe and Folding@Home tests. You can also find the results of the LuxMark 3.1 3D render in the graphs, and the remarkable GPGPU theoretical test also includes AIDA64 with FLOPS, IOPS and memory speed measurements.

For obvious reasons, 3D rendering makes the largest portion of the tests. This is also the case, for example, in the Blender practical tests (2.91). In addition to Cycles, we will also test the cards in Eevee and radeon ProRender renderers (let AMD have a related test, as most are optimized for Nvidia cards with proprietary CUDA and OptiX frameworks). Of course, an add-on for V-ray would also be interesting, but at the moment the editorial office can’t afford it, we may manage to get a “press” license in time, though, we’ll see. We want to expand application tests in the future. Definitely with some advanced AI testing (we haven’t come up with a reasonable way yet), including noise reduction (there would be some ideas already, but we haven’t incorporated those due to time constraints).

Graphics cards can also be tested well in photo editing. To get an idea of the performance in the popular Photoshop, we’re using a script in PugetBench, which simulates real work with various filters. Among them are those that use GPU acceleration. A comprehensive benchmark suggesting the performance of raster and vector graphics is then also used in alternative Affinity Photo. In Lightroom, there are remarkable color corrections (Enhance Details) of raw uncompressed photos. We apply these in batches to a 1 GB archive. All of these tasks can be accelerated by both GeForce and Radeon.

From another perspective, there are decryption tests in Hashcat with a selection of AES, MD5, NTLMv2, SHA1, SHA2-256/512 and WPA-EAPOL-PBKDF2 ciphers. Finally, in the OBS and XSplit broadcast applications, we measure how much the game performance will be reduced while recording. It is no longer provided by shaders, but by coders (AMD VCE and Nvidia Nvenc). These tests show how much spare performance each card has for typical online streaming.

There are, of course, more hardware acceleration options, typically for video editing and conversion. However, this is purely in the hands of encoders, which are always the same within one generation of cards from one manufacturer, so there is no point in testing them on every graphics card. It is different across generations and tests of this type will sooner or later appear. Just fine-tuning the metric is left, where the output will always have the same bitrate and pixel match. This is important for objective comparisons, because the encoder of one company/card may be faster in a particular profile with the same settings, but at the expense of the lower quality that another encoder has (but may not have, it’s just an example).

The Radeon RX 6900 XT Toxic LE in the company of other graphics cards will not be overlooked. The 360-millimeter liquid GPU cooling is a rare thing that will definitely attract attention. Still, it’s a rather controversial piece of hardware. There are several reasons to opt for this madness (in a good way). But it is also necessary to know about certain flaws that it has. We need to be demanding and strict in this price category.

Methodology: how we measure power draw

We have been tuning the method of measuring power draw for quite a long time and we will also be tuning it for some time. But we already have gimmicks that we can work with happily.

To get the exact value of the total power draw of the graphics card, it is necessary to map the internal power draw on the PCI Express slot and the external one on the additional power supply. For the analysis of the PCIe slot, it was necessary to construct an in-between card on which the power draw measurement takes place. Its basis is resistors calibrated to the exact value (0.1 Ω) and according to the amount of their voltage drop we can calculate the current. We then substitute it into the formula for the corresponding value of the output voltage ~ 12 V and ~ 3.3 V. The voltage drop is so low that it doesn’t make the VRM of the graphics card unstable and the output is still more than 12/3.3 V.

We are also working on a similar device for external power supply. However, significantly higher currents are achieved there, longer cabling and more passages between connectors are necessary, which means that the voltage drop will have to be read on an even smaller resistance of 0.01 Ω, the current state (with 0.1 Ω) is unstable for now. Until we fine-tune it, we will use Prova 15 current clamp for cable measurements, which also measures with good accuracy, they just have a range of up to 30 A. But that is also enough for the OC version of the RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio. If a card is over the range, it is always possible to split the consumption measurement (first into one half and then into the other half of the 12 V conductors).

And why bother with such devices at all when Nvidia has a PCAT power draw analyzer? For complete control over the measurements. While our devices are transparent, the Nvidia’s tool uses the processor that can (but of course does not have to) affect the measurements. After testing the AMD graphics card on the Nvidia’s tool, we probably wouldn’t sleep well.

To read and record measurements, we use a properly calibrated multimeter UNI-T UT71E, which exports samples to XLS. From it we obtain the average value and by substituting into the formula with the exact value of the subcircuit output voltages we obtain the data for the graphs.

