Get the XFX Speedster RX 6950 XT for $729.99 (was $849.99)
The RX 6950 XT never got an RPS review, as far as I can see, but the card is essentially the RX 6900 XT with faster memory (18Gbps vs 16Gbps) and faster clock speeds (2310MHz boost vs 2250MHz boost) That provides around 5-10% extra performance over the RX 6900 XT, putting it firmly in 4K or high refresh rate 1440p territory and more or less tying with the RTX 3090 in non-RT titles. To put it another way, it delivers around 91% of the performance of an RX 7900 XT. So as long as we’re paying less than 91% of the price of the 7900 XT, we’re coming out ahead here - and with those prices starting at $880, we’re only paying 83% of the price for our reduced 6950 XT - sweet, so this is a good deal. Of course, there might be reasons to favour the newer cards too. As our review linked above indicates, the newer RDNA 3 architecture, with its 5nm graphics compute dies and 6nm memory cache dies, is more efficient than RDNA 2, in terms of power for performance, and it comes with more advanced connectors, like DisplayPort 2.1, which support future displays up to 8K 165Hz - crazy. In the here and now though, the RX 6950 XT is worth grabbing at a discount, as I don’t see its price dropping much more now that its chief competitors have been released for a while and the market has readjusted. I’d be curious to know your calculus though, so let me know in the comments below?
