Final words and conclusion

Final words

The all-new NITRO+ PURE is a stunning piece of equipment, the second you have it in your hands, you'll be impressed. With an out-of-the-box boost clock of 2,368MHz higher energy allowance and faster memory make this is a super fast Radeon.  It outperforms the RX 6900 XT by exposing the full power of the Big Navi die and utilising 512 additional shaders, keep in mind that it is an overall 11% increase whilst sometimes running upwards to 15% Yeah, the memory tweak, plus serious clock frequency bump as well as an extra extended power range for this MSI card, can bring in 15 to 20% performance extra, as seen from the 6900 XT reference, and that is huge. See if a 6900 XT normally renders say 175 FPS it will now breach up-to even 210 FPS. And that certainly shifts the dynamic into AMD's favor compared to team green. So overall this card performs brilliantly until you flick on Raytracing that is. It's the main Achilles heel for AMD rDNA2 right now.

Cooling & acoustic

The Sapphire Radeon RX 6950 XT NITRO+ PURE performs normal in temperatures, owing to that massive cooler, of course. You're unlikely to hear the card, and that is the truth as 32~33 DBa in performance BIOS mode simply put, is silent. And, with a GPU capable of producing 400W450W of heat beneath the hood, that's quite a feat. Additionally, the board examination reveals that all important components are cooled in some way. 

Energy

Heat output and energy consumption are closely related to each other, as (graphics) processors and heat can be perceived as a 1:1 state; 250 Watts in energy consumption approaches close to 250 Watts in heat as output. This is the basis of TDP. AMD is listing the card at 325W, which is okay at best for a graphics card in the year 2022. We measure numbers far above the XT's advertised reference values; we measure the entire power consumption of the card to close in at a staggering 370 Watt, that's total board power not TGP (fans and RGB can easily utilize ~15 Watts). We recorded small spikes to pass 400 Watt.  

Coil whine

Like any other modern card, the Sapphire Radeon RX 6950 XT NITRO+ PURE exhibits some coil squeal, but only at very small levels. Is it troubling? To be sure, it is at a decibel level that is hardly audible. That noise would fade into the background in a closed chassis. However, with an open chassis, coil whine/squeal can be heard. All graphics cards do this in some degree, particularly at high framerates; this is perceptible.

Pricing

In the past have been quite outspoken about the horror prices of the past two years. While advertised at 1099 USD for the reference model. The model listed and tested today under SKU code 11317-04-20G, will cost $1,249. That's an MSRP though, you may anticipate pricing for this AIB card ranging between 1250 and 1500 USD, depending on availability. The reference design cards are not seeded to media, but we expect them to be silent, perform somewhat poorer than the reference design cards, but bring greater value for money, and that is true. Of course, we recognize that this is the premium area of graphics cards, where prices are always quite low.

Tweaking

The Sapphire Radeon RX 6950 XT NITRO+ PURE card really surprised me. GPU tweaking wise we'd reach a proper 2850 MHz on AMD's finest and biggest enabled GPU. That's without anomalies and crashes whatsoever. Depending on load, game/app, and board assigned power, we now see the dynamic clock frequency hovering in the 2800~2900  MHz range. The memory disappointed a little bit though, we ended at 19.200 Mhz effective. The biggest gain you'll however retrieve out of the TGP increase, you can assign up to 20% additional energy allowance, and that does show in the end result This has been the fasted card manually tweaked we've tested to date. Reltiveness then; all that tweaking and extra energy consumption will bring you a max of 5~10% extra performance at best, seen from reference. For an overclock to be successfully listed here, it needs to pass 4 game runs (different games) in ultra HD to be deemed stable.

Conclusion

Sapphire offers a threefold choice of custom boards available to make the most of RDNA 2's capability, led by the premium Nitro+ Pure. Sapphire's adaption fits to the RX 6900 objective by giving good performance at QHD and 4K UHD. It is attractive in design and securely made throughout. Such qualities are expected, and while Sapphire's out-of-the-box performance differential is modest, some features let the custom card stand out compared to a base model. The RGB lighting is well-executed, the dual BIOS is useful, and the noise levels, or lack thereof, are the lowest we've encountered from a high-end graphics card. Having said that, we're pleasantly surprised and even a little awed by what Sapphire has to offer here. This is a factory-tweaked product refresh that is actually impressive. Compared to a reference 6900 XT, any reference 6950 XT can see a performance gain of up to 10%. Sapphire allows for increased power consumption and a higher maximum boost clock. All that results in yet another performance increase. So in the long haul, if a 6900 XT pushes 200 FPS, a card like this can reach 230~240 FPS, and that is a serious incremental number. What also helps AMD is that SAM works out better and better for AMD, opposed to NVIDIA which hardly benefits from it with their Ampere-based cards. The GAMING X TRIO is premium and unique in a number of ways. Sapphire did an excellent job with the hardware and manufacturing. Factory-tuned performance is disputed and debatable these days; after all, you can modify these cards yourself, so does it deserve the higher price tag over a more expensive OC edition? If the price of this product is too much for you, you can always buy a reference card or, if you like red, go back to the 6750 or 6800 XT. Apart from the price point, we're pleased with this card's performance and its truly lovely design.

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- Hilbert, LOAD"*",8,1.