   

We will analyze the line graphs with the waveforms for each part of the power supply separately. Although the 3.3 V value is usually negligible, it needs to be monitored. It is difficult to say what exactly this subcircuit powers, but usually the consumption on it is constant and when it changes only with regard to whether a static or dynamic image is rendered. We measure consumption in two sort of demanding games (F1 2020 and Shadow of the Tomb Raider) and one less demanding one (CS:GO) with the highest graphic details preset and UHD resolution (3840 × 2560 px). Then in 3D rendering in Blender using the Cycles renderer on the famous Classroom scene. However, in addition to high-load tests, it’s important to know your web browser consumption (which, in our case, is accelerated Google Chrome), where we also spend a lot of time watching videos or browsing the web. The usual average load of this type is represented by the FishIE Tank (HTML5) website with 20 fish and the web video in our power draw tests is represented by a sample with the VP9 codec, data rate of 17.4 mb/s and 60 fps. In contrast, we also test offline video consumption, in VLC player on a 45 HEVC sample (45.7 mb/s, 50 fps). Finally, we also record the power consumption of the graphics card on the desktop of idle Windows 10 with one or two active UHD@60 Hz monitors.

The Radeon RX 6900 XT Toxic LE in the company of other graphics cards will not be overlooked. The 360-millimeter liquid GPU cooling is a rare thing that will definitely attract attention. Still, it’s a rather controversial piece of hardware. There are several reasons to opt for this madness (in a good way). But it is also necessary to know about certain flaws that it has. We need to be demanding and strict in this price category.

Noise measurement…

Noise, as well as other operating characteristics, which we will focus on, we’re measuring in the same modes as consumption, so that the individual values overlap nicely. In addition to the level of noise produced, we also record the frequency response of the sound, the course of the GPU clock speed and its temperature.

In this part of the methodology description, we will present something about the method of noise measurement. We use a Reed R8080 sound level meter, which we continuously calibrate with a calibrated Voltcraft SLC-100 digital sound level meter. A small addition to the sound level meter is a parabola-shaped collar, which has two functions. Increases the sensitivity to distinguish the sound produced even at very low speeds. It is thus possible to better compare even very quiet cards with the largest possible ratio difference. Otherwise (without this adjustment) it could simply happen that we measured the same noise level across several graphics cards, even though it would actually be a little different. This parabolic shield also makes sense because, from the outer convex side (from the back), it reflects all the parasitic sounds that everyone who really aims for accuracy of the measurements struggles with during the test. These are various cracks of the body or objects in the room during normal human activity.

To ensure the same conditions when measuring the noise level (and later also the sound), we use acoustic panels with a foam surface around the bench-wall. This is so that the sound is always reflected to the sound level meter sensor in the same way, regardless of the current situation of the objects in the test room. These panels are from three sides (top, right and left) and their purpose is to soundproof the space in which we measure the noise of graphics cards. Soundproofing means preventing different reflections of sound and oscillations of waves between flat walls. Don’t confuse it with sound-absorbing, we’ve had that solved well in the test lab for a long time.

During the measurements, the sound level meter sensor is always placed on a tripod at the same angle and at the same distance (35 cm) from the PCI Express slot in which the graphics card is installed. Of course, it’s always closer to the card itself, depending on its depth. The indicated reference point and the sensor angles are fixed. In addition to the “aerodynamic noise” of the coolers, we also measure the noise level of whining coils. Then we stop the fans for a moment. And for the sake of completeness, it should be added that during sound measurements, we also switch off the power supply fan as well as the CPU cooler fan. Thus, purely the graphics card is always measured without any distortion by other components.

… and the sound frequency response

From the same place, we also measure the frequency of the sound produced. One thing is the noise level (or sound pressure level in decibels) and the other thing is its frequency response.

According to the data on the noise level, you can quickly find out whether the graphics card is quieter or noisier, or where it is on the scale, but it is still a mix of different frequencies. Thus, it does not say whether the sound produced is more booming (with a lower frequency) or squeaking (with a high frequency). The same 35 dBA can be pleasant but also unpleasant for you under certain circumstances – it depends on each individual how they perceive different frequencies. For this reason, we will also measure the frequency response of the sound graphics card in addition to the noise level, via the TrueRTA application. The results will be interpreted in the form of a spectrograph with a resolution of 1/24 octave and for better comparison with other graphics cards we will include the dominant frequency of lower (20–200 Hz), medium (201–2,000 Hz) and higher (2,001–20,000 Hz) sound spectrum into standard bar graphs. For measurements, we’re using a calibrated miniDSP UMIK-1 microphone, which accurately copies the position of the sound level meter, but also has a collar, even with the same focal length.

At the end of this chapter, it should be noted that measurements of noise and frequency response of sound will be performed on most cards only in load tests, as out of load and at lower load (including video decoding) operation is usually passive with fans turned off. On the other hand, we must also be prepared for exceptions with active operation in idle or graphics cards with dual BIOS setup, from which the more powerful one never turns off the fans and they run at least at minimum speed. Finally, as with measuring the noise level in one of the tests, we also record the frequency response of whining coils. But don’t expect any dramatic differences here. It will usually be one frequency, and the goal is rather to detect any potential anomalies. The sound of the whining coils is of course variable, depending on the scene, but we always measure in the same scene (in CS:GO@1080p).

The Radeon RX 6900 XT Toxic LE in the company of other graphics cards will not be overlooked. The 360-millimeter liquid GPU cooling is a rare thing that will definitely attract attention. Still, it’s a rather controversial piece of hardware. There are several reasons to opt for this madness (in a good way). But it is also necessary to know about certain flaws that it has. We need to be demanding and strict in this price category.

