SAPPHIRE NITRO+ AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT PURE Review

Conclusion

In May of 2022, AMD launched its highest-end flagship video card yet, with the AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT at an MSRP of $1,099.99.  This was part of AMD’s spring refresh for 2022, introducing three new Radeon RX xx50 series video cards in the Radeon RX 6000 series lineup.   The Radeon RX 6650 XT was launched with an MSRP of $399, the Radeon RX 6750 XT was launched at an MSRP of $549, and the Radeon RX 6950 XT was launched at an MSRP of $1,099.  We have reviewed the Radeon RX 6650 XT at launch, and we have also reviewed the Radeon RX 6750 XT.  And today, we finally got our first look at the AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT.

The Radeon RX 6950 XT is simply a clock boosted Radeon RX 6900 XT.  There is nothing different about the number of Compute Units, or other technical specs.  Simply the GPU received a Game Clock boost of 2100MHz and a Boost Clock of 2310MHz and the memory received a frequency boost to 18GHz.  Otherwise, it is identical, though we did find out the GPU runs at a higher Voltage.

In our review today we reviewed the SAPPHIRE NITRO+ AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT PURE video card.  This video card from SAPPHIRE sits at the top of its NITRO+ PURE SKU, which is even better than the plain NITRO+.  It has a very thick 3.5 slot configuration, custom TRI-X cooling, and a factory overclock with two BIOSs on board, including an OC BIOS mode.  On the “Primary BIOS” which the card ships at by default, the GPU Game Clock is set at 2162MHz and the Boost Clock is set at 2368MHz.  On the “Secondary BIOS” called the OC BIOS, it pushes the Boost Clock up to 2435MHz.  Of course, you can also manually overclock the video card.    

Performance

In our performance testing, we compared the SAPPHIRE NITRO+ PURE Radeon RX 6950 XT with an AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT to see what kind of uplift in performance it provides.  In addition, we included a GeForce RTX 3090 FE and GeForce RTX 3090 Ti FE to see how it compares to the competition’s fastest video cards.

We started off in F1 2022 where the new Radeon RX 6950 XT was very playable at 4K and the highest in-game settings.  It provided a very high 137FPS average performance, and with FSR boosted hat to 192FPS.  We found that it was 10% faster than the Radeon RX 6900 XT and was also faster than the GeForce RTX 3090.  However, the RTX 3090 Ti was faster than it.  In Dying Light 2 we found that the Radeon RX 6950 XT was playable at 4K and the highest settings producing near 60FPS.  It was 9% faster than the Radeon RX 6900 XT.  With FSR performance was at 90FPS.  It was faster than the RTX 3090, but the RTX 3090 Ti edged it out until we overclocked it.

In Rainbow Six Extraction the Radeon RX 6950 XT was very playable at 95FPS at 4K and the highest settings.  It was 10% faster than the Radeon RX 6900 XT.  However, both the RTX 3090 and RTX 3090 Ti were faster.  In Forza Horizon 5 the Radeon RX 6950 XT was very playable at 4K and the highest settings and beat out the RTX 3090 and RTX 3090 Ti by quite a margin.  In Far Cry 6 the Radeon RX 6950 XT was also very playable at 4K and the highest settings, beating the RTX 3090 and matching performance with the RTX 3090 Ti.  It was 8% faster than the RX 6900 XT.

In Cyberpunk 2077 the Radeon RX 6950 XT was not playable at 4K and “Ultra” settings until we turned on FSR.  It was 7% faster than the RX 6900 XT, and the RTX 3090 and RTX 3090 Ti were faster but also could not play the game until we used DLSS.  MS Flight Sim 2020 was playable on the Radeon RX 6950 XT and offered better than 6900 XT performance, but the RTX 3090 and 3090 Ti were faster overall in this game.  In Watch Dogs Legion the Radeon RX 6950 XT was very playable at 4K at 68FPS.  It was 8% faster than the RX 6900 XT, beat the RTX 3090 as well, and was close to RTX 3090 Ti performance.

