MSI Radeon RX 6700 XT Gaming X 12 GB GDDR6 Graphics Card Review – Compact & Fully Loaded Twin Frozr Design

AMD showcased some impressive performance uplifts with its first outing of the RDNA 2 graphics architecture in the form of Big Navi but those cards are aimed at the ultra-enthusiast segment. It's time now that AMD focuses its efforts on the sub-$500 US segment with its second RDNA 2 Navi-based GPU, the Navi 22.

The 2nd Generation RDNA 2 architecture delivers an impressive leap in performance per watt while offering a range of new features. Now, these features and the same performance uplift are coming to the mainstream segment in the form of the Radeon RX 6700 series graphics cards which we will be testing today.

The AMD RDNA 2 architecture for its Big Navi Radeon RX 6800/RX 6900 & mainstream Radeon RX 6700 series graphics cards has a lot to offer. In addition to architectural enhancements, you can expect hardware-accelerated ray tracing, smart access memory, Infinity Cache, and a lot more features on-deck which make the lineup one of the most competitive enthusiast families that AMD has ever positioned against NVIDIA.

Some of the main features for the AMD Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards include:

• AMD Infinity Cache – A high-performance, last-level data cache suitable for 4K and 1440p gaming with the highest level of detail enabled. 128/96 MB of on-die cache dramatically reduces latency and power consumption, delivering higher overall gaming performance than traditional architectural designs.
• AMD Smart Access Memory – An exclusive feature of systems with AMD Ryzen 5000 Series processors, AMD B550 and X570 motherboards, and Radeon RX 6000 Series graphics cards. It gives AMD Ryzen processors greater access to the high-speed GDDR6 graphics memory, accelerating CPU processing and providing up to a 13-percent performance increase on an AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT graphics card in Forza Horizon 4 at 4K when combined with the new Rage Mode one-click overclocking setting.
• Built for Standard Chassis – With a length of 267mm and 2x8 standard 8-pin power connectors, and designed to operate with existing enthusiast-class 650W-750W power supplies, gamers can easily upgrade their existing large to small form factor PCs without additional cost.

AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT "Navi 22 XT" GPU Powered 12 GB Graphics Card Specifications

The AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT will come packed with the Navi 22 XT GPU which is the full-fat SKU featuring 40 Compute Units or 2560 SPs. The card will also feature 12 GB of GDDR6 memory across a 192-bit bus interface, a 384 GB/s total bandwidth, and clock speeds of 2321 MHz base and 2581 MHz boost at reference specs. The AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT also packs 40 Ray Accelerators which are dedicated to real-time raytracing workloads. The card will feature a based TBP of 230W with factory-overclocked models pushing it above 250W.

In addition to the standard memory, the Radeon RX 6700 series graphics cards will also feature 96 MB of Infinity Cache on the GPU die. The cache will help boost bandwidth for higher performance at resolutions beyond 1080p HD. The 96 MB Infinity Cache boosts the standard 384 GB/s bandwidth by 2.50x, delivering an effective bandwidth of up to 1.344 TB/s across all Navi 22 GPU-based graphics cards.

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In terms of performance, the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT is shown to compete against the GeForce RTX 3070 graphics card. The card features a 10 higher total board power & delivers better GPU performance in several AAA titles using the best API (Vulkan / DirectX 12). AMD is also bringing its Rage-mode back which is an automatic overclocking tool within its Radeon Software suite that delivers even higher performance along with a nifty new feature known as Smart Access. Gains of up to 13% were showcased with the said features as can be seen below.

So for this review, I will be taking a look at the MSI Radeon RX 6700 XT Gaming X. The MSI Gaming X comes is said to feature an MSRP of around $600 US so that's a $120 US premium over the 479 US reference MSRP. At this price, you get a dual-fan cooling solution and a factory overclock out of the box.

