AMD's Rumored RX 6700 Could have a 12GB Configuration
12GB is becoming the new norm.
In a recent filing from ASUS to the ECC, Asus has revealed several new model numbers relating to the rumored RX 6700. In all of these model numbers, the amount of VRAM listed for the 6700 was 12GB, indicating that the RX 6700 could come with 12GB of VRAM like the RX 6700XT, RTX 3060 (desktop), and the rumored RX 6600XT.
Before you get your hopes up, ECC filings are very unreliable. We've seen ECC listings turn out to be false on a number of occasions. So take this data as a rumor and nothing more.
This news comes just a month after we saw ECC filings from two AIB partners, showcasing 6GB configurations for the RX 6700. What we're seeing here most likely are two VRAM configurations for the 6700, which wouldn't be surprising to see in a new mid-range part from AMD.
AMD has been selling its budget and mid-range cards with multiple memory configurations for years at this point (the RX 480 and RX 580 come to mind) to help keep its SKUs more relevant to more buyers. Having both a smaller and a larger VRAM capacity on a specific SKU can change its price quite drastically, especially when we're talking about lower-end cards.
What we don't know is how large of a price gap will exist between the 6GB model and the 12GB model, assuming two VRAM configurations come out. But, in a time where graphics cards are scarcely in stock, it's very doubtful pricing will matter. These cards will fly off of store shelves as fast as retailers can re-supply them.
AMD says it plans to have much more stock of its recently-announced RX 6700 XT than any other RX 6000 series graphics card at this point. So hopefully, this will also be the case with the RX 6700. If anything, having multiple memory configurations for the 6700 should help AMD build more graphics cards, despite the shortage of GDDR6 memory and other materials right now.
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Aaron Klotz is a contributing writer for Tom’s Hardware, covering news related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.