Radeon RX 6800 XT Roundup: Here Are The Fastest Models

By Zhiye Liu
last updated

Feel the need for speed? These new RX 6800 XT cards can help.

Radeon RX 6800 XT

Radeon RX 6800 XT (Image credit: AMD)

AMD's Radeon RX 6800 XT and RX 6800 (Big Navi) are two of the best graphics cards that money can buy right now and rank at the top of our GPU benchmarks. However, the custom models are where the real performance is really at. AMD's partners have launched their personalized iterations today, which are available for purchase at different retailers around the country.

It goes without saying that there is a vast offering of Radeon RX 6800 XT and RX 6800 graphics cards on the market now. We've put together a roundup of models whose specifications are available, for those of you who want to know which vendor offers the fastest graphics cards. The graphics cards are ranked them according to their rated clock speeds without taking into consideration their aesthetics, cooling solution or pricing.

It is undoubtedly difficult to find these cards in stock. For your best chance, see our article on how and where to buy a Radeon RX 6800 XT or RX 6800.

Fastest Radeon RX 6800 XT On The Market

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Graphics CardBoost Clock (GHz)Game Clock (GHz)
ASRock Radeon RX 6800 XT Taichi X2,3602,110
Asus Strix LC Radeon RX 6800 XT Gaming2,3602,110
Sapphire Nitro+ AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT SE2,3602,110
Sapphire Nitro+ AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT2,3602,110
Asus TUF Gaming Radeon RX 6800 XT2,3402,090
PowerColor Red Devil Radeon RX 6800 XT Limited Edition2,3402,090
PowerColor Red Devil Radeon RX 6800 XT2,3402,090
XFX Speedster Merc319 Radeon RX 6800 XT Black2,3402,090
ASRock Radeon RX 6800 XT Phantom Gaming D2,3102,065
PowerColor Red Dragon Radeon RX 6800 XT2,3102,065
Sapphire Pulse AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT2,3102,065
Gigabyte Radeon RX 6800 XT Gaming OC2,2852,045
Gigabyte Radeon RX 6800 XT2,2502,015

The top Radeon RX 6800 XT models come with a 2,110 MHz game clock and 2,350 MHz boost clock. The ASRock Radeon RX 6800 XT Taichi X, Asus Strix LC Radeon RX 6800 XT Gaming, Sapphire Nitro+ AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT SE and Sapphire Nitro+ AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT stand out from the crowd.

At $769.99 (opens in new tab), the Sapphire Nitro+ AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT is the least expensive one out of the four. The special edition of Sapphire's model retails for $829.99 (opens in new tab), while the ASRock Radeon RX 6800 XT Taichi X and Asus Strix LC Radeon RX 6800 XT Gaming cost $829.99 (opens in new tab) and $899.99 (opens in new tab), respectively.

Fastest Radeon RX 6800 On The Market

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Graphics CardBoost Clock (GHz)Game Clock (GHz)
ASRock Radeon RX 6800 Phantom Gaming D2,1901,980
Asus ROG Strix Radeon RX 6800 Gaming2,1901,980
Asus TUF Gaming Radeon RX 68002,1901,980
Sapphire Nitro+ AMD Radeon RX 68002,1901,980
PowerColor Red Devil Radeon RX 6800 Limited Edition2,1901,980
PowerColor Red Devil Radeon RX 68002,1901,980
XFX Speedster Merc319 Radeon RX 6800 Black2,1901,980
PowerColor Red Dragon Radeon RX 68002,1701,950
Sapphire Pulse AMD Radeon RX 68002,1701,950
Gigabyte Radeon RX 6800 Gaming OC2,1551,925
ASRock Radeon RX 6800 Challenger Pro2,1401,905
Gigabyte Radeon RX 68002,1051,815

With the Radeon RX 6800, the list of speediest models jumps up to seven, which is good since consumers have more options to choose from. The candidates share the same clock speeds, promising a 1,980 MHz game clock and 2,190 MHz boost clock.

Admittedly, retailers haven't listed the majority of the custom Radeon RX 6800 models. Out of the list of seven models, the ASRock Radeon RX 6800 Phantom Gaming D (opens in new tab) and the Asus TUF Gaming Radeon RX 6800 (opens in new tab) seem to be the most affordable at $679.99.

Zhiye Liu
Zhiye Liu
RAM Reviewer and News Editor

Zhiye Liu is a Freelance News Writer at Tom’s Hardware US. Although he loves everything that’s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.

4 Comments Comment from the forums
  • olin9
    The red devil 6800 xt is 799 thats about $130 too much. at that cost I would just buy a 3080.

    I have the red devil 5700 xt and it is fast and it was $439 at release. The only issue is the bad drivers. My system can crash upto 10 times a night.

