Hello there,
I’m looking to replace my Sapphire Vega 56 with an 6950XT. I’ve narrowed down the choice to these two:
XFX 6950 XT Speedster MERC Black Gaming - 649€
PowerColor RX 6950 XT Red Devil - 689€
Is there a difference between these two, in terms of warranty or build quality or something else that I should know of? I don’t really know much about these brands.
I’m using PowerColor RX 5700XT Red Devil for 3 years now.
Card is big, quiet and never had problems with it.
I would buy another Red Devil if I had a chance.
Apparently this question was asked on reddit. Not sure how I missed it before. They mention there that the XFX has 2x8Pin power connectors versus the 3x8Pin on the PowerColor. Does this actually matter?
Is it reasonable to expect the 6950XT to pull 525W (3x150W + 75W through the PCIe)?
From all reviews on various RX 6xxx cards I have seen, they all mention that AMD locks down the cards a bit and aside from some hardcore invasive mods you won’t be able to get past a certain limit in terms of power draw and clocks. PowerColor Red Devil cards also are reported to be some of the most overbuilt cards of that gen. to a point that it’s almost pointless (due to AMDs lockdowns). That said, the XFX MERC/QICK cards are some of the best in terms of cooling and built quality.
I think both cards will be similar in terms of what they can achieve under stock conditions and cooling capacity. How the card looks will be a bigger factor I think. Never had a Red Devil card (not a fan of their RGB) but I have had a few QICK cards. While the cooler on the QICKs are good and the fans reasonable quiet below a certain speed, the fans themselves are rather fragile and they always ended up generating bearing noises within months. To be fair this is the case with most dinky GPU fans, as I have had this problem with Sapphire, Asus and Gigabyte (GB fans being the worst crap imaginable).
I was looking at Buildzoid’s videos about the 6900XT, but I can’t find any teardowns for the 6950XT (at least for the two which are on offer).
But I just took another look, and the MERC is now 60€ cheaper (629€).
I took a look at TechPowerUp and got out these numbers:
There is no data on their site for the Merc and the Red Devil. If I assume that the Merc will behave similar to the reference (2x8pin) and the Red Devil as any of the other 3x8 pin custom models, that means that the transients are going above the maximum (theoretical?) deliverable power less for the 3x8 pin models.
However, the maximum power spike is also increased. And these transients are measured at 20 ms. Gamers Nexus showed at 100 μs that the transients can go more than double the normal maximum power draw.
So, going by the TechPowerUp numbers, as a worst case scenario, I can expect the 100 μs transient to go up to around 2x415 = 830 W.
Right now, I have an EVGA 850 BQ, 80+ Bronze PSU - which is rated at max of 840W at the 12V rail (70A). But the thing is, I got it late 2018.
So my question is this: is the 3x8 pin a detriment or a benefit? Does it make the problem of transients worse, by allowing the power to go above what my PSU can provide, or does it help (somehow)? If I buy the cheaper 2x8 card (with potentially worse fans), will I avoid this problem?
EDIT: Also, for anyone that says there won’t be any performance difference in games - I do know that. I would also like to add that IF (and that’s rather a big if) AMD does something with the ROCm and would like to do some GPU compute. In addition, I play Star Citizen from time to time, and that game is notoriously badly optimized - so these problems with transients can potentially affect me.
Powercolors Red Devil series, typically is the beefiest variation, of an existing GPU
Since the 69xx GPU is the cream of de creme, it seems to be the only sub-iteration
The RD sub-series, pushes up thermal/acoustics >11/10 and greater native power support
[small examples – 5600/6600 XT, normally are 1x 8pin and can be made 2 slotter
RDs treatment has them guaranteed >>2.5 slot thicc and use of 6+8pin]
The extra cabling would be both supporting its power bump + for power stability
That XFX is likely closer, to the reference power tables [just enough Hz bump to say an OC]
Power color has questionable quality over the years on their low end but on their high-end red devil cards it’s like night and day
XFX used to be known for their double lifetime warranty but they’ve since done away with that back down to standard warranties
I’ve noticed a dip in quality from them in the past years
It’s not 2010 anymore so I’d say go with the red devil
all the way.
fair warning, powercolor make there cards cheap.
the pcb is stock amd but the cooler? while it looks cool is poorly QC’d.
so almost guarenteed something will fail within a few months.
for me it was the blower, it sheered off its spindle…
contacting powercolor, they told me they didnt have a uk distributer so couldnt handle the return directly…
they gave me an email to contact and wished me luck.
needless to say the email got bounced with a reply from the business owner, telling me they have no idea why i was contacting them.
so yeah, i would say give powercolor a miss.
The Red Devil PCBs are PowerColor’s design if I’m not mistaken and they use extra VRM phases. Red Devil’s are well built (at least on the RX 6XXX series) and the coolers among the beefier ones.
Warranty services will depend on the brand and location. If a certain brand has a local distributor or warranty center where you live then you are in luck, but if not then you may as well not have the warranty. Where I live the only ones with any kind of presence in terms of support are Gigabyte and Asus, and I’m not a fan of their cards. I take a chance every time I buy Sapphire or XFX cards (but they have never let me down fortunately).
Have run a Powercolor Red Devil 6900XT for 2 years now without incident.
But yes, the things to look for with Navi21 cards are how many/what quality caps they have for smoother power delivery. Navi21 isn’t that bad for heat. I’d look for reviews that cover the power delivery side of things.
Buildzoid got the world record on air (using a 6900XT Powercolor card) by just adding more/better caps to smooth the power delivery out.
I used to be a bit of an XFX fanboy, but I have not used them in years. They were like the EVGA of AMD, at least once they went over to AMD. I feel like their cards look the best, but you will only see the backplate and the edge. I have done some hard-core mining on their cards with only one death (6870 Black Edition, RIP). XFX sent me a 6950 to replace it (even though I dangerously overclocked it and ran it 24/7 mining), a significant upgrade.
I would go XFX, but not for any reasonable reason, just because I like XFX.
FWIW, I’ve got the 6900s. But I actually have both a PC Red Devil AND an XFX in 2 different computers. The XFX is LOOOOOONG so be aware of that. The RD is also pretty long and barely fit in my old CoolerMaster Storm full tower case.
On the power front, I’ve never seen any kind of video or power instability (and I even did some light mining on them as a “burn in” test). Ran nice and cool for several weeks.
So if brand and appearance don’t matter, get the one that fits your case. If they both fit, get the cheapest
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