RX 6900 XT + Ryzen 5600X = AMAZING??
First off, I want to make it clear that this video is sponsored by AMD and OverclockersUK, and in it I get the chance to have a play with this beast of a graphics card, an RX 6900 XT – specifically the Gigabyte OC model – and to pair it with an AMD Ryzen CPU, oh and talk about some of their brand new driver features! The CPU I’ve picked to pair AMD’s top-end GPU with is the Ryzen 5600X. No, I’m not crazy, I promise! I think you’ll be surprised just how well this does…
But first let’s take a look at the GPU. Like I said this is the Gigabyte RX 6900 XT Gaming OC, meaning it runs it’s 5120 Stream Processors at up to 2285 MHz on full boost, or around 2050 MHz as it’s Game Clock. The whopping 16GB of GDDR6 VRAM is plenty for even 4K gaming, and yes, that is three 8 pin PCIe power connectors. The stock card has a typical board power of 300W, although this being an overclocked model I’d expect that to be a touch higher and of course if you want to push the overclock even higher you’ll be glad to have that extra connector included.
The Gigabyte Gaming OC card is quite definitely a triple slot card, and triple fans too which should keep it plenty cool even with a little overclock on top. Of course what modern card would be complete without some RGB lighting, or a stylish metal backplate, so both are included here. On the back you get two DisplayPort 1.4a ports and two HDMI 2.1 ports, and those both support variable refresh rate (VRR) and fixed rate link (FRL).
As for my choice of chip to pair this thing with, you might think I’m mad pairing this with a 6 core CPU, but I think you’ll be surprised. Now I’m not suggesting this should be your ideal configuration, if you’ve got the cash to splash on the halo tier GPU it’s worth matching the class a little better with something like a Ryzen 5900X, but I want to see if you really need to!
Luckily, pairing the 6900 XT with any Ryzen CPU has its benefits – of course there is AMD’s Smart Access Memory which allows the CPU to access all of the graphics card’s VRAM at once, something that is especially important for higher settings and higher resolution gaming. On top of SAM, you’ll of course be using the all new AMD Software driver suite, including the new Adrenaline Edition graphics driver. This just launched yesterday, and brings some great new features like Radeon Super Resolution (RSR) which is an in-driver upscaling tool that works with pretty much any game to boost your performance without the need for trained AI models or even game engine support.
Of course if your game supports FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) instead, you’ll be better off using that instead, but the inclusion of an option that will work on virtually any game you own is great. AMD is also just about to launch FSR 2.0 to help improve the image quality even further, so stay tuned for that when it’s out too!
The other thing I love about AMD’s graphics driver is the Performance tab. In here you have a complete tuning tool, which if you have both a Ryzen CPU and AMD GPU can both be overclocked from here with a single click. I hit the Auto OC button, the system restarted and when it loaded back up the driver informed me it had successfully added 200 MHz to the CPU clocks and set the GPU to an astonishing 2584 MHz, up from the 2285 MHz stock on this card – that’s 13% higher clocks with a single click! All for free, included with the graphics driver.
Ok, enough talking, let me get these two into a system and we can play a game or two, then take a look at the performance and see if our 5600X is actually a sane choice!
In terms of actual performance numbers, playing at 1440p high settings Shadow of the Tomb Raider sees an excellent 183 FPS average while using our 5600X, and 193 FPS average with the 5900X (which was equally overclocked with AMD’s driver). While that is a 10 FPS difference, it’s well above even the 165Hz limit most 1440p monitors will cap at, so unless you have one of the fancy 240Hz options I’d call that perfectly fine.
Watchdogs Legion is even closer, just 4 FPS split the two in both average and 1% low figures. Cyberpunk sees an almost exact match, with the 5600X runs coming out technically slightly ahead, but well within margin for error there. CSGO shows another 10 FPS lead for the 5900X, but we are talking about the difference between 503 FPS and 514 FPS, so personally I’m not exactly worried there. Microsoft Flight is also functionally a tie, albeit with the 5900X taking the lead in the 1% lows. And finally in Fortnite we are back to the 10 FPS gap, although again it’s the difference between 258 FPS and 267 FPS, so even a 240Hz 1440p gamer won’t be affected.
So, in short, this card is a beast, even a 5600X can do a great job of gaming with it, and AMD’s drivers are back offering even more great features. If by some miracle you can afford a card like this, you can rest assured you’ll have a great time gaming with it, especially paired with a Ryzen CPU and AMD Software. Thanks again to AMD and OverclockersUK for sponsoring this video – if you want to pick up a 6900 XT (or maybe like a 6600 XT, my personal recommendation at the moment), or a Ryzen CPU like the 5600X or 5900X I’ve been using here, check out the links in the description below.