Methodology: temperature tests

We’re also bringing you temperature tests. You are at HWCooling after all. However, in order to make it sensible at all to monitor temperatures on critical components not only of the graphics card, but anything in the computer, it is important to simulate a real computer case environment with healthy air circulation. The overall behavior of the graphics card as such then follows from this. In many cases, an open bench-table is inappropriate and results can be distorted. Therefore, during all, not only heat tests, but also measurement of consumption or course of graphics core frequencies, we use a wind tunnel with equilibrium flow.

Two Noctua NF-S12A fans are at the inlet and the same number is on the exhaust. When testing various system cooling configurations, this proved to be the most effective solution. The fans are always set to 5 V and the speed corresponds to approx. 550 rpm. The stability of the inlet air is properly controlled during the tests, the temperature being between 21 and 21.3 °C at a humidity of ±40%.

We read the temperature from the internal sensors via GPU-Z. This small, single-purpose application also allows you to record samples from sensors in a table. From the table, it is then easy to create line graphs with waveforms or the average value into bar graphs. We will not use the thermal camera very much here, as most graphics cards have a backplate, which makes it impossible to measure the PCB heating. The key for the heating graphs will be the temperature reading by internal sensors, according to which, after all, the GPU frequency control also takes place. It will always be the heating of the graphics core, and if the sensors are also on VRAM and VRM, we will extract these values into the article as well.

The Radeon RX 6900 XT Toxic LE in the company of other graphics cards will not be overlooked. The 360-millimeter liquid GPU cooling is a rare thing that will definitely attract attention. Still, it’s a rather controversial piece of hardware. There are several reasons to opt for this madness (in a good way). But it is also necessary to know about certain flaws that it has. We need to be demanding and strict in this price category.

Test rig

Note.: At the time of testing, graphics drivers AMD Adrenalin 21.3.2 are used and the OS Windows 10 Enterprise build is 19042.

The Radeon RX 6900 XT Toxic LE in the company of other graphics cards will not be overlooked. The 360-millimeter liquid GPU cooling is a rare thing that will definitely attract attention. Still, it’s a rather controversial piece of hardware. There are several reasons to opt for this madness (in a good way). But it is also necessary to know about certain flaws that it has. We need to be demanding and strict in this price category.

3DMark

For the tests we’re using 3DMark Professional and the Night Raid (DirectX12) is suitable for comparing weaker GPUs, for more powerful ones there is Fire Strike (DirectX11) and Time Spy (DirectX12).

The Radeon RX 6900 XT Toxic LE in the company of other graphics cards will not be overlooked. The 360-millimeter liquid GPU cooling is a rare thing that will definitely attract attention. Still, it’s a rather controversial piece of hardware. There are several reasons to opt for this madness (in a good way). But it is also necessary to know about certain flaws that it has. We need to be demanding and strict in this price category.

Age of Empires II: DE

Test platform benchmark, API DirectX 11; graphics settings preset Ultra; no extra settings.

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The Radeon RX 6900 XT Toxic LE in the company of other graphics cards will not be overlooked. The 360-millimeter liquid GPU cooling is a rare thing that will definitely attract attention. Still, it’s a rather controversial piece of hardware. There are several reasons to opt for this madness (in a good way). But it is also necessary to know about certain flaws that it has. We need to be demanding and strict in this price category.

Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla

Test platform benchmark; API DirectX 12; graphics settings preset Ultra High; no extra settings.

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The Radeon RX 6900 XT Toxic LE in the company of other graphics cards will not be overlooked. The 360-millimeter liquid GPU cooling is a rare thing that will definitely attract attention. Still, it’s a rather controversial piece of hardware. There are several reasons to opt for this madness (in a good way). But it is also necessary to know about certain flaws that it has. We need to be demanding and strict in this price category.

Battlefield V

Test platform custom scene (War stories/Under no flag); API DirectX 12, graphics settings preset Ultra; TAA high; no extra settings.

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The Radeon RX 6900 XT Toxic LE in the company of other graphics cards will not be overlooked. The 360-millimeter liquid GPU cooling is a rare thing that will definitely attract attention. Still, it’s a rather controversial piece of hardware. There are several reasons to opt for this madness (in a good way). But it is also necessary to know about certain flaws that it has. We need to be demanding and strict in this price category.

Battlefield V with DXR

Test platform custom scene (War stories/Under no flag); API DirectX 12, graphics settings preset Ultra; TAA high; extra settings DXR.

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Note: The game also supports DLSS for upscaling and sharpening, but due to the relatively low hardware requirements in the native settings, we will not address them in standard tests. However, measurements on request are possible if you ask for it.

The Radeon RX 6900 XT Toxic LE in the company of other graphics cards will not be overlooked. The 360-millimeter liquid GPU cooling is a rare thing that will definitely attract attention. Still, it’s a rather controversial piece of hardware. There are several reasons to opt for this madness (in a good way). But it is also necessary to know about certain flaws that it has. We need to be demanding and strict in this price category.