    My system was built new last year 3700x and it had a R9 390X and never crashed.

    $630-$679 would not be too bad. No way I am paying $800 for bad drivers and crashes. I have been with AMD GPU for 15 years. time to switch
    Reply
  • Conahl
    and like others said the last time to claimed this, its probably just you, or something else with your system, but you blame amd's drivers, as replied to in this thread :
    https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/newegg-insider-reportedly-reveals-radeon-rx-6900-xt-rx-6800xt-rx-6700-xt-specifications.3649140/#post-21985251
    Reply
  • olin9
    I also said the 2x times the cost of the 5700 xt for a card that would crash is not worth it. The driver read me list that as a issue and black screen sometimes.

    Nope it could be the card. its done it since day one, The one in the system for 60 days before the 5700 xt was a AMD card (R9 390X) and it worked fine.

    The 5700 XT run fast it just crashes. it only crashed one time tonight.
    Reply
  • Avro Arrow
    olin9 said:
    I also said the 2x times the cost of the 5700 xt for a card that would crash is not worth it. The driver read me list that as a issue and black screen sometimes.

    Nope it could be the card. its done it since day one, The one in the system for 60 days before the 5700 xt was a AMD card (R9 390X) and it worked fine.

    The 5700 XT run fast it just crashes. it only crashed one time tonight.
    I had the EXACT same problem as you with my XFX RX 6800 XT Triple-Dissipation model (what a mouthful). Initially, it was fine for a bit and then it started crashing badly. We're talking green-screen, buzzing sound and full system reset. It was even doing this in older games like Bioshock Infinite and Dragon Age: Inquisition.

    I tried changing the drivers 4 times with DDU and while they could slightly change the behaviour of the crashes (black screen instead of green for instance), they couldn't stop them from happening.

    I sent my card in for an RMA because I had given up (something that I had never done before). I've been servicing my own computers since the 80s so if I couldn't fix it, there had to be something wrong with the card itself. XFX asked me to do a couple of things (which I did) but one of the things was to verify that my PSU was good. I wasn't about to take my entire system apart so what I did was I took my 5700 XT out and replaced it with one of my Sapphire R9 Fury Nitro OC+ cards.

    Now, the RX 5700 XT's TDP is 225W while the R9 Fury's TDP is 275W. I TRIED to make the R9 Fury crash. I didn't change drivers, I tabbed in and out of games, ran it at 4K medium, etc. I could not get that card to crash and my PSU is an EVGA 1000 G2 Supernova (1kW, 80+Gold) so I knew that wasn't the problem and told them so. To their credit, they readily agreed that the PSU was clearly not the issue.

    They said that they couldn't get the card to crash in benchmarks (It never crashed in benchmarks for me either) but never actually tested it in games. They said "to be safe, we'll replace your card" to which I said "that's all I want". Well, XFX's fantastic customer service is clearly still intact from when I bought my two HD 4870s because they replaced my card with a THICC III (no complaints here)! When I was installing it, I was surprised to discover that it had 2 x 8-pin PCI-E connectors instead of the 1 x 8 and 1 x 6 on the Triple Dissipation. I thought that was odd but thought "whatever" and installed it.

    Well, the difference was night and day. I've had it for about a week now and ZERO CRASHES on ANYTHING. I didn't even use DDU or anything because I wanted to see if it would crash again. It's as solid as my R9 Furies.

    I wondered if the original card was defective because I'd never seen driver problems that could cause such violent hardware crashes (I have seen automotive drivers cause violent crashes though...lol). However, after a bit of research I learned that the crashes I experienced were similar to that of a weak PSU despite the fact that I obviously don't have a weak PSU. Video cards crash hard and violently when they're improperly fed so that's interesting...

    Now, since reviewers tend to review cards that get sent to them, they would have reviewed the reference cards from ATi and only high-end AIB models. Just try to find an online review for the XFX Triple-Dissipation 5700 XT, you won't. Try to find a review for the THICC III, you won't. All you'll find is the THICC III Ultra because that's the highest-end model.

    Now, ATi would have been very meticulous about the power connectors on their cards but what if the AIBs weren't? What if there was a defect in a batch of 6-pin PCI-E female connectors? These are sold in lots of 20,000 or so and it's probably the same supplier for several of the Radeon AIB cards.

    The other possibility is that the 8+6 is sufficient for a blower or twin-fan cooling solution but just barely insufficient for a triple-fan solution (I'm just spit-balling here). I do think that this explains why people can't figure out what's causing the crashes because who would look at the power connectors like that? I sure wouldn't, but I am experienced enough to notice the new configuration and the complete lack of any issues thereafter.

    RMA your card and ask for a model with two 8-pin connectors. If you can get it, I think that will solve every problem that you've ever had with the card.
    Reply