Asus ROG-STRIX-RX6700XT-O12G-GAMING Card (NAVI 22)

Asus Sales Spiel

"a cooling and power-performance juggernaut..."

Official Website

https://rog.asus.com/graphics-cards/graphics-cards/rog-strix/rog-strix-rx6700xt-o12g-gaming-model/

Features

Axial-tech Fan Design has been enhanced with more fan blades and a new rotation scheme plus zero rpm feature.
2.9-slot design expands cooling surface area compared to last gen for more thermal headroom than ever before.
Super Alloy Power II includes premium alloy chokes, solid polymer capacitors, and an array of high-current power stages.
MaxContact heat spreader allows 2X more contact with the GPU chip for improved thermal transfer.
A reinforced frame prevents excessive torsion and lateral bending of the PCB.
FanConnect II equips a hybrid-controlled fan header for optimal system cooling.
A vented backplate prevents hot air from recirculating through the cooling array.
12GB DDR6
HDMI 2.1
DisplayPort 1.4a
Switchable dual BIOS with out of the box SAM/ReBAR support *
PCI-e 4.0

Navi 22

aka Big Navi, RX 6000, Navi 2x, RDNA2 -TPU Specs

The official price of $479 for the AMD RX 6700 XT reference card was announced at the launch on October 28, 2020 but many moons have come and gone and the PC gaming world is a much darker place since then. Crybaby Trump is no longer POTUS of putty grabbers with Biden being here and now. And MRSP availability is as good as vapourware as global scarcity and price scalping is as real as Covid-19.

Here's sincerely wishing everyone the best of luck in getting hold of a card at some sane end-user wallet friendly price. :)

For the proper context, here's a quick look at today's kind of pricing by the big international web retailers to gauge the level of pandemic crazy we have gotten ourselves into. Yes, this is the kind of world that we have to live in today... ouch! btw, the MSRP was previously US$309.99 going by its B and H listing.

Web Reviews

This ROG-STRIX-RX6700XT-O12G-GAMING card had been launched a while back so detailed reviews with plenty of nice photos are already out there.

Techpowerup

Usual must read with nice close-up teardown photos

https://www.techpowerup.com/review/asus-radeon-rx-6700-xt-strix-oc/

IGN

https://www.ign.com/articles/asus-rog-strix-rx-6700-xt-oc-review

eTeknix

https://www.eteknix.com/asus-rog-strix-rx-6700-xt-graphics-card-review/18/

Product Availability

Local - Laz Carouhell

Elsewhere - Egg Asus Webstore both at U$830 but both are OOS!

Resizable BAR (ReBAR)/Smart Access Memory (SAM) *

TechARP Guide

A feature of PCI Express that can boost frame rates in certain games by up to 11 percent
Direct access to the GPU memory to bypass I/O bottlenecks
Allows CPUs to access the full graphics frame buffer instead of being limited to reading 256MB blocks

BAR = (Base Address Registers)

Working requirements

Suitable CPU support
Mobo BIOS support - Above 4G Decoding, Re-Size BAR Support
Video card BIOS support
Video card drivers support
OS support - disabled CSM Option hence EFI/GPT boot drive

Unboxing

Think this card is physically as long as its unwieldy official model name... Asus marketing guy/s should really 罚写一百遍 in hopes of snazzier model names in the near future.

Lightweight accessories bundle

Interesting 3 x fan configuration

Note the presence of a backplate and the absence of any "warranty void " sticker on this sample set, nice!

Longer than... say Daniel Grayling Fogelberg?

Wider than... do note the metal support frame too (running vertically right under the number 17).

Mind your P and Q please BIOS toggle switch (Performance and Quiet if you are asking)

Juice up with 2 x 8 pin power plugs

Stainless Steel 304 Backplate with the 4 video output ports, excellent corrosion resistance - click!

