PowerColor Red Devil RX 6700 XT Review

AMD’s next GPU is here, aka RX 6700 XT. Is the PowerColor Red Devil the new 1440p graphics card king?

Product on Review: Red Devil RX 6700 XT
Manufacturer & Sponsor: PowerColor
Street Price: £600 GBP | $650 USD | $1200 AUD

Designed to tackle the RTX 3070, AMD announced the RX 6700 XT earlier this month, with the intention of being an excellent choice for 1440p at maximum detail presets. Since it’s arrival, AMD’s RDNA 2 has re-introduced stiff competition for NVIDIA in the GPU market, which has been absent for countless years.

Reference and custom RX 6700 XTs will be launching today – all with 12GB GDDR6, 192-bit memory bus and 2560 Shader Units, and for our coverage we’ll be kicking things off with the spectacular PowerColor Red Devil RX 6700 XT. This triple-fan monster has a factory overclock, shifting the GPU clock boost from 2581MHz to 2659MHz.

Can the 6700 XT claim victory for the 1440p segment? Let’s find out.

PowerColor on their Red Devil

With a new outlook, the Red Devil RX 6700 XT is paired with an entirely new advanced cooling solution to keep your graphics card running in low temperatures while providing a remarkably high-performance gaming experience. Apart from the new cooling system, Red Devil has been updated with RGB lighting on the side, shroud, and back of the card to present the perfect aesthetic design. Moreover, the Red Devil RX 6700 XT Limited Edition comes with unique Red Devil keycap.

Technical Specifications

Below are the technical specifications surrounding the Red Devil:

GPU
Navi 22 XT
Shader Units
2560
Video Memory
12GB GDDR6
Memory Bus
192-bit
GPU Clock Boost
2659MHz
Memory Clock
16000MHz Effective
PCI Express
4.0
Display Outputs
3x DisplayPort 1.4
1x HDMI 2.1
Recommended Power Supply
600W
DirectX
12 API feature level 12_2
OpenGL
4.6
Cooling
Triple fan
Slot Size
2
Supported OS
Windows 10
Card Length
–

Closer Look Video Review

For this review we’ve produced a video of Red Devil. In this video we go into great detail about this graphics card, walking you through all of the features and detaching the cooler for a look at the thermal solution and innards. View the video hereor watch below:

Test Setup & Methodology

HOW WE TEST GRAPHICS CARDS

Testing a graphics card is an extremely lengthy process. We sometimes see reviews where a graphics card has been tested using out of date equipment, out of date games and even out of date drivers. While the latter can be excused due to the sheer amount of driver updates making a thorough review impossible we will however notify the reader when we have used a different driver to the normal for example a pre-release driver. For the most part however we will always use the same hardware and latest drivers so this does certainly need to be taken into consideration when viewing our testing results. Each game and benchmark is tested times with the lowest and highest scores omitted out of the 5 results and the average then taken from the three remaining to give us our final result for each resolution and setting used.

HARDWARE

In Q3 2020 we decided to move on from our Intel X99-based graphics card test system to embrace AMD Ryzen Gen3. The basis for this was quite simple, AMD’s platform is one of the most popular choices for gamers and by using such a configuration, we can hopefully showcase to our readership what they can expect. In the past we’ve used HEDT platforms and while this does indeed align itself to the bleeding edge for a computer system, it doesn’t reflect what most gamers will be using.

With NVIDIA and AMD now using PCIe 4.0 for their bus interface on graphics cards, AMD Ryzen Gen3 and the X570 chipset are well-equipped to test appropriately.

Graphics Cards on test:
AMD RX 5700
AMD RX 5700 XT
PowerColor Red Devil RX 6700 XT
AMD RX 6800
XFX MERC 319 RX 6800 XT
ASUS ROG Strix LC RX 6800 XT
NVIDIA RTX 2060
NVIDIA RTX 2060 SUPER
NVIDIA RTX 2070 SUPER
NVIDIA RTX 2080 SUPER
NVIDIA RTX 2080 Ti
GIGABYTE RTX 3060 GAMING OC
ZOTAC RTX 3060 Ti Twin Edge OC
GIGABYTE RTX 3070 GAMING OC
Colorful iGame RTX 3070 Advanced OC-V
ASUS TUF RTX 3080 OC
AORUS RTX 3080 Master
ASUS ROG STRIX RTX 3090 OC

Special thanks go to AMD, MSI, Corsair, Noctua and AverMedia for providing the hardware configuration for our graphics card reviews:

Motherboard: MSI PRESTIGE X570 CREATION
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3800X
RAM – 16GB (2x8GB) Corsair LPX Vengeance DDR4 @ 3000MHz
Power Supply – CORSAIR HX1050
Hard Drive – Samsung 830 EVO 250GB + Crucial MX300 2TB
Cooler – CORSAIR Hydro Series™ H150i Pro 360mm Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler
Capture Card – Avermedia Live Gamer Extreme 2

BENCHMARKS

If you are a regular reader of our reviews you will know we like to test the latest hardware with the latest games and benchmarks on the market. Here are the games we’ve chosen:

Horizon Zero Dawn
Control
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
F1 2020
A Total War Saga: Troy

To capture framerates we use a combination of in-game benchmark tools and FRAPS.

We also take into consideration the benchmarkers out there so have included three of the more popular synthetic benchmarks available:

3DMark Time Spy
3DMark Port Royal
Unigine: SuperPosition

In light of the new RTX and DLSS features, we have also added in some tests to cover this tech to provide some analysis, showcasing what users can expect with/without such a feature enabled. For this we are using:

3DMark DLSS
Control – RT Off/RT On

Let’s see how today’s graphics card performed…

Power, Temperatures, Acoustics

To test for power consumption, we take a measurement from the plug socket. It is important to note that the figures below represent total system power use and not just the GPU. The CPU was always in a fixed state so did not affect the additional power load when the GPU was placed under 100% load using AIDA64 stability test (GPU Only) which was ran for 20 minutes at which point a load reading was taken. Idle readings were taken 5 minutes after system boot to ensure any background services and applications had loaded.