AMD Radeon RX 6000 Series "RDNA 2" Graphics Card Lineup:

Graphics Card	AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT	AMD Radeon RX 6700	AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT	AMD Radeon RX 6800	AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT	AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT
GPU	Navi 22?	Navi 22 (XL?)	Navi 22 (XT?)	Navi 21 XL	Navi 21 XT	Navi 21 XTX
Process Node	7nm	7nm	7nm	7nm	7nm	7nm
Die Size	336mm2?	336mm2	336mm2	520mm2	520mm2	520mm2
Transistors	17.2 Billion?	17.2 Billion	17.2 Billion	26.8 Billion	26.8 Billion	26.8 Billion
Compute Units	TBA	TBA	40	60	72	80
Stream Processors	TBA	TBA	2560	3840	4608	5120
TMUs/ROPs	TBA	TBA	160/64	240 / 96	288 / 128	320 / 128
Game Clock	TBA	TBA	2424 MHz	1815 MHz	2015 MHz	2015 MHz
Boost Clock	TBA	TBA	2581 MHz	2105 MHz	2250 MHz	2250 MHz
FP32 TFLOPs	TBA	TBA	13.21 TFLOPs	16.17 TFLOPs	20.74 TFLOPs	23.04 TFLOPs
Memory Size	12 GB GDDR6?	6-12 GB GDDR6?	12 GB GDDR6 + 96 MB Infinity Cache	16 GB GDDR6 +128 MB Infinity Cache	16 GB GDDR6 +128 MB Infinity Cache	16 GB GDDR6 +128 MB Infinity Cache
Memory Bus	192-bit	192-bit	192-bit	256-bit	256-bit	256-bit
Memory Clock	14 Gbps?	14 Gbps?	16 Gbps	16 Gbps	16 Gbps	16 Gbps
Bandwidth	320 GB/s	320 GB/s	384 GB/s	512 GB/s	512 GB/s	512 GB/s
TDP	TBA	TBA	230W	250W	300W	300W
Price	TBA	TBA	$479 US	$579 US	$649 US	$999 US

In case you want to read our full AMD RDNA 2 GPU architecture deep dive and Radeon RX 6800 XT reference model review, head over to this link.

The MSI Radeon RX 6700 XT Gaming X is the flagship variant in the RX 6700 family. It is a very powerful graphics card, rocking the 2nd generation Twin-Frozr cooling for MSI's Gaming graphics cards. In overall size and weight, this thing is just tons of massive performance packed in one 2.5 slot form factor.

In addition to the custom design, the Radeon RX 6700 XT Gaming X Trio comes with a non-reference PCB, featuring a 12 phase design that features higher quality components than the reference variant which is already a really good design by itself. In terms of clock speeds, the graphics card features the same base frequency of 2424 MHz but the boost clock is rated at 2634 MHz which is a 53 MHz clock bump over the reference model. The card features a TDP of 300W which is the same as the reference model.

Following are some of the features of the MSI Radeon RX 6800 XT Gaming X Trio before we go into detail:

Boost Clock / Memory Speed

• 16 Gbps
• 12GB GDDR6
• DisplayPort x 3 (v1.4)
  HDMI x 1 (Supports 4K@120Hz/8K@60Hz and VRR as specified in HDMI 2.1)

TWIN FROZR 8 Thermal Design

• TORX Fan 4.0: A masterpiece of teamwork, fan blades work in pairs to create unprecedented levels of focused air pressure.
• Core Pipe: Precision-crafted heat pipes ensure max contact to the GPU and spread heat along the full length of the heatsink.
• Airflow Control: Don't sweat it, Airflow Control guides the air to exactly where it needs to be for maximum cooling.

RGB Mystic Light

• Mystic Light gives you complete control of the RGB lighting for MSI devices and compatible RGB products.

Dragon Center

• MSI's exclusive Dragon Center software lets you monitor, tweak and optimize MSI products in real-time.

MSI Radeon RX 6700 XT Gaming X Graphics Card Gallery:

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The MSI Gaming X Trio Graphics Cards With Twin-Frozr 8S Cooling

With the differences out of the way, now let's talk about the similarities and the main highlights of the Gaming X design. The Gaming X is a toned-down variant of the much higher-end card, the MSI Gaming X Trio. The Gaming X series features the MSI Twin Frozr series which has been widely used in current and last-generation graphics cards from MSI.