Borderlands 3

Test platform benchmark; API DirectX 12, graphics settings preset Ultra; TAA; no extra settings.

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The Radeon RX 6900 XT Toxic LE in the company of other graphics cards will not be overlooked. The 360-millimeter liquid GPU cooling is a rare thing that will definitely attract attention. Still, it’s a rather controversial piece of hardware. There are several reasons to opt for this madness (in a good way). But it is also necessary to know about certain flaws that it has. We need to be demanding and strict in this price category.

Control

Test platform custom scene (chapter Polaris); API DirectX 11, graphics settings preset High; no extra settings.

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The Radeon RX 6900 XT Toxic LE in the company of other graphics cards will not be overlooked. The 360-millimeter liquid GPU cooling is a rare thing that will definitely attract attention. Still, it’s a rather controversial piece of hardware. There are several reasons to opt for this madness (in a good way). But it is also necessary to know about certain flaws that it has. We need to be demanding and strict in this price category.

Control with DXR

Test platform custom scene (chapter Polaris); API DirectX 12, graphics settings preset High; extra settings DXR.

   

DXR (native)

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The Radeon RX 6900 XT Toxic LE in the company of other graphics cards will not be overlooked. The 360-millimeter liquid GPU cooling is a rare thing that will definitely attract attention. Still, it’s a rather controversial piece of hardware. There are several reasons to opt for this madness (in a good way). But it is also necessary to know about certain flaws that it has. We need to be demanding and strict in this price category.

Counter-Strike: GO

Test platform benchmark (Dust 2 map tour); API DirectX 9, graphics settings preset High; 4× MSAA; no extra settings.

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The Radeon RX 6900 XT Toxic LE in the company of other graphics cards will not be overlooked. The 360-millimeter liquid GPU cooling is a rare thing that will definitely attract attention. Still, it’s a rather controversial piece of hardware. There are several reasons to opt for this madness (in a good way). But it is also necessary to know about certain flaws that it has. We need to be demanding and strict in this price category.

Cyberpunk 2077

Test platform custom scene (Little China); API DirectX 12, graphics settings preset Ultra; no extra settings.

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The Radeon RX 6900 XT Toxic LE in the company of other graphics cards will not be overlooked. The 360-millimeter liquid GPU cooling is a rare thing that will definitely attract attention. Still, it’s a rather controversial piece of hardware. There are several reasons to opt for this madness (in a good way). But it is also necessary to know about certain flaws that it has. We need to be demanding and strict in this price category.

Cyberpunk 2077 with FidelityFX CAS

Test platform custom scene (Little China); API DirectX 12, graphics settings preset Ultra; extra settings FidelityFX CAS.

FidelityFX CAS (50 %)

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The Radeon RX 6900 XT Toxic LE in the company of other graphics cards will not be overlooked. The 360-millimeter liquid GPU cooling is a rare thing that will definitely attract attention. Still, it’s a rather controversial piece of hardware. There are several reasons to opt for this madness (in a good way). But it is also necessary to know about certain flaws that it has. We need to be demanding and strict in this price category.

Cyberpunk 2077 with DXR

Test platform custom scene (Little China); API DirectX 12, graphics settings preset Ultra; extra settings DXR with DLSS and FidelityFX CAS.

DXR

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Note: The combination of ray-tracing graphics with FidelityFX CAS does not work stably. Although the GPU renders a few frames, then the image freezes and the game crashes. We’ve discussed it before in a separate article, where we wrote about how the new patch 1.2 affected the performance. Among other things, it introduced ray tracing support for Radeon.

The Radeon RX 6900 XT Toxic LE in the company of other graphics cards will not be overlooked. The 360-millimeter liquid GPU cooling is a rare thing that will definitely attract attention. Still, it’s a rather controversial piece of hardware. There are several reasons to opt for this madness (in a good way). But it is also necessary to know about certain flaws that it has. We need to be demanding and strict in this price category.

DOOM Eternal

Test platform custom scene; API Vulkan, graphics settings preset Ultra Nightmare; no extra settings.

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The Radeon RX 6900 XT Toxic LE in the company of other graphics cards will not be overlooked. The 360-millimeter liquid GPU cooling is a rare thing that will definitely attract attention. Still, it’s a rather controversial piece of hardware. There are several reasons to opt for this madness (in a good way). But it is also necessary to know about certain flaws that it has. We need to be demanding and strict in this price category.

F1 2020

Test platform benchmark (Australia, Clear/Dry, Cycle); API DirectX 12, graphics settings preset Ultra High; TAA; extra settings Skidmarks blending off*.

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*on GeForce graphics cards, the Skidmarks blending option is disabled. This option is missing on AMD graphics cards. However, the overall quality of Skidmarks is otherwise set to High on both GeForce and AMD.
Note: The game also supports DLSS 2.0 and FidelityFX for upscaling and sharpening, but due to the relatively low hardware requirements in the native settings, we will not address them in standard tests. However, measurements on request are possible if you ask for it.