Test Setup

Drivers used - Adrenaline 21.3.2 beta dated 29 March 2021. Mobo BIOS used is 3401 beta AGESA 1.2.0.1 Patch A (USB bugfix and Resizable BAR for Zen 2).

Open ambient air, non-ac end March 'heaty' weather - as said detailed web reviews already exist but just how hot or noisy will this card get locally?

GPU-Z

Showing the PCI-e 4.0 bandwidth as well as the recently AMD enabled Resizable BAR for Zen 2 CPUs like this Ryzen 7 3700X. So far, everything seems to be working well without any inkling of trouble despite the beta status of both the AGESA as well as the Adrenaline drivers.

And say 안녕하세요 to the Samseng DDR6 RAM.

AIDA64 GPGPU Benchmark

GFXBench

Showing the highest temperature reached by the hotspot at just over the 80s, not bad considering our current hot spell.

1440p High Tier DX11

1440p High Tier Vulkan

SuperPosition Benchmark

Seems less intense with lower temperatures than GFXBench runs.

Shadowbringers Official Benchmark - FINAL FANTASY XIV

DX11 https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/benchmark/

Default bench settings for 1080p High Desktop

Default bench settings for 1440p High Desktop

VRMark Orange Room Bench

Compare url - https://www.3dmark.com/vrm/60177872

Temperatures And Noise

Recent weather has occasionally been rather scorching but still this card is a real joy to use with low load temperatures and practically inaudible operation. The screenshot posted earlier consistently show load temps in the low 60s which resulted in low fan rpm hence its silent running especially relative to the Wraith Prism on the Ryzen 3700X next door.

It is a testament to the excellent build and cooling qualities of its Asus ROG Strix level design.

The Zero rpm feature can be seen here in this Afterburner screenshot which registers an whole hour of nil fan movements with the GPU temps of just 50C during web surfing and downloading.

Stability

Considering the beta status of the AGESA/BIOS, new Zen 2 ReBAR feature and the AMD Adrenaline drivers, the combination looks like the perfect storm for potential issues. Yet, the test rig ran perfectly well over longish hours of benching.

Upgrading And Switching Camps?

Thought I should try out the card on a more mainstream B550 motherboard and see how easy or complicated it is to switch from a previous Nvidia card to this new AMD card. Yes, this section is targeted at the many users currently in the Green/PCI-e 3.0 camp who may be considering upgrading to the Red/PCI-e 4.0 camp.

A fresh Windows 10 20H2 installation was done with a GTX1060 card on the Asus TUF B550M Gaming WIFI motherboard as shown.

OK, everything looks installed all right with PCI-e 3.0 featured as per the older gen Nvidia Pascal card.

Next powered down, the Nvidia card is physically uninstalled and replaced with the Strix RX 6700XT. Windows 10 booted up to the desktop without any issues but could not find proper AMD drivers for it since it is too new. Nvidia drivers were manually uninstalled at this point in time via Windows Apps And Features.

A reboot was now performed right into the UEFI BIOS. Click select on the ReBAR option and simultaneously 3 options were auto-executed by the UEFI - ReBAR on, CSM off, Above 4G Decoding on. Then, F10 and reboot. Next surfed over to AMD and downloaded and installed the latest available drivers, reboot again.

Voila, expected proper results achieved with PCI-e 4.0 and ReBAR activated. A painless switchover cos Windows 10 is so much friendlier to camp switchovers, nice!

hwinfo64 readings after several hours of Mad Max gaming

Initial Impressions

Massively over-built, cool quiet running solid monster card
Stable, out of box ready features (listed below) - no hassle with flashing card BIOS updates ala RTX 3K series
Forward looking features like PCI-e 4.0, 12GB memory (Samsung!), ReBAR feature etc...
Premium pricing
Scarce availability even if you are OK with the price

Definitely good stuff but the present time may pose a most formidable challenge for getting hold of a video card upgrade.

MacClipper - 24/7 Real World Overclocking!

Thursday, April 1, 2021