The latest iteration of MSI’s iconic GAMING series once again brings performance, low-noise efficiency, and aesthetics that hardcore gamers have come to recognize and trust. Now you too can enjoy all your favorite games with a powerful graphics card that stays cool and silent. Just the way you like it.

MSI has incorporated and refined a couple of things in the new Twin-Frozr design for Gaming X Trio graphics cards. First is the TORX fan 4.0 which uses a ring design that connects two fan-blades with each other to increase airflow towards the internal heatsink assembly. These fans are made up of a double ball bearing design which ensures silent functionality in heavy loads.

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The fans are fully compliant with the Zero Frozr Technology and are actually comprised of three areas. All of these would stay at 0 RPM (idle state) if the temperatures don't exceed 60C. When it does exceed 60C, all fans would start spinning. You can change that through the MSI configuration panel if you want more cooling performance over noise load but it's a nifty feature that I do like.

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In addition to the cooling fans, the heatsink has been designed to be denser by using the brand new wave curved 2.0 fin design. The new heatsink makes use of deflectors to allow more air to pass through the fins smoothly, without causing any turbulence that would result in unwanted noise. MSI estimates a 2 degrees (C) drop in temperatures with the updated design versus the previous generation cooling system.

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Talking about the heatsink, the massive block is comprised of seven copper squared-shaped heat pipes with a more concentrated design to transfer heat from the copper base to the heatsink more effectively. The base itself is a solid nickel-plated base plate, transferring heat to the heat pipes in a very effective manner. To top it all off, MSI uses their exclusive Thermal Compound X which is said to offer higher thermal interface and heat transfer compared to traditional TIM applications.

Rocking a classy brushed look, the backplate on the GAMING TRIO series provides a nice visual finish to the card. It also strengthens the card and thanks to some cleverly placed thermal pads even help to keep temperatures low.

The MSI Radeon RX 6800 XT Gaming X graphics card comes inside a standard cardboard box. The front of both packages has a large "AMD Radeon" brand logo along with the "MSI" logo on the top left corner and the "Gaming X Trio" series branding on the lower-left corner. A large picture of the graphics card itself is depicted on the front which gives a nice preview of the Gaming X design.

The packaging has put a large emphasis on the AMD RDNA 2 architecture as the first feature enlisted by AIBs. There's also a mention of 1440p gaming, 12 GB GDDR6 memory, and PCIe 4.0 functionality for the card.

The back of the box is very typical, highlighting the main features and specifications of the cards. The three key aspects of MSI's top-tier custom cards are its blazing performance which is achieved by fully custom design, the new Twin-Frozr 8 cooling system, and a new wave-curved 2.0 heatsink which will offer better cooling performance compared to the traditional flat-surfaced fin heatsinks.

There's also a focus towards AMD.com on each AIB card through which users can download the latest drivers and Radeon Software application which are a must for gamers to access all feature sets of the new cards.

The sides of the box once again greet us with the large Radeon RX branding. There's also the mention of 12 GB GDDR6 (RX 6700 XT) memory available on the card. The higher memory bandwidth delivered through the new GDDR6 interface would help improve performance in gaming titles at higher resolution over GDDR6 and GDDR5X based graphics cards.

Outside of the box, the graphics card and the accessory package are held firmly by foam packaging. The graphics card comes with a few accessories and manuals which might not be of much use for hardcore enthusiasts but can be useful for the mainstream gaming audience.

The card is nicely wrapped within an anti-static cover which is useful to prevent any unwanted static discharges on various surfaces that might harm the graphics card. The card accessories include a Molex power connector which isn't of much use in high-end systems since the PSUs already have the required cables.

Useful manuals and installation guides are packed within an MSI-labeled letter case. There is an MSI Quick Users Guide, a Support bracket installation guide, a sticker letter, the MSI DIY comic, and a single driver's disk. It's best to ignore the driver disk and install the latest software and graphics drivers directly from the AMD and MSI official web pages as the ones shipped in the disks could be older versions and not deliver optimal performance for your graphics cards.

