With AMD’s RX 6000 series officially launched, add-in boards have begun making their way into the hands of eager gamers. Today, I’m looking at the Asus ROG Strix Radeon RX 6800 OC, one of the most premium RX 6800 boards I’ve encountered yet. It’s large and in charge, with a large triple-fan heatsink, striking design, and fast factory overclock, but at $699 it’s also more than a little expensive. Should it make its way onto your holiday wishlist? [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=asus-rog-strix-radeon-rx-6800-oc-review&captions=true"]
The card also features a dual BIOS option, controlled by a small switch on the back of the card. You can choose from Performance or Quiet Modes. Quiet Mode limits the overall fan speed at the expense of some additional heat, but since the GPU isn’t overly loud in the first place, I left this off and opted for higher cooling. Underneath that heatsink is the GPU itself, which is built upon AMD’s RDNA2 architecture. As is the case with all of our AIB reviews, we’ll direct you back to the original RX 6800 review for the full breakdown. The RX 6800 Strix OC carries with it all of the benefits you would expect from an RX 6000-series graphics card: hardware-accelerated ray tracing, ridiculously fast clock speeds, improved performance per watt, PCI Express 4.0, and, of course, 16 GB of GDDR6 video memory. It also features an identical core count with 3840 shader units, as well as other enhancements like AV1 decoding, and software features like Radeon Boost and Radeon Anti-Lag.
This version one-ups the original RX 6800 in sheer speed, however. Out of the box, it features overclocks to both Boost and Game Clock speeds. The biggest boost is to its Game Clock which is rated at 1980 MHz, 165 MHz faster than the OG RX 6800. Boost Clock is a bit closer but is still 85 MHz faster at 2190 MHz. Of course, like all modern GPUs, the Strix will automatically speed up or slow down depending on power and thermal headroom, and while gaming, it regularly clocked itself up to more than 2100 MHz. Finally, if running multiple displays is your thing, you’ll be pleased to know that Asus added a third DisplayPort 1.4 output. There is a trade-off, however, as the USB Type-C connection for easily connecting VR headsets has been dropped. Sorry virtual reality fans.
With context out of the way, let’s take a look at how the card performed. I run GPUs through a gamut of synthetic benchmarks and real-world gaming tests. I also take a particular look at ray tracing performance, as well as a narrower focus at 4K and 1440p performance, reported in the second half of my results. Likewise, since we’ll be looking at one version of an existing reference card, the array of cards included has also been limited to increase the clarity of the results. For this testing, all games were set to Ultra presets. Ray tracing and DLSS are enabled wherever possible. While this does give Nvidia an advantage in games that feature it, it is also representative of the choice gamers buying a graphics card today will have to make. That said, AMD’s answer to Deep Learning Super Sampling, FidelityFX Super Resolution, is currently in the works. Upon its release, I intend to take a deep look at the comparative performance on these titles and more.
Beginning with synthetic benchmarks, the Strix outperforms the reference RX 6800, if only slightly. In Fire Strike, it maintained a 109 point, or 1%, lead. In Heaven, it was a bit wider with an 82 point (3%) advantage over the reference AMD Radeon RX 6800. Looking at ray tracing performance, the Strix again outperforms the vanilla RX 6800. The ROG GPU was 4% faster in Surgical Scalpel’s Boundary benchmark and 7% faster in 3DMark’s Ray Tracing Test. In Port Royal, it scored 434 points high, which equates to roughly 6% better performance. Let’s see how it performed in games. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=asus-rog-strix-radeon-rx-6800-oc-gaming-benchmarks&captions=true"] Looking at these results, a few things stand out. First, performance is remarkably similar between the RX 6800 and the Asus ROG Radeon RX 6800 Strix OC. In fact, at 1440p, the results ranged from being 4% slower in Dirt 5 to up to 4% faster in Total War: Three Kingdoms. At 4K, results ranged from 2% slower in Gears Tactics to 5% higher in Borderlands 3. This leads to an average improvement of .3% at 1440p and 2% at 4K across all games. In my more limited scope of games at 1080p, the card actually ran about 1% slower than the reference RX 6800. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=best-4k-gaming-monitors&captions=true"]
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Asus ROG Strix Radeon RX 6800 OC – Design and Features
The ROG brand carries a certain aesthetic and the RX 6800 Strix OC carries the weight of that industrial sci-fi look in every way. The front of the graphics card is trimmed in strips of gunmetal gray aluminum broken by polygons of rigid black plastic and exposed hex screws. Even the design of the fans adds to the look with its aluminum-topped center shaft and logo work. The metal backplate complements the look with its two-tone design and vent port. The only thing that really breaks from this look is the glossy RGB strip on the side, but it adds a cool bit of customization and visual flair if you’re already running an RGB gaming rig. [poilib element="poll" parameters="id=55327879-b8cc-4328-9bdb-27e554780d54"] More striking than even the aesthetic is just how large it is. At 13 inches long and just shy of triple-slot thickness, it’s much larger than AMD’s reference edition board. That added size carries benefits in sound and thermals however. In fact, cooling and acoustics appear to be the name of the game with this card. Apart from having such a large heatsink, Asus has enhanced the fans with more blades and reduced air turbulence with a center fan that spins the opposite direction. The center fan also features two additional blades to increase static pressure into the heatsink, forcing more air between the fins for enhanced cooling. The heatsink also overlaps the PCB, which allows for a nice open vent on the backplate and improved exhaust. Checking the temps after several hours of gaming, I found myself hovering around 58C with a peak temp of 62C.