The Radeon RX 6900 XT Toxic LE in the company of other graphics cards will not be overlooked. The 360-millimeter liquid GPU cooling is a rare thing that will definitely attract attention. Still, it’s a rather controversial piece of hardware. There are several reasons to opt for this madness (in a good way). But it is also necessary to know about certain flaws that it has. We need to be demanding and strict in this price category.

FIFA 21

Test platform custom scene (Autumn/Fall, Overcast, 9pm, Old Trafford); API DirectX 12, graphics settings preset Ultra; no extra settings.

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The Radeon RX 6900 XT Toxic LE in the company of other graphics cards will not be overlooked. The 360-millimeter liquid GPU cooling is a rare thing that will definitely attract attention. Still, it’s a rather controversial piece of hardware. There are several reasons to opt for this madness (in a good way). But it is also necessary to know about certain flaws that it has. We need to be demanding and strict in this price category.

Forza Horizon 4

Test platform custom scene; API DirectX 12, graphics settings preset Ultra; 2× MSAA; no extra settings.

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The Radeon RX 6900 XT Toxic LE in the company of other graphics cards will not be overlooked. The 360-millimeter liquid GPU cooling is a rare thing that will definitely attract attention. Still, it’s a rather controversial piece of hardware. There are several reasons to opt for this madness (in a good way). But it is also necessary to know about certain flaws that it has. We need to be demanding and strict in this price category.

Mafia: DE

Test platform custom scene (from the Salieri’s Bar parking lot to the elevated railway gate); API DirectX 11, graphics settings preset High; no extra settings.

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The Radeon RX 6900 XT Toxic LE in the company of other graphics cards will not be overlooked. The 360-millimeter liquid GPU cooling is a rare thing that will definitely attract attention. Still, it’s a rather controversial piece of hardware. There are several reasons to opt for this madness (in a good way). But it is also necessary to know about certain flaws that it has. We need to be demanding and strict in this price category.

Metro Exodus

Test platform benchmark; API DirectX 12, graphics settings preset Extreme; no extra settings.

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The Radeon RX 6900 XT Toxic LE in the company of other graphics cards will not be overlooked. The 360-millimeter liquid GPU cooling is a rare thing that will definitely attract attention. Still, it’s a rather controversial piece of hardware. There are several reasons to opt for this madness (in a good way). But it is also necessary to know about certain flaws that it has. We need to be demanding and strict in this price category.

Metro Exodus with DXR

Test platform benchmark; API DirectX 12, graphics settings preset Ultra; extra settings DXR.

DXR (native)

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The Radeon RX 6900 XT Toxic LE in the company of other graphics cards will not be overlooked. The 360-millimeter liquid GPU cooling is a rare thing that will definitely attract attention. Still, it’s a rather controversial piece of hardware. There are several reasons to opt for this madness (in a good way). But it is also necessary to know about certain flaws that it has. We need to be demanding and strict in this price category.

Microsoft Flight Simulator

Test platform custom scene (Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Air Traffic: AI, February 14, 9:00 am) autopilot: from 1000 until hitting the terrain; API DirectX 11, graphics settings preset Ultra; TAA; extra settings Motion Blur off.

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The Radeon RX 6900 XT Toxic LE in the company of other graphics cards will not be overlooked. The 360-millimeter liquid GPU cooling is a rare thing that will definitely attract attention. Still, it’s a rather controversial piece of hardware. There are several reasons to opt for this madness (in a good way). But it is also necessary to know about certain flaws that it has. We need to be demanding and strict in this price category.

Red Dead Redemption 2 (Vulkan)

Test platform custom scene; API Vulkan, graphics settings preset Favor Quality; no extra settings.

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The Radeon RX 6900 XT Toxic LE in the company of other graphics cards will not be overlooked. The 360-millimeter liquid GPU cooling is a rare thing that will definitely attract attention. Still, it’s a rather controversial piece of hardware. There are several reasons to opt for this madness (in a good way). But it is also necessary to know about certain flaws that it has. We need to be demanding and strict in this price category.

Red Dead Redemption 2 (Dx12)

Test platform custom scene; API DirectX 12, graphics settings preset Favor Quality; no extra settings.

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The Radeon RX 6900 XT Toxic LE in the company of other graphics cards will not be overlooked. The 360-millimeter liquid GPU cooling is a rare thing that will definitely attract attention. Still, it’s a rather controversial piece of hardware. There are several reasons to opt for this madness (in a good way). But it is also necessary to know about certain flaws that it has. We need to be demanding and strict in this price category.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

Test platform custom scene; API DirectX 12, graphics settings preset Highest; TAA; no extra settings.

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The Radeon RX 6900 XT Toxic LE in the company of other graphics cards will not be overlooked. The 360-millimeter liquid GPU cooling is a rare thing that will definitely attract attention. Still, it’s a rather controversial piece of hardware. There are several reasons to opt for this madness (in a good way). But it is also necessary to know about certain flaws that it has. We need to be demanding and strict in this price category.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider with DXR

Test platform benchmark; API DirectX 12, graphics settings preset Highest; extra settings DXR.