After the package is taken care of, I can finally start talking about the card itself. The Radeon RX 6700 XT Gaming X is a very compact graphics card but don't let its size fool you, it packs a lot of punch which we will be getting to in a bit.

MSI’s Twin Frozr is a very iconic design that was introduced much earlier than the Tri-Frozr. The first Twin Frozr cards were actually introduced all the way back with the GeForce 200 series cards and have seen various design upgrades over the years. MSI has further refined the Gaming X Twin Frozr design. The card measures the same at 279 x 131 x 58 mm and weighs in at 1179 grams. The card is also slightly taller at 2.5 slots height.

The MSI Radeon RX 6700 XT Gaming X isn't a bulky card at all and would fit in nicely in standard ATX and even Mini-ITX cases with ease. The cooling shroud extends all the way to the back of the PCB and it requires a casing with good airflow so do keep that in mind.

The back of the card features a solid backplate that looks stunning. The backplate offers a lot more functionality than just looks which I will get back to in a bit.

In terms of design, we are looking at an updated version of the Twin-Frozr heatsink which is now in its eighth variation The design has seen various changes and now comes in a fully loaded graphics card design.

The new heatsink looks like a toned-down version of the Gaming X Trio with the main changes being the shroud and heatsink design which retains an aggressive shroud design on the front but with two fans instead of three, absorbing the black and silver color platelets while featuring the RGB emitting acrylic cutouts at the front. The sides also come with a large RGB accent bar which lights up when the card is powered on.

Coming to the fans, the card actually features the brand new Torx 4.0 system. Both fans feature a ring-based design to allow for higher airflow to be channeled within the main heatsink. All fans deploy a double ball bearing design and can last a long time while operating silently.

MSI also features its Zero Frozr technology on the Twin Frozr 8 heatsink. This feature won’t spin the fans on the card unless they reach a certain threshold.

In the case of the Twin Frozr heatsink, that limit is set to 60C. If the card is operating under 60C, the fans won’t spin which means no extra noise would be generated.

I am back at talking about the full-coverage, full metal-based backplate which the card uses. The whole plate is made of solid metal with rounded edges that add to the durability of this card. The brushed matte-black finish on the backplate gives a unique aesthetic.

There are cutouts in screw placements to easily reach the points on the graphics card. We can also see the MSI Dragon logo on the back which looks stunning. MSI is also using heat pads beneath the backplate which offer more cooling to the electrical circuitry on the PCB.

With the outsides of the card done, I will now start taking a glance at what's beneath the hood of these monster graphics cards. The first thing to catch my eye is the humungous fin stack that's part of the beefy heatsink which the cards utilize.

The large fin stack runs all the way from the front and to the back of the PCB and is so thick that you can barely see through it. It also comes with the wave-curved 2.0 fin stack design which I want to shed some light on as it is a turn away from traditional fin design.

The heatsink has been designed to be denser by using a wave curved fin design. It allows more air to pass through the fins smoothly, without causing any turbulence that would result in unwanted noise. Airflow Control Technology guides the airflow directly onto the heat pipes, while simultaneously creating more surface area for the air to absorb more heat before leaving the heatsink.

Talking about the heatsink, the massive block is comprised of seven copper squared-shaped heat pipes with a more concentrated design to transfer heat from the copper base to the heatsink more effectively. The base itself is a solid nickel-plated base plate, transferring heat to the heat pipes in a very effective manner. To top it all off, MSI uses their exclusive Thermal Compound X which is said to offer higher thermal interface and heat transfer compared to traditional TIM applications.

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MSI adds extra protection to its impressive PCB by including a rugged anti-bending plate. This also acts as a memory and MOSFET cooling plate while the PWM heatsink with micro fins keeps the VRM cool under stressful conditions.

I/O on the graphics card sticks with the reference scheme which includes three Display Port 1.4a & a single HDMI 2.1 port.

MSI Radeon RX 6700 XT Gaming X Teardown:

MSI makes use of a 12 phase PWM design that includes its Military Class components such as Hi-C Caps, Super Ferrite Chokes, and Japanese Solid Caps. The main VRM controller is an Infineon XDPE132G5D which powers the 12 GPU phases. For VRAM, the controller is an OnSemi NCP81022N while the MOSFETs are made up of  IR's TDA21472 DrMOS.