The card also features a dual BIOS option, controlled by a small switch on the back of the card. You can choose from Performance or Quiet Modes. Quiet Mode limits the overall fan speed at the expense of some additional heat, but since the GPU isn’t overly loud in the first place, I left this off and opted for higher cooling. Underneath that heatsink is the GPU itself, which is built upon AMD’s RDNA2 architecture. As is the case with all of our AIB reviews, we’ll direct you back to the original RX 6800 review for the full breakdown. The RX 6800 Strix OC carries with it all of the benefits you would expect from an RX 6000-series graphics card: hardware-accelerated ray tracing, ridiculously fast clock speeds, improved performance per watt, PCI Express 4.0, and, of course, 16 GB of GDDR6 video memory. It also features an identical core count with 3840 shader units, as well as other enhancements like AV1 decoding, and software features like Radeon Boost and Radeon Anti-Lag.
This version one-ups the original RX 6800 in sheer speed, however. Out of the box, it features overclocks to both Boost and Game Clock speeds. The biggest boost is to its Game Clock which is rated at 1980 MHz, 165 MHz faster than the OG RX 6800. Boost Clock is a bit closer but is still 85 MHz faster at 2190 MHz. Of course, like all modern GPUs, the Strix will automatically speed up or slow down depending on power and thermal headroom, and while gaming, it regularly clocked itself up to more than 2100 MHz. Finally, if running multiple displays is your thing, you’ll be pleased to know that Asus added a third DisplayPort 1.4 output. There is a trade-off, however, as the USB Type-C connection for easily connecting VR headsets has been dropped. Sorry virtual reality fans.
Asus ROG Strix Radeon RX 6800 OC – Performance
Test system: Z390 Asus ROG Maximus XI Extreme Motherboard, Intel Core i9-9900K CPU (stock), Corsair H115i PRO RGB 280mm AIO CPU Cooler, 32GB Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro DDR4-3200, 1TB Samsung EVO Plus NVMe SSD, Corsair HX1200 1200-watt power supply.With context out of the way, let’s take a look at how the card performed. I run GPUs through a gamut of synthetic benchmarks and real-world gaming tests. I also take a particular look at ray tracing performance, as well as a narrower focus at 4K and 1440p performance, reported in the second half of my results. Likewise, since we’ll be looking at one version of an existing reference card, the array of cards included has also been limited to increase the clarity of the results. For this testing, all games were set to Ultra presets. Ray tracing and DLSS are enabled wherever possible. While this does give Nvidia an advantage in games that feature it, it is also representative of the choice gamers buying a graphics card today will have to make. That said, AMD’s answer to Deep Learning Super Sampling, FidelityFX Super Resolution, is currently in the works. Upon its release, I intend to take a deep look at the comparative performance on these titles and more.
Asus ROG Strix Radeon RX 6800 OC Synthetic Benchmarks
Beginning with synthetic benchmarks, the Strix outperforms the reference RX 6800, if only slightly. In Fire Strike, it maintained a 109 point, or 1%, lead. In Heaven, it was a bit wider with an 82 point (3%) advantage over the reference AMD Radeon RX 6800. Looking at ray tracing performance, the Strix again outperforms the vanilla RX 6800. The ROG GPU was 4% faster in Surgical Scalpel’s Boundary benchmark and 7% faster in 3DMark’s Ray Tracing Test. In Port Royal, it scored 434 points high, which equates to roughly 6% better performance. Let’s see how it performed in games. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=asus-rog-strix-radeon-rx-6800-oc-gaming-benchmarks&captions=true"] Looking at these results, a few things stand out. First, performance is remarkably similar between the RX 6800 and the Asus ROG Radeon RX 6800 Strix OC. In fact, at 1440p, the results ranged from being 4% slower in Dirt 5 to up to 4% faster in Total War: Three Kingdoms. At 4K, results ranged from 2% slower in Gears Tactics to 5% higher in Borderlands 3. This leads to an average improvement of .3% at 1440p and 2% at 4K across all games. In my more limited scope of games at 1080p, the card actually ran about 1% slower than the reference RX 6800. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=best-4k-gaming-monitors&captions=true"]Asus ROG Strix Radeon RX 6800 OC – Purchasing Guide
The Asus ROG Strix Radeon RX 6800 OC is available for $699 directly from Asus.Continue reading...