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Note: This game also supports DLSS and FidelityFX CAS, but since this is an older title and there are more than enough tests, we will not address this setting in standard tests. However, testing on request is possible if you ask for it.

The Radeon RX 6900 XT Toxic LE in the company of other graphics cards will not be overlooked. The 360-millimeter liquid GPU cooling is a rare thing that will definitely attract attention. Still, it’s a rather controversial piece of hardware. There are several reasons to opt for this madness (in a good way). But it is also necessary to know about certain flaws that it has. We need to be demanding and strict in this price category.

Total War Saga: Troy

Test platform benchmark; API DirectX 11, graphics settings preset Ultra; 4× AA, no extra settings.

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The Radeon RX 6900 XT Toxic LE in the company of other graphics cards will not be overlooked. The 360-millimeter liquid GPU cooling is a rare thing that will definitely attract attention. Still, it’s a rather controversial piece of hardware. There are several reasons to opt for this madness (in a good way). But it is also necessary to know about certain flaws that it has. We need to be demanding and strict in this price category.

Wasteland 3

Test platform custom scene; API DirectX 11, graphics settings preset Ultra; no extra settings.

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The Radeon RX 6900 XT Toxic LE in the company of other graphics cards will not be overlooked. The 360-millimeter liquid GPU cooling is a rare thing that will definitely attract attention. Still, it’s a rather controversial piece of hardware. There are several reasons to opt for this madness (in a good way). But it is also necessary to know about certain flaws that it has. We need to be demanding and strict in this price category.

Overall game performance

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Performance per euro

The Radeon RX 6900 XT Toxic LE in the company of other graphics cards will not be overlooked. The 360-millimeter liquid GPU cooling is a rare thing that will definitely attract attention. Still, it’s a rather controversial piece of hardware. There are several reasons to opt for this madness (in a good way). But it is also necessary to know about certain flaws that it has. We need to be demanding and strict in this price category.

CompuBench 2.0 (OpenCL)

Test platform benchmark; API OpenCL; no extra settings.

Game Effects

Advanced Compute

High Quality Computer Generated Imagery and Rendering

Computer Vision

The Radeon RX 6900 XT Toxic LE in the company of other graphics cards will not be overlooked. The 360-millimeter liquid GPU cooling is a rare thing that will definitely attract attention. Still, it’s a rather controversial piece of hardware. There are several reasons to opt for this madness (in a good way). But it is also necessary to know about certain flaws that it has. We need to be demanding and strict in this price category.

SPECviewperf 2020

Test platform benchmark; API OpenGL and DirectX; no extra settings.

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SPECworkstation 3

The Radeon RX 6900 XT Toxic LE in the company of other graphics cards will not be overlooked. The 360-millimeter liquid GPU cooling is a rare thing that will definitely attract attention. Still, it’s a rather controversial piece of hardware. There are several reasons to opt for this madness (in a good way). But it is also necessary to know about certain flaws that it has. We need to be demanding and strict in this price category.

FLOPS, IOPS and memory speed tests

Test platform benchmark; app version 6.32.5600; no extra settings.

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The Radeon RX 6900 XT Toxic LE in the company of other graphics cards will not be overlooked. The 360-millimeter liquid GPU cooling is a rare thing that will definitely attract attention. Still, it’s a rather controversial piece of hardware. There are several reasons to opt for this madness (in a good way). But it is also necessary to know about certain flaws that it has. We need to be demanding and strict in this price category.

LuxMark

Test platform benchmark; API OpenCL; no extra settings.

Blender@Cycles

Test platform render BMW and Classroom; renderer Cycles, 12 tiles; extra settings OpenCL.

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The Radeon RX 6900 XT Toxic LE in the company of other graphics cards will not be overlooked. The 360-millimeter liquid GPU cooling is a rare thing that will definitely attract attention. Still, it’s a rather controversial piece of hardware. There are several reasons to opt for this madness (in a good way). But it is also necessary to know about certain flaws that it has. We need to be demanding and strict in this price category.

Blender@Radeon ProRender

Test platform render BMW and Classroom; renderer Radeon ProRender, 1024 samples; extra settings OpenCL.

Blender@Eevee

Test platform animation render Ember Forest; renderer Eevee, 350 images; extra settings OpenCL.

The Radeon RX 6900 XT Toxic LE in the company of other graphics cards will not be overlooked. The 360-millimeter liquid GPU cooling is a rare thing that will definitely attract attention. Still, it’s a rather controversial piece of hardware. There are several reasons to opt for this madness (in a good way). But it is also necessary to know about certain flaws that it has. We need to be demanding and strict in this price category.

Photo editing

Adobe Photoshop: Test platform PugetBench; no extra settings.

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Affinity Photo: Test platform built-in benchmark; no extra settings.

Adobe Lightroom: Test platform custom 1-gigabyte archive of 42 raw photos (CR2) taken on DSLR; no extra settings.