The card also uses the GDDR6 memory from Micron that operates at 16 Gbps alongside a 192-bit wide memory interface.

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The MSI Radeon RX 6700 XT Gaming X Trio is a very power-hungry graphics card showcased by its custom design. Being so, it uses a very power-intensive connector configuration that comprises dual 8 pin connectors. The card is rated at a TDP of 250W officially by MSI.

MSI Radeon RX 6700 XT Gaming X Series RGB Lighting Gallery:

MSI Gaming X series cards utilize their Mystic Light RGB technology to offer you a visually pleasing lighting experience on your graphics cards. There are a total of 8 different RGB effects which you can choose from and the cards have 3 RGB accent points, 2 on the front, and one lightbar surrounding the side of the card which looks really good. You can fully customize the RGB lights to your preference using the MSI Mystic Light application from MSI's web page.

Following is what the graphics card looks like when lit up.

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We used the following test system for comparison between the different graphics cards. The latest drivers that were available at the time of testing were used from AMD and NVIDIA on an updated version of Windows 10. All games that were tested were patched to the latest version for better performance optimization for NVIDIA and AMD GPUs.

Do note that the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT/RX 6700 XT performance was evaluated on an Intel Z490 platform with the Core i7-10700K while the memory and rest of the specifications were kept similar to our Z390 testbed. This was done for the sole purpose of comparing SAM (Smart Access Memory) GPU performance which is only possible on Intel's 400 and AMD's 500/400 series platforms.

MSI Radeon RX 6700 XT Gaming X Test Setup:

CPU	Intel Core i7-10700K @ 5.10 GHz Intel Core i9-9900K @ 4.70 GHz
Motherboard	AORUS Z490 Master AORUS Z390 Master
Video Cards	MSI Radeon RX 6700 XT Gaming X MSI Radeon RX 6800 XT Gaming X Trio MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio MSI GeForce RTX 3080 Gaming X Trio MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Lightning Z MSI GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER Gaming X Trio MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Gaming X Trio MSI Radeon RX 5700 XT Gaming X MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Lightning X
Memory	G.SKILL Trident Z RGB Series 32GB (4 X 8GB) CL16 3600 MHz
Storage	Samsung SSD 960 EVO M.2 (512 GB)
Power Supply	ASUS ROG THOR 1200W PSU
OS	Windows 10 64-bit
Drivers	AMD Radeon Adrenalin Edition 20.50 RC NVIDIA GeForce 461.72 WHQL

• All games were tested on 2560×1440 (2K) and 3840×2160 (4K) resolutions.
• Image Quality and graphics configurations have been provided in the screenshots below.
• The “reference” cards are the stock configs while the “overclock” cards are factory overclocked configs provided to us by various AIB partners.

Doom Eternal

DOOM Eternal brings hell to earth with the Vulkan powered idTech 7.  We test this game using the Ultra Nightmare Preset and follow our in-game benchmarking to stay as consistent as possible.

Red Dead Redemption 2

Developed by Rockstar San Diego, Red Dead Redemption II is one of the most visually stunning open-world games I've played to date that is backed up by a rich story set around the protagonist, Arthur Morgan. The game is based on the RAGE engine which features an insane amount of graphics fidelity but also requires a lot of power to run maxed out. For the purpose of this test, we set the graphics settings to Ultra with AA turned disabled.

Wolfenstein: Youngblood

Wolfenstein is back in The New Colossus and features the most fast-paced, gory, and brutal FPS action ever! The game once again puts us back in the Nazi-controlled world as BJ Blazkowicz. Set during an alternate future where Nazis won the World War, the game shows that it can be fun and can be brutal to the player and to the enemy too. Powering the new title is once again, id Tech 6 which is much acclaimed after the success that DOOM has become. In a way, ID has regained their glorious FPS roots and are slaying with every new title.

