AMD certainly have been on a tear recently. First there was the Ryzen 5000 (and more importantly Epyc 7003 series just recently launched), then their GPU division finally got off the stick and released the RNDA 2 based AMD Radeon RX 6000 Series of video cards. A series which promises performance parity with their Nvidia counterparts… including Ray Tracing. Yes, finally AMD has Ray Tracing abilities baked right into their silicon. In these days of clown world pricing most ‘average jane and joe buyers’ will be focusing in on the (relatively) affordable RX 6700XT as it (is supposed to) slot right in between Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3060Ti ($400 launch day MSRP) and RTX 3070 ($500 launch day MSRP) with a MSRP of $479 for the ‘reference’ AMD branded model. Slot right in between the two on price and yet offer RTX 3070 performance. Of the various RX 6700XT cards available(ish) on the market today the MSI Radeon RX 6700 XT Gaming X 12G certainly stands out from most of the crowd withs its own unique take on value, performance, ease of installation, and generally all round fun.
With an MSRP that is (or at least was supposed to be) only a few dollars more than an AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT and yet come with premium features such as a generally relaxed attitude towards maximum board power draw that when combined with both a factory overclock of 2622MHz and new Twin FROZR 8 cooling solution means that this is no reference card crammed into a pretty package. Instead, it is a fire breathing, pixel eating beast tailor made for 1080P and 1440P gaming goodness. Better still, MSI has figured out how to offer both a highly overclockable Radeon RX 6700 XT and make it compact dual fan model with an overall length of only 11 inches – making it one of the more compact high-performance RX 6700 XT’s on the market today. Yes, the name of this card may be way too long for comfort but the card is noticeably smaller when compared to 12-to-13 inch long offerings out there.
If all this sounds too good to be true… you are not alone. The Navi 22 XT has been designed by AMD to run in the 2.5GHz range. A specification the MSI Radeon RX 6700 XT Gaming X 12G doesn’t even consider a ‘recommendation’ and instead is meant to run noticeably higher, and thus hotter, than stock specifications. Typically, when you combine uber high frequencies with 17.2 Billion Transistors and then ‘only’ use a ‘mere’ dual fan cooling solution… well… noise is going to be an issue. There is supposed to be no free lunch and 250 watts of heat is 250 watts of heat that has to be efficiently transferred from the ISH to the cooling array and then into the air.
MSI however promises that the RX 6700 XT Gaming X can offer buyers a higher performance Radeon RX 6700XT in compact(ish) form-factor that is also whisper silent. That is a lot of promises to keep and we intend to find out if actually can do all that. So, let’s dig in and see what this newly designed custom Radeon RX 6700 XT can do.
