Tech YouTuber JayzTwoCents recently shared an image of what appears to be another Radeon RX 6000 (a.k.a. Big Navi) graphics card that may eventually contend for a spot on our best graphics cards page.
Unlike the beefy Radeon RX 6000 that AMD teased in Fortnite, this newly leaked variant features a less substantial cooling solution, insinuating that it could be a SKU that’s on the lower end of the Big Navi spectrum. It’s plausible that AMD might use the triple-fan configuration for the flagship model, such as the Radeon RX 6900, while saving the dual-fan setup for something like a Radeon RX 6800 or RX 6700. This is all just speculation, of course.
The concept behind the dual-fan Radeon RX 6000 seems to be the same as its bigger brother. The shroud exhibits a contoured design with a black and silver theme. In this render, however, the silver color looks white, which may just be a reflection. The Radeon logo and red highlights are still present to complement the graphics card’s body. Now that we are seeing a dual-fan design, it’s even harder to shake off the perception that it looks similar to Nvidia’s last-generation Founders Edition shroud.
There are high hopes that AMD’s RDNA 2 architecture will deliver improved power efficiency over RDNA. The triple-fan Radeon RX 6000 surfaced with two 8-pin PCIe power connectors, which isn’t shocking for a high-end graphics card. Nvidia’s own GeForce RTX 3080 is rated for 320W, but the chipmaker craftily disguises it with a single 12-pin PCIe power connector. But the presence of the pair of 8-pin PCIe power connectors on the dual-fan Radeon RX 6000 may raise the alarm for some users.
The combination of the PCIe slot and two 8-pin PCIe power connectors is good for a power delivery up to 375W. Once again, having two 8-pin PCIe power connectors is one thing, but actually drawing the maximum power from each is another. We see manufacturers overprovision the power connectors on graphics cards all the time.
Regardless, we have a little over a month to wait until we know more officially. AMD will be livestreaming its Radeon RX 6000 announcement on October 28 at 10 a.m. PT. Nvidia has landed the first stike with Ampere, and now the ball is in AMD’s court.