Ashes of The Singularity: Escalation

NVIDIA and AMD have been tweaking the performance of their cards for Ashes of the Singularity since the title released. It was the first to make use of the DirectX 12 API and the first to leverage the new Async compute technology that makes use of the DX12 renderer to improve performance.

Battlefield V

Battlefield V brings back the action of the World War 2 shooter genre. Using the latest Frostbite tech, the game does a good job of looking gorgeous in all ways possible. From the open-world environments to the intense and gun-blazing action, this multiplayer and single-player FPS title is one of the best looking Battlefields to date.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

Humanity is at war with itself and divided into factions. On one end, we have the pure and on the other, we have the augmented. That is the world where Adam Jensen lives in and this is the world of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. The game uses the next generation Dawn Engine that was made by IO interactive on the foundation of their Glacier 2 engine. The game features the support of DirectX 12 API and is one of the most visually intensive titles that taxes the GPU really hard.

Death Stranding

Sam Porter Bridges has delivered one of PS4's most anticipated games to the PC community and opened a whole new world of possibilities. This was the first game to feature the Decima Engine on PC and unarguably did it the best. Death Stranding may not feature ray tracing effects but it does showcase that DLSS can be used effectively even when RT isn't around. We tested this one just like we did in our launch coverage with DLSS enabled.

Forza Horizon 4

Forza Horizon 4 carries on the open-world racing tradition of the Horizon series.  The latest DX12 powered entry is beautifully crafted and amazingly well executed and is a great showcase of DX12 games.  We use the benchmark run while having all of the settings set to non-dynamic with an uncapped framerate to gather these results.

Hitman 2 (DX12 Highest Settings)

Hitman 2 is the highly acclaimed sequel to 2016 Hitman which was a redesign and reimaging of the game from the ground up. With a focus on stealth gameplay through various missions, the game once again lets you play as Agent 47 who embarks on a mission to hunt down the mysterious Shadow Client. The game runs on IO Interactive's Glacier 2 engine which has been updated to deliver amazing visuals and environments on each level while making use of DirectX 12 API.

Shadow of The Tomb Raider

Sequel to The Rise of the Tomb Raider, Shadow of The Tomb Raider is visually enhanced with an updated Foundation Engine that delivers realistic facial animations and the most gorgeous environments ever seen in a Tomb Raider Game. The game is a technical marvel and really shows the power of its graphics engine in the latest title.

Metro Exodus

Metro Exodus continues the journey of Artyom through the nuclear wasteland of Russia and its surroundings. This time, you are set over the Metro, going through various regions and different environments. The game is one of the premier titles to feature NVIDIA’s RTX technology and does well in showcasing the ray-tracing effects in all corners.

Assassins Creed: Origins

Assassins Creed Origins is built by the same team that made Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag. They are known for reinventing the design and game philosophy of the Assassins Creed saga and their latest title shows that. Based in Egypt, the open-world action RPG shows its graphics strength in all corners. It uses the AnvilNext 2.0 engine which boosts the draw distance range and delivers a very impressive graphics display.

We tested the game at maxed settings with TAA enabled and 16x AF. Do note that the game is one of the most demanding titles out in the market and as such tweaks and performance issues are being patched out.

Borderlands 3

Borderlands 3 has made its way into the test lineup thanks to strong demand by gamers and simply delivering MORE Borderlands. The game was tested with max settings under the DX11 preset since the DX12 preset doesn't deliver any visible improvement in either frame rate or graphics at the moment.

Far Cry 5

Far Cry 5 is a standalone successor to its predecessor and takes place in Hope County, a fictional region of Montana. The main story revolves around doomsday cult the Project at Eden’s Gate and its charismatic leader Joseph Seed. It uses a beefed-up Dunia Engine which itself is a modified version of CryEngine from Crytek.

Final Fantasy XV

Grand Theft Auto V

GTA V is the most optimized gaming title that has been made for the PC. It’s so optimized, it even runs on my crap GT 840M based laptop with a smooth FPS on a mix of medium/low settings. I mean what???

Aside from being optimized, GTA V is a great game. It was the Game of The Year for 2013. At 1440p Ultra quality, the game gave us smooth frames on all cards tested.

