User from the Chiphell forums has spotted an interesting Radeon RX 6900 XT over in China. The Big Navi graphics card, forms part of a pre-built gaming PC on Tmall, features an exterior that's very similar to AMD's reference design, but with added liquid cooling.
The merchant listed the graphics card as the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT LC, claiming that it's a special edition SKU. The "LC" likely stands for liquid cooling. Although the seller didn't mention the manufacturer, he did claim that this variant offers 10% higher performance than your typical Radeon RX 6900 XT. The statement lends credence to the suspicion that this liquid-cooled Radeon RX 6900 XT could be leveraging the Navi 21 XTXH silicon that has been specially binned for high clock rates.
The RDNA 2 graphics card's shroud exhibits two sleek, aluminium plates on both sides, implying that this is probably a strict liquid-cooled design rather than one of those hybrid setups that AMD's partners are so fond of. The illuminated Radeon logo still hands on the side, but it's accompanied by what appears to be a RGB LED bar for added eye candy.
The single 120mm AIO radiator certainly raises an eyebrow, though. Graphics card vendors have released the custom Radeon RX 6900 XT models with 240mm and 360mm radiators. Furthermore, the The Radeon RX 6900 XT is a 300W graphics card so we doubt the Radeon-branded 120mm radiator will suffice. The cooling solution will probably have to work hard to keep the graphics card's temperatures under control and may end up being very noisy.
Whether the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT LC is employing the Navi 21 XTXH or not, the graphics card only commands a pair of 8-pin PCIe power connectors. A 700W power supply is still the minimum capacity recommended to feed the RDNA 2 graphics card.
The jury is still out on whether we'll see the Radeon RX 6800 XT LC outside of the Asian market. Nevertheless, the odds are that this SKU could be exclusive to OEMs or system integrators.
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Zhiye Liu is a news editor, memory reviewer, and SSD tester at Tom’s Hardware. Although he loves everything that’s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.
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Phaaze88 Crap... this got me thinking: If manufacturers are skipping 280mm gpu hybrid, I'm going to have to custom cool the next gpu I get...Reply
Alphacool's new Eiswolfs are 360mm only.
:unsure: -
d0x360 ReplyPhaaze88 said:Heh, if that 120mm actually turns out to be adequate for that gpu, then this article will be another testament to Navi 21's superior power efficiency.
Crap... this got me thinking: If manufacturers are skipping 280mm gpu hybrid, I'm going to have to custom cool the next gpu I get...
Alphacool's new Eiswolfs are 360mm only.
:unsure:
It should work ok... 120mm rad isn't big but it should have enough surface area to keep the card cool enough that you can run it faster than most aib cooling setups aside from the absolute top tier ones. Of course only some real testing will show whether or not that's true. -
-Fran- If it's a hybrid solution, the 120mm (single-fan, I should say) radiator is more than plenty. This is not an Ampere card, so don't compare their needs to this gen of AMD's, please.Reply
LOL.
Regards. -
Phaaze88 Reply
I cannot help but do that, because power consumption is one of the unspoken elements in Navi 21 V Ampere debates.Yuka said:This is not an Ampere card, so don't compare their needs to this gen of AMD's, please.
And sure enough, some users have noted their rooms get rather warm with these 3080s and 3090s...
"Don't you guys/gals have A/C?" -
NightHawkRMX Not surprised. I had a GTX1080 at about 200w with a single 120mm rad (custom cooler). It ran at 49c in furmark, low 40s in games.Reply
So theoretically that same 120mm aio could take a 350w GPU without any throttling -
Phaaze88 I'd want to take it apart to be sure whether the cold plate covers the gpu die only, or both the die and Vram.Reply -
spongiemaster Reply
Efficiency doesn't matter when deciding what cooler is sufficient. It could be the most efficient GPU ever and still use 2000W's. The 6900 XT is more efficient than a 3090, but it still peaks over 300W's in gaming, which is a lot for a GPU and pushing the limits of a 120mm radiator. An "efficient" 300W GPU requires the exact same cooling capacity as an "inefficient" 300W GPU. If you were building a custom loop for this GPU, a 120mm radiator would not be recommended.Phaaze88 said:Heh, if that 120mm actually turns out to be adequate for that gpu, then this article will be another testament to Navi 21's superior power efficiency.
Crap... this got me thinking: If manufacturers are skipping 280mm gpu hybrid, I'm going to have to custom cool the next gpu I get...
Alphacool's new Eiswolfs are 360mm only.
:unsure: -
-Fran- Reply
It was just a cheap jab at the editorial wording, as 120mm rad AIO is fine as a complement (again, assuming hybrid). I do agree that it will fall short if it's the only cooling for the card, but doesn't seem to be the case; same thing as Fury X.Phaaze88 said:I cannot help but do that, because power consumption is one of the unspoken elements in Navi 21 V Ampere debates.
And sure enough, some users have noted their rooms get rather warm with these 3080s and 3090s...
"Don't you guys/gals have A/C?"
Regards. -
escksu ReplyPhaaze88 said:Heh, if that 120mm actually turns out to be adequate for that gpu, then this article will be another testament to Navi 21's superior power efficiency.
Crap... this got me thinking: If manufacturers are skipping 280mm gpu hybrid, I'm going to have to custom cool the next gpu I get...
Alphacool's new Eiswolfs are 360mm only.
:unsure:
Yes, it will work. Remember AMD's own R9 fury Back then?? It had 275W TDP and came with a 120mm liquid cooler. 6900XT is 300W, not an issue.