AMD RX 6900XT Screams at 3.3 GHz, Breaking Another World Record

AMD
(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

AMD’s Radeon RX 6900XT has once again broken the world record for the highest frequency possibly on a GPU. Overclocking group OGS managed to squeeze a whopping 3.3 GHz out of the 6900XT, one of the best graphics cards with liquid nitrogen, breaking the current 3.2 GHz GPU clock speed record held by OCer Der8auer on the same Powercolor Red Devil Ultimate RX 6900XT GPU.

OGS tested the 6900XT in Fire Strike Extreme, where the GPU managed a score of 37618 points. That's an excellent score for a single GPU, and you'll need a multi-GPU setup to beat that score if you aren’t using liquid nitrogen.

3.3 GHz is an amazing achievement for AMD’s TSMC fabricated RDNA2 GPUs. When AMD’s RX 6000 series GPUs first launched, they were already hitting frequencies well above 2.5 GHz, something Nvidia’s latest Ampere GPUs (built on Samsung 8nm) simply cannot compete with (without exotic cooling, Ampere's clock speeds barely hit 2 GHz).

What’s most interesting is that AMD’s RDNA2 architecture could have much more headroom than even 3.3GHz. Overclocker Der8auer, in a video showcasing his 3.2GHz 6900XT overclock, mentioned AMD’s use of an artificial clock limiter on most of the AIB partner cards and reference cards, which limits the cards to around 3 GHz.

However, the PowerColor RX 6900XT Liquid Devil Ultimate card Der8auer used has an artificial clock limit of 4.0 GHz. That means we could see even higher frequencies in the future from the RX 6000 series.

These artificial clock limiters from AMD could also hint at what the future holds for AMD’s RDNA3 and future product lines as well. If RDNA2 can already scale to 3.3 GHz on liquid nitrogen, who knows how quickly we’ll reach the 4.0 GHz barrier on future nodes and architecture, whether that be from AMD or Nvidia.

Aaron Klotz
Contributing Writer

Aaron Klotz is a contributing writer for Tom’s Hardware, covering news related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.

  • kaalus
    That doesn't bode well for AMD. Nvidia is beating them using an inferior process...
    Reply
  • BeedooX
    kaalus said:
    That doesn't bode well for AMD. Nvidia is beating them using an inferior process...
    Yeah I think you're on wrong track with that level of thinking as they're completely different architectures for a start.
    Reply
  • spentshells
    kaalus said:
    That doesn't bode well for AMD. Nvidia is beating them using an inferior process...
    Also using substantially more resources to accomplish it.
    Reply
  • escksu
    kaalus said:
    That doesn't bode well for AMD. Nvidia is beating them using an inferior process...

    Well, nvidia has 2 major features, 1 is DLSS, another is ray tracing. Right now, no games seems to support fideltyfx. But bigger problem is no cards......
    Reply
  • Conahl
    escksu said:
    Well, nvidia has 2 major features, 1 is DLSS, another is ray tracing
    and if none of the games a person currently plays, doesnt use RT, or the card can handle the res and graphics options just fine at native rez of the screen the person is using, those " 2 major features " become moot.
    Reply
  • VforV
    kaalus said:
    That doesn't bode well for AMD. Nvidia is beating them using an inferior process...
    Only in sale numbers it beats them, take a look at newer benchmarks, not those from launch and you can see dozens of games where AMD beats nvidia even by a big margin.

    It's more like a 50/50 situation depending on the game.

    As for the lack of DLSS, well DSR, it's coming next month - quite a few leakers already said so...
    Reply
  • BeedooX
    escksu said:
    Right now, no games seems to support fideltyfx....
    Where do you even find this information, even I've heard there are about 40+ games supporting FidelityFX - not that I'd knowingly use it even I had a game with it.
    Reply
  • JarredWaltonGPU
    BeedooX said:
    Where do you even find this information, even I've heard there are about 40+ games supporting FidelityFX - not that I'd knowingly use it even I had a game with it.
    He means FidelitFX Super Resolution, which is obviously different from FidelityFX in general, as well as from the majority that support either FidelityFX CAS (Contrast Aware Sharpening) or FidelityFX AO (yeah, there's a special variant of Ambient Occlusion for FidelityFX now, I'm not sure how different it is from the other forms of AO though). Right now, FSR has not been officially launched or used in any games.
    Reply
  • Friesiansam
    Who really cares about things like this, except hardcore overclockers?
    Reply
  • Homer J.
    I do not really care if RX 6900 XT can run on 3,3 Ghz or a Trillion Ghz. I own a 3080 payed 700 bucks for it, and ray tracing is, drop dead gorgeous. Once you have seen it, you want it, everyone who says otherwise is a liar. I know AMD fellowship has become a religion, but I have bad news for you. While real religion at least promises you some salvation in the afterlife, AMD or NVIDIA worshiping promises you only a dent in your wallet. I find far less Isis level NVIDIA fanboys that AMD ones. Fun fact, I own a Ryzen 3900 CPU, yet I can still make rational judgements. Why can´t you?
    Reply