The Radeon RX 6900 XT Toxic LE in the company of other graphics cards will not be overlooked. The 360-millimeter liquid GPU cooling is a rare thing that will definitely attract attention. Still, it’s a rather controversial piece of hardware. There are several reasons to opt for this madness (in a good way). But it is also necessary to know about certain flaws that it has. We need to be demanding and strict in this price category.

Broadcasting

OBS Studio and XSplit: Test platform F1 2020 benchmark; extra settings: enabled encoders AMD VCE/Nvidia Nvenc (AVC/H.264), output resolution 2560 × 1440 px (60 fps), target bitrate 19,700 kbps.

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The Radeon RX 6900 XT Toxic LE in the company of other graphics cards will not be overlooked. The 360-millimeter liquid GPU cooling is a rare thing that will definitely attract attention. Still, it’s a rather controversial piece of hardware. There are several reasons to opt for this madness (in a good way). But it is also necessary to know about certain flaws that it has. We need to be demanding and strict in this price category.

Password cracking

Test platform Hashcat; extra settings. You can easily try the tests yourself. Just download the binary and enter the cipher you are interested in using the numeric code on the command line.

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The Radeon RX 6900 XT Toxic LE in the company of other graphics cards will not be overlooked. The 360-millimeter liquid GPU cooling is a rare thing that will definitely attract attention. Still, it’s a rather controversial piece of hardware. There are several reasons to opt for this madness (in a good way). But it is also necessary to know about certain flaws that it has. We need to be demanding and strict in this price category.

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The Radeon RX 6900 XT Toxic LE in the company of other graphics cards will not be overlooked. The 360-millimeter liquid GPU cooling is a rare thing that will definitely attract attention. Still, it’s a rather controversial piece of hardware. There are several reasons to opt for this madness (in a good way). But it is also necessary to know about certain flaws that it has. We need to be demanding and strict in this price category.

GPU temperature

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The Radeon RX 6900 XT Toxic LE in the company of other graphics cards will not be overlooked. The 360-millimeter liquid GPU cooling is a rare thing that will definitely attract attention. Still, it’s a rather controversial piece of hardware. There are several reasons to opt for this madness (in a good way). But it is also necessary to know about certain flaws that it has. We need to be demanding and strict in this price category.

Net graphics power draw

Performance per watt

The Radeon RX 6900 XT Toxic LE in the company of other graphics cards will not be overlooked. The 360-millimeter liquid GPU cooling is a rare thing that will definitely attract attention. Still, it’s a rather controversial piece of hardware. There are several reasons to opt for this madness (in a good way). But it is also necessary to know about certain flaws that it has. We need to be demanding and strict in this price category.

Analysis of 12 V subcircuit power supply (higher load)

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The Radeon RX 6900 XT Toxic LE in the company of other graphics cards will not be overlooked. The 360-millimeter liquid GPU cooling is a rare thing that will definitely attract attention. Still, it’s a rather controversial piece of hardware. There are several reasons to opt for this madness (in a good way). But it is also necessary to know about certain flaws that it has. We need to be demanding and strict in this price category.

Analysis of 12 V subcircuit power supply (lower load)

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The Radeon RX 6900 XT Toxic LE in the company of other graphics cards will not be overlooked. The 360-millimeter liquid GPU cooling is a rare thing that will definitely attract attention. Still, it’s a rather controversial piece of hardware. There are several reasons to opt for this madness (in a good way). But it is also necessary to know about certain flaws that it has. We need to be demanding and strict in this price category.

Analysis of 3.3 V subcircuit power supply

The Radeon RX 6900 XT Toxic LE in the company of other graphics cards will not be overlooked. The 360-millimeter liquid GPU cooling is a rare thing that will definitely attract attention. Still, it’s a rather controversial piece of hardware. There are several reasons to opt for this madness (in a good way). But it is also necessary to know about certain flaws that it has. We need to be demanding and strict in this price category.

Noise level

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The Radeon RX 6900 XT Toxic LE in the company of other graphics cards will not be overlooked. The 360-millimeter liquid GPU cooling is a rare thing that will definitely attract attention. Still, it’s a rather controversial piece of hardware. There are several reasons to opt for this madness (in a good way). But it is also necessary to know about certain flaws that it has. We need to be demanding and strict in this price category.

Frequency response of sound

Measurements are performed in the TrueRTA application, which records sound in a range of 240 frequencies in the recorded range of 20–20,000 Hz. For the possibility of comparison across articles, we export the dominant frequency from the low (20–200 Hz), medium (201–2,000 Hz) and high (2,001–20,000 Hz) range to standard bar graphs. However, for an even more detailed analysis of the sound expression, it is important to perceive the overall shape of the graph and the intensity of all frequencies/tones. If you don’t understand something in the graphs or tables below, you’ll find the answers to all your questions in this article. This explains how to read the measured data below correctly.

   

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*With the Sapphire RX 6900 XT Toxic LE, as with the only tested graphics card, the spectral analysis also includes the sound of the water pump.