TEMPERATURE

To test temperatures we measured idle temperatures after booting windows, letting all applications finish loading and ran a few benchmarks. Once the benchmarks were complete we left the card to reach a cooling plateau where we then took the idle temperatures. For the load tests we set Unigine SuperPosition running in game mode continuously for ~30 minutes and recorded the peak/maximum GPU temperature.

ACOUSTICS

For the purpose of testing audio levels we have the NDI KC-3300 sound level meter. During the temperature recording above, while in Unigine SuperPosition gamemode we monitored the audio and the results are found below. All graphics cards are tested in their out of the box state (auto).

DX12: 3DMark Time Spy

Download your copy now

With its pure DirectX 12 engine, which supports new API features like asynchronous compute, explicit multi-adapter, and multi-threading, 3DMark Time Spy is the ideal benchmark for testing the DirectX 12 performance of the latest graphics cards.

DX12: 3DMark Port Royal

Download your copy now

3DMark Port Royal is the world’s first dedicated real-time ray tracing benchmark for gamers. You can use Port Royal to test and compare the real-time ray tracing performance of any graphics card that supports Microsoft DirectX Raytracing. As well as benchmarking performance, 3DMark Port Royal provides a realistic and practical example of what to expect from ray tracing in upcoming games.

DX11: Unigine SuperPosition

Superposition is a new-generation benchmark tailored for testing reliability and performance of the latest GPUs. Top-notch visuals, support for VR-devices and an interactive mode with mini-games — the list of features built into Superposition could go on and on.

DX12: Horizon Zero Dawn

Horizon Zero Dawn is an action role-playing game developed by Guerrilla Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The plot follows Aloy, a hunter in a world overrun by machines, who sets out to uncover her past

DX12: Control

Control Ultimate Edition contains the main game and all previously released Expansions (“The Foundation” and “AWE&quot

in one great value package. Winner of over 80 awards, Control is a visually stunning third-person action-adventure that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

DX12: Shadow of the Tomb Raider

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is an action-adventure video game developed by Eidos Montréal in conjunction with Crystal Dynamics and published by Square Enix. It continues the narrative from the 2013 game Tomb Raider and its sequel Rise of the Tomb Raider, and is the twelfth mainline entry in the Tomb Raider series.

DX12: F1 2020

F1® 2020 allows you to create your F1® team for the very first time and race alongside the official teams and drivers. Alternatively, challenge your friends in new split-screen with casual race options for more relaxed racing. Compete on 22 circuits, with current and classic content.

DX12: A Total War Saga: TROY

A Total War Saga: TROY is the first in the award-winning strategy series to focus on the Bronze-Age Mediterranean and the legendary twenty-year conflict between the kingdoms of Troy and Mycenaean Greece, known as the Trojan War.

Overall Performance

Here we take a look at the overall performance of the graphics card. This figure is determined by finding the average FPS across all of the settings used in a particular benchmark(game) to give us an overall value.

Value For Money

We make a simple calculation for this set of results. For each game we add all of the resulting FPS totals together and then divide by the four sets to give us an overall performance figure. While the figures alone do not give you an accurate picture of how the card will perform in any given scenario, they do tell you, when averaged, which GPU is the more capable across all of the benchmarks and settings tested.

Please note: we’ve used GBP for currency but since this is relative – regardless of which currency you use, this will give you a good indication of value for money.

DLSS Analysis: 3DMark DLSS

Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) is an NVIDIA RTX technology that uses the power of deep learning and AI to improve game performance while maintaining visual quality.

Ray Tracing Analysis: Control

Control is an action-adventure video game title which has the ability to take advantage of real-time ray tracing. For this test we ran the game in 1440p with Ultra Detail set. Under the settings we enable Ray Tracingand assign the preset as “High”. Below are the results with RT On and RT Off.

Conclusion

The RX 6700 XT is now the third GPU to hit the market under RDNA 2. Unlike NVIDIA, AMD has been slow-moving with the release of their next-gen graphics cards which could in part be due to the widespread GPU stock shortage.

The RX 6700 XT slots in between the RTX 3060 Ti and RTX 3070 in terms of performance. In some gaming titles performance will tip in AMD’s favour (over the RTX 3070) but those instances seem to be few and far between. As seen on the previous pages, the 6700 XT makes for a great card if gaming at 1080p and it is adept at 1440p too.

Under the guise of PowerColor’s Red Devil the 6700 XT is in very good hands. The two attributes which are fundamental to a GPU cooler are both stellar – low temperature and low-noise. The design of the card is also a triumph with a nicely designed shroud and impressive, distinct RGB lighting which is unlike no other.

The only downsides for the Red Devil come in the form of the sheer size/weight of the card and the necessity of dual 8-pin PCIe from the PSU (only a single 8-pin is required for RTX 3060/Ti).

Current MSRPs are irrelevant given the GPU stock shortage. We’ve seen some huge pricing fluctuations but we’re hoping things will stablise soon. Gamers should expect this card to be in the region of: £600 GBP | $650 USD | $1200 AUD.

This Red Devil variant of the RX 6700 XT is potent. It presents as a superb graphics card which has a strong GPU cooler.

Pros
+ Impressive design
+ Interesting RGB lighting features
+ Excellent thermal performance
+ Low-noise under load
+ Great performance for 1080p/1440p
+ Double slot footprint

Cons
– Quite long/heavy
– Requires dual-8pin PCIe
– Just a single HDMI port

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