No graphics card review is complete without evaluating its temperatures and thermal load. The MSI Gaming X Trio graphics card comes with a triple-fan cooler with 0db fan technology, a massive heatsink that is composed of several aluminum fins and heat pipes, and an extended backplate that covers the entire PCB. The GALAX EX series on the other hand makes use of a premium dual-fan cooling system which also incorporates 0db fans and has a large aluminum heatsink.

Note – We tested load with Kombuster which is known as a ‘power virus’ and can permanently damage the hardware. Use such software at your own risk!

I compiled the power consumption results by testing each card under idle and full stress when the card was running games. Each graphics card manufacturer sets a default TDP for the card which can vary from vendor to vendor depending on the extra clocks or board features they plugin on their custom cards. Default TDP for the RTX 3060 Ti is set at 175W while the custom models come with a 200W (MSI) and a 190W (GALAX) TDP, respectively.

Also, it's worth noting that the 8nm process from Samsung increases the density by around 2x versus the previous generation. NVIDIA is cramping even larger amounts of transistors and more cores than their previous cards, making it one of the densest chips built to date. It's likely to consume a lot of power and the results are reflective of that.

MSI's Radeon RX 6700 series custom graphics cards are finally here and I got the chance to test out the Radeon RX 6700 XT Gaming X. While MSI offered its Gaming X Trio cooler on the Big Navi GPUs, the Navi 22 variants will be receiving the Twin Frozr Gaming X coolers. The cooler while compact, is a fully loaded design that retains great cooling performance and has a custom-built PCB that offers a lot of overclocking potential.

The sample I received featured a factory overclock of 2634 MHz but the average clock rates peaked around 2.7 GHz. You can further push the card through manual overclocking and gain an additional 5% performance boost along with SAM that adds an average 7.5% performance gain in several titles that I tested.

As for the cooling solution, the new Gaming X design does a pretty good job keeping the card just slightly above 60C even in stress tests. For gaming, the average temperatures were around 55C while pushing the fan speeds to 100% led sub-50C temps which are quite impressive at the cost of more noise output. The power consumption of the Radeon RX 6700 XT Gaming X is slightly higher than the GeForce RTX 3070 custom models but it does offer more performance in general.

The card isn't that bulky and should fit inside most cases with relative ease and the dual-fan solution comes with 0db fan technology which unless or until you're touching 60C won't spin at all. This allows lower noise levels when you're not doing any graphics-intensive tasks. MSI went all the way by including a full metal backplate on the card.

The RGB is not overdone and the Mystic Light cuts on the front and sides provide really good aesthetics of the card itself. MSI would be charging a premium for its Radeon RX 6700 XT graphics card. That is surely a hefty premium but considering that all AIBs have raised the MSRPs of their cards, MSI is just following the train.

The RX 6700 XT generally tends to perform better and run cooler than the GeForce RTX 3070 and even manages to offer faster performance than the RTX 2080 Ti in a few titles however, there are also titles in which the RX 6700 XT performs on par with the RTX 3060 Ti. It also lacks the RTX and DLSS features that give NVIDIA a huge edge. SAM is a feature worth looking at if you're using an AMD Ryzen 5000 or Ryzen 3000 CPU platform. But until AMD gets its DXR performance fixed and introduces its own AI super-resolution (FiedilityFX) technology, RDNA 2 will lack behind the first generation DXR cards from NVIDIA (RTX 20 series).

The mainstream AMD Radeon graphics cards have definitely seen a huge price bump. Gone are the good old days of the Polaris-based offerings which set you back for $199-$299 US. The RX 6700 XT is AMD's most expensive mid-range GPU offering but it's also due to the high cost of TSMC's 7nm process node and the use of GDDR6 memory which is short in supply. The MSI Radeon RX 6700 XT Gaming X offers a fully loaded package with a compact & stunning design, great cooling, and a very powerful PCB design. It's the pricing and availability of the card that will ultimately decide if it can go against the RTX 3070 or see a similar fate as its competitor which is hard to get hands on these days.

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