The Radeon RX 6900 XT Toxic LE in the company of other graphics cards will not be overlooked. The 360-millimeter liquid GPU cooling is a rare thing that will definitely attract attention. Still, it’s a rather controversial piece of hardware. There are several reasons to opt for this madness (in a good way). But it is also necessary to know about certain flaws that it has. We need to be demanding and strict in this price category.

Conclusion

The RX 6900 XT Toxic LE has ranked first in performance tests among the Radeons. The difference in average gaming performance compared to the reference RX 6800 XT ranges from very small (1% in FHD) to quite decent (11% in UHD), but this is not enough compared to the competing GeForce RTX 3090. The performance is balanced only when ReBAR is active on the RX 6900 XT Toxic LE and inactive on RTX 3090 (Gaming X Trio). This is, of course, an unfair and senseless comparison. But at least it gives us an idea.

In Borderlands 3, the performance compared to the RX 6800 XT is 20–23% higher, in Cyberpunk 2077 it’s similar. Ray tracing is a struggle in this game, even in Full HD. But Battlefield V in QHD with RT looks quite smooth, similar to Shadow of the Tomb Raider. It may be not enough for the RTX 3080, but it beats the RTX 3070 here. In Control, the performance is comparable.

SAM (ReBAR) optimization can be noticed in DOOM Eternal, where there is already a clearly measurable increase in performance, although you will not miss it in this game under any circumstances. Even in UHD resolution, it reaches around 200 fps. Noticeable improvement can be also spotted in Mafia: DE. The RX 6900 XT (Toxic LE) is, however, not enough for the RTX 3080 (Gaming X Trio). Only that you use TriXX Boost, which, however, reduces the image quality to achieve higher fps. And watch out for this feature in third-party tests, Sapphire requires reviewers to use this exclusive technique.

In non-gaming tests, the RX 6900 XT in Blender (Cycles, Radeon Pro Render) leads by 3–5% over the RX 6800 XT. But more interesting is the performance increase in decryption, which is typically over 10% and gets closer to 20% with some ciphers. However, the GeForce RTX 3090 is always significantly faster, and if you take into account the exclusive support of CUDA, OptiX or DLSS, the GeForce card is a more attractive card for similar money. This Radeon also has a worse price/performance ratio, both in terms of gaming and computing.

The unnecessarily noisy cooler is a whole ‘nother level (in a negative way). And it doesn’t matter if you set the “silent” or “powerful” BIOS mode, the result is roughly the same. The temperature is despite the high TDP of roughly 360 W still relatively low and the fans could easily run slower. However, it is always possible to adjust the PWM control curve manually. But what you can’t affect is the gently groaning pump. Avid gamers won’t mind, but someone with a computer for work could have reservations. Of course, the pump also runs at no load when the fans are in passive mode.

The Sapphire graphics card in a gaming rig also stands out with its outstanding RGB LED lighting. This card will be especially attractive for the most demanding fans of Assassin Creed: Valhalla, where it gives unrivaled performance. The frame rate stays above 60 fps even at the highest settings in UHD resolution (3840 × 2160 px).

At last, it should be noted that the GPU’s game clock speed varies according to the load between 2400–2450 MHz. This can be an advantage over typically cheaper versions. Without ray-tracing graphics, the performance of the RX 6900 XT Toxic LE is also suitable for playing in 4K resolution.

We’ve got the games for our tests from Jama levova

• Contents
• Sapphire RX 6900 Toxic LE in detail
• Table of specifications
• Methodology: performance tests
• Methodology: how we measure power draw
• Methodology: noise and sound measurement
• Methodology: temperature tests
• Test rig
• 3DMark
• Age of Empires II: DE
• Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla
• Battlefield V
• Battlefield V with DXR
• Borderlands 3
• Control
• Control with DXR
• Counter-Strike: GO
• Cyberpunk 2077
• Cyberpunk 2077 with FidelityFX CAS
• Cyberpunk 2077 with DXR
• DOOM Eternal
• F1 2020
• FIFA 21
• Forza Horizon 4
• Mafia: DE
• Metro Exodus
• Metro Exodus with DXR
• Microsoft Flight Simulator
• Red Dead Redemption 2 (Vulkan)
• Red Dead Redemption 2 (Dx12)
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider with DXR
• Total War Saga: Troy
• Wasteland 3
• Overall game performance and performance per euro
• CompuBench (OpenCL)
• SPECviewperf 2020 and SPECworkstation 3
• FLOPS, IOPS and memory speed tests
• 3D rendering 1/2 (LuxMark and Blender@Cycles)
• 3D rendering 2/2 (Blender@Radeon ProRender and Eevee)
• Photo editing (Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom a Affinity Photo)
• Broadcasting (OBS and Xsplit)
• Password cracking
• GPU clock speed
• GPU temperature
• Net graphics power draw and performance per watt
• Analysis of 12 V subcircuit power supply (higher load)
• Analysis of 12 V subcircuit power supply (lower load)
• Analysis of 3.3 V subcircuit power supply
• Noise level
• Frequency response of sound
• Conclusion