When it comes to Ray Tracing performance, it is a little worse for the Radeon RX 6950 XT overall, compared to the competition.  Though there are some games where it is usable.  For example, in F1 2022, a new game just released, the Radeon RX 6950 XT is playable at 1440p with Ultra High Ray Tracing in that game.  It sits above 60FPS and produces smooth gameplay.  It would also be playable at 4K, as long as you use FSR, with FSR support that the game has that would make it playable at 4K as well.  The RTX 3090 and RTX 3090 Ti are much faster, but the 6950 XT is still in playable territory.

The same is also true in Far Cry 6.  In Far Cry 6, it plays so well with Ray Tracing that playing at 4K with all DXR options on is just fine on the Radeon RX 6950 XT.  It produces a 76FPS average, and with FSR even higher, at 4K.  It even beats the RTX 3090 in performance in this game with Ray Tracing and matches the RTX 3090 Ti performance.  Even Watch Dogs Legion is playable at 1440p on the Radeon RX 6950 XT with Ray Tracing, especially overclocked.

There are some games though which are very demanding, like Dying Light 2 and Cyberpunk.  In Cyberpunk even overclocked, and with FSR, it is borderline playable.  You will probably have to play at “Low” Ray Tracing at 1440p to be playable.  Otherwise, just forgo Ray Tracing.  The RTX cards are much better in this game but still also require DLSS to get Ray Tracing to playable levels.  In Dying Light 2 it is a little better, the Radeon RX 6950 XT is playable with FSR enabled at 1440p and Ultra Ray Tracing.  However, if you don’t want to use FSR you’ll have to lower the Ray Tracing quality down a notch, and then it might be acceptable at 1440p.    

Overclocking

We did not think the AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT would have a lot of headroom, after all, it is already a clock boosted Radeon RX 6900 XT being pushed higher.  However, we were mistaken, the SAPPHIRE NITRO+ Radeon RX 6950 XT PURE is a phenomenal overclocker.  We had a lot of headroom to overclock with on all fronts, and there was a lot of clock speed left in the GPU to push it much higher.  We were impressed to find a Power Limit increase of 20%, giving us the TDP headroom we needed to overclock well.  In addition, there was plenty of headroom on the memory and GPU sliders to overclock to our heart’s content.

We ended up pushing the clock speed up 300+ MHz from the already high OC BIOS factory overclock.  We got the GPU up to 2800MHz fairly consistently, and this is just really high compared to the default specs.  Remember, the default Boost Clock on the Radeon RX 6950 XT is 2310MHz.  That is a really big difference of 21% higher GPU clock speed from the reference spec.  We weren’t able to get the memory as high, it was already at the new 18GHz frequency, and we were able to push it to 18.8GHz, which did bring bandwidth to over 600GB/s. 

The overclock also did help to improve performance, on average it provided a 10% boost generally speaking.  There were some lower, and some higher advantages, but generally, around 10% which made a playable difference.  It allowed games to be playable at higher settings at 4K, and Ray Tracing at 1440p without needing FSR.  When the card was overclocked, it stayed very cool, and though we pushed the fan speeds up, it wasn’t necessary.   

Final Points

There is no doubt that the new AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT from AMD is AMD’s fastest gaming video card to date.  It takes the cake as AMD’s flagship video card right now and has proven to be very competitive with the competition.  It can beat the GeForce RTX 3090, and match GeForce RTX 3090 Ti performance.  In our testing, it was about 10% on average faster than the Radeon RX 6900 XT.  Not a big move, but enough to keep it competitive with the RTX 3090 Ti.  At least in Rasterized performance. 

The GeForce RTX cards do have the leg up in Ray Traced performance.  However, if that is the case, there are still plenty of games where Ray Tracing is usable and playable on the Radeon RX 6950 XT, so it all depends on the games you are playing.  If you are after Rasterized performance, the RX 6950 X is a great competitor, at a lower price.  If you are after Ray Traced performance, the RTX cards can’